A Benjamin Franklin Reader

by Walter Isaacson

  Much malignant censure have some writers bestowed upon the rich for their luxury and expensive living, while the poor are starving, &c. not considering that what the rich expend, the laboring poor receive in payment for their labor. It may seem a paradox if I should assert, that our laboring poor do in every year receive the whole revenue of the nation; I mean not only the public revenue, but also the revenue, or clear income, of all private estates, or a sum equivalent to the whole. In support of this position I reason thus. The rich do not work for one another. Their habitations, furniture, clothing, carriages, food, ornaments, and every thing in short that they, or their families use and consume, is the work or produce of the laboring poor, who are, and must be continually, paid for their labor in producing the same. In these payments the revenues of private estates are expended, for most people live up to their incomes. In clothing and provision for troops, in arms, ammunition, ships, tents, carriages, &c. &c. (every particular the produce of labor) much of the public revenue is expended. The pay of officers civil and military, and of the private soldiers and sailors, requires the rest; and they spend that also in paying for what is produced by the laboring poor. I allow that some estates may increase by the owners spending less than their income; but then I conceive that other estates do at the same time diminish, by the owners spending more than their income, so that when the enriched want to buy more land, they easily find lands in the hands of the impoverished, whose necessities oblige them to sell; and thus this difference is equaled. I allow also, that part of the expense of the rich is in foreign produce or manufactures, for producing which the laboring poor of other nations must be paid; but then I say, that we must first pay our own laboring poor for an equal quantity of our manufactures or produce, to exchange for those foreign productions, or we must pay for them in money, which money, not being the natural produce of our country, must first be purchased from abroad, by sending out its value in the produce or manufactures of this country, for which manufactures our laboring poor are to be paid. And indeed if we did not export more than we import, we could have no money at all. I allow farther, that there are middle men, who make a profit, and even get estates, by purchasing the labor of the poor and selling it at advanced prices to the rich; but then they cannot enjoy that profit or the incomes of estates, but by spending them and employing and paying our laboring poor, in some shape or other, for the products of industry. Even beggars, pensioners, hospitals, and all that are supported by charity, spend their incomes in the same manner. So that finally, as I said at first, our laboring poor receive annually the whole of the clear revenues of the nation, and from us they can have no more.

  If it be said that their wages are too low, and that they ought to be better paid for their labor, I heartily wish any means could be fallen upon to do it, consistent with their interest and happiness; but as the cheapness of other things is owing to the plenty of those things, so the cheapness of labor is, in most cases, owing to the multitude of laborers, and to their underworking one another in order to obtain employment. How is this to be remedied? A law might be made to raise their wages; but if our manufactures are too dear, they will not vend abroad, and all that part of employment will fail, unless by fighting and conquering we compel other nations to buy our goods, whether they will or no, which some have been mad enough at times to propose. Among ourselves, unless we give our working people less employment, how can we, for what they do, pay them higher than we do? Out of what fund is the additional price of labor to be paid, when all our present incomes are, as it were, mortgaged to them? Should they get higher wages, would that make them less poor, if in consequence they worked fewer days of the week proportionally? I have said a law might be made to raise their wages; but I doubt much whether it could be executed to any purpose, unless another law, now indeed almost obsolete, could at the same time be revived and enforced; a law, I mean, that many have often heard and repeated, but few have ever duly considered. Six days shalt thou labor. This is as positive a part of the commandment as that which says, the Seventh day thou shalt rest. But we remember well to observe the indulgent part, and never think of the other. St. Monday is generally as duly kept by our working people as Sunday; the only difference is, that, instead of employing their time, cheaply, at church, they are wasting it expensively at the alehouse. I am, Sir, &c.

  Medius

  Cold Air Baths

  Throughout his life, Franklin was a firm believer in good ventilation and that colds were caused not by chill but by breathing stale air that contained germs from other people. While living on Craven Street, he made a habit of sitting nude in front of an open window to help purify his body.

  TO JACQUES BARBEU-DUBOURG, JULY 28, 1768

  I greatly approve the epithet, which you give in your letter of the 8th of June, to the new method of treating the small-pox, which you call the tonic or bracing method. I will take occasion from it, to mention a practice to which I have accustomed myself. You know the cold bath has long been in vogue here as a tonic; but the shock of the cold water has always appeared to me, generally speaking, as too violent: and I have found it much more agreeable to my constitution to bathe in another element, I mean cold air. With this view I rise early almost every morning, and sit in my chamber, without any clothes whatever, half an hour or an hour, according to the season, either reading or writing. This practice is not in the least painful, but on the contrary, agreeable; and if I return to bed afterwards, before I dress myself, as sometimes happens, I make a supplement to my night’s rest, of one or two hours of the most pleasing sleep that can be imagined. I find no ill consequences whatever resulting from it, and that at least it does not injure my health, if it does not in fact contribute much to its preservation. I shall therefore call it for the future a bracing or tonic bath.

  The Fable of the Lion and the Dog

  In his efforts to persuade the British that their tyrannical treatment of America would eventually backfire, Franklin continued to pour forth essays, letters, hoaxes and other pieces of propaganda. One of them, in January 1770, was a fable about a young lion cub and a large English dog traveling together on a ship. It was “humbly inscribed” to Lord Hillsborough, the colonial secretary who had become Franklin’s most ardent opponent.

  THE PUBLIC ADVERTISER, JANUARY 2, 1770

  A lion’s whelp was put on board a Guinea ship bound to America as a present to a friend in that country: it was tame and harmless as a kitten, and therefore not confined, but suffered to walk about the ship at pleasure. A stately, full-grown English mastiff, belonging to the captain, despising the weakness of the young lion, frequently took its food by force, and often turned it out of its lodging box, when he had a mind to repose therein himself. The young lion nevertheless grew daily in size and strength, and the voyage being long, he became at last a more equal match for the mastiff; who continuing his insults, received a stunning blow from the lion’s paw that fetched his skin over his ears, and deterred him from any future contest with such growing strength; regretting that he had not rather secured its friendship than provoked its enmity.

  Polly Gets Married

  In late 1769, Polly Stevenson met a man that wanted to marry her. William Hewson was a good catch for Polly, who by then was 30. He was on the verge of what would be a prominent career as a medical researcher and lecturer. “He must be clever because he thinks as we do,” Polly gushed in a letter from the country home where she was staying. But she played coy with Franklin by confessing (or feigning) her lack of enthusiasm for marrying Hewson. “He may be too young,” she told her older admirer.

  Franklin, who had just returned from a trip to Paris, replied the very the next day with a letter that contained more flirtations than felicitations. “If the truth were known, I have reason to be jealous of this insinuating handsome young physician.” He would flatter his vanity, he said, by presuming “to suppose you were in spirits because of my safe return.”

  For almost a year, Polly held off getting married because Franklin
refused to advise her to accept Hewson’s proposal. Finally, in May of 1770, Franklin wrote that he had no objections. It was hardly an overwhelming endorsement. “I am sure you are a much better judge in this affair of your own than I can possibly be,” he said. As for her worry that she would not bring much of a financial dowry, Franklin could not resist noting that “I should think you a fortune sufficient for me without a shilling.”

  Although he had missed the weddings of both of his real children, this was one Franklin made sure not to miss. Even though it was held in mid-summer when he usually traveled, he was there to walk Polly down the aisle and play the role of her father. A few weeks later, he professed to be pleased that she was happy, but he confessed that he was “now and then in low spirits” at the prospect of having lost her friendship. Fortunately for all, it was not to be. He became close to the new couple, and he and Polly would exchange more than 130 more letters during their lifelong friendship.

  TO POLLY STEVENSON, MAY 31, 1770

  Dear Polly,

  I received your letter early this morning, and as I am so engaged that I cannot see you when you come today, I write this line just to say, that I am sure you are a much better judge in this affair of your own than I can possibly be; in that confidence it was that I forbore giving my advice when you mentioned it to me, and not from any disapprobation. My concern (equal to any father’s) for your happiness, makes me write this, lest having more regard for my opinion than you ought, and imagining it against the proposal because I did not immediately advise accepting it, you should let that weigh any thing in your deliberations.

  I assure you that no objection has occurred to me; his person you see, his temper and his understanding you can judge of, his character for any thing I have ever heard is unblemished; his profession, with that skill in it he is supposed to have, will be sufficient to support a family; and therefore considering the fortune you have in your hands, (though any future expectation from your aunt should be disappointed) I do not see but that the agreement may be a rational one on both sides. I see your delicacy; and your humility too; for you fancy that if you do not prove a great fortune you will not be beloved; but I am sure that were I in his situation in every respect, knowing you so well as I do, and esteeming you so highly, I should think you a fortune sufficient for me without a shilling.

  Having thus more explicitly than before given my opinion, I leave the rest to your sound judgment, of which no one has a greater share; and shall not be too inquisitive after your particular reasons, your doubts, your fears, &c. for I shall be confident whether you accept or refuse, that you do right. I only wish you may do what will most contribute to your happiness, and of course to mine; being ever, my dear friend,

  Yours most affectionately,

  B.F.

  P.S. Don’t be angry with me for supposing your Determination not quite so fixed as you fancy it.

  TO POLLY STEVENSON HEWSON, JULY 18, 1770

  Dear Polly,

  Yours of the 15th. informing me of your agreeable journey and safe arrival at Hexham gave me great pleasure, and would make your good mother happy if I knew how to convey it to her; but ’tis such an out-of-the-way place she is gone to, and the name so out of my head, that the good news must wait her return. Enclosed I send you a letter which came before she went, and, supposing it from my daughter Bache, she would have me open and read it to her, so you see if there had been any intrigue between the gentleman and you, how all would have been discovered. Your mother went away on Friday last, taking with her Sally and Temple, trusting me alone with nanny, who indeed has hitherto made no attempt upon my virtue. Neither Dolly nor Barwell, nor any other good female soul of your friends or mine have been nigh me, nor offered me the least consolation by letter in my present lonesome state. I hear the postman’s bell, so can only add my affectionate respects to Mr. Hewson, and best wishes of perpetual happiness for you both. I am, as ever, my dear good girl, your affectionate friend,

  B. Franklin

  The Cravenstreet Gazette

  A few months after their wedding, Polly and William Hewson came to stay with Franklin while Mrs. Stevenson spent one of her long weekends visiting friends in the country. Together they published a fake newspaper to mark the occasion.

  For four days, the newspaper poked fun at various Franklin foibles: how he violated his sermons about saving fuel by making a fire in his bedroom when everyone else was out, how he vowed to fix the front door but gave up because he was unable to decide whether it required buying a new lock or a new key, and how he pledged to go to church on Sunday. One particularly intriguing entry seems to refer to a woman named Lady Bardwell living nearby with whom Franklin had an unrequited flirtation.

  The final edition contained one of Franklin’s inimitable letters to the editor, signed with the pseudonym “Indignation,” decrying the food and conditions. It was answered by “A Hater of Scandal,” who wrote that the surly Franklin had been offered a wonderful dinner of beef ribs and had rejected it because it did not agree with his system.

  THE CRAVENSTREET GAZETTE, SEPTEMBER 22–26, 1770

  The Cravenstreet Gazette, No 113, Saturday, September 22, 1770

  This Morning Queen Margaret, accompanied by her first Maid of Honor, Miss Franklin, set out for Rochester. Immediately on their departure, the whole Street was in Tears—from a heavy Shower of Rain.

  It is whispered that the new Family Administration which took place on her Majesty’s departure, promises, like all other new Administrations, to govern much better than the old one.

  We hear that the great Person (so called from his enormous Size) of a certain Family in a certain Street, is grievously affected at the late changes, and could hardly be comforted this Morning, though the new Ministry promised him a roasted shoulder of mutton, and potatoes, for his dinner.

  It is said, that the same great Person intended to pay his respects to another great personage this day, at St. James’s, it being Coronation-Day; hoping thereby a little to amuse his Grief; but was prevented by an accident, Queen Margaret, or her Maid of Honor having carried off the key of the drawers, so that the Lady of the Bedchamber could not come at a laced shirt for his Highness. Great clamors were made on this occasion against her Majesty.

  Other accounts say, that the shirts were afterwards found, though too late, in another Place. And some suspect, that the wanting a shirt from those drawers was only a ministerial Pretence to excuse Picking the Locks, that the new Administration might have every thing at command.

  We hear that the Lady Chamberlain of the Household went to market this morning by her own self, gave the butcher whatever he asked for the mutton, and had no dispute with the potatoe woman—to their great amazement—at the change of times!

  It is confidently asserted, that this Afternoon, the Weather being wet, the great Person a little chilly, and no body at home to find fault with the expense of fuel, he was indulged with a fire in his chamber, it seems the design is, to make him contented, by degrees, with the absence of the Queen.

  A Project has been under consideration of Government, to take the opportunity of her Majesty’s absence, for doing a Thing she was always averse to, viz. fixing a new lock on the street door, or getting a key made to the old one; it being found extremely inconvenient, that one or other of the Great Officers of State, should, whenever the Maid goes out for a hapworth of sand or a pint of porter, be obliged to attend the door to let her in again. But opinion, being divided, which of the two Expedients to adopt, the Project is for the present laid aside.

  We have good Authority to assure our Readers, that a Cabinet Council was held this afternoon at tea; the subject of which was a Proposal for the Reformation of Manners, and a more strict Observation of the Lord’s Day, the result was, an unanimous resolution that no meat should be dressed tomorrow; whereby the cook and the first minister will both be at liberty to go to church, the one having nothing to do, and the other no roast to rule. It seems the cold shoulder of mutton, and the apple pie, were
thought sufficient for Sunday’s dinner. All pious people applaud this measure, and ’tis thought the new Ministry will soon become popular.

  We hear that Mr. Wilkes was at a certain House in Craven Street this day, and enquired after the absent Queen. His good Lady and the Children were well.

  The Report that Mr. Wilkes the Patriot made the above Visit, is without Foundation, it being his Brother the Courtier.

  Sunday, September 23

  It is now found by sad Experience, that good Resolutions are easier made than executed. Notwithstanding yesterday’s solemn Order of Council, no body went to Church to day. It seems the great Persons broad-built-bulk lay so long abed, that Breakfast was not over till it was too late to dress. At least this is the Excuse. In fine, it seems a vain thing to hope Reformation from the example of our great Folks. The cook and the minister, however, both took advantage of the order so far, as to save themselves all trouble, and the clause of cold dinner was enforced, though the going to Church was dispensed with; just as the common working People observe the Commandment; the seventh Day thou shalt rest, they think a sacred Injunction; but the other Six Days shalt thou labor is deemed a mere Piece of Advice which they may practice when they want Bread and are out of Credit at the Alehouse, and may neglect whenever they have Money in their Pockets. It must nevertheless be said in justice to our Court, that whatever Inclination they had to Gaming, no Cards were brought out to Day. Lord and Lady Hewson walked after Dinner to Kensington to pay their Duty to the Dowager, and Dr. Fatsides made 469 Turns in his Dining Room as the exact Distance of a Visit to the lovely Lady Barwell, whom he did not find at home, so there was no Struggle for and against a Kiss, and he sat down to dream in the Easy Chair that he had it without any trouble.