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Majesty; and I am of opinion that this would not be denied, if an explanation were requested of the court of France; and it ought to be done, if any difficulties arise on this subject in the French islands, which their courts do not determine in our favor. But, before Congress is petitioned to make such a request, I imagine it would be proper to have the case tried in some of the West India islands, and the petition made in consequence of a determination against us. I have the honor to be, etc.,

B. FRANKLIN.

MDLXXXI

TO EZRA STILES

PHILADELPHIA, 9 March, 1790.

I received your kind letter of January 28th,' and am glad you have at length received the portrait

The note from President Stiles, to which this is a reply, was dated at Yale College, 28th January, 1790, and runs as follows:

"SIR: We have lately received Governor Yale's portrait from his family in London, and deposited it in the college library, where is also deposited one of Governor Saltonstall's. I have also long wished that we might be honored with that of Dr. Franklin. In the course of your long life, you may probably have become possessed of several portraits of yourself. Shall I take too great a liberty in humbly asking a donation of one of them to Yale College? You obliged me with a mezzotinto picture of yourself many years ago, which I often view with pleasure. But the canvas is more permanent. We wish to be possessed of the durable remembrance of the American patriot and philosopher. You have merited and received all the honors of the republic of letters; and are going to a world where all sublunary glories will be lost in the glories of immortality. Should you shine throughout the intellectual and stellary universe, with the eminence

of Governor Yale from his family, and deposited it in the College Library. He was a great and good man, and had the merit of doing infinite service to your country by his munificence to that institution. The honor you propose doing me by placing mine in the same room with his is much too great for my deserts; but you always had a partiality for me, and to that it must be ascribed. I am, however, too much obliged to Yale College, the first learned society that took notice of me and adorned me with its honors, to refuse a request that comes from it through so esteemed a friend. But I do not think any one of the portraits you mention as in my possession worthy of the situation and company you propose to place it in. You have an excellent artist lately arrived. If he will undertake to make one for you,

and distinguished lustre with which you have appeared in this little detached part of the creation, you would be, what I most fervently wish to you, sir, whatever may be my fate in eternity. The grand climacteric, in which I now am reminds me of the interesting scenes of futurity.

"You know, sir, that I am a Christian, and would to heaven all others were such as I am, except my imperfections and deficiencies of moral character. As much as I know of Dr. Franklin, I have not an idea of his religious sentiments. I wish to know the opinion of my venerable friend concerning Jesus of Nazareth. He will not impute this to impertinence or improper curiosity in one who for so many years has continued to love, estimate, and reverence his abilities and literary character with an ardor and affection bordering on adoration. If I have said too much, let the request be blotted out and be no more; and yet I shall never cease to wish you that happy immortality which I believe Jesus alone has purchased for the virtuous and truly good of every religious denomination in Christendom, and for those of every age, nation, and mythology who reverence the Deity are filled with integrity, righteousness, and benevolence. Wishing you every blessing, I am, dear sir, your most obedient servant,

"EZRA STILES."

I shall cheerfully pay the expense; but he must not delay setting about it, or I may slip through his fingers, for I am now in my eighty-fifth year and very infirm.

I send with this a very learned work, as it seems to me, on the ancient Samaritan coins, lately printed in Spain, and at least curious for the beauty of the impression. Please to accept it for your college library. I have subscribed for the Encyclopædia now printing here, with the intention of presenting it to the College. I shall probably depart before the work is finished, but shall leave directions for its continuance to the end. With this you will receive some of the first numbers.

verse.

You desire to know something of my religion. It is the first time I have been questioned upon it. But I cannot take your curiosity amiss, and shall endeavor in a few words to gratify it. Here is my creed. I believe in one God, the creator of the uniThat he governs it by his providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable service we render to him is doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion, and I regard them as you do in whatever sect I meet with them.

As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think his system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is like to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting changes, and I have, with

most of the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble. I see no harm, however, in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequence, as probably it has, of making his doctrines more respected and more observed; especially as I do not perceive that the Supreme takes it amiss, by distinguishing the unbelievers in his government of the world with any peculiar marks of his displeasure.

I shall only add, respecting myself that, having experienced the goodness of that Being in conducting me prosperously through a long life, I have no doubt of its continuance in the next, though without the smallest conceit of meriting such goodness. My sentiments on this head you will see in the copy of an old letter enclosed, which I wrote in answer to one

It seems worthy of note here that the terms in which Bryant records the faith and trust of the poet Rogers in the goodness of God are substantially the same as those here used by Franklin. It enabled both to contemplate the approach of death with cheerfulness:

"In approaching the close of a life so much prolonged beyond the usual lot of man-a life the years of which circumscribed the activity of three generations-he contemplated his departure with the utmost serenity. The state of man after death he called the great subject, and calmly awaited the moment when he should be admitted to contemplate its mysteries. 'I have found life in this world,' he used to say, 'a happy state; the goodness of God has taken care that none of its functions, even the most inconsiderable, should be performed without sensible pleasure; and I am confident that in the world to come the same care for my happiness will accompany me.'"-Godwin's Life of Bryant, Vol. II., p. 86.

? Probably the letter presumed to have been written to Whitefield, and dated Philadelphia, June 6, 1753.-EDITOR.

from an old religionist, whom I had relieved in a paralytic case by electricity, and who, being afraid I should grow proud upon it, sent me his serious though rather impertinent caution. I send you also the copy of another letter, which will show something of my disposition relating to religion.

I

P. S.-Had not your College some present of books from the king of France? Please to let me know if you had an expectation given you of more, and the nature of that expectation. I have a reason for the enquiry.

I confide that you will not expose me to criticisms and censures by publishing any part of this communication to you. I have ever let others enjoy their religious sentiments without reflecting on them for those that appeared to me unsupportable or even absurd. All sects here, and we have a great variety, have experienced my good-will in assisting them with subscriptions for the building their new places of worship; and, as I have never opposed any of their doctrines, I hope to go out of the world in peace with them all.

MDLXXXII

2 ON THE SLAVE TRADE 2

To the Editor of the Federal Gazette:

March 23, 1790.

SIR:-Reading last night in your excellent paper the speech of Mr. Jackson in Congress against their

I The letter here alluded to is one supposed to have been written to Thomas Paine.-EDITOR.

Dr. Franklin's name, as President of the Society for the Abolition of Slavery, was signed to the memorial presented to the House of

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