Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

by Walter Isaacson

  2. “Appeal for the Hospital,” Pa. Gazette, Aug. 8, 1751; Autobiography 134.

  3. BF to Peter Collinson, May 9, 1753; Stuart Sherman, “Franklin and the Age of Enlightenment,” in Sanford 75. See also chapter 4, n. 49.

  For more on Franklin’s political thought, see Paul Conner, Poor Richard’s Politicks (New York: Oxford University Press, 1965), and Francis Jennings, Benjamin Franklin: Politician (New York: Norton, 1996).

  4. “Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind,” 1751, Papers 4:225; Conner 69–87; Hawke 95.

  5. “Felons and Rattlesnakes,” Pa. Gazette, May 9, 1751.

  6. “Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind,” 1751; BF to Abiah Franklin, Apr. 12, 1750; John Van Horne, “Collective Benevolence,” in Lemay Reappraising, 433–36; Lopez Private, 291–302.

  7. BF to John Waring, Dec. 17, 1763.

  8. BF to Peter Collinson, May 9, 1753.

  9. Autobiography 131.

  10. Autobiography 132.

  11. Autobiography 132; Report of the Treaty of Carlisle, Nov. 1, 1753; Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania, Nov. 15, 1753.

  12. Autobiography 140; BF to Collinson, May 21, 1751; John Franklin to BF, Nov. 26, 1753; “Procedures for Postmasters,” 1753, Papers 5:162–77; post office finances, Aug. 10, 1753, Papers 5:18; Wright 85; Hawke 114; Brands 243–45; Clark 100; Lopez Private, 53.

  13. BF to James Parker, Mar. 20, 1751; Pa. Gazette, May 9, 1754.

  14. “Commission to Treat With the Indians,” Pa. Assembly, May 13, 1754, Papers 5:275; “Short Hints towards a Scheme for Uniting the Northern Colonies,” in BF to James Alexander and Cadwallader Colden, June 8, 1754, Papers 5:335.

  15. BF to Peter Collinson, July 29, 1754; BF to Cadwallader Colden, July 14, 1754; “Plan of Proposed Union,” July 10, 1754; Autobiography 141–42; BF to William Shirley, Dec. 4, 22, 1754.

  For overviews: Bernard Bailyn, The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974); Robert Newbold, The Albany Congress and Plan of Union (New York: Vantage, 1955), 95–105; Morgan Franklin, 83–90; Hawke 116–23; Brands 234–40; Wright 89–94. The most colorful popular account is in Catherine Drinker Bowen, The Most Dangerous Man in America (Boston: Little, Brown, 1974), 91–162.

  There is a scholarly dispute on how to apportion credit for the final plan between Franklin and Hutchinson. In a letter years later, Hutchinson referred to it as his plan, but in a history book he wrote that “the plan for a general union was projected by Benjamin Franklin.” Indeed, the final plan was very similar in structure and phrasing to the “Short Hints” paper that Franklin prepared before arriving at Albany. See Papers 5:335; Wright 92. For a pro-Hutchinson view, see Lawrence Gipson, The British Empire before the American Revolution (New York: Knopf, 1936–69), 5:126–38.

  16. BF to John Franklin, Mar. 16, 1755; BF to Catherine Ray, Mar. 4, Mar.–Apr., Sept. 11, Oct. 16, 1755; Catherine Ray to BF, June 28, 1755. (She signed her name “Caty,” but Franklin tended to address her as “Katy” or “Katie.”)

  17. The best analysis is in Lopez Private, 55–57, and Lopez Life, 25–29. The quote from Lopez is from the former book, but it is repeated in similar form in the latter. See also William Roelker, Benjamin Franklin and Catherine Ray Greene(Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1949). Also worth noting is J. A. Leo Lemay’s astute analysis in PMHB 126:2 (Apr. 2002): 336: “Biographers who read Franklin’s flirtations as serious attempts to have sexual affairs seem to me to be either unsophisticated about human psychology or as prudish as John Adams in Paris.”

  18. BF to Catherine Ray, Mar. 2, 1789.

  19. Autobiography 143–47; Hawke 124–62; BF to Peters, Sept. 17, 1754; BF to Collinson, Aug. 25, 1755.

  20. Autobiography 151–52, 148–51; “Advertisement for Wagons,” Apr. 26, 1755; Papers 6:19. (It is misdated in the Autobiography.)

  21. BF to Peter Collinson, June 26, 1755; Autobiography 144; Robert Hunter Morris to Thomas Penn, June 16, 1755.

  22. Autobiography 154–56; Assembly reply to Governor Morris, Aug. 8, 19, Nov. 11, 1755.

  23. Autobiography 156; Brands 262; Pa. Gazette, Dec. 18, 1755; BF to James Read, Nov. 2, 1755; BF to Richard Partridge, Nov. 27, 1755.

  24. BF to DF, Jan. 25, 1756; Autobiography 160–62; Brands 267–69; J. Bennett Nolan, General Benjamin Franklin (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1936), 62.

  25. Autobiography 162–63; Brands 270–71; BF to Collinson, Nov. 5, 1756.

  26. BF to George Whitefield, July 2, 1756; BF to DF, Mar. 25, 1756; Autobiography 169; Assembly reply, by BF, Oct. 29, 1756; Assembly appointment of Franklin, Jan. 29, Feb. 3, 1757, Papers 7:109; Wright 105; Thomas Penn to Richard Peters, May 14, 1757.

  Chapter 8

  1. BF to William Brownrigg, Nov.7,1773;“Everything is soothed by oil,” Pliny the Elder (A.D. 23–79) wrote in his work Natural History, book 2, section 234. He was, in addition to being a scientist and senator, a commander of the Roman imperial fleet near Naples, and was killed at an eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

  2. BF to DF, July 17, 1757; Autobiography 175–77.

  3. Lopez Private, 86.

  4. The Craven Street house where Franklin spent most of his time, now number 36, still exists, and in 2003 work began on converting it into a small museum. The plan is to have each of the tiny rooms feature a different aspect of his stay in London: his diplomacy, science, social life, and writings. The house, which has a nineteenth-century brick façade but is otherwise structurally similar to the way it was in Franklin’s time, is a few hundred yards from Charing Cross station and Trafalgar Square. www.thersa.org/franklin/default.html ; www.rsa.org.uk/projects/ project_closeup.asp?id=1001 ; www.cs.mdx.ac.uk/wrt/Siteview/project.html.

  5. BF to PS May 4, 1759, and undated 1759, May 1, Sept. 13, 1760.

  6. BF to PS, Sept. 13, 1759, May 1, June 11 (includes the “prudent moderation” excerpt), Sept. 13, and undated Nov., 1760; PS to BF, June 23, 1760, undated Aug., and Sept. 16, 1760. See also their letters throughout 1761–62.

  7. BF to PS, Jan. 27, 1783; Wright 110; Clark 140; Lopez Private, 83; Randall 123.

  8. William Strahan to DF, Dec. 13, 1757.

  9. BF to DF, Jan. 14, Feb. 19, June 10, 1758; Lopez Private, 80; Clark 142–43, 147.

  10. BF to DF, Nov. 22, Dec. 3, 1757, June 10, 1758, June 27, 1760; Lopez Private, 172.

  11. Verner Crane, “The Club of Honest Whigs,” William and Mary Quarterly23 (1966): 210; Leonard Labaree, “Benjamin Franklin’s British Friendships,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 108 (1964): 423; Clark 142; Brands 279; Morgan Devious, 15; Hawke 163.

  12. Strahan to DF, Dec. 13, 1757; BF to DF, Nov. 27, 1757.

  13. Wright 114–15, 216–17.

  14. Thomas Penn to Richard Peters, May 14, 1757.

  15. Autobiography 177–79.

  16. Autobiography 178.

  17. Autobiography 179; “Heads of Complaint,” BF to the Penns, Aug. 20, 1757; answer to “Heads of Complaint” by Ferdinand John Paris, Nov. 28, 1758, Papers 8:184; Cecil Currey, Road to Revolution (Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor, 1968), 35.

  18. “Pennsylvania Charter of Privileges,” Oct. 28, 1701, www.constitution.org/ bcp/penncharpriv.htm ; BF to Isaac Norris, Jan. 14, 1758; Clark 144; Middlekauff 65–66; Brands 301.

  19. Thomas Penn to Richard Peters, July 5, 1758; BF to Joseph Galloway, Feb. 17, 1758; Brands 302; Wright 117.

  20. WF to the Printer of the Citizen, from the Pennsylvania Coffee-house in London, Sept. 16, 1757.

  21. BF to DF, June 10, 1758; Skemp William,30–31.

  22. Lopez Private, 61–69; Skemp William, 24–26, 37; Randall 102–15; WF to Elizabeth Graeme, Feb. 26, Apr. 7, Dec. 9, 1757; WF to Margaret Abercrombie, Oct. 24, 1758. The True Conduct of Persons of Quality was written by Nicolas Rémond des Cours and translated from the French and published in London in 1694.

  23. BF to Abiah Franklin, Apr. 12, 1750; WF to BF, Sept. 3, 1758.

  24. BF to DF, Sept. 6, 1758, Aug. 2
9, 1759.

  25. Dr. Thomas Bray, “Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts Among the Negroes in the Colonies,” docsouth.dsi.internet2.edu/church/ pierre/pierre.html ; BF to John Lining, Apr. 14, 1757, June 17, 1758; BF to Cadwallader Colden, Feb. 25, 1763.

  26. BF to DF, Sept. 6, 1758.

  27. Answer to Heads of Complaint by Ferdinand John Paris, Nov. 28, 1758; Thomas and Richard Penn to the Assembly, Nov. 28, 1758; BF to Isaac Norris, Jan. 19, 1759. See Papers 8:178–86; Middlekauff 68–70; Hawke 173; Morgan Devious, 38.

  28. Morgan Franklin, 102, 130; Gordon Wood, “Wise Men,” New York Review, Sept. 26, 2002, 44. In this review of Morgan’s book, Wood argues that Franklin’s actions can be readily explained by his loyalty to the Crown, and he faults Morgan for being blinded by hindsight when he accuses Franklin of blindness. “His account of Franklin seems at times subtly infused with what historians call ‘whiggism,’ the anachronistic foreshortening that makes the past an anticipation of the future,” Wood writes. On balance, I feel that Franklin’s anger at the Proprietors did, in fact, cause him to lose his perspective at a time when others, both supporters and foes of the Penns, were able to see more clearly that there was not enough support on either side of the ocean to turn Pennsylvania into a royal colony and that the fundamental problem was the general attitude among British leaders that the colonies ought to be economically and politically submissive.

  29. BF to the Privy Council, Sept. 20, 1758; Hawke 176.

  30. BF to Thomas Leech, May 13, 1758; Hawke 169, 177; Papers 8:60.

  31. Autobiography 180; Report of the Board of Trade, June 24, 1760, in Papers 9:125–73; Privy Council order, Sept. 2, 1760; Morgan Devious, 56–57; Middlekauff 73.

  32. Brands 305–6; “A Parable on Brotherly Love,” 1755, Papers 6:124; BF to Lord Kames, May 3, 1760.

  33. BF to David Hume, May 19, 1762.

  34. BF to David Hume, Sept. 27, 1760; David Hume to BF, May 10, 1762.

  35. BF to Lord Kames, Jan. 3, 1760; Brands 287; St. Andrew’s citation, Oct. 1, 1759, Papers 8:277.

  36. BF to DF, Mar. 5, 1760.

  37. Temple Franklin’s tombstone refers to his birthdate as Feb. 22, 1762, but family correspondence indicates that he was born in February 1760. Lopez Private,93; Van Doren 290.

  38. BF to Jared Ingersoll, Dec. 11, 1762; WF to SF, Oct. 10, 1761.

  39. “Humorous Reasons for Restoring Canada,” London Chronicle, Dec. 27, 1759; “The Interest of Great Britain Considered,” Apr. 1760, Papers 9:59–100; Jack Greene, “Pride, Prejudice and Jealousy,” in Lemay Reappraising, 125.

  40. BF to William Strahan, Aug. 23, 1762.

  41. Aldridge French, 169, from Pierre Cabanis, Complete Works (Paris: Bossange frères, 1825), 5:222.

  42. Temple Franklin, “Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin,” 1:75; Randall 180; Skemp William, 38; Brands 328; BF to JM, Nov. 25, 1752; BF to PS, Aug. 11, 1762.

  43. BF to John Pringle, Dec. 1, 1762.

  Chapter 9

  1. Skemp William, 48; Thomas Penn to James Hamilton, Sept. 1762; Clark 170.

  2. BF to Benjamin Waller, Aug. 1, 1763.

  3. BF to Lord Bessborough, Oct. 1761; Lopez Private, 100; BF to DF, June 16, 1763.

  4. BF to PS, June 10, 1763; Lopez Private, 100.

  5. Hawke 202; BF to JM, June 19, 1763; BF to Catherine Ray Greene, Aug. 1, 1763; BF to William Strahan, Aug. 8, 1763.

  6. Lopez Private, 114; WF to William Strahan, Apr. 25, 1763; BF to William Strahan, Dec. 19, 1763.

  7. BF to Peter Collinson, Dec. 19, 1763; “A Narrative of the Late Massacres, in Lancaster County, of a Number of Indians, Friends of this Province, by Persons Unknown,” Jan. 1764; Van Doren 307; Hawke 208; Brands 352.

  There is an interesting historical dispute over Franklin’s sympathies for the Indians and prejudice toward the frontier Presbyterians and ethnic Germans. Buxbaum 185–219 is among those who play up Franklin’s prejudice toward Presbyterians and take him to task for making the Indians seem “human beings not essentially different from Englishmen.” Brooke Hindle, in “The March of the Paxton Boys,” William and Mary Quarterly (Oct. 1946), takes a similar approach. They are opposed by Francis Jennings in Benjamin Franklin: Politician (New York: Norton, 1996), 158–59. He calls Buxbaum “learnedly confused” and accuses Hindle of “absolute ignorance” and of making “bigoted asinine” comments.

  8. BF to John Fothergill, Mar. 14, 1764; BF to Richard Jackson, Feb. 11, 1764; Hawke 208.

  9. BF to Lord Kames, June 2, 1765; John Penn to Thomas Penn, May 5, 1764; BF to John Fothergill, Mar. 14, 1764; Hawke 211; Brands 356; Van Doren 311.

  10. Assembly reply to the governor, Mar. 24, 1764.

  11. Van Doren 314; Buxbaum 192; Cecil Currey, Road to Revolution (Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor, 1968), 58.

  12. Resolutions of the Pennsylvania Assembly, Mar. 24, 1764; “Cool Thoughts on the Present Situation of Our Public Affairs,” Apr. 12, 1764; BF to Richard Jackson, Mar. 14, 29, Sept. 1, 1764; BF to William Strahan, Mar. 30, 1764; J. Philip Gleason, “A Scurrilous Election and Franklin’s Reputation,” William and Mary Quarterly (Oct. 1961); Brands 357; Van Doren 313; Morgan Devious, 80–83. The anti-Franklin pamphlets are in Papers 11:381.

  13. Hawke 225; Brands 358; Van Doren 316; Buxbaum 12; “Remarks on a Late Protest,” Nov. 5, 1764.

  14. BF to Richard Jackson, May 1, 1764; BF to SF, Nov. 8, 1764; Hawke 222–26.

  Chapter 10

  1. BF to PS, Dec. 12, 1764.

  2. BF to DF, Dec. 27, 1764, Feb. 9, 14, 1765. For good overviews on Franklin’s mission, see Middlekauff; Morgan Devious; Cecil Currey, Road to Revolution (Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor, 1968); Theodore Draper, The Struggle for Power (New York: Times Books, 1996); Edmund Morgan and Helen Morgan, The Stamp Act Crisis (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1953).

  3. BF to PS, July 20, 1768; PS to BF, Sept. 26, 1768; Noah Webster to BF, May 24, 1786; BF to Webster, June 18, 1786; Van Doren 426; Noah Webster, Dissertations on the English Language: With Notes, Historical and Critical, to Which Is Added, by Way of Appendix, an Essay on a Reformed Mode of Spelling, with Dr. Franklin’s Arguments on That Subject (Boston: Isaiah Thomas, 1789), edweb.sdsu.edu/people/ DKitchen/new_655/webster_language.htm.

  4. Lopez Private, 152; WF to BF, Jan. 2, 1769; PS to Barbara Hewson, Oct. 4, 1774; PS to BF, Sept. 5, 1776.

  5. Cadwalader Evans to BF, Mar. 15, 1765; John Penn to Thomas Penn, Mar. 16, 1765; Morgan Devious, 94.

  6. BF to Joseph Galloway, Oct. 11, 1766; Morgan Devious, 102. Morgan and Morgan, The Stamp Act Crisis, 89–91; Brands 360–63; Van Doren 320.

  7. BF to John Hughes, Aug. 9, 1765; Morgan Devious, 106; Thomas Penn to William Allen, July 13, 1765.

  8. BF to Charles Thomson, July 11, 1765; Morgan Devious, 105; Charles Thomson to BF, Sept. 24, 1765; John Hughes to BF, Sept. 17, 1765.

  9. David Hall to BF, Sept. 6, 1765; Morgan Devious, 106; Wright 188.

  10. Samuel Wharton to BF, Oct. 13, 1765; John Hughes to BF, Sept. 12, 1765; DF to BF, Sept. 22, 1765; Morgan Devious, 107; BF to DF, Nov. 9, 1765; Brands 368.

  11. Patrick Henry to the Virginia House of Delegates, May 30, 1765; BF to John Hughes, Aug. 9, 1765;Thomas Hutchinson to BF, Nov. 18, 1765; Brands 368.

  12. BF to Pennsylvania Assembly committee, Apr. 12, 1766; Thomas Penn to John Penn, Nov. 30, 1765.

  13. BF to David Hall, Nov. 9, 1765; BF to Joseph Galloway, Oct. 11, 1766; John Fothergill to James Pemberton, Feb. 27, 1766; “Defense of Indian Corn and a Reply,” The Gazetteer, Jan. 2, 15, 1766.

  14. Public Advertiser, May 22, 1765, Jan. 2, 1766.

  15. William Warner, “Enlightened Anonymity,” University of California Santa Barbara, lecture, Mar. 8, 2002, dc-mrg.english.ucsb.edu/conference/ 2002/documents/william_warner_anon.html.

  16. BF to JM, Mar. 1, 1766; BF to WF, Nov. 9, 1765; Brands 373; Hawke 235–37.

  17. BF to unknown recipient, Jan. 6, 1766; see also BF to Cadwalader Evans, May 1766; Wright 187; Van Doren 333.

  18. T
estimony to the House of Commons, Feb. 13, 1766, Papers 13:129–62; Brands 374–76; Van Doren 336–52.

  19. William Strahan to David Hall, May 10, 1766; Joseph Galloway to BF, May 23, June 7, 1766; Charles Thomson to BF, May 20, 1766; Van Doren 353; Clark 195; Hawke 242.

  20. BF to DF, Apr. 6, 1766.

  21. DF to BF, Feb. 10, Oct. 8, 13, 1765; BF to DF, June 4, 1765; Lopez Private,126.

  22. David Hall to BF, Jan. 27, 1767; BF to Hall, Apr. 14, 1767.

  23. BF to DF, June 22, 1767.

  24. Lopez Private, 134, citing E. D. Gillespie, A Book of Remembrance (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1901), 25.

  25. DF to BF, Apr. 25, 1767; BF to DF, May 23, June 22, 1767; Brands 390; Hawke 255.

  26. WF to BF, May 1767; RB to BF, May 21, 1767; Brands 391.

  27. BF to RB, Aug. 5, 1767; BF to DF, Aug. 5, 1767.

  28. MS to DF, Sept. 18, 1767; Lopez Private, 139.

  29. BF to DF, Aug. 28, 1767; BF to PS, Sept. 14, 1767.

  30. BF to PS, Aug. 28, 1767; Van Doren 367–69.

  31. BF to DF, Nov. 2, 17, 1767; BF to PS, Oct. 9, 1767; Brands 395–96; Van Doren 368; Hawke 258.

  32. JM to BF, Dec. 1, 1767; BF to JM, Feb. 21, 1768.

  33. BF to RB, Aug. 13, 1768; BF to DF, Aug. 9, 1768; Lopez Private, 141.

  34. BF to DF, Jan. 26, 1769; Thomas Bond to BF, June 7, 1769; DF to BF, Nov. 27, 1769; Van Doren 404; Lopez Private, 143; Brands 456.

  35. PS to BF, Sept. 1, 1769; BF to PS, Sept. 2, 1769, May 31, 1770; Lopez Private, 154.

  36. “Craven Street Gazette,” Sept. 22–25, 1770, in Papers 17:220–26.

  37. BF to Barbeu Dubourg, July 28, 1768; Lopez Private, 27.

  38. BF to MS, Nov. 3, 1772, misdated 1767 in Papers.

  39. “A Friend to Both Countries,” London Chronicle, Apr. 9, 1767; “Benevolues,” London Chronicle, Apr. 11, 1767; Brands 386; Hawke 252; Cecil Currey, Road to Revolution, 222.