Messrs. Lee and Izard together went to L’orient in order to embark on the Alliance. No souls regretted their departure. We parted civilly, for I never acquainted them that I knew of their writing against me to Congress. The Alliance was expected to sail immediately to America. But the men refusing to go till paid their shares of prize money, and sundry difficulties arising with regard to the sale and division, she had been detained thus long to my mortification, and I was yet uncertain when I would be able to get her out. I advanced 24,000 livres to supply the most urgent of their necessities, till the prize-money could be obtained. With regard to their wages, I thought the expectation of having them paid in France was wrong. Nobody in Europe was empower’d to pay them. (I believe it is a rule with all maritime states to pay their ships only at home by an office where the accounts are kept.) Later I received a letter signed by about 115 of the sailors of the Alliance, declaring that they would not raise the anchor nor depart from L’orient till they had six months wages paid them, and the utmost farthing of their prize money, including the ships sent to Norway, and until their Captain, P. Landais, was restored to them. This mutiny was undoubtedly excited by that captain. I went immediately to Versailles to demand the assistance of government, and on showing the letter by which his guilt plainly appear’d, an order was immediately granted and sent away the same evening, for apprehending and imprisoning him, and orders were promis’d to afford Capt. Jones all kind assistance to facilitate his departure. Mr. Arthur Lee had long been at L’Orient waiting for a passage on board the Alliance. He was supposed to have instigated the mutiny on board. I obtained and sent down orders to apprehend and imprison some of the chiefs. That restless genius, wherever he was, must either find or make a quarrel. The trouble and vexation these maritime affairs gave me was inconceivable. I often express’d to Congress my wish to be relieved from them, but was never able to do so.
I learned later that the Landais affair was over, that the Alliance had gone out of port (without taking any clothing and stores for the army), and that Capt. Jones had relinquished the command of her.
I MUST HAVE A LITTLE REPOSE
My time was more taken up with matters extraneous to the function of a minister than could possibly be imagined. I wrote often to the Congress to establish consuls in the ports and ease me of what related to maritime and mercantile affairs; but no notice was taken of my request. Bills of exchange and other money matters also gave me a good deal of trouble. And being kept in constant expectation of a secretary to be sent me, I did not furnish myself with the help I should otherwise have endeavoured to obtain. But I rubbed on, finding my grandson Temple daily more and more able to assist and ease me by supplying that deficiency. Without him I could not possibly have gone through with it. I had been too long in hot water, plagu’d almost to death with the passions, vagaries and ill humours and madnesses of other people. I retained my health a merveille, but what with bills of exchange, cruising ships, supplies &c., besides the proper business of my station, I found I had too much to do. I must have a little repose.
THE BEST MEN HAVE THE MOST ENEMIES
I received a kind letter of March 31, 1780, from Mr. Robert Morris of the Congress supporting Mr. Deane as a martyr in the cause of America. I had said before that enemies do a man some good, and the best men have always had their share of this treatment, to which Mr. Morris wrote, “I have been reviled and traduced for a long time by whispers and insinuations which at length were fortunately wrought up to public charges, which gave me an opportunity to show how groundless, and how malicious these things were, how innocent and honest my transactions. My enemies, ashamed of their prosecution, have quitted the pursuit and I am in the peaceable possession of the most honourable station my ambition aspires to, that of a private citizen in a free state. Yourself, my good sir, have had a share of these calamities, but the malice which gave them vent was so evident as to destroy its own poison. They could not cast even a cloud over your justly and much revered character. These things have taught me a lesson of philosophy that may be of service. I find the most useful members of society have the most enemies because there are a number of envious beings in the human shape; and if my opinion of mankind in general is grown worse from my experience of them, that very circumstance raises my veneration for those characters that justly merit the applause of virtuous men. In this light I view Doctor Franklin and Mr. Deane.”
APPOINTMENT OF ROBERT MORRIS AS FINANCE SECRETARY
On Robert Morris: “I offered him every assistance that my situation might enable me to afford him; for besides my affection for the glorious cause we were both engag’d in, I valued his friendship.”
A year later, in July 1781, I received a letter from Congress announcing the appointment of Mr. Robert Morris as Superintendent of the Finances of the United States. But I warned him, “the business you have undertaken is of so complex a nature, and must engross so much of your time and attention, as necessarily to hurt your private interests; and the public is often niggardly even of its thanks, while you are sure of being censured by malevolent critics and bug-writers, who will abuse you while you are serving them, and wound your character in nameless pamphlets, thereby resembling those little dirty stinking insects that attract us only in the dark and disturb our repose, molesting and wounding us while our sweat and blood is contributing to their subsistence.” I offered him every assistance that my situation might enable me to afford him; for besides my affection for the glorious cause we were both engag’d in, I valued his friendship.
RIOTS IN LONDON
London was in the utmost confusion for 7 or 8 days the beginning of June, 1780. The Protestant mob of fanatics, join’d by a mob of rogues, burnt and destroy’d property to the amount of a million sterling. Chapels of foreign ambassadors, houses of members of Parliament who had promoted an act favouring Catholicism, and the houses of many private persons of that religion, were pillaged and consumed, or pulled down, to the number of fifty. Among the rest, Lord Mansfield’s was burnt with all his furniture, pictures, books and papers, and himself almost frighten’d out of his wits. Thus he who approved the burning of American houses had fire brought home to him. He himself was horribly scar’d, and Govr. Hutchinson, it was said, died outright of the fright. They turn’d all the thieves and robbers out of Newgate prison to the number of three hundred, and instead of replacing them with an equal number of other plunderers of the public (which they might easily have found among the members of Parliament), they burnt the building. It is said they also attempted to plunder the Bank of England. The troops fired on them, and kill’d 33. They were not finally suppress’d till 9 at night. The next day Lord George Gordon was committed to the Tower.
The privateers Black Prince and Black Princess, with Congress commissions issued by me and mann’d partly with Americans, greatly harassed the English coasting trade, having taken, in 18 months, nearly 120 sail. The Prince was wreck’d on the coast, but the men saved. The Princess still reigned, and in a late cruise of 20 days between June 20 and July 10, 1780, took 28 prizes, some very valuable.
In truth England brought itself madly into the greatest distress, and did not have a friend in the world. No other nation wished it success in its present war, but rather desired to see it effectually humbled. No one, even their old friends the Dutch, afforded them any assistance. Such was the mischievous effect of pride, insolence and injustice, on the affairs of nations, as well as on those of private persons! The English Party in Holland was daily diminishing, and the states were arming vigorously to maintain the freedom of their navigation.
LETTERS FROM HOME
I received several pleasing letters from my daughter Sally and her husband Mr. Bache, and was glad to hear that William, Betsy and Louis, tho’ the two latter were yet strangers to me, were all well and lively. I was informed that Sally did a great deal of good by promoting a subscription among the American women to send good things to the army for the comfort and encouragement of the soldiers. There was a great sum
collected.
I told Sally that her son Ben wrote me often and recently obtained the prize of his school in Geneva for a best translation from the Latin into French, which was presented to him in the Cathedral Church by the first magistrate of the city. If I had more leisure, I would with pleasure have attended more nearly to his education. But he was in good hands in Geneva.
TWO SORTS OF PEOPLE IN LIFE
I sent the following letter to my grandson, which may have value to other young readers, viz:Passy, Sept. 25, 1780
My dear boy,
It always gives me pleasure to hear from you, to be inform’d of your welfare, and that you mind your learning. It is now the season for you to acquire, at the expense of your friends, that which may be of use to you when they are dead and gone, and will qualify you to fill some station in life, that will afford you a decent subsistence.
You see everywhere two sorts of people. One sort are those who are well dress’d and live comfortably in good houses, whose conversation is sensible and instructive, and who are respected for their virtue. The other sort are poor, and dirty, and ragged and ignorant, and vicious, and live in miserable cabins or garrets on coarse provisions, which they must work hard to obtain, or which, if they are idle, they must go without or starve. The first had a good education given them by their friends, and they took pains when at school to improve their time and increase their knowledge. The others either had no friend to pay for their schooling, and so never were taught; or else when they were at school, they neglected their studies, were idle, and wicked, and disobedient to their masters, and would not be instructed; and now they suffer.
Take care therefore, my dear child, to make a good use of every moment of the present opportunity that is afforded you, and bring away with you from Geneva such a stock of good learning and good morals as may recommend you to your friends and country when you return home, make glad the hearts of your father and mother, and be a credit to the place where you receiv’d your education, and to the masters who have been so good to take the pains of instructing you.
I am ever, my dear child, your affectionate grandfather,
B FRANKLIN
MY DIALOGUE WITH THE GOUT
Soon after October, I was laid up with a long and severe fit of the gout, which confined me for nearly 8 weeks. My feet were still tender and my knees feeble, so that going up and down stairs was exceedingly difficult and inconvenient to me. This prevented my going out much, and put my writing business a good deal behind.
Madame Brillon sent me a pretty fable, Le Sage et la Goutte, in which one of the characters, Madame la Goutte, supposes that mistresses have a share in producing this painful malady. I replied that I, for one, believed the exact opposite. When I was a young man and enjoyed more of the favors of the sex than I do at present, I had no gout. Hence, if the ladies of Paris had shown more of that Christian charity that I have so often recommended to Madame Brillon in vain, I should not have suffered from the gout.
Nevertheless, Madame Brillon differed on this subject. “Pain sometimes becomes reason’s mistress,” said she, “and only patience can put an end to this quibbling. When wintry weather has saddened the earth, beautiful sunshine makes us forget it.” I replied that human reason must be an uncertain thing, since two sensible persons, like Madame Brillon and me, can draw diametrically opposed conclusions from the same premises. I think reason is a blind guide; true and sure instinct would be worth much more. All inferior animals, put together, do not commit as many mistakes in the course of a year as a single man within a month, even though this man claims to be guided by reason. This is why, as long as I was fortunate enough to have a wife, I had adopted the habit of letting myself be guided by her opinion on difficult matters, for women, I believe, have a certain feel, which is more reliable than our reasonings.
“WRAPPED IN THIS WRETCHED GAME OF CHESS, YOU DESTROY YOUR CONSTITUTION”
Madame Brillon encouraged me to write my Dialogue entre la Goutte et M. Franklin, in the hopes that it could bring her a few moments of pleasure. Herein is a translation of a part in English:
Franklin: Eh! oh! eh! What have I done to merit these cruel sufferings?
Gout: Many things; you have ate and drank too freely, and too much indulged those legs of yours in their indolence.
Franklin: Who is it that accuses me?
Gout: It is I, even I, the Gout.
Franklin: I take—eh! oh!—as much exercise—eh!—as I can, Madame Gout. You know my sedentary state, and on that account, it would seem, Madame Gout, as if you might spare me a little, seeing it is not altogether my fault.
Gout: Not a jot; your rhetoric and your politeness are thrown away; your apology avails nothing. If your situation in life is a sedentary one, your amusements, your recreation, at least, should be active. You ought to walk or ride; or, if the weather prevents that, play at billiards. But let us examine your course of life. While the mornings are long, and you have leisure to go abroad, what do you do? Why, instead of gaining an appetite for breakfast by salutary exercise, you amuse yourself with books, pamphlets, or newspapers, which commonly are not worth the reading. Yet you eat an inordinate breakfast, four dishes of tea with cream, and one or two buttered toasts, with slices of hung beef, which I fancy are not things the most easily digested. Immediately afterwards you sit down to write at your desk, or converse with persons who apply to you on business. Thus the time passes till one, without any kind of bodily exercise. But all this I could pardon, in regard, as you say, to your sedentary condition. But what is your practice after dinner? Walking in the beautiful gardens of those friends with whom you have dined would be the choice of men of sense; yours is to be fixed down to chess, where you are found engaged for two or three hours! This is your perpetual recreation, which is the least eligible of any for a sedentary man, because, instead of accelerating the motion of the fluids, the rigid attention it requires helps to retard the circulation and obstruct internal secretions. Wrapt in the speculations of this wretched game, you destroy your constitution. What can be expected from such a course of living but a body replete with stagnant humours, ready to fall prey to all kinds of dangerous maladies, if I, the Gout, did not occasionally bring your relief by agitating those humours, and so purifying or dissipating them? If it was in some nook or alley in Paris, deprived of walks, that you played a while at chess after dinner, this might be excusable; but the same taste prevails with you in Passy, Auteuil, Montmartre, or Sanoy, places where there are the finest gardens and walks, a pure air, beautiful women, and most agreeable and instructive conversation, all which you might enjoy by frequenting the walks. But these are rejected for this abominable game of chess. Fie, then, Mr. Franklin! But amidst my instructions, I had almost forgot to administer my wholesome corrections; so take that twinge—and that.
Franklin: Oh! oh!—for heaven’s sake leave me! And I promise faithfully never more to play at chess, but to take exercise daily, and live temperately.
Gout: I know you too well. You promise fair; but, after a few months of good health, you will return to your old habits; your fine promises will be forgotten like the forms of last year’s clouds. Let us then finish the account, and I will go. But I leave you with an assurance of visiting you again at a proper time and place; for my object is your good, and you are sensible now that I am your real friend.
BENEDICT ARNOLD’S TREASON
In news from America, I received a large and particular account of Gen. Benedict Arnold’s plot. We discover’d his motive by intercepted letters from London. One was sent from the army agent there to the traitor Arnold, by which it appeared that his bribe was £5,000 sterling. He tried to draw others after him, but in vain; not a man followed him. Judas sold only one man, Arnold three millions; Judas got for his one man 30 pieces of silver, Arnold not a halfpenny a head. A miserable bargainer, especially when one considers the quantity of infamy he acquir’d to himself and entail’d on his family. I found his baseness and treachery astonishing! He was despised even
by those who expected to be serv’d by his treachery. His character was, in the sight of all Europe, already on the gibbet, and will hang there in chains for ages.
LONG DELAYS WITH SPAIN
Mr. Henry Laurens,100 voted envoy extraordinaire to the Court of Versailles, was taken and confin’d in the Tower. Certain papers were found on him, relating to the drafts of a treaty propos’d in Holland, so the English declared war on Holland. Surely there never was a more unjust war. The British qualified poor Capt. Jones with the title of pirate, who was only at war with England: but if it be a good definition of a pirate, that he is hostis humani generis; they were much more pirates than he, having already made great progress towards being at war with all the world. If God governs, as I firmly believe, it was impossible such wickedness should prosper.
Regarding Spain, their long delay in entering into a treaty with us, in pursuance of the secret article, was to me a mark of their not being very fond of a connection with us, in which I thought they much mistake their interest, and neglect securing great and permanent advantages to their country. This was precisely their time to obtain and secure a firm and lasting friendship with a near neighbor, and not a time to obtain little advantages with a risk of laying foundations for future quarrels.
The Compleated Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1757-1790) Page 22
