the province in a state of defence; which committee holds till near nine, when I am at the congress, and that sits till after four in the afternoon. Both these bodies

inclination, induce us to support and advance; and the apprehensions that now oppress our hearts with unspeakable grief, being once removed, your Majesty will find your faithful subjects on this continent ready and willing at all times, as they have ever been, with their lives and fortunes, to assert and maintain the rights and interests of your Majesty, and of our mother country.

We therefore beseech your Majesty, that your royal authority, and influence may be graciously interposed to procure us relief from our afflicting fears and jealousies, occasioned by the system before mentioned, and to settle peace through every part of your dominions, with all humility submitting to your Majesty's wise consideration, whether it may not be expedient for facilitating those important purposes, that your Majesty be pleased to direct some mode, by which the united applications of your faithful colonists to the throne, in pursuance of their common councils, may be improved into a happy and permanent reconciliation; and that, in the mean time, measures may be taken for preventing the further destruction of the lives of your Majesty's subjects; and that such statutes as more immediately distress any of your Majesty's colonies may be repealed.

For by such arrangements as your Majesty's wisdom can form for collecting the united sense of your American people, we are convinced your Majesty would receive such satisfactory proofs of the disposition of the colonists towards their sovereign and parent state, that the wished-for opportunity would soon be restored to them, of evincing the sincerity of their professions, by every testimony of devotion becoming the most dutiful subjects and the most affectionate colonists.

That your Majesty may enjoy a long and prosperous reign, and that your descendants may govern your dominions with honor to themselves and happiness to their subjects, is our sincere prayer.

proceed with the greatest unanimity, and their meetings are well attended. It will scarce be credited in Britain that men can be as diligent with us, from zeal for the public good, as with you for thousands per annum. Such is the difference between uncorrupted new states, and corrupted old ones."

It was about this time that Dr. Franklin addressed that memorable and laconic epistle to his old friend and companion Mr. Strahan, (then king's printer, and member of the British parliament for Malmsbury,) of which a fac-simile is placed facing the title page of his Private Correspondence.

The following proposed Introduction to a resolution of congress, (not passed) drawn up by Dr. Franklin, is also fully expressive of his warm feelings and sentiments at that period.

"Whereas the British nation, through great corruption of manners and extreme dissipation and profusion, both private and public, have found all honest resources insufficient to supply their excessive luxury and prodigality, and thereby have been driven to the practice of every injustice which avarice could dictate or rapacity execute: and whereas, not satisfied with the immense plunder of the East, obtained by sacrificing millions of the human species, they have lately turned their eyes to the West, and grudging us the peaceable enjoyment of the fruits of our hard labor and virtuous industry, have for years past been endeavoring to extort the same from us, under color of laws regulating trade, and have thereby actually succeeded in draining us of large sums to our great loss and detriment. And whereas, impatient to seize the whole, they have at length proceeded to open robbery, declaring by a solemn act of parlia ́ment, that all our estates are theirs, and all our property found upon the sea divisible among such of their armed plunderers as shall take the same; and have even dared in the same act to declare, that all the spoilings, thefts, burnings of houses and towns, and murders of innocent people, perpetrated by their wicked and inhuman corsairs on our coasts, previous to any war

declared against us, were just actions, and shall be so deemed, contrary to several of the commandments of God, (which by this act, they presume to repeal) and to all the principles of right, and all the ideas of justice, entertained heretofore by every other nation, savage as well as civilized; thereby manifesting themselves to be hostes humani generis. And whereas it is not possible for the people of America to subsist under such continual ravages without making some reprisals,

"Therefore, Resolved,"

Affairs having now assumed a most serious aspect, it was necessary for the Americans to adopt proper and efficacious means of resistance. They possessed little or no coin, and even arms and ammunition were wanting. In this situation, the adoption of paper money became indispensably necessary, and Dr. Franklin was one of the first to demonstrate the necessity and propriety of that measure. Without this succedaneum, it would have been impossible to have made any other than a very feeble and a short resistance against Great Britain.

The first emission, to the amount of three millions of dollars, accordingly took place on the 25th of July, 1775, under a promise of exchanging the notes against gold or silver in the space of three years; and towards the end of 1776, more than twenty-one millions additional were put in circulation. The congress at length began to be uneasy, not knowing how it would be possible to redeem so large a sum; and some of its members having waited upon Dr. Franklin, in order to consult him upon this occasion, he spoke to them as follows: "Do not make yourselves unhappy; continue to issue your paper money as long as it will pay for the paper, ink, and printing, and we shall be enabled by its means to liquidate all the expences of the war."

In October, 1775, Dr. Franklin was appointed by congress jointly with his colleagues Colonel Harrison and Mr. Lynch, a committee to visit the American camp at Cambridge, and in conjunction with the commander in chief, (General Washington,) to endeavor to convince the troops, whose term of enlistment was about to expire, of the necessity of their continuing in the field, and persevering in the cause of their country.

He was afterwards sent on a mission to Canada, to endeavor to unite that country to the common cause of liberty. But the Canadians could not be prevailed upon to oppose the measures of the British government. The ill success of this negociation was supposed to be occasioned in a great degree by religious animosities, which VOL. I. 20

subsisted between the Canadians and their neighbors; some of whom had at different times burnt their places of worship.

On his return from Canada, Dr. Franklin, under the direction of congress, wrote to M. Dumas, the American agent in Holland, urging him to sound the several governments of Europe, by means of their ambassadors at the Hague, as to any assistance they might be disposed to afford America in case of her eventually breaking off all connexion with Britain, and declaring herself an independent nation.1

This decisive measure was now generally agitated throughout the colonies; though it is certain that at the beginning of the differences, the bulk of the people acted from no fixed and determined principle whatever, and had not even an idea of independence; for all the addresses from the different colonies were filled with professions of loyalty towards their sovereign, and breathed the most ardent wishes for an immediate reconciliation.

The congress deeming it adviseable to know the general opinion on so important a point, took an opportunity of feeling the pulse of the people, and of preparing them for the declaration of independence, by a circular manifesto to the several colonies, stating the causes which rendered it necessary that all authority under the crown should be totally suppressed, and all the powers of government taken respectively into their own hands. In support of this position they instanced the prohibitory act, by which they were excluded from the protection of the crown; the rejection of their petitions for redress of grievances, and a reconciliation; and the intended exertion of all the force of Great Britain, aided by foreign mercenaries for their destruction.

At length this important question was discussed in congress, and at a time when the fleets and armies which were sent to enforce obedience, were truly formidable. The debate continued for several days, and the scheme encountered great opposition from several distinguished orators. Eventually, however, notwithstanding all the disadvantages the country then labored under, from an army ignorant of discipline, and entirely unskilled in the art of war;—without a fleet—without alliesand with nothing but the love of liberty to support them; the colonies, by their representatives in congress, determined to separate from a country which had added injury to insult, and disregarded all the pacific overtures they had made to it.

I See Dr. Franklin's PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE, PART II.

On this question Dr. Franklin was decidedly in favor of the measure proposed, and used all his great influence in bringing others over to his opinion.

The public mind, which had already been drawn that way by the manifesto of congress, was now confirmed in its decision, by the appearance of Paine's celebrated pamphlet "Common Sense;" and there is good reason to believe, that Dr. Franklin had no inconsiderable share, at least in furnishing materials for that work.

It was on the 4th day of July, 1776, that the thirteen English colonies in America declared themselves free and independent states, and by an act of congress abjured all allegiance to the British crown, and renounced all political connection with Great Britain.

This public Record has been much admired for its composition. It is reputed to have been definitively drawn up by that eminent patriot, philosopher, and friend of mankind, the Hon. Thomas Jefferson, then one of the representatives in congress for Virginia: as a document of considerable interest and curiosity, and as a monument of one of the most important political events in which Dr. Franklin was concerned, and to which he so largely contributed, it is here annexed.1

A DECLARATION by the Representatives of the UNITED STATES of AMERICA in Congress assembled.

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel, them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal; that they are endowed, by. their Creator, with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends; it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long. established, should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which