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foot of the treaty of alliance with France, at the foot of the 

 treaty of peace with England and at the foot of the Consti- 

 tution under which we now live. 



In introducing Mr. Frederick Fraley, the President 

 of the American Philosophical Society, Mr. Williams 

 said: 



In all the long list of achievements which make the 

 biography of Franklin read like the history of his 

 country, nothing has proved more useful or lasting 

 than the societies and associations which he estab- 

 lished. Born in a land whose countrymen have a 

 genius for organization, he had himself supreme apti- 

 tude for this work and was equally at home in drafting 

 the Constitutibn of a fire company or of a Nation. 

 Transmitted to his descendants in one generation after 

 another, the exercise of a like power has given this 

 city institutions of the highest value, the last of which, 

 of the utmost importance to a manufacturing city, owes 

 its origin and success to one of his descendants, whom 

 sex and sex alone debars from membership in our 

 Society.* Of all the societies which Franklin organ- 

 ized, the American Philosophical Society has proved 

 the most conspicuous, the best known in the field of 

 science and, we may modestly believe, the most useful 

 in the service of his and our country. I have the high 

 honor of introducing its President, who will address 

 you upon 



* Among other institutions in Philadelphia, the Philadelphia City High School was 

 established, in 1831, by A. D. Bache, LL.D., a grandson of Dr. Franklin, and the Penn- 

 sylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art owed its foundation in 1876 and its 

 growth afterwards, principally to the efforts of Mrs. E. D. Gillespie, a great-grand- 

 daughter of the philosopher. 



