184 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE 



political, polemical divisions have in some measure 

 contributed to lessen the harmony we there formerly 

 enjoyed/' writes Hugh Eoberts to Franklin in 1765; 

 and this passage has been combined by the older Com- 

 mittee with Thomson's letter of 1768 to prove the co- 

 existence of two Juntos. There is no reason, however, 

 why the "worthy remains of the ancient Junto" should 

 not be the Junto which was so soon to be reorganized 

 as the American Society, and which had been so changed 

 and had undergone so many vicissitudes as to present 

 scarcely the appearance of a continued organization. 



Against the assumption of the two Juntos, on which 

 rests the whole case of the older Committee, as far as 

 they come to a decision, the argument from silence 

 must be strongly emphasized. It is highly improbable, 

 as Mr. Du Ponceau pointed out, that two Juntos should 

 exist side by side. It is amazing to find no explicit 

 mention of them if they did so exist. More than this. 

 Bishop White was a member of the " American " So- 

 ciety ; how could he fail to know, and note, the facts to 

 which Thomson's statement is supposed to testify? 

 How could he fail to see that these facts directly con- 

 travened his own repeated statements about the found- 

 ing of his, that is, the "American," Junto by Franklin? 

 The Minutes of the American Society to which Bishop 

 White belonged tend to confirm his statements; and 

 nowhere in the literature and letters of that time is 

 there reference to the existence of two Juntos. But 

 these two contemporary Juntos must absolutely be 



