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 PREFACE. 



THE immediate occasion of this little vol- 

 ume was a malignant misrepresentation from 

 the pen of Ben : Perley Poore. With slight 

 variation from the original text, the words of 

 Thomas Jefferson about Benjamin Franklin 

 and his maligners, quoted in the body of this 

 monograph, apply to this case : I have 

 seen with extreme indignation the blasphemies 

 lately vended against the memory of the father 

 of the American plow. But his memory will 

 be venerated as long as furrows are turned 

 and soil tilled. The present object, however, 

 is not so much to refute falsehood as to estab- 

 lish the truth, and make it a part of the per- 

 manent knowledge of the public. To the ex- 

 (v) 



