INFLUENCE OF FRANKLIN’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Franklin’s memoir is considered the most popular autobiography ever written, and certainly the most read. Part One was addressed to his son, William, and more generally to his descendants with the intention “of gratifying the suppos’d curiosity of my son.”12 But Franklin quickly saw that the Autobiography could be much more than a genealogical record. He saw it as a guide “to benefit the young reader, by showing him from my example, and my success in emerging from poverty, and acquiring some degree of wealth, power, and reputation, the advantages of certain modes of conduct which I observed, and of avoiding the errors which were prejudicial to me.”13 In many ways it was a Horatio Alger tale of a gifted young man emerging from poverty to wealth through “industry, frugality, and prudence,” Franklin’s trilogy of virtues. Franklin’s “bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection,” found in Part Two, was impressed upon the minds of all young people growing up in nineteenth-century America.14
The Autobiography is largely an account of the private Franklin, pursuing financial independence, developing and maintaining friendships, and improving the community. The Compleated Autobiography is primarily an account of the political Franklin, becoming a revolutionary and an international diplomat. But like the original, it reveals a private Franklin, expressing his wit, wisdom, and worries on wide-ranging themes of family life and religion, friends and enemies, science and philosophy, health and wealth, and politics and economics.
There are over a dozen editions of the original Autobiography in print. The editors of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin published a definitive edition in paperback (Yale University Press, 1964). Scholars may prefer The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin: A Genetic Text, edited by J. A. Leo Lemay and P. M. Zall (University of Tennessee Press, 1981).
THE COMPLEATED AUTOBIOGRAPHY (1757-90)
“Life, like a dramatic piece, should not only be conducted with regularity, but methinks it should finish handsomely. Being now in the last act, I begin to cast about for something fit to end with. Or if mine be more properly compar’d to an epigram, as some of its few lines are but barely tolerable, I am very desirous of concluding with a bright point.”
—BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, July 2, 1756
A Continuation of the Account of My Life
Preface
1789
Philadelphia, Penns.
To the Public,
Having now done with public affairs, which have hitherto taken up so much of my time, I now endeavour to enjoy, during the small remainder of life that is left to me, some of the pleasures of conversing with my old friends and compleating the personal history of my life.
I have been persuaded by my friends Messrs Benjamin Vaughan, M. Le Veillard, Mr. James of Philadelphia, and some others, that a life written by myself may be useful to the rising generation.
The Memoirs have now been brought down to my fiftieth first year, to 1757. It seems to me that what is done will be of more general use to young readers; as exemplifying strongly the effect of prudent and imprudent conduct in the commencement of a life of business. To shorten the work, as well as for other reasons, I omit all facts and transactions that may not have a tendency to benefit the young reader, by showing him from my example, and my success in emerging from poverty, and acquiring some degree of wealth, power, and reputation, the advantages of certain modes of conduct which I observed, and of avoiding the errors which were prejudicial to me. If a writer can judge properly of his own work, I fancy, on reading over what is already done, that the book will be found entertaining, interesting, and useful, more than I expected when I began it. What is to follow will be of more important transactions.
My malady renders my sitting up to write rather painful to me. For my own personal ease, I should have died two years ago; but, tho’ those years have been spent in excruciating pain, I am pleas’d that I have lived with them, since they have brought me to see our present situation. Hitherto this long life has been tolerably happy; and if I were allowed to live it over again, I should make no objection, only wishing for leave to do, what authors do in a second edition of their works, correct some of my errata.
In writing the memoirs of my life, I have been so interrupted by extreme pain, which obliges me to have recourse to opium, that, between the effects of both, I have but little time in which I can write anything. My grandson, Benny, has copied what is done, which was sent to a few friends for their candid opinion, whether I had better expunge or alter my writings. I have relied on their opinions, for I am now grown so old and feeble in mind, as well as body, that I cannot place any confidence in my own judgment.
Here in hand is a full account of my life which I propose to leave behind me. I am now finishing my 84TH year, and probably with it my career in this life; but in whatever state of existence I am plac’d hereafter, if I retain any memory of what has pass’d here, I shall with it retain the esteem, respect, and affection, with which I have long been, my dear friends,
Yours most affectionately,
B FRANKLIN
Editor’s Note:
In 1757, at the age of 51, Franklin was commissioned by the Pennsylvania Assembly to act as an agent in London to petition the Crown in the Assembly’s dispute with the proprietors, the Penn family. The Assembly had passed a money bill to defend Pennsylvania in the French and Indian War by levying taxes on the lands of the proprietors. However, the Penns, as founders of Pennsylvania, adamantly insisted on their long-standing exemption from paying property taxes. Franklin went to London to plead the Assembly’s case. Leaving behind his wife Deborah and daughter Sally, he took with him his son William and his servants Peter and King. Franklin’s Autobiography ends shortly after his arrival in England in July 1757, and a summary of the battle over taxation of the proprietary estates, which was ultimately won by Franklin and the Pennsylvania Assembly. However, the Penns used a variety of delaying tactics for several years, leaving Franklin no choice but to spend time making the Assembly’s case before the public through newspaper correspondence and meetings with prominent citizens. In his leisure time, he pursued a wide variety of scientific and philosophical interests, including extensive travel throughout the British Isles and the Continent. This part of Franklin’s life covers his first mission to London, from 1757 until his return to Philadelphia in 1762.
Chapter One
First Mission to London, 1757–62
We safely arriv’d in England on the 17TH of July 1757 after having been chas’d several times on our passage by privateers. But we outsail’d everything, and in thirty days had good soundings. We met with no accident except the night before our arrival, when we narrowly escap’d running ashore on the rocks of Scilly, owing to our not having discover’d the lights ashore till it was almost too late to avoid them. The bell ringing for church, we went thither immediately, and with hearts full of gratitude, returned sincere thanks to God for the mercies we had received: were I a Roman Catholic, perhaps I should on this occasion have vowed to build a chapel to some saint; but as I am not, if I were to vow at all, it should have been to build a lighthouse.
My son and I arriv’d in London the 27TH of July. Having settled lodging near Charing Cross, I found many amusements there to pass the time agreeably. ’Tis true, the regard and friendship I met with from persons of worth, and the conversation of ingenious men, gave me no small pleasure; but at that time of life, domestic comforts afforded the most solid satisfaction, and my uneasiness at being absent from my family, and longing desire to be with them, made me often sigh in the midst of cheerful company.
LONDON WAS ONE GREAT SMOKY HOUSE
At Craven Street in Westminster everything about us was pretty genteel. We had four rooms furnished, but living in London was in every respect very expensive. The hackney coaches at that end of the town, where most people kept their own, was the worst in the whole city, miserable, dirty, broken shabby things, unfit to go into when dress’d clean, and such as one would be asham’d to g
et out of at any gentleman’s door. The whole town was one great smoky house, and every street a chimney, the air full of floating sea coal soot, and you never got a sweet breath of what was pure, without riding some miles for it into the country. As to burning wood, it answered no end, unless one could furnish all one’s neighbours and the whole city with the same. I slept in a short Callico bed gown with close sleeves and flannel close-footed trowsers; for without them I got no warmth at night.15
I HAVE A THOUSAND TIMES WISHED MY WIFE WITH ME
I found that every time I walk’d out, I got fresh cold. My illness continued nearly eight weeks. I had a violent cold and something of a fever. I was now and then a little delirious: they cupped me on the back of the head,16 which seemed to ease me for a while. I took a great deal of bark17, both in substance and infusion, and too soon thinking myself well, I ventured out twice, to do a little business and forward the service I was engaged in, and both times got fresh cold and fell down again. I took so much bark in various ways that I began to abhor it; I durst not take a vomit, for fear of my head; but at last I was seized one morning with a vomiting and purging, the latter of which continued the greater part of the day. My good doctor grew very angry with me for acting so contrary to his cautions and directions, and oblig’d me to promise more observance for the future. He attended me very carefully and affectionately; and the good lady of the house, Mrs. Stevenson, nursed me kindly; Billy was also of great service to me, in going from place to place, where I could not go myself, and my servant Peter18 was very diligent and attentive. Yet I have a thousand times wished my wife with me, and my little Sally with her ready hands and feet to do, and go, and come, and get what I wanted. There is a great difference in sickness being nurs’d with that tender attention which proceeds from sincere love.
Franklin took rooms in the home of Margaret Stevenson, in Craven Street, near Charing Cross Station.
My friend Mr. Strahan19 offered to lay me a considerable wager that a letter he wrote to my wife would bring her immediately over to England. He fanc’d his rhetoric and art would certainly bring her over, but I was sure there was no inducement strong enough to prevail with her to cross the seas.20 I spent an evening in conversation with him on the subject. He was very urgent with me to stay in England and prevail with my wife to remove thither with Sally. He propos’d several advantageous schemes to me which appear’d reasonably founded. His family was a very agreeable one; Mrs. Strahan a sensible and good woman, the children of amiable characters and particularly the young man, who was sober, ingenious and industrious, and a desirable person. 21 In point of circumstances there could be no objection, Mr. Strahan being in so thriving a way, as to lay up a thousand pounds every year from the profits of his business, after maintaining his family and paying all the charges. But I gave him two reasons why I could not think of removing thither: One, my affection to Pennsylvania, and long established friendships and connections there; the other, my wife’s invincible aversion to crossing the seas.
ANOTHER OF MY FANCIES: SILK BLANKETS!
I mentioned to my wife another of my fancyings, viz. a pair of silk blankets, very fine. They were of a new kind, just taken in a French prize [privateering], and such as were never seen in England before: they were called blankets; but I thought would be very neat to cover a summer bed instead of a quilt or counterpain. While in London, I had several trunks of silk consign’d to me for sale, and I remember it fetched at a public sale as high a price within 6d. in the pound weight, as the Italian sold at the same time. I had not the least doubt but that, by perseverance, this valuable produce could be established in our province in America. And in my journey from Philadelphia to Boston in the summer of 1763, I had the pleasure of meeting with sundry persons in different places who were attempting the production of silk from the encouragement of the Society of Arts.
DECEIVED, CHEATED, AND BETRAYED
Once recovered from my long illness, I found myself engag’d in an affair that took much more time than I expected. The repeated exemptions of the Penns, proprietors of Pennsylvania, from bearing a part of our colony’s heavy taxes appeared unreasonable to those who bore the burden of the American war22 (where our proprietaries had so large an interest to defend) as well as for the more immediate defense of their own estates. I insisted on a conference with the proprietaries. Mr. Thomas Penn stated that we [the Pennsylvania Assembly] were only a kind of corporation acting by a charter from the crown and could have no privileges or rights but what was granted by that charter, in which no such privilege as we then claimed was any where mentioned.
“But,” said I, “your father’s charter expressly says that the Assembly of Pennsylvania shall have all the power and privileges of an assembly according to the rights of the freeborn subjects of England, and as is usual in any of the British Plantations in America.”
“Yes,” said he, “but if my father granted privileges he was not by the Royal Charter empowered to grant, nothing can be claim’d by such grant.”
I said, “If then your father had no right to grant the privileges he pretended to grant, and to publish all over Europe as granted, then those who came to settle in the province upon the faith of that grant and in expectation of enjoying the privileges contained in it, were deceived, cheated and betrayed.”
He answered, “They should have themselves looked to that, the Royal Charter was no secret; they who came into the province on my father’s offer of privileges, if they were deceiv’d, it was their own fault.”
And that he said with a kind of triumphing laughing insolence, such as a low jockey might do when a purchaser complained that he had cheated him in a horse. I was astonished to see him thus meanly give up his father’s character and conceived that moment a more cordial and thorough contempt for him than I had ever before felt for any man living—a contempt that I cannot express in words, but I believe my countenance expressed it strongly. His brother was looking at me and must have observed it.
I reported to the Assembly that a petition expressing their dislike to the proprietary government, and praying the Crown to get rid of the proprietary government and take the province under its immediate government and protection, would be very favourably heard. Of myself, having no longer any hopes of an accommodation, I have never since desired an audience of the proprietaries.
A JOURNEY TO CAMBRIDGE
I depend chiefly on journeys into the country for the establishment of my health. In the summer of 1758, as all the great folks were out of town, and public business at a stand, Billy and I travelled over a great part of England; we took a journey to Cambridge, being entertained with great kindness by the principal people, and shown all the curiosities of the place. I found the journey advantageous to both my health and spirits. We were present at all the commencement ceremonies, dined every day in their halls, and my vanity was not a little gratified by the particular regard shown me by the chancellor and vice chancellor of the university, and heads of colleges.
THE POSSIBILITY OF FREEZING A MAN TO DEATH ON A WARM SUMMER’S DAY
While at Cambridge, I mentioned in conversation with Dr. John Hadley, professor of chemistry, an experiment for cooling bodies by evaporation that I had, by repeatedly wetting the thermometer with common spirits, brought the mercury down five or six degrees. Dr. Hadley proposed repeating the experiments with ether, instead of common spirits, as the ether is much quicker in evaporation. We accordingly went to his chamber, where he had both ether and a thermometer. By dipping first the ball of the thermometer into the ether, it appeared that the ether was precisely of the same temperament with the thermometer, which stood then at 65; for it made no alteration in the height of the little column of mercury. But when the thermometer was taken out of the ether, and the ether with which the ball was wet, began to evaporate, the mercury sank several degrees. The wetting was then repeated by a feather that had been dipped into the ether, when the mercury sunk still lower. We continued this operation, one of us wetting the ball, and another of the
company blowing on it with the bellows, to quicken the evaporation, the mercury sinking all the time, till it came down to 7, which is 25 degrees below the freezing point, when we left off. Soon after it passed the freezing point, a thin coat of ice began to cover the ball. Whether this was water collected or condensed by the coldness of the ball, from the moisture in the air, or from our breath; or whether the feather, when dipped into the ether, might not sometimes go through it, and bring up some of the water that was under it, I was not certain. The ice continued increasing till we ended the experiment, when it appeared near a quarter of an inch thick all over the ball, with a number of small specula pointing outwards. From this experiment one may see the possibility of freezing a man to death on a warm summer’s day, if he were to stand in a passage thro’ which the wind blew briskly, and to be wet frequently with ether, a spirit that is more inflammable than brandy, or common spirits of wine.
The Compleated Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1757-1790) Page 3
