USA > Pennsylvania > Lives of the governors of Pennsylvania : with the incidental history of the state, from 1609 to 1873 > Part 21
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While in England he issued his Canada Pamphlet, calling attention to the importance, to the British Crown, of possess- ing that part of the continent which was then under the do- minion of the French. Stimulated by his views, the Govern- ment planned a vigorous campaign, which resulted in the victory of Wolfe over Montcalm, and the conquest of the entire Province.
He returned to America in 1762. He had been annually elected a member of the Assembly during his absence, and upon his arrival took his seat in that body. For the session of 1764, he was defeated by a small majority after having been elected for fourteen consecutive years. But his friends in the Assembly were still in the ascendant, and he was again chosen to represent the Colony at Court, and to pre- sent a petition asking for a change of Colonial government from Proprietary to regal, the old controversy having been renewed. During his stay in England, and immediately after the dismissal of Grenville from the British Cabinet, the question of the repeal of the odious Stamp Act was under consideration, and as a means of eliciting information, Franklin was examined before the House of Commons.
" What," he was asked, " was the temper of America to- wards Great Britain, before the year 1763 ?"
" The best in the world. They submitted willingly to the government of the Crown, and paid, in all their courts, obedience to the acts of Parliament. Numerous as the people are in the several old Provinces, they cost you nothing in forts, citadels, garrisons, or armies to keep them in subjec- tion. They were governed by this country at the expense only of a little pen, ink, and paper. They were led by a
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thread. They had not only a respect, but an affection for Great Britain, for its laws, its customs, and manners, and even a fondness for its fashions, that greatly increased the commerce. Natives of Great Britain were always treated with particular regard ; to be an Old-England man was, of itself, a character of some respect, and gave a kind of rank among us."
" And what is the temper now ?"
" Oh, very much altered."
" If the Act is not repealed, what do you think will be the consequences ? "
" A total loss of the respect and affection the people of America bear to this country, and of all the commerce that depends on that respect and affection."
"Do you think the people of America would submit to pay the stamp duty if it was moderated ? "
" No, never, unless compelled by force."
Great respect was felt for the views and opinions of Frank- lin. He was looked up to as a sort of oracle in matters of politics, and not long afterward the Act was repealed.
In the year 1766 he travelled in Holland and Germany, where he was received with marks of distinction by the learned. In the following year he visited France, and was presented to King Louis the XV., and leading men of genius in the metropolis. IIe continued to represent the Colony for a period of over ten years, during which time he was most indus- trious in pleading the general interests of all the Colonies, endeavoring by argument and entreaty, by correspondence and personal intercourse, to prevail upon the Ministry to abandon their unjust and oppressive measures.
One of the most noted incidents which occurred during this period was his appearance before a Committee of the Privy Council, in 1774, on the hearing of the petition of the people of Massachusetts for the recall of Governor Hutchin- son and Lieutenant Governor Oliver, who had written letters from that Province to men high in official stations, inveighing against the leading citizens in the most bitter terms, and
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urging the prosecution of vigorous measures to compel obe- dience to British enactments. These letters came to the notice of Franklin, who had them published and sent to America, which gave occasion to the petition for their re- moval. Burke, Priestly, Jeremy Bentham, and men the most eminent in the kingdom, were present as witnesses of the scene. Wedderburn, the Solicitor-General of the Crown, assailed him with bitter terms of reproach and invective, the whole Court, with the exception of Lord North, treating him in the most rude and undignified manner. "Into what com- panies," exclaimed Wedderburn, "will the fabricator of this iniquity hereafter go with an unembarrassed face, or with any semblance of the honest intrepidity of virtue ! Men will watch him with a jealous eye - they will hide their papers from him, and lock up their escritoires." Bentham thus described the venerable demeanor of Franklin in this trying ordeal : " Alone, in the recess, on the left hand of the President, standing, remaining the whole time like a rock in the same posture, his head resting on his left hand, and in that attitude abiding the pelting of the pitiless storm." Franklin re- sponded that the letters were from public men, upon subjects pertaining to the public interests, in which the people whom he represented were deeply involved, and that the transmis- sion of them was a public act. But the prejudices of the Court were all against him, and the petition was declared scandalous and vexatious, and its prayer refused. It was of a piece with the infatuation with which the Government was seized, and in which it persevered until the nation was rent.
Perceiving that little could be effected to stay the hand of power raised against the Colonies, he returned to America in 1775. On the day after his arrival he was elected, by the Assembly of Pennsylvania, a member of the Continental Congress, where he was at once laboriously employed. In the fall of this year he visited Canada for the purpose of in- ducing that province to join the Colonies, and to send delegates to Congress. His failure in this was said to have been due to religious animosities, which subsisted between the Canadians
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and their neighbors, by whom their chapels had at different times been burned. He was a member of the committee which drew the Declaration of Independence, the passage of which he strongly advocated, and which he signed. In the same year he was president of the convention which adopted the new constitution of Pennsylvania, the main features of which were attributed to his mind, the single legislature and plural executive being favorite forms with him. Near the close of the year he was sent by Congress to France, to assist in securing an alliance with that power. This purpose was effected in February, 1778, and France thereby became in- volved in the war against England. By the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, the British Cabinet finally came to see that their attempts to subdue the Colonies were futile, and on the 30th of November, 1782, articles of peace between the United States and Great Britain were concluded at Paris, through the agency of Franklin, Adams, and Jay. Formal treaties were subsequently concluded with Great Britain and other European nations, Franklin acting on the part of the United States in conducting the negotiations.
Feeling the infirmities of age coming upon him, and having now the satisfaction of seeing his country acknowledged as an independent power and taking its place among the nations of the earth, he became desirous of returning to his native land, and, upon his application to Congress, Mr. Jefferson was sent to relieve him. In September, 1785, he arrived in Philadel- phia, and was received with the most flattering marks of re- spect and affection. Multitudes flocked to meet him, and a vast concourse, amid the ringing of bells, and the resound- ing of salvos of artillery, conducted him in triumph to his home. He was visited by the members of Congress and the principal inhabitants of the city; learned societies sent him congratulatory addresses; and on every hand joy for his return and veneration for his exalted character were manifested. HIe himself felt the highest satisfaction in being again settled in his own home. In a letter to a friend he says: "I am now in the bosom of my family, and find four new little prat-
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tlers, who cling about the knees of their grandpapa, and afford me great pleasure. I am surrounded by my friends, and have an affectionate good daughter and son-in-law to take care of me. I have got into my niche, a very good house, which I built twenty-four years ago, and out of which I have been ever since kept by foreign employments."
But this retirement he was not permitted long to enjoy ; for he was almost immediately chosen a member of the Su- preme Executive Council, and not long afterwards, though now upon the verge of eighty, he was elected its President, which office he was chosen to fill annually for the constitutional period of three years. In addition to this, he was, in 1787, made a delegate to the convention which framed the Consti- tution of the United States, where his wisdom and long ex- perience in governmental employments made his opinions regarded with almost the veneration of an oracle. The in- terests in that convention were so conflicting that it came near breaking up without agreeing upon a constitution, a motion for a final adjournment having been proposed before anything had been accomplished. At this critical moment the voice of the aged Franklin was heard advocating humili- ation before God, and a more earnest effort for agreement. " How has it happened, sir," he said, " that while groping so long in the dark, divided in our opinions, and now ready to separate without accomplishing the great object of our meet- ings, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly ap- plying to the Father of Light to illuminate our understand- ings? In the beginning of the contest with Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers in this room for Divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered." He concluded by offering a resolution that, " henceforth, prayers, imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business."
In the same year the corner-stone of a college to be located at Lancaster, was laid, which in honor of the President, and as a grateful recognition of his generous benefactions, was
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named Franklin College. . Hector St. John, a learned Frenchman, was at the time travelling in this country, and in a work which he afterwards published in Paris, entitled, Voyage dans la Haute Pennsylvanie, he says : "In the year 1787, I accompanied the venerable Franklin, at that time Governor of Pennsylvania, on a journey to Lancaster, where he had been invited to lay the corner-stone of a college which he had founded there for the Germans." St. John records a conversation which occurred on the evening of the day of the ceremony, in which Franklin, in answer to a question by one of the citizens, gave an elaborate and critical account of the origin of the aborigines of this country, showing that his intel- lect was preserved, even at this great age, in its original vigor.
In 1788, at the close of his term of office as a councillor, and Governor of the State, he retired altogether from public employments. He had earned a title to leisure; but even now he was only content to enjoy it according to his own definition in his Poor Richard's sayings: Leisure is time for doing something useful. His tongue and his pen were still busy, and to amuse and help him to pass the hours agree- ably, he had a small printing establishment set up in his room, where he busied himself as in his youthful days.
On the 17th of April, 1790, after a long and most eventful life, singularly devoted to the service of his country and the good of mankind, Franklin quietly breathed his last, having attained to the age of nearly eighty-five years. He was not an author by profession, and yet few have been more volu- minous, or have written with as much thoughtful carc. The number of his published works, aside from his vast corre- spondence, as enumerated by Sparks, amounts to three hun- dred and four. "They exhaust," says Duyckinck, " every method of doing good practically, which fell within the range of his powers or experience. They are upon topics of individual and social improvement; of the useful arts, which adorn and ameliorate daily life ; of the science which enlarges the powers of the mind and increases the comfort of the body ; of political wisdom, extending from the direction
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of' a village to the control and prosperity of the state." In all his varied employments and benefactions, he always sought the elevation and permanent improvement of man- kind. The authorities of a town in Massachusetts which had been named after him, sought the gift of a bell for their church. He sent instead a handsome collection of books for a library, expressing in his answer to the application the hope that the good people of Franklin preferred sense to sound.
The intelligence of his death created a profound sensation throughout America, and in Europe, where his name was greatly revered. Madison moved in Congress, that, " being informed of the decease of Benjamin Franklin, a citizen whose native genius was not more an ornament to human nature than his various exertions of it have been precious to science, to freedom, and to his country . as a mark of veneration due to his memory, the members wear the cus- tomary badge of mourning for one month." A like tribute was voted by the Assembly of Pennsylvania. In France, the honors paid to his memory were extraordinary. At Paris, where his person was familiar, and his peculiar talents justly appreciated, he was the subject of sincere mourning and highest eulogy. Mirabeau, the most eloquent of men, as- cended the tribune, and spoke to an audience which hung in breathless silence upon his words, in that never-to-be-forgot- ten strain : "Franklin is dead ! Returned into the bosom of the divinity is that genius which freed America, and rayed forth upon Europe torrents of light. The sage whom the two worlds alike claim - the man for whom the history of science and the history of empires are disputing - held, beyond doubt, an elevated rank in the human species. For long enough have political cabinets noticed the deaths of those who were only great in their funeral orations; for long enough has court-etiquette proclaimed hypocritical mourning. Nations should only wear mourning for their benefactors. The representatives of nations ought only to recommend to their homage the heroes of humanity. The Congress has or-
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dained, in the thirteen States of the Confederation, a mourn- ing of two months for the decease of Franklin; and America is acquitting at this very moment that tribute of veneration for one of the fathers of her Constitution. Would it not be worthy of us, gentlemen, to join in that religious act; to participate in that homage, rendered, before the face of the universe, both to the rights of man, and to the philosopher who has the most contributed to extend their acknowledgment over all the world? Antiquity would have raised altars to that vast and powerful genius, who, for the advantage of mortals, embracing in his aspirations heaven and the earth, knew how to tame tyrants and their thunderbolts. France, enlightened and free, owes at the least an expression of re- membrance and regret for one of the greatest men who have ever aided philosophy and liberty. I propose that it be de- creed that the National Assembly wear mourning during three days for Benjamin Franklin." The motion, which was seconded by Lafayette, was adopted in the Assembly by ac- clamation. The Abbe Fauchet delivered a eulogy upon his life and genius before the Commune of Paris; and Condor- cet, before the Academy of Sciences, portrayed his character in an elaborate oration. Colleges and learned societies throughout the United States vied in paying honors to his name, and in every generation since, the pen of the scientist, the poet, and the historian, has been busy in perfecting his praises. The following fragment of an Horatian ode, ad- dressed to his memory by an obscure poet, John Parker, is a just tribute to his unaffected simplicity, and never varying integrity, which were among the most marked attributes of bis character :
What diff'rence then can virtue claim From vice, if it oblivious lie ? While I can sing your spotless name, Your worthy deeds shall never die.
Nor shall oblivion's livid power Your patriotic toils conceal : Alike in good or adverse hour A patron of the common-weal.
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Forever faithful and sincere, Your hands from gilded baits are free : The public villain stands in fear You should perpetual consul be.
The knave possest of shining pelf, Can never sway your honest choice : For justice, emblem of yourself, Exalts above the rabble's voice.
Nor can we rank him with the blest, To whom large stores of wealth are given ; But him who of enough possest Knows how to enjoy the gifts of Heaven.
Who poverty serenely bears, With all the plagues the gods can send ; Who death to infamy prefers, To save his country or his friend.
PART IV. GOVERNORS UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1790.
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THOMAS MIFFLIN,
PRESIDENT OF THE SUPREME EXECUTIVE COUNCIL, November 5, 1788, to December 20, 1790.
GOVERNOR UNDER THE CONSTITUTION OF 1790, December 21, 1790, to December 17, 1799.
MTHE venerable Franklin, then in his eighty-second year, determined, at the expiration of his term as President of the Council, to withdraw altogether from public employ- ments. In casting about for a successor to so illustrious a man, none seemed more worthy than the soldier who, during the War of the Revolution, had been among the most able and devoted in the country's service. The choice fell upon Thomas Mifflin, and it is a distinction which he enjoys above all others who have been elevated to the enviable position of Chief Executive of the Commonwealth, both before and since, that he for the longest period exercised this power, hav- ing been two years President of the Council, and for three terms Governor, an aggregate of eleven years.
Thomas Mifflin was descended from one of the earliest settlers in Pennsylvania, and was born in Philadelphia, in 1744. It was the purpose of his father that the son should follow a mercantile profession, and his education was in a manner directed to that end, though he is described as having passed with reputation through the usual collegiate course. His parents were Quakers, and he was early trained in their faith and practices; but on taking arms at his country's call, his connection with that body was severed. Upon the completion of his school education, he entered the counting-house of William Coleman, whom Franklin por-
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trays as one of the members of his celebrated Junto, and " who," he declared, " had the coolest, clearest head, the best heart, and the exactest morals of almost any man I ever met with. He became afterwards a merchant of great note, and one of our Provincial judges."
Upon attaining his majority he made the tour of Europe, spending considerable time in England and France. Return- ing with enlarged views of trade and commerce, as witnessed in the old marts of Europe, and with manners and tastes tinged by the modifying influences of travel, he entered into business partnership with his brother, in the city of Philadel- phia, with little expectation of figuring prominently in one of the most momentous struggles for humanity that the world has ever seen. But in 1772, when only twenty-eight years of age, he was called from his mercantile pursuits to the more public and honorable duties of the council-chamber, having been elected one of the two members of the Legisla- ture from the city of Philadelphia. He was re-elected on the following year, when he was a colleague of Franklin, then just returned from his mission to England.
So acceptable were his services in the Assembly, that when the appointment of delegates to the First Continental Congress came to be made, he was selected as one; and in that body, which has been pronounced, by the most com- petent authority, unrivalled for wisdom, ability, and sage counsel, among the great nations of antiquity or of more modern times, he occupied a position of commanding in- fluence, and we find his name associated upon important committees with those of Henry, Livingston, Jay, Adams, and Rutledge. "When the news," says Dr. Rawle, his biographer, " of the battle of Lexington reached Philadel- phia, a town meeting was called, and the fellow - citizens of Mifflin were delighted by his animated oratory. Other addresses were delivered on this solemn occasion, all of which partook of the same feeling; but, although the young- est of the speakers, Mifflin had the exclusive merit of sug- gesting the necessity of a steady adherence to the resolu-
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tions that were adopted. The language with which he con- cluded was long remembered. 'Let us not,' he said, 'be bold in declarations, and afterwards cold in action. Let not the patriotic feeling of to-day be forgotten to-morrow, nor have it said of Philadelphia, that she passed noble resolu- tions, slept upon them, and afterwards forgot them !'"
He was through life noted for his fervid eloquence, and in arousing the populace to a sense of the danger which threat- ened them in the opening era of the revolution, his tongue was often unloosed, and never without instant and electric effect. But his was a hand to do as well as to point the way. When troops were to be enlisted and drilled, he was among the foremost to organize and train them, and was selected as Major of one of the earliest formed regiments. The patriot blood spilled at Lexington and Concord fired a martial spirit throughout America, by which the bold leaders in every State were nerved to resist and resent those unprovoked as- saults ; and when Washington appeared at the camp in Boston as the Commander-in-chief of the American armies, Mifflin was by his side. Recognizing his great personal popularity, the ease and dignity of his manners, the breadth and sound- ness of his views, Washington placed him at once at the head of his military family. In the absence, or at the retirement from the table of the chief, it fell upon Mifflin to occupy his place, and do the honors; and for this duty, by his social posi- tion at home and his foreign travel, he was admirably fitted. " This his [Washington's] station, as Commander-in-chief," says Irving, "required to be kept up in ample and hospitable style. Every day a number of his officers dined with him. As he was in the neighborhood of the seat of the Provincial government, he would occasionally have members of Con- gress and other functionaries at his board. Though social, however, he was not convivial in his habits. He received his guests with courtesy ; but his mind and time were too much occupied by grave and anxious concerns, to permit him the genial indulgence of the table. His own diet was extremely simple. St metimes nothing but baked apples or
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berries, with cream and milk. He would retire early from the board, leaving an aid-de-camp or one of his officers to take his place. Colonel Mifflin was the first person who officiated as aid-de-camp. IIe was a Philadelphia gentleman of high respectability, who had accompanied him from that city and received his appointment shortly after their arrival at Cambridge." *
The British army occupied the town of Boston, while that of Washington was encamped before it, and was employed in checking the enemy's movements and in striking his foraging parties. In an affair with one of these parties, Mifflin had his first experience of hostile encounter. "A detachment," says Dr. Rawle, "had been sent from the British army to a place called Lechmire's Point, for the purpose of collecting cattle. Mifflin solicited and obtained the command of a party to oppose them, and succeeded, with half-disciplined militia, in repelling the regular soldiery. An eye-witness, the aged and venerable General Craig, declared to the writer, that he 'never saw a greater display of personal bravery than was exhibited on this occasion in the cool and intrepid conduct of Colonel Mifflin.'"
On the 4th of July, 1775, Washington issued a general order to his troops, directing their attention to the importance of strict obedience, and commending them to the guidance of Heaven. He also proceeded to organize the entire army. The difficult position of Quartermaster-General he assigned to Mifflin. The duties were new and arduous. Everything was in confusion. Order had to be established, system to be inaugurated, and a vigilant watchfulness maintained that the army should want for nothing which could contribute to its efficiency and to its comfort.
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