USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. II > Part 40
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2 [Parton, Life and Times of Franklin, i. 60, has a chapter on Benjamin's reading of Shafts- bury, Collins, and other writers, calculated to unsettle his inherited religious views, which is not unsuggestive of the too free-thinking which very much disturbed Increase Mather at this time .- ED.]
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FRANKLIN, THE BOSTON BOY.
America.1 In this project the youthful ballad-writer and philosopher became at once deeply interested. His own task was to carry the paper through the . Boston streets and to distribute it to the subscribers. But his literary inspirations did not permit him to be content with this; and we soon find him slipping anonymous articles under the door of his brother's shop, and awaiting with breathless anxiety to see if they would be inserted in the Courant. A thrilling sense of triumph filled his heart when he saw them actually in print, which was heightened when he heard his effusions lavishly praised by his brother's "writing friends." At last he divulged the secret of their authorship, and soon found that he was " a little more considered." But James Franklin, a man of jealous and tyrannical disposition, took Benjamin's proceeding in high dudgeon. He had never treated him well, and he now lorded it over him more than ever, and vented his anger by frequent beatings. The high-spirited boy refused to be broken in by his brother's cruelty, and was meditating an escape
1 [See Mr. D. A. Goddard's chapter on " The Press and Literature," and a full account of it in Parton's Life and Times of Franklin, p. 72, as the "first sensation newspaper." The print- ing office was on Court Street, corner of Franklin Avenue, where at present is the building of the Boston Daily.Adver- tiser. The press at which Franklin worked in this office was taken to Newport when James Franklin moved to that town and establish- ed, first, the Rhode Island Gazette, and, twenty years later, the New- tort Mercury. This press is said to have been built in London about 1650, and was known as a " Ram- age Press." It was brought to Boston in 1717, as Benjamin relates in his Autobiography. Previous to the British occupation of Newport in the Revolution, the press was buried in a garden ; but it did not escape their search, and the royal- ists printed a paper upon it during their stay. In 1859 the propriet ors of the Mercury (which was revived in 1780 after the British had evac- uated the town) sold it to John B. Murray, Esq., of New York, who had already, in 1841, secured in London the press which Franklin worked at in that city in 1725, and which is now in the Patent Office in Washington. Lossing, Field- book of the Revolution, ii. 409. Murray presented the Boston press, through the Hon. R. C. Winthrop, to the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics Association of this city. Mention is made of another press, at which Franklin is said to have worked, in the Franklin Statue Memorial, p. 170; and in the procession
In 1864 Mr.
on the inauguration of that statue, Sept. 17, 1856, this press struck off facsimiles of the Courant, Feb. 4, - Feb. 11, 1723, - its eightieth number, but the first in which Benjamin Franklin is given as printer and publisher. On the car
-
THE RAMAGE PRESS.
carrying the press were the following lines, said to have been written by Franklin and suspended in his printing-office in Philadelphia : -
" All ye who come this curious art to see, To handle anything must careful be ; Lest by a slight touch, ere you are aware, You may do mischief which you can't repair.
Lo! this advice we give to every stranger : Look on, and welcome, but to touch there 's danger."
ED.]
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
when James Franklin was arrested and imprisoned for offending the Massa- chusetts Assembly in the columns of his Courant. At the same time he was prohibited from any longer publishing the paper. Benjamin now undertook its management. His indenture of apprenticeship was grudg- ingly returned to him by his brother, and for a short time he revelled proudly in the luxury of full editorship.1 On James's release the old quarrels between the brothers were renewed; and now Benjamin resolved that he would at all hazards free himself from so arbitrary a master. But his brother's enmity prevented him from getting work in the other printing houses in Boston, for James did not scruple to go from one to the other and give the boy a character so bad that no one would take him. Unfortunately, too, their father took sides with James; and Benjamin found himself alone, and, as it seemed, with all the world against him.
Benjamin Franklin was now seventeen years old. But in experience of the world's rough ways, and in the maturity of character which such ex- perience hastens, he was much older than most lads of that age. His character, indeed, was formed; he was a man alike in stature, in thought and feeling, in resolute self-dependence, and in the philosophical courage to face events with a bold and calm front. Although his schooling had been of the scantiest, his head was well stored with facts and fancies, and his reasoning powers were already strong and ripe. The germs of the qualities which afterward enabled him to play so great a part in events had already appeared, and were in a state of rapid development. The first seventeen years of his life, spent in Boston, were those which made the man Franklin. It was there that he imbibed the spirit of Yankee thrift and shrewdness, the stern Puritanic sense of duty, the physical and intellectual activity and vigor, which served himself and his country so well in after life. He carried with him to other and wider fields of action those elements of Yankee character which through all American history have been displayed with such con- spicuous intellectual and moral effect. In no part of Franklin's career did he fail to display the results of the early influences which surrounded and moulded him in Boston.
Oppressed by his brother's tyranny and enmity, and by his father's disapproval, Franklin made up his mind to leave home and seek his fortune on another stage. Happily, he was master of the printer's trade; and with this as his capital, added to stout courage and an indomitable spirit of per- severance, and with a small sum raised by the sale of his beloved books, he deserted his home, embarked in a sloop for New York, and made his way with some difficulty to Philadelphia. His first act on reaching the city of Quakers was an act of charity ; just as the last act of his long life -the pro- test against African slavery - was one of the largest benevolence. Almost
1 [Benjamin's name seems to have remained on the imprint for three years at least after he left Boston, as the last number in the Historical Society's set, June 4, 1726, bears it. Everett, Speeches, ii. 30, where, p. 43, will be found an
account of the proceedings which led to the im- prisonment of James Franklin. Sparks thinks the paper bore Benjamin's name till it ceased, in 1727. See Mr. Goddard's chapter in this volume. - ED.]
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FRANKLIN, THE BOSTON BOY.
penniless, hungry, shabby, and weary, he bought three penny rolls as he walked along the streets of Philadelphia, where, meeting a poor famished woman and her child, he forthwith gave them two of the rolls, contenting himself with the third. As he wandered through the strange city he saw
FRANKLIN AT TWENTY.1
a young lady standing in a doorway, who observed him with a con- temptuous face. It was Miss Read, who was destined, years after, to become his wife.
Franklin soon obtained employment in one of the few printing houses
1 [The history of this picture is given in a later note. - ED.]
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
then established in Philadelphia, and made rapid progress both in his trade and in forming a wide acquaintance in his new home. He made Miss Read's acquaintance, and began a courtship which was afterwards inter- rupted, to be renewed in process of time and brought to a happy conclu- sion. He found some congenial companions, who, like himself, were fond of discussing grave subjects; and soon had formed a little literary club, to whose entertainment the members contributed poems, essays, and lively debates. Franklin had not been long in Philadelphia when he attracted the attention of Sir William Keith, the governor of the province, who pro- fessed to take a great liking to him. This event was destined to have an important influence on Franklin's life. Keith pretended to be anxious to lend the young printer his influence and aid in establishing him in his trade on his own account, and persuaded him to return to Boston and seek his father's assistance with this view. Franklin's visit to his native town, for the first time since his abrupt departure thence, did not result as he had hoped. He was welcomed by all his family except his brother James, who still bore a grudge against him; but his father declared that he was too young to engage in business for himself, and refused to lend him any funds for that purpose.
On Franklin's return to Philadelphia Sir William Keith persuaded him to undertake a voyage to England, to purchase type and other appurte- nances of his trade ; at the same time offering him letters of introduction and of credit. Franklin eagerly accepted this seemingly generous proposition, and set sail for the old country in the late summer of 1724. Arriving in England, he found to his dismay that Keith had failed to confide any such letters as he had promised to the captain of the ship. Franklin, not yet nineteen, was thus thrown entirely upon his own resources in a strange land. Happily, he had his trade; and it was not long before he found employ- ment in Palmer's printing house in London. It may well be believed that so inquisitive and observant a mind found much in the British capital to interest and amuse. He read everything that came in his way, wrote pamphlets about " Liberty and Necessity," became acquainted with many notable men (among others, Drs. Pemberton and Mandeville, and Sir Hans Sloane), attended the theatre, frequently visited modest literary clubs in the back-parlors of inns, performed swimming feats in the Thames, and made rapid progress in study of books and experience of the world. It was not until he had been eighteen months in London that an opportunity occurred for him to return home. He reached Philadelphia in October, 1726, and after a short career in mercantile business returned to his trade as a printer. The next year he entered into partnership with a fellow apprentice, named Meredith, procured new type from London, hired a shop on Market Street, and set up the memorable sign above the door, "Benjamin Franklin, Printer." About the same time he founded the " Junto," perhaps the first literary club ever established in this country, which broadened by degrees into the American Philosophical Society.
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FRANKLIN, THE BOSTON BOY.
From the time when Franklin thus became the independent head of his own business, his progress towards wealth, influence, and eminence became steady and almost uniform. He bought The Universal Instructor from Keimer, his old employer, for a song, and forthwith made it a profitable journal, mainly by his own wise and pithy contributions to it. He began to discuss political matters, and to exercise an influence over the proceedings of the Assembly, and received, on occasion, its patronage. He added a stationery shop to his printing establishment, and devoted himself with rare zeal and zest to his occupations.1 In 1730, after having courted and deserted another young lady, he returned to his first love, Miss Read (who had mean- time been married and had become a widow), and married her. This union lasted forty-four years. Shortly after, Franklin planned and established in Philadelphia a " subscription library," which was the germ of the beneficent system of public libraries in the United States. "Reading," he says, " became fashionable; our people became better acquainted with books, and in a few years were better instructed and more intelligent than people of the same rank generally are in other countries."
It was in 1732, when Franklin was twenty-six years old, that he conceived the happy idea of publishing that Poor Richard's Almanac, which not only brought him a large income for many years, and made his name and say- ings familiar far and wide through the colonies, but procured him a lasting fame as a philosopher of worldly and thrifty wisdom. Of these he sold nearly ten thousand copies each year, and in due time had the proud satis- faction of seeing "Poor Richard's " shrewd maxims copied into European papers, republished in England, and translated into French. How busy he was in these early years of manhood may be seen from the fact that, be- sides personally conducting his newspaper and the almanac, managing the library, writing for the Junto, and actively interesting himself in public affairs, he studied and mastered French, Spanish, and Italian, and perfected himself in Latin.
His first long visit to Boston,2 after his summary departure thence at the age of seventeen, was just ten years after that event; and it may be said
1 [One of the best collections of books printed at Franklin's press is that shown in the Brinley Catalogue, No. 3271, et seq. See also Sabin's Dictionary of Books Relating to America. - ED.] 2 [It happened that in the year of this visit, 1733, the first provincial Grand Lodge of Free- masons in America was established in Boston, July 30; and it was perhaps on this visit that Franklin applied to this lodge for a charter for a lodge in Philadelphia, of which he became the first Master. The next year, 1734, he printed in Philadelphia what is one of the rarest of his im- prints, The Constitution of the Free Masons ; and the Brinley Catalogue, No. 3292, records a copy which has bound with it twenty-five pages of manuscript in Franklin's hand, detailing the history of the founding of this first Boston
Lodge. Henry Price was the first "Provincial Grand Master of New England," Andrew Belcher being the deputy. Price was succeeded in 1736 by Robert Tomlinson, and March 6, 1744, Thomas Oxnard was installed as his successor. Goelet records his visiting the lodge in 1750, when Oxnard presided, and he speaks of its "being kept at Stone's in a very grand manner." N. E. Hist. and Geueal. Reg., 1870, p. 54; 1872, p. 4. In 1749, Dec. 27, on the Feast of St. John, occurred what was perhaps the first Masonic procession in Boston streets. It occasioned a satire in verse, "Entertainment for a Winter's Evening," which draws the pictures of the prom- inent Masons of the day. It was ascribed to the chief Boston wit at that time, Joseph Green. -ED.]
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
that he continued to visit his old home every decade thereafter for many years. On this first occasion he could return as a successful man of busi- ness, with no mean reputation, and with competence assured; and he was received at home with a degree of respect to which he had not before been considered entitled. He became reconciled to his brother James, and revisited the scenes of his early escapades and privations with rare zest. He observed that Boston had grown, and that gradually it was becoming a town of the first commercial importance.1
1 [At a later day (1754) Franklin caused a inscription : "Josiah Franklin and Abiah his stone to be placed over the grave of his parents wife lie here interred. They lived lovingly to- gether in wedlock fifty-five years; and without in the Granary Burial Ground, with the following
FRANKLIN
EMRICK
KILBURN
THE FRANKLIN MONUMENT.
an estate or any gainful employment, by constant labor and honest industry, maintained a large family comfortably, and brought up thirteen children and seven grandchildren respectably. From this instance, Reader, be encouraged to diligence in thy calling, and distrust not Provi- dence. He was a pious and prudent man; she a discreet and virtuous woman. Their youngest
son, in filial regard to their memory, places this stone. J. F., born 1655; died 1744, Æ. 89. A. F., born 1667; died 1752, Æ. 85."
This inscription had become nearly obliter- ated when, in 1827, a number of gentlemen caused the erection of the granite obelisk which now marks the spot, upon which the inscription is preserved, and beneath which the fragments
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FRANKLIN, THE BOSTON BOY.
Franklin's official career, which was destined to continue almost without interruption to the end of his long life, began in 1736, when he was chosen clerk of the provincial assembly of Pennsylvania. In the following year he was appointed deputy postmaster of Philadelphia. His early experience of official life was not without its troubles; but by that rare tact and moderation of conduct which afterwards told so effectively in his diplo- matic labors, he was able to maintain himself successfully against the opposition which he now and then encountered. Ever on the alert to bring about material improvements, and with inventive faculties constantly alive to devise such improvements, Franklin now conceived the idea of " forming a company for the extinguishing of fires;" and it was his initiative that established the first fire association in America. This was called the "Union Fire Company." Not long after this benevolent action, Whitefield, the great English preacher, arrived in Philadelphia; and Frank- lin, though he did not subscribe to Whitefield's creed, was very much attracted to him, and in many substantial ways rendered him great service.
Encouraged by the success of his efforts in other directions, Franklin in 1743 broached the subject of forming an academy, - a scheme which, a little later, was carried out. At the same time his thoughts, which seem to have embraced the widest range of practical subjects, was directed to the sore need of the colonies for adequate military defence. No sooner had he perceived this need than he set his wits to work to fulfil it, and the result was the formation of a volunteer militia regiment in Philadelphia, of which Franklin himself was offered, but modestly declined, the command. He organized a lottery for the purchase of a battery, and procured from the reluctant governor of New York eighteen " fine cannon," with their car- riages. The next in the long list of benefits which his inventive genius bestowed upon the public was the famous "open stove, for the better warming of rooms," known to this day as the " Franklin stove," which, it is worth remarking, he gave to the world without exacting any royalty or other emolument. The academy which he had projected in 1743 became a realized fact in 1749, as the result of a voluntary subscription started by Franklin among the citizens ; and in process of time this academy developed into the present University of Pennsylvania. A charter was obtained from the governor, and Franklin was one of its trustees from the beginning until his death.
In the same year, 1749, he received David Hall as a partner in his printing business; and being thereby enabled to relieve himself of its
of the original slab are buried. Franklin seems to have made a mistake in the record of his father's birth. Josiah Franklin was born at Ecton, Northamptonshire, Dec. 23, 1657, and died in Boston, Jan. 16, 1744-45. The Boston News-Letter thus records his death : "Boston, Jan'y 17, 1744-45. Last night died Mr. Josiah Franklin, tallow chandler and soap maker. By the force of a steady temperance he had inade a
constitution, none of the strongest, last with comfort to the age of eighty-seven years; and by an entire dependence on his Redeemer, and a constant course of the strictest piety and virtue, he was enabled to die, as he lived, with cheer- fulness, leaving a numerous posterity the honor of being descended from a person who, thro' a long life, supported the character of an honest man." Shurtleff, Desc. of Boston, p. 217 .- ED.]
VOL. II. - 36.
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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.
details, he became more than ever immersed in public affairs, and in the general interests of the community of which he was now an eminent citizen. He was appointed a justice of the peace, then an office of more considera- tion than it now is, and about the same time was chosen to represent Philadelphia in the Assembly of the province, in which he had before sat as its clerk. Aside from these political occupations, he turned his insatiably ' active mind to "philosophical studies and amusements." Appointed on the commission to make a treaty with the Indians in the interior, he promptly and successfully executed it. Nor was he even now too busy to lend a hand in any charitable scheme which promised to benefit the people. He took up with ardor a project to establish a hospital, and used his influ- ence in the Assembly to procure pecuniary aid for it. The hospital was soon built, and in effective operation. Then Franklin started a subscription to build "a new meeting-house;" and as everything he touched with his hand seemed destined to succeed, the meeting-house was soon completed and occupied. Observing that the unpaved streets were offensively muddy in wet weather and dusty in dry, he began "to write and talk about the subject;" and before long several of the Philadelphia streets were neatly paved. His attention was then called to the lighting of the thoroughfares of the town; and he not only procured the putting up of a larger num- ber of lamps, but himself invented a form of lamp, with four flat planes instead of globes, long funnels to draw off the smoke, and crevices below to admit the air, - which turned out to be a useful improvement.
All this time Franklin had been actively engaged in managing the Philadelphia post-office, which, for the first time, he had made profitable to the home government. The death of the postmaster-general of the colonies, in 1753, left the way of promotion open, and Franklin was promptly com- missioned as his successor. The new burden was acceptable to him, for he seems never to have had any fear of taking too much upon his broad shoulders. He at once started on a tour of inspection of the colonial post- offices, and for the third time made his appearance in Boston. He was now a celebrated personage, and was received by the most distinguished men of his native town with marked honor and respect. Harvard College hastened to confer upon the tallow chandler's son the then coveted distinction of Master of Arts, - a distinction already awarded to him by Yale. These academic honors had been thoroughly earned by Franklin's achievements in science. He had found time, amid all his public and charitable occupa- tions, to pursue those investigations which had so great a charm for him, and had made discoveries which had arrested the attention of the scientific coteries of the Old World as well as of the New.
Already had he demonstrated the identity of lightning with electricity by his famous experiment with the kite in 1752, by which the greatest scientific discovery of the century was made.1 He had effected improve-
1 [The result of Franklin's experiments seem 1755. Mr. Prince delivered a sermon on the not to have become known in Boston till late in earthquake of Nov. 18 in that year, and he says :
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FRANKLIN, THE BOSTON BOY.
ments in printing; had invented the cognate art of stereotyping; had suggested valuable alterations in the structure of ships, in water troughs, in smoky chimneys, and in electrical machines; and had devised a musical instrument. The honors already conferred upon him by Yale and Harvard were soon supplemented by the diplomas of European universities; and he thus obtained the title of "Doctor," which he retained to the end of his life.
He was interrupted in his scientific researches to take part in one of the most important assemblages which had ever met on this continent, - an assemblage which was really the germ of the Continental Congress which declared our Independence. This was the Colonial Congress. It gathered at Albany in 1754, to provide a better defence against the French and Indians. Franklin was sent thither as a delegate from Pennsylvania. His mind was already alive to the selfish and despotic rule of the Pennsyl- vania proprietaries, and to the growing pretensions of the British Parliament. An ardent patriot, he was as yet zealously loyal to the crown; but from the first he resisted the claim of Parliament to tax the colonies. He therefore seized the opportunity afforded by the Albany Congress to propose a plan of union among the colonies, for the general purpose of self-defence. It was the first suggestion looking towards a common bond ; the first real step towards American Independence. The time was not yet ripe, however, for the actual adoption of his scheme.
Franklin's next public appearance was as a military organizer; and in this capacity he displayed the same wonderful practical resources, the same fertility in expedients, which characterized him in all his acts, public and private. He organized supplies of wagons and provisions for Braddock's army; advised Braddock himself as to his expedition; and warned him against the very fate which he soon after encountered. He drew up and carried through the Assembly a measure for establishing a volunteer militia, and soon after raised a body of five hundred and sixty men, took command of them himself, and marched off to the defence of the north-western frontier of the colony. There he built forts, and was proceeding to deal vigorously with the Indians, when a letter from the Governor recalled him to Phila- delphia. On returning thither, he found that his militia scheme had been put into prompt and successful operation. He was at once chosen colonel of the first regiment. But his military career was brief; there was more important work for his ready brain and his ever-present tact than that of fighting savages. How good a soldier was spoiled when Franklin with- drew from the military to enter upon the diplomatic service of his colony we shall never know; it is certain that a great diplomatist would have been lost to us had he not given up his so briefly-worn epaulets.
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