The Works of Benjamin Franklin: Volume 8, Letters & Writings 1779 – 1781

The Works of Benjamin Franklin: Volume 8, Letters & Writings 1779 – 1781 – Benjamin Franklin, John Bigelow

It is easy to be persuaded that Mr. John Bigelow’s edition of ‘The Works of Benjamin Franklin’ is likely to be the most complete, the most scholarly and acccurate, the ‘Federal’ edition. Mr. Bigelow was confessedly the foremost authority on Franklin. Beside the material now in print, carefully collated for the present purpose, so far as possible, with the original manuscripts, he has had free use of the supplementary Franklin MSS. purchased by the State Department in 1881, and not published before his work, and the autobiography has been printed for the first time in any collected edition of Franklin’s Works, from the original manuscript, which was in Mr. BigeIow’s possession. Mr. Bigelow promises upwards of 350 letters and documents which have never appeared in any previous collection, beside a thorough revision of the text throughout, and a new, chronological, arrangement of matter. The notes and other editorial additions are limited strictly to the illustration of the text. This is volume eight out of twelve, covering letters and writings from the years 1779 through 1781.

The Works of Benjamin Franklin: Volume 8, Letters & Writings 1779 - 1781

The Works of Benjamin Franklin: Volume 8, Letters & Writings 1779 – 1781.

Format: eBook.

The Works of Benjamin Franklin: Volume 8, Letters & Writings 1779 – 1781.

ISBN: 9783849654054.

 

Excerpt from the text:

 

DCCLXXXIX. MEMORIAL OF ARTHUR LEE Ref. 007

 

Paris, 1 May, 1779.

The demand that Dr. Franklin has thought proper to make from me of some public papers requires some observations, that Congress may judge of the real motive of demanding them.

So little was Dr. Franklin’s care about these papers till since Mr. Deane’s accusations, that he would not give himself the trouble of assisting Mr. Adams and myself in examining and taking a list of them, which last I took with my own hands and left at Passy. About the time that Mr. Deane’s letter was made public here, Dr. Franklin, wrote Mr. Adams, desiring he would put the papers which the latter had kept till then into his hands. This was complied with, and he then probably discovered that there were some of Mr. Williams’ letters to the Commissioners and one of the accounts with M. Monthieu in my hands which might prove disagreeable truths.

I was confined to my bed when Mr. Deane’s letter was announced for the next week in the Courier de l’Europe, a paper printed in France, and read through Europe, because it is in the French language. I sent my secretary to Dr. Franklin to desire his concurrence in writing to M. de Vergennes,  to request him to forbid the publication of that letter, as it was likely to injure and disgrace the cause of our country. Dr. Franklin not only did not concur, but by not making me an answer he kept me in suspense till my application was too late. Thus this libel upon Congress and their servants was permitted to be circulated through all Europe. Dr. Franklin, like Mr. Deane, appeared totally regardless of the mischief it might do to the public, provided it would defame me. This conduct announced such a determined enmity, that I was not a little surprised at receiving from the same person on the 18th of February a letter, enclosing among others a copy of the resolve of Congress recommending harmony and confidence between us, with a declaration that it was agreeable to his inclinations.

I was willing to flatter myself, however, that the profession had some sincerity in it, and was determined to cultivate it by my answer, which I returned that day. But the next day undeceived me, when Dr. Franklin’s grandson called upon me with a letter of the same date, requiring all the papers in my hands to be delivered, and not one word in reply to mine whether Mr. Deane had used his name against me by his authority. It appeared therefore that the sole purpose of this first letter was to announce his authority and induce me to give up the papers, or furnish him with a pretence for saying that I interrupted the harmony he so cordially offered. This harmony I know from long experience there is but one way of preserving,—namely, to have no opinion of one’s own, but in all things submit to his absolute  dictation, and coincide with views however mean and selfish one may think them. Every one here must move as his satellite and shine only as he is pleased to illuminate him. To appear to have any influence here or in America, to do or propose any thing for the public good, and not to lend one’s self as the instrument of his aggrandizement,—these are criminal things in his eyes. Jealous and irritable he easily takes offence, and pursues with secret but implacable vengeance the destruction of those who have so offended him.

These sentiments of him are not set down in passion or in malice, but in sober conviction, and such as I should be obliged to give in at the bar of heaven.

It was in this temper that he conceived an enmity against Mr. Izard, my brother, and myself, and has sought our disgrace and ruin both here and in America, not openly and in person, but by various agents tutored and interested for the purpose. Grown bolder at length, he has endeavored to starve the two former and their families here, or compel them to resign and return to America. The man who saw with perfect indifference 40,000 livres of the public money applied by Mr. Deane, while a Commissioner, to private purposes; who never expressed one word of disapprobation when the same gentleman, not being in Commission, and being in no apparent want of it, made free with 38,715 livres of the public money, and who paid his nephew, Mr. Williams, 50,000 livres of the same money, pretendedly remitted from Nantes in a bill on Mr. Chaumont, which never appeared to your Commissioners, and to pay  an account with the Commissioners which they did not know ever existed, and which has never yet been produced, has become all at once, and in the case of those he hates, most vigilant in the expenditure of the public money; and equivocating upon the words of the resolution, though in direct violation of its manifest meaning, says: Gentlemen, you are not at your courts, and therefore it is not necessary you should eat. But we are awaiting under the orders of Congress to embrace the first opportunity of going thither. No matter, I shall give you no money. Ref. 008

Need Congress have any more proofs of the temper and conduct of this gentleman, and how impossible it is for harmony to subsist where such principles and practices prevail, unless all their Commissioners were equally corrupt, and would harmonize in sacrificing the public to private views of mutual vanity, avarice, and ambition.

I have entered into this detail to show that reconcilement  and harmony in conducting the public business neither was nor is Dr. Franklin’s intention, and that as nothing interrupted that harmony so much as a persuasion in him that we should never lend ourselves to his private views, as Mr. Deane did, so the same principle will forever prevent him from acting in conformity with the wishes of Congress, expressed in that wise resolve. I will give another instance, which is conclusive in showing this to be his unalterable disposition. Upon the death of Mr. Morris, my brother, having observed that Dr. Franklin’s determination to provide for his nephew, Mr. Williams, and his suspicions that we were resolved to oppose him, prevented all harmony, and was greatly injurious to the public business, was in hopes of removing all cause of disagreement and contest by appointing Mr. Williams joint deputy commercial agent with Mr. John Lloyd, of South Carolina, till the pleasure of Congress should be known. From the same views, Mr. Izard and myself approved of the plan, and to strengthen the bands of union it was proposed to do it with the approbation of the Commissioners. My brother, therefore, wrote to us for our concurrence. Dr. Franklin and Mr. Deane refused it, and the former in the most explicit terms under his hand. Mr. Lloyd declined acting without the concurrence of the Commissioners, because he had seen the impossibility of executing the office while they authorized an opposition to it; and Mr. Williams refusing to accept the deputation without Dr. Franklin’s approbation, the plan was frustrated, and my brother  appointed Mr. Schweighauser, whom Mr. Williams immediately opposed.

The fairest opportunity of conciliation and harmony was thus offered to Dr. Franklin; and Mr. Deane, who knew all this, had the unexampled wickedness to accuse my brother to the people of having dismissed Mr. Williams in favor of another.

Dr. Franklin has in his possession the list of all the papers that were left by Mr. Deane, made by me. By that he might have seen whether there were any wanting that related to accounts he had yet to settle, and asked me for them, if this, as he says, had been the real object of his demand, and not that of getting from me such as might be evidence of the very undue transactions of Mr. Deane and his nephew. I have examined, as I promised, all the papers, and found but one relating to unsettled accounts, which I sent to him. Ref. 009

Dr. Franklin says in his last letter, that he has no concern or interest in Mr. Deane’s accusations. Does he think men so easily imposed upon as to be persuaded that he has no interest in the event of a measure which cannot disgrace Mr. Deane without dishonoring him, as having always concurred with and vouched for his good conduct? Has he no interest in my ruin when I have incurred his utmost malevolence by constantly opposing his schemes of private interest? Is his hatred of me any secret; and is he known to be of so mild a character as to  have no concern or interest in an accusation of him he hates? To show, too, how little he takes a part with Mr. Deane, upon his being appointed minister, he put up Mr. Deane’s bust in his drawing-room, as if Mr. Deane was the most meritorious man of the present age. The man who he knows has libelled Congress, traduced their servants, and endeavored to excite popular commotions by what Dr. Franklin knew to be most false and wicked accusations; the man who had acted the impostor here by pretending to be a Commissioner after his recall, and has, as much as an individual can do, disgraced the cause and character of America in the estimation of Europe, is the person whom Dr. Franklin, the servant of that Congress whom Mr. Deane has insulted, the representative of those States he has endeavored to deceive and disturb, has thought proper to select and exhibit to the public as his hero and his tutelary deity. I do not ask whether this is improper. Could any thing be devised more indecent and more culpable? If Mr. Deane’s pride and vanity were censurable for having busts made of himself, as if he were an emperor, or the favorite of an emperor, what does Dr. Franklin’s conduct deserve, who, after what had passed, and in his situation, should choose to set up this man for the public admiration? Ref. 010 From the sovereign idea he entertains of his own influence, he no doubt expected by this single act to turn the opinion here in favor of an impostor, and give credit  to accusations which he knew to be malicious, by showing that Dr. Franklin was his friend, and still highly approved of him.

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