The Compleated Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1757-1790)

by Benjamin Franklin

  I took all the pains I could in Congress to prevent the depreciation by proposing first that the bills should bear interest; this was rejected, and they were struck accordingly. Secondly, after the first emission, I proposed that we should stop, strike no more, but borrow on interest those which had issued. This was not approved and more bills were issued. When, from the too great quantity, these began to depreciate, they agreed to borrow on interest, and I propos’d that in order to fix the value of the principal, the interest should be promis’d in hard dollars. This was objected to as impracticable. When the whole mass of the currency was under way in depreciation, the momentum of its descent was too great to be stopped. The only remedy then seemed to be a diminution of the quantity by a vigorous taxation, of great nominal sums, which the people were more able to pay in proportion to the quantity and diminished value. The only consolation under the evil is that the public debt was proportionably diminish’d with the depreciation, by an imperceptible tax everyone paid as the value fell between his receiving and paying such sums as pass’d thro’ his hands. For it should always be remembered that the original intention was to sink the bills by taxes, which as effectually extinguish the debt as an actual redemption.

  This effect of paper currency is not understood in Europe. And indeed the whole is a mystery even to the politicians; how we were able to continue a war four years without money; and how we could pay with paper that had no previously fix’d fund appropriated specifically to redeem it. This currency as we managed it was a wonderful machine. It performed its office when we issued it; it paid and clothed the troops, and provided victuals and ammunition; and when we were oblig’d to issue a quantity excessive, it paid itself off by depreciation.

  An expedition to Canada was deferred for want of a sufficient quantity of hard money. The Canadians were afraid of paper and would not take the Congress’s money. To enter a country which you mean to make a friend of, with an army that must have occasion every day for fresh provision in horses, carriages, and labour of every kind; having no acceptable money to pay those that serve you; and to be obliged therefore to take that service by force, is the sure way to disgust, offend, and by degrees make enemies of the whole people, after which all operations will be more difficult, all motions discovered, and every endeavour used to have us driven back out of their country.

  THOSE WHO LOVE TO RECEIVE LETTERS SHOULD WRITE LETTERS

  Correspondence between friends in America and Europe were miserably cut to pieces by the capture of vessels, and the sinking of dispatches. It was sometimes long, very long, before I had the great pleasure of hearing from my friends. But it was my fault. I had long omitted my part of the correspondence. Those who love to receive letters should write letters. I wished I could safely promise an amendment of that fault. But besides the indolence attending age, and growing upon us with it, my time was engross’d by too much business, and I had too many inducements to postpone doing what I felt I ought to do for my own sake, and what I could never resolve to omit entirely.

  I did take time to write my old friend Thomas Viny of Kent, England, viz:To Thomas Viny

  Passy, May 4, 1779

  Dear Sir,

  When all the bustle is over, if my short remainder of life will permit my return thither, what a pleasure it will be to me to see my old friend and his children settled there. I hope he will find vines and fig trees there under which we may sit and converse, enjoying peace and plenty, a good government, good laws and liberty, without which men lose half their value. I am, with much esteem, my dear friend

  Yours most affectionately

  B FRANKLIN

  I thought every day of my grandson Benny, who was in school in Geneva. There was nothing I desired more than to see him furnish’d with good learning, that I might return him to his father and mother so accomplish’d, with such knowledge and virtue as to give them pleasure, and enable him to become an honourable man in his own country. I learned that the smallpox was in that school, and four of the scholars were dead of it. How happy it was for Benny that his parents took care to have him inoculated when he was an infant.

  INTRIGUE AND TREACHERY AT MADAME BRILLON’S

  At this time, I received a letter from Madame Brillon announcing that her heart had been cruelly wounded by her husband, and asking to see me at ten in the morning on Wednesday [May 5, 1779] in a closed meeting to receive comfort and advice. She confided to me that her husband had fallen under the spell of their maid, Mademoiselle J (a woman my landlord had proposed I hire!). “My life is torn by grief through her intrigue and treachery!” she said.

  After our private meeting, I wrote her this letter:May 11, 1779

  To Madame Brillon,

  You told me, my dear daughter, that your heart is too sensitive. I see by your letters that this is true. A keen awareness of our own faults is good because it leads us to avoid them in the future. But to be very sensitive to, and afflicted by, the faults of other people—that is not good. They are the ones who should be sensitive and afflicted by what they have done. As for us, we should preserve that tranquility that is the just portion of innocence and virtue. If you exact a vengeance by punishing them, you restore them to the state of equality that they had lost. But if you were to forgive them, without any punishment, you would fix them in the low state into which they have fallen, and from which they can never emerge without true repentance and full reparation. Follow then, my very dear and always amiable daughter, the good resolution that you have so wisely taken, to continue to fulfill all your duties as good mother, good wife, good friend, good neighbor, good Christian, etc. (without forgetting to be a good daughter to your papa), and to neglect and forget, if you can, the wrongs you may be suffering at present. And be sure that, given time, the rectitude of your conduct will win over the minds of even the worst people. Time will turn everything to good. Then all of them will ask with compunction for the return of your friendship and they will become in the future your most zealous friends.

  I am aware that I have written a great deal of very bad French here; perhaps that will repulse you, you who write this charming language with so much purity and elegance.

  B FRANKLIN

  DO NOT PAY TOO MUCH FOR YOUR WHISTLE

  I followed up with this letter in November:November 10, 1779

  To Madame Brillon,

  Instead of spending this Wednesday evening, as I have long done, in your delightful company, I sit down to spend it in thinking of you, in writing to you, & in reading over & over again your letters.

  I am charm’d with your description of paradise & with your plan of living there. And I approved much of your conclusion that in the mean time we should draw all the good we can from this world. In my opinion we might all draw more good from it than we do and suffer less evil, if we would but take care not to give too much for our whistles. For to me it seems that most of the unhappy people we meet with are becoming so by neglect of that caution.

  You ask what I mean? You love stories, and will excuse my telling you one of myself. When I was a child of seven years old, my friends on a holiday fill’d my little pocket with halfpence. I went directly to a shop where they sold toys for children; and being charm’d with the sound of a whistle that I met by the way in the hands of another boy, I voluntarily offer’d and gave all my money for it. When I came home, whistling all over the house, much pleas’d with my whistle (but disturbing all the family), my brothers, sisters and cousins, understanding the bargain I had made, told me I had given four times as much for it as it was worth, and then put me in mind what good things I might have bought with the rest of the money, and laughed at me so much for my folly that I cry’d with vexation; and the reflection gave me more chagrin than the whistle gave me pleasure.

  This, however, was afterwards of use to me, the impression continuing on my mind; so that often when I was tempted to buy some unnecessary thing, I said to myself, Do not give too much for the whistle; and I sav’d my money.

  As I grew up, came i
nto the world, and observed the actions of men, I thought I met many who gave too much for their whistle. When I saw one ambitious of court favour, sacrificing his time in attendance at levees, his repose, his liberty, his virtue and perhaps his friend, to obtain it; I have said to myself, This man gives too much for his whistle. When I saw another fond of popularity, constantly employing himself in political bustles, neglecting his own affairs, and ruining them by that neglect; He pays, says I, too much for his whistle. If I knew a miser, who gave up every kind of comfortable living, all the pleasure of doing good to others, all the esteem of his fellow citizens, and the joys of benevolent friendship, for the sake of accumulating wealth; Poor man, says I, he pays too much for his whistle. When I met with a man of pleasure, sacrificing every laudable improvement of his mind or of his fortune, to mere corporeal satisfactions, and ruining his health in their pursuit; Mistaken man, says I, he pays too much for his whistle. If I see one fond of appearance, of fine clothes, fine houses, fine furniture, fine equipages, all above his fortune, for which he contracts debts, and ends his career in a prison; Alas, says I, he has paid too much for his whistle. When I see a beautiful sweet-temper’d girl marry’d to an ill-natured brute of a husband; What a pity, says I, that she should pay so much for a whistle! In short, I conceiv’d that a great part of the miseries of mankind are brought upon them by the false estimates they have made of the value of things, and by their giving too much for their whistle.

  Yet I ought to have charity for these unhappy people, when I consider that, with all this wisdom of which I am boasting, there are certain things in the world so tempting; for example the apples of King John, which happily are not to be bought, for if they were put on sale by auction, I might very easily be led to ruin myself in the purchase, and find that I had once more given too much for my whistle.

  B FRANKLIN

  “I HAVE OFTEN PAID A HIGH PRICE FOR BAD WHISTLES”

  Madame Brillon wrote the following reply:November 16, 1779

  To B. Franklin,

  I assure you, my kind papa, that I shall be very careful not to give too much for the whistles. I have often paid a high price for bad whistles. I believed, for instance, that when I loved, one was bound to love me back, since I judged others by the standards of my own soul. I have seldom gotten back the worth of what I gave, which is called paying too much for the whistle.

  M. Brillon laughed heartily at the whistles. We find that what you call your bad French often adds piquancy to your narration, due to the construction of certain sentences, and the words that you invent.

  A week from Saturday, my good papa, I will give you a little music, some games of chess, and tea. Should I tell you how much pleasure it will give me to see you again? No! I would rather let you guess.

  MADAME BRILLON

  NEW COPPER COINS MIGHT MAKE AN IMPRESSION ON YOUNG PERSONS

  In America, there was an intention to strike a copper coin that might not only be useful as small change, but serve other purposes. Instead of repeating continually upon every halfpenny the dull story that everybody knows (and what it would have been no loss to mankind if nobody had ever known), that George III is King of Great Britain, France and Ireland &c. &c. I proposed to put on one side some important proverb of Solomon, some pious moral, prudential or economical precept, the frequent inoculation of which, by seeing it every time one receives a piece of money, might make an impression upon the mind, especially of young persons, and tend to regulate the conduct; such as on some, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; on others, Honesty is the best policy; on others, He that by the plow would thrive; himself must either lead or drive. On others, keep thy shop & thy shop will keep thee. On others, a penny sav’d is a penny got. On others, He that buys what he has no need of, will soon be forced to sell his necessaries. On others, Early to bed & early to rise, will make a man healthy, wealthy & wise, and so on to a great variety.

  Franklin book shop next to Christ Church, Philadelphia: “Keep thy shop & thy shop will keep thee.”

  The other side I proposed to fill with good designs, drawn and engraved by the best artists in France, of all the different species of barbarity with which the English carry’d on the war in America, expressing every abominable circumstance of their cruelty and inhumanity, that figures can express, to make an impression on the minds of posterity as strong and durable as that on the copper. This resolution was a long time forborn, but the burning of defenseless towns in Connecticut, on the flimsy pretense that the people fired from behind their houses, when the burning was known to have been premeditated and ordered from England, might have given the finishing provocation, and might have occasioned a vast demand for the metal.

  THIS PUT THE ENEMY TO MUCH EXPENSE

  We gave the English a little taste of this disturbance upon their own coasts in the summer of 1779. And tho’ we burned none of their towns, we occasioned a good deal of terror and bustle in many of them. One little privateer of Dunkirk, the Black Prince, with a Congress commission and a few Americans mixed with Irish and English smugglers, went round their islands and took 37 prizes in less than 3 months. The cruise of our little American squadron under Commodore John Paul Jones, under the same commissions and colours, alarm’d those coasts exceedingly, had occasion’d a good deal of internal expense and done great damage to their trade. The Alliance and the Bonhomme Richard, which was mann’d chiefly by Americans, took two frigates with 500 English prisoners. Had not contrary winds and accidents prevented it, the intended invasion of England with the combined fleet and a great army might have taken place, and might have made the English feel a little more of that kind of distress they so wantonly caused in America. The coasts of Britain and Ireland were greatly alarmed, being supposed that Jones had landed forces. This put the enemy to much expense in marching troops from place to place. Several valuable prizes were made of merchant ships, particularly two, one from London, 300 tons and 84 men, with 22 guns laden with naval stores for Quebec; the other from Liverpool bound to New York and Jamaica of 22 guns and 87 men, laden with provisions and bale goods. Our commodore’s ship the Bonhomme Richard was so shatter’d that she could not be kept afloat, and the people being all taken out of her, she sank the second day after the engagement. The rest of the squadron were refitted in the Texel, from which neutral place they departed with their prizes and prisoners near 400. (So now we had more English prisoners than they had American.) Few actions at sea have demonstrated such steady, cool, determined bravery, as that of Jones in taking the Serapis. Jones’s bravery and conduct in the action gain’d him great honour.

  THEIR DEVILISHNESS WEAKENED THAT RESOLUTION

  Accounts upon oath were taken in America by order of Congress, of the British barbarities committed there, among which was the covering with pease straw of 15 American soldiers wounded and disabled in a fight near a barn in New Jersey, and setting fire to the straw, whereby they were burnt to death. I was expected to make a school book of them, 35 in all. Prints were designed and engraved in Paris by good artists, each expressing one or more of the different horrid facts to be inserted in the book in order to impress the minds of children and posterity with a deep sense of our enemy’s bloody and insatiable malice and wickedness. Every kindness I heard of done by an Englishman to an American prisoner made me resolve not to proceed in the work, hoping a reconciliation would take place. But every fresh instance of their devilishness weakened that resolution, and made me abominate the thought of reunion with such a people.

  Meanwhile, the French Court issued a royal edict for abolishing the remains of slavery in that kingdom. Who would have thought a few years earlier, that we should have lived to see a king of France giving freedom to slaves, while a king of England endeavoured to make slaves of freemen!

  ONE OF THE GREATEST CAPTAINS OF THE AGE

  I frequently heard the old generals of this martial country (who study the maps of America, and mark upon them all his operations) speak with sincere approbation and great applause of Gen. W
ashington and his conduct, and join in giving him the character of one of the greatest captains of the age. I must soon quit the scene, but General Washington (and others) will live to see our country flourish, as it amazingly and rapidly did after the war was over. Like a field of young Indian corn, which long fair weather and sunshine has enfeebled and discolour’d, and which in that weak state, by a thunder gust of violent wind, hail and rain seem’d to be threatened with absolute destruction ; yet the storm being past, it recovers fresh verdure, shoots up with double vigor, and delights the eye not of its owner only, but of every observing traveller.

  MUTINY ON THE ALLIANCE

  Mr. Jay was in Madrid, and Mr. Adams had returned to Paris in March, 1780. We lived upon good terms with each other, but Adams never communicated anything of his business to me at first, and I made no inquiries of him, nor did I receive any letter from Congress explaining it, so that I was in utter ignorance of his purpose.