©I)C iTarnur's iUoutl)!]! llisitov. 



19 



n li-itn !is I (•otiKI, and wf'iit to llio house of Aii- 

 diew Uiadloid, the printer. I founil his liitliei- 

 ill lli(! fhv\<, whom 1 hail seoii in New York. — 

 llaviiif; Ir.ivcliijil on liorscliaok, ho had arrived at 

 riiilailidphia hcluro me. lie iiilKiihieed me lo 

 hirf son, who rcreived me with rivilily, and ^ave 

 me some hreaUliist; lint told me he had no oeea- 

 siun at present lor a juinneyman, h.iving lately 

 procured one. lie added, lliat there was another 

 primer newly setlled in the town, of the name 

 of Keiiner, who mi/jhf, perliaps, employ me ; and 

 I hat, in ease of a relnsal, 1 .slion'.d he weh-ome lo 

 lodfje ai his house, anil he would give me a litde 

 wiiiU now and iheii, till soinelhiii^' belter should 

 off.; I-. 



"The old man offered to introduce me to the 

 new printer. Wlieii we were at his house, ' Nei^h- 

 hor,' .-^aid he, ' 1 hrin>.' you a yoiiii-,' man to the 

 Jiriiilinj; liiisine..;s ; perhaps yon may have need 

 of his services.' Keimcr asked me some qucs- 

 lions. put a composing' stick in my hand to see 

 hou- I could work, ami llien .said, that at present 

 he had nothing for me to do, hut that he should 

 somi lie ahh; lo employ me. At the same time, 

 takiiifi old Bradliird for an iiihahilant of the town 

 well disposed lowards him, he eommmiicatPil his 

 ])rojeet lo him, and the prospect he had of sucv 

 cess. liradford was careliil not to discover lliat 

 he was the fuller of llie other printer; and from 

 what Keiiner hud said, that he hoped sliorlly to 

 be in possession of the •jreater part of the busi- 

 ness of llie town, led him by artful fiuostions, and 

 by st:.rtiii^' some diliicnllies, to tlisclose all his 

 v-iews; what his hopes were founded upon, and 

 how he inlendpil to proceed. 1 was present, and 

 lieard it all. I inslaiilly saw that one of the two 

 was a cimuinir old fox, and the other a perfect 

 novice. Biadfoid left me with Keimer, who was 

 Ptranucly surprised whim 1 iulijrnied him who 

 the old man was." 



In a few days Franklin began work with Kei- 

 iner, but coniiiined to board willi Bradford. This 

 was not agreeable to Keimer, and he procured a 

 lodging for him at Mr. Reed's, tneniioned above. 

 "INIy trunk and effects being now arrived," says 

 Franklin, " 1 iliought of making, in the eyes of 

 flliss Heed, a more res|ieclalile a|ipearance than 

 when chance exhibited iiie lo her view, eating my 

 rollf, and wandering llio strcel." 



Mr. Sanderson, the pnbli.-licr of the Lives of 

 the Signers of the Declaration of Independence 

 for several recent years the excellent landlord 

 ol the Franklin House on Cliesmit street in Phil- 

 adelphia, by which Franklin |iassed on his way 

 eating the roll, has drav\iiigs of Franklin upon 

 the walls with the rolls and illustrating his call- 

 ing and appearance at ail the different singes of- 

 his life. In llie same house ho has framed a print- 

 ed page of the first number of Franklin's news- 

 jiapcr primed in Philadelphia one linnilred and 

 twenty years ago. 



Franklin remained a!)ont seven nionlhs with 

 Keimer in Philadelphia ; in that time he formed 

 many acquaintance.sjsome of whotn were respect- 

 able. Gov. Keith among others made him greati 

 jiromises of friendship and patronage. Under 

 liis encouragement and thai of Governor JIurnett 

 of New York, he applie<l lo his fitlier for aid in 

 liirnisliiiig llie means of procuring printing ma- 

 terials in England: then only nineteen years of 

 age, the father declined assistance on account 

 of his yoiilli and inexperience; hut Gov. Keith, 

 disapproving of the father's caution, urged the 

 jirosecution of the scheme, the design to be kept 

 secret, he [iromlsing to be at ihn expense of pro- 

 curing the materials. When about to sail for 

 England, he prendscd Franklin from day to day 

 the letter of credit — calling on ship board at the 

 last moment, lie said he would send tlio letter 

 down. The ship's lelter-bag brought from the 

 governor, Franklin supposed lo contain ihe let- 

 ter: when he reached England he found lie had 

 neilher letters of credit or introduclion — iio had 



been deceived, and landed there an entire stran- 

 ger in a strange coimlry. 



Deslitnte and liicndlcss, Franklin had no other 

 means of subsistence but his own hands. lie ap- 

 plied to a primer and obtained einjiloymont as a 

 journeyman. In this .situation he gained, in the 

 course of 18 months, much knowledge in the art 

 of printing. The printing press on which he 

 worked in London more than one hundred and 

 twenly years ago, has been brought to this coun- 

 try, and is now among the curiosities of the Pa- 

 tent Oliicc at Washington. Bubseqiiently some 

 fifty years after, when Franklin went to England 

 as agent to obtain redress for grievances of his 

 country by sup|dications at the foot of the throne, 

 he went to the same printing house, and sent out 

 for a pot of ale with v^liich to treat atnl drink the 

 heallli of the workmen. The old [iress is of wood, 

 similar, but of which the now old Ramage Phil- 

 adelphia press is an improvement: it was such a 

 press as would take in no larger than a demy 

 sheet. Our own Patriot was started on a press 

 nearly as rickety anrl old as that now is on which 

 Franklin worked. This press was known in Nor- 

 wich, Ct., before the revolution — it was old when 

 brought there, was of English constructionj and 

 probably came through Ihe Greenes second- 

 handed from Cambridge or Rnston. It travelled 

 first from Norwich, Ct. to Vv^estniinster, Vt. in 

 1778, with Juilah Paddock Spooner, and was the 

 property of Timothy (ircene. On this press the 

 first newspaper of the future Green fliounlaiii 

 State was started in February, 1781, entitled "The 

 Vermont Gazette, or Green Mountain Post-Boy." 

 Green sold the press and types after the lapse of 

 lour or five years to Geo. Hough, the well-known 

 printer at Concord for many years. i\!r. Hough, in 

 partuerslii|) with Alden S|iooner, brother to .lu- 

 dah, established the Vermont Journal at Windsor 

 in 1783. From that place Mr. Hough brought the 

 press to Concord, N. H., where he issued a paper 

 many years. The old press was finally disposed 

 of, to Elder Ebenezer Chase, who some thirty 

 years ago, first at Andover and afterwards contin- 

 ued at Enfield, N. H., without previous know- 

 ledge of the printer's art, commenced a periodi- 

 cal religious work, issued we believe monthly, in 

 which service the old press supplied the place 

 of a better for several years. 



Soon after returning from England, Franklin 

 opened a iiriniing house at Pliiladelpliia— he de- 

 signed at once to iniblish a paper, but was anti- 

 cipated by Keimer, who in 1728 estiiblislied 

 "The Universal Instructor in the Arts and Sci- 

 ences and Pennsylvania Gazette." It was the 

 second paper after P.radford's Slei'cury esl;ibli,-h- 

 ed in Philadelphia : when it had been published 

 nine monlhs, the printer bad not procured one 

 hundred subscribers. FraiiUlin, in partnership 

 with Hugh Meredith, began with No. 40 twice a 

 week, expunging the first part of the title. Frank- 

 lin in 17;W look the paper in his own right, and 

 continued it once a week. In 1733, he primed it 

 on a crown half .-■heel in quiuto— imprint : " Phil- 

 adelphia: Printed by R. Franklin, Posl-Masler, 

 at the New Priming Office near the Market. 

 W'here Adverliscments are taken in, and Book- 

 Binding is done reasonably in the best manner." 

 In this lime Franklin published the successive 

 luin.iiers of "Poor Richard's .\lmanack." He 

 married in 17.30. He continued an interest in the 

 Gazelle until 17G5, when his public engagements 

 induced him to sell out his interest in the print- 

 ing liouse to David Hall, who gave Franklin, as 

 Thomas informs us, 1000 pounds currency per 

 annum for a number of years as a relinquishment 



of his share of profits. In 1753, Franklin was 

 appointed deputy post-master general for the col- 

 onies. In 17.55, he received the commission of 

 colonel of the militia — raised a body of troops 

 after the defeat of Braddock and marched them 

 to the west, where he built a fort. In 17.57 he was 

 ajipointed agent for the colony of Pennsylvania 

 to England, where he remained until 17()2. In 

 17(il he again went there in the same capacity. In 

 I70G he visited Holland, and went to Franco. — 

 He returned to Pennsylvania scon after the com- 

 mencement of the revolutionary war, and was 

 employed in her councils. In I77() he went to 

 France in the capacity of minister from the con- 

 tinental Congress: in 1778, he concluded the 

 treaty of alliance with the King of France, in 

 1783, he signed, on the part of the United Slates, 

 at Paris, the treaty of i>eace with (Jreat Britain. 

 Returning again to the United States, in 1781) and 

 subsequent years lie was Chief Magistrate of 

 Pennsylvania. In 1788 ho met in convention his 

 fellow primers and booksellers of the United 

 States, then already increased in importance and 

 numbers, and requested their adjourument lo his 

 own house. He brought a very valuable priming 

 apparatus, which he purchased in London, and 

 committed it to his grandson, Benjamin Franklin 

 Burke, who first established the Aurora newspa- 

 per : on account of the interest ho took in this 

 son, Franklin at the printers' convention sitting 

 in bis own house, although much afflicted wilh 

 pain, took minutes of the proceedings. He died 

 on the lOth April, 1790, at the age of 85 years. 



Long before his death, he wrote for himself the 

 following epitaph : 



THE BODY OF 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, PRINTER, 



(Like the cover of an old Book, 



Its contents worn out. 



And stripped of its h'tteriug and gilding,) 



Lies here, fond (or worms ! 



Yet the work itself shall not be lo.st. 



For it will, as he believed, appear once more 



In a new 



And more beautiful edition, 



Corrected and amended 



By its Author. 



Having resided severrfl years in Europe as agent 

 both for his own State and others of the colonies, 

 Doctor Franklin had the good fortune to concili- 

 ate the personal friendship and attachment, es- 

 pecially of literary and sciinitilic men. He had 

 been so long in Europe, that it was first suppos- 

 ed he was indifferent to the wrongs done his own 

 country, and that he might interpose the weight 

 of his great name iu favor of the British side. 

 His natural son, William Franklin, who when he 

 left the country was appointed postmaster at Phil- 

 adelphia in 1754, and was clerk of the Pennsyl- 

 vania A^senlbly in 175G, (ditained from the King, 

 probably through his father's iiilluence, the ap- 

 pointment of governor of New Jersey iu 1762, 

 and was in that office wlicii the war began, when 

 he went to England and remained the friend of 

 his royal master; but the father knew better how 

 to estimate the cause of the country which gave 

 him birth. Failing to procure by the utmost 

 stretch of his personal infiuei.ce and talents, re- 

 dress for American wrongs or the liojie of the 

 establishment of American rights, he left Eng- 

 land as soon as the controversy broke into opeii' 

 hoslility. The following letter, verbatim et liter- 

 atim, addressed, soon after his return, lo Mr. Stra- 

 han, a member of the British parliament, between 

 whom and Franklin the most friendly relations 

 existed from their being of the same [nofession, 

 booksellers and publishers, is a remarkable con- 

 densation of reasons for breaking the friendship 



