There is one thing wanting to facilitate and augment our intercourse. It is a dictionary, explaining the names of different articles of manufacture in the two languages. When I was in Paris I received a large order for a great variety of goods, particularly of the kind called hardwares, i.e., wares of iron and steel: and when I showed the invoice to their manufacturers, they did not understand what kinds of goods or instruments were meant by the names; nor could any English and French dictionary be found to explain them.
THE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE GIVES ME A GREAT DEAL OF PAIN
The accounts I have heard of the misunderstandings and troubles that have arisen in the government of that dear country in which I pass’d nine of the happiest years of my life gave me a great deal of pain; but I hope all will tend to its good in the end. When the fermentation is over, and the troubling parts subside, the wine will be fine and good, and cheer the hearts of those that drink it.
The convulsions in France are attended with some disagreeable circumstances and give me great concern; but if by the struggle she obtains and secures for the nation its future liberty and a good constitution, a few years enjoyment of those blessings will amply repair all the damages their acquisition may have occasioned. God grant that not only the love of liberty but a thorough knowledge of the rights of man may pervade all the nations of the earth so that a philosopher may set his foot anywhere on its surface and say, this is my country!
THE NEW CONSTITUTION IS APPROVED
Our grand machine, the new Constitution of a Federal government, has at length begun to work. Many objections were made to it in the public papers, and answers to those objections. Much party heat there was, and some violent personal abuse. I kept out of the dispute, and wrote only one little paper on the occasion.
At last the first Congress met and General Washington was chosen president. Congress was employed in amending some of the faults supposed to be in the Constitution with some amendments. The first session was conducted with, I think, a greater degree of temper, prudence and unanimity than could well have been expected, and our future prospects seem very favourable. I am grown old, and have now little influence with Congress. The services of a feeble old man rendered inactive by the infirmities of age are scarcely worth offering.
NOTHING IS CERTAIN EXCEPT DEATH AND TAXES
My friend Le Veillard was apprehensive about our president’s being perpetual. Neither he nor we have any such intention: What danger there may be of such an event, we are all aware of, and shall take care effectually to prevent it. The choice is made every four years, and the appointments will be small; thus we may change our president if we don’t like his conduct, and he will have less inducement to struggle for a new election. As to the two chambers, I am of the opinion that one alone would be better, as we have in Pennsylvania, but nothing in human affairs and schemes is perfect, and perhaps that is the case of our opinions.
And thus, our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.
I BEGIN TO FEEL MYSELF A FREE MAN
Having now finish’d my term as president of Pennsylvania, and promising myself to engage no more in public business, I begin to feel myself a free man. I amuse myself in reading or writing, or in conversation with friends, joking, laughing, and telling merry stories, as if I were a young man about fifty. My children and grand children, the Baches, are all well, living in my house. And we have lately the addition of a little good-natured girl, whom I begin to love as well as the rest. She had the smallpox very favourably by inoculation and is perfectly recover’d.
I hope to enjoy during the small remains of life that are left to me the leisure I have so long wish’d for. I have begun already to employ it in compleating my personal history. It seems a little like living one’s life over again. If my present state of health continues for a few months, I resolve to compleat it by dictating to my grandson.
CONSTANT AND GRIEVOUS PAIN
I have a long time been afflicted with almost constant and grievous pain for which I have been obliged to have recourse to opium, which indeed has afforded me some ease from time to time but then it has taken away my appetite and so impeded my digestion that I am become totally emaciated and little remains of me but a skeleton covered with a skin. I am grown very weak, so that I cannot well sit up to write. In this situation I have not been able to continue my memoirs, and my grandson Benny often takes dictation from me.
THE RELIEF OF FREE NEGROES AND THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY
In the final years of my life, I engaged in a cause of the utmost importance to the honour of the United States of America, and to the happiness and natural rights of mankind. As president of the Philadelphia Society for the Abolition of Slavery, I sent to gentlemen of character and influence, disposed to aid us in exposing the inequity of the slave trade, such as Pierre-Samuel du Pont and Lafayette, copies of the constitution of our society and of the laws that are now in force in Pennsylvania for abolishing Negro slavery. The final purposes of our society are the suppression of the slave trade and the gradual abolition of slavery itself. In the mean time we consider it as our indispensable duty to endeavour by all means in our power to alleviate the miseries of those unhappy people who are doomed to taste of the bitter cup of perpetual servitude.
I found by an old pamphlet in my possession that George Keith, nearly 100 years ago, wrote a paper against the practice of slavery, wherein a strict charge was given to Friends that they should set their Negroes at liberty after some reasonable time of service, &c. &c. About the year 1728 or 29 I printed a book for Ralph Sandyford against keeping Negroes in slavery, two editions of which he distributed gratis; and about the year 1736 I printed another book on the same subject for Benjamin Lay, who distributed the books chiefly among them. By these instances it appears that the seed was sown in the good ground, and ’tis springtime at last, though so late, and is some confirmation of Lord Bacon’s observation that a good motion never dies, and may encourage us in making such, though hopeless of their taking an immediate effect.
This present age has been distinguished by a remarkable revolution. The human mind has felt its influence. Mankind begin at last to consider themselves as members of one family. The groans of our distressed and injured brethren from the slaves of Africa have at length reached the ears of the citizens of the United States. Most of our legislatures have already abolished the slave trade, and a provision has been made in the general Constitution, which we trust will effect its abolition completely. Great Britain has felt the same spirit of humanity and justice, and her public papers have been filled with the most pathetic and nervous petitions to her Parliament to abolish this iniquitous traffic. But nothing effectual will be done until France concurs in it. We indulge ourselves in the hope that a king, who has so recently distinguished himself by banishing from his dominion religious oppression, will not permit the increase of this most grievous of all civil ones nor continue to pursue this disgraceful commerce in the human species.
THE RELIGION OF JESUS: THE BEST THE WORLD EVER SAW
Tho’ the people of Massachusetts had not in their new constitution kept quite clear of religious tests, we must hope for greater degrees of perfection when their constitution some years hence shall be revised. If Christian preachers had continued to teach as Christ and his apostles did, without salaries, and as the Quakers now do, I imagine tests would never have existed. For I think they were invented not so much to secure religion itself, as the emoluments of it. When a religion is good, I conceive that it will support itself; and when it cannot support itself, and God does not take care to support it, so that its professors are oblig’d to call for the help of the civil power, ’tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one.
I OPPOSED THE CLAUSE OF RELIGIOUS DECLARATION
I thought the clause in our Pennsylvania constitution, which requires the members of assembly to declare their belief in divine inspiration,
had better have been omitted. God governs in the affairs of men, but I often thought of several things in the Old Testament impossible to be given by divine inspiration, such as the approbation ascrib’d by the angel of the Lord, of that abominably wicked and detestable action of Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite.136 If the rest of the Book were like that, I should rather suppose it given by inspiration from another quarter, and renounce the whole. I opposed the clause but was overpower’d by numbers, and fearing what might in future times be grafted on it, I prevailed to have the additional clause that no further or more extended profession of faith should ever be exacted. It is proper that the United States consists of thirteen distinct and separate sovereignties, each govern’d by its own laws, in which no one religious sect is established as predominant, but there is a general toleration of all; and should anything be enacted by one of them in favour of a particular sect, it would have no operation in the others.
The Rev. Dr. Ezra Stiles desired to know something of my religion. I endeavoured in a few words to gratify his curiosity, tho’ I confided in him not to expose me to criticism and censure by publishing any part of this communication with him. I have ever let others enjoy their religious sentiments without reflecting on them for those beliefs that appeared to me insupportable and even absurd. All sects here, and we have a great variety, have experienced my good will in assisting them with subscriptions for building their new places of worship, and as I have never opposed any of their doctrines I hope to go out of the world in peace with them all.
Nevertheless, here is my creed: I believe in one God, creator of the universe. That he governs it by his providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable service we can render to him is doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental principles of all sound religion, and I regard them in whatever sect I meet with them. As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom Dr. Stiles particularly desired, I think the system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw, or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have with most of the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity: tho’ it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble. I see no harm however in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequence, as probably it has, of making his doctrines more respected and better observed, especially as I do not perceive that the Supreme Being takes it amiss, by distinguishing the believers in his government of the world with any particular marks of his displeasure. I shall only add respecting myself that, having experienced the goodness of that Being, in conducting me prosperously thro’ a long life, I have no doubt of its continuance in the next, tho’ without the smallest conceit of meriting such goodness; and with regard to future blessings, I cannot help imagining that multitudes of the zealously orthodox of different sects who at the last day may flock together in hopes of seeing the damn’d will be disappointed and oblig’d to rest content with their own salvation.
My sentiments in this regard can be seen in an old letter, copied below, that I wrote in answer to one from a zealous religionist whom I had relieved in a paralytic case by electricity, and who, being afraid I should grow proud upon it, sent me his serious, tho’ rather impertinent, cautions.
I MEAN REAL GOOD WORKS, NOT HOLIDAY-KEEPING AND MAKING LONG PRAYERS
To Joseph Huey
Philada. June 6, 1753
Sir,
I received your kind letter of the 2d instant and am glad to hear that you increase in strength; I hope you will continue mending till you recover your former health and firmness. Let me know whether you still use the cold bath, and what effect it has.
As to the kindness you mention, I wish it could have been of more service to you. The only thanks I should desire is that you would always be equally ready to serve any other person that may need your assistance, and so let good offices go around, for mankind are all of a family.
For my own part, when I am employed in serving others, I do not look upon myself as conferring favours, but as paying debts. In my travels and since my settlement I have received many kindnesses from men, to whom I shall never have any opportunity of making the least return, and numberless mercies from God, who is infinitely above being benefited by our services. These kindnesses from men I can therefore only return on their fellow-men; and I can only show my gratitude for those mercies from God by a readiness to help his other children and my brethren. I do not think that thanks and compliments, tho’ repeated weekly, can discharge our real obligations to each other, and much less those to our Creator.
You will see in this, my notion of good works, that I am far from expecting (as you suppose) that I shall merit heaven by them. By heaven we understand a state of happiness, infinite in degree, and eternal in duration: I can do nothing to deserve such reward. He that for giving a draught of water to a thirsty person should expect to be paid with a good plantation would be modest in his demands, compar’d with those who think they deserve heaven for the little good they do on earth. Even the mix’d imperfect pleasures we enjoy in this world are rather from God’s goodness than our merit; how much more such happiness of heaven! For my own part, I have not the vanity to think I deserve it, the folly to expect it, nor the ambition to desire it; but content myself in submitting to the will and disposal of that God who made me, who has hitherto preserv’d and bless’d me, and in whose fatherly goodness I may well confide. He will never make me miserable, and even the afflictions I may at any time suffer shall tend to my benefit.
Doubtlessly, faith has its use in the world; I do not desire to see it diminished, nor would I endeavour to lessen it in any man. But I wish it were more productive of good works than I have generally seen it: I mean real good works, works of kindness, charity, mercy, and public spirit; not holiday-keeping, sermon-reading or hearing, performing church ceremonies, or making long prayers, fill’d with flatteries and compliments, despis’d even by wise men, and much less capable of pleasing the Deity. The worship of God is a duty, the hearing and reading of sermons may be useful; but if men rest in hearing and praying, as too many do, it is as if a tree should value itself on being water’d and putting forth leaves, tho’ it never produc’d any fruit.
Jesus tho’t much less of these outward appearances and professions than many of his modern disciples. He prefer’d the doers of the word to the mere hearers; the son that seemingly refus’d to obey his father and yet perform’d his commands, to him that profess’d his readiness but neglected the works; the heretical but charitable Samaritan, to the uncharitable tho’ orthodox priest and sanctified Levite; and those who gave food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, raiment to the naked, entertainment to the stranger, and relief to the sick, &c. tho’ they never heard of his name, he declares shall in the last day be accepted, when those who cry “Lord, Lord,” who value themselves on their faith and great miracles, but have neglected good works, shall be rejected. He profess’d that he came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance, which imply’d his modest opinion that there were some in his time so good that they need not hear even him for improvement; but nowadays we have scarce a little parson that does not think it the duty of every man within his reach to sit under his petty ministrations and that whoever omits them offends God. I wish to such more humility, and to you health and happiness, being your friend and servant
B FRANKLIN
OLD MAN’S WISH
I like the concluding sentiment in the old song call’d the Old Man’s Wish, wherein after wishing for a warm house in a country town, an easy horse, some good old authors, ingenious and cheerful companions, a pudding on Sundays with stout ale and a bottle of burgundy, &c. &c. in separate stanzas, each ended with this burden:May I govern my passions with
an absolute sway
Grow wise and better as my strength wears away
Without gout, or stone, by a gentle decay
he adds,With a courage undaunted may I face my last day;
And when I am gone, may the better sort say,
In the morning when sober, in the evening when mellow,
He’s gone, and has not left behind him his fellow;
For he govern’d his passions, &c
I have sung that wishing song a thousand times when I was young, and now find at fourscore that the three contraries have befallen me: being subject to the gout, and the stone, and not being the master of all my passions, I am like the proud girl in my country who wish’d and resolv’d not to marry a parson, nor a Presbyterian, nor an Irishman, and at length found herself married to an Irish Presbyterian parson. You see I have some reason to wish that in a future state I may not only be as well as I was, but a little better. And I hope it: For I trust in God. And I observe that there is great frugality as well as wisdom in his works, since he has been evidently sparing both of labour and materials; for by the various wonderful inventions of propagation he has provided for the continual peopling his world with plants and animals, without being at the trouble of repeated new creations. I say that when I see nothing annihilated, and not even a drop of water wasted, I cannot suspect the annihilation of souls, or believe that he will suffer the daily waste of millions of minds ready made that now exist, and put himself to the continual trouble of making new ones. Thus finding myself in the world, I believe I shall in some shape or another always exist: And with all the inconveniences human life is liable to, I shall not object to a new edition of mine; hoping however that the errata of the last may be corrected.
The Compleated Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1757-1790) Page 38