TO GEORGE WHITEFIELD. Confidence in the Divine Goodness. DEAR FRIEND, Philadelphia, 19 June, 1764. I received your favors of the 21st past, and of the 3d instant, and immediately sent the enclosed as directed. return. Your frequently repeated wishes for my eternal, as well as my temporal happiness, are very obliging, and I can only thank you for them and offer you mine in I have myself no doubt, that I shall enjoy as much of both as is proper for me. That Being, who gave me existence, and through almost threescore years has been continually showering his favors upon me, whose very chastisements have been blessings to me; can I doubt that he loves me? And, if he loves me, can I doubt that he will go on to take care of me, not only here but hereafter? This to some may seem presumption; to me it appears the best grounded hope; hope of the future built on experience of the past. By the accounts I have of your late labors, I conclude your health is mended by your journey, which gives me pleasure. Mrs. Franklin presents her cordial respects, with, dear Sir, your affectionate humble servant, B. FRANKLIN. P. S. We hope you will not be deterred from visiting your friends here, by the bugbear Boston account of the unhealthiness of Philadelphia. FROM HENRY BOUQUET TO B. FRANKLIN. Services rendered by Franklin in forwarding the DEAR SIR, Fort Loudoun, 22 August, 1764. An I received yesterday your obliging letter of the 16th instant, with the welcome account, that my request to the governor and commissioners (to enable me to recruit the number of men wanted to replace the deserters of the Pennsylvania troops) was granted. application of this nature being unusual, I doubted of its success, and nothing but the necessity of completing those two battalions, would have induced me to make an attempt liable to so many objections from the known economy of the Board of Commissioners in the disposal of public money. My dependence was as usual upon you; and indeed, had you not supported my request in the warmest manner, it must have miscarried, and left me exposed to many inconveniences. Your conduct on this occasion does not surprise me, as I have not alone experienced the favorable effects of your readiness to promote the service. I know that General Shirley owed to you the considerable supply of provisions this government voted for his troops, besides warm clothing; that you alone could and did procure for General Braddock the carriages, without which he could not have proceeded on his expedition; that you had a road opened through this province to supply more easily his army with provisions, and spent a summer in those different services without any other reward, than the satisfaction of serving the public. And I am not unacquainted with the share you had in carrying safely through the House, at a very difficult time, the bill for £60,000 during Lord Loudoun's command. But, without recapitulating instances in which I was not directly concerned, I remember gratefully, that as early as 1756, when I was sent by Lord Loudoun to obtain quarters in Philadelphia for the first battalion of the Royal American Regiment, I could not have surmounted the difficulties made by your people, who, at that time unacquainted with the quartering of troops, expressed the greatest reluctance to comply with my request, till you were so good as to take the affair in hand, and obtain all that was desired. I have not been less obliged to you in the execution of the present act, having been an eyewitness of your forwardness to carry at the Board, as a commissioner, every measure I proposed for the success of this expedition. This acknowledgment being the only return I can make, for the repeated services I have received from you in my public station, I beg you will excuse my prolixity upon a subject so agreeable to myself, as the expression of my gratitude. I am, with great regard, &c. HENRY BOUQUET.* Colonel Bouquet was an enterprising British officer, who had acted a conspicuous part in the late French and Indian wars. He was on terms of intimate friendship with Colonel Washington, and they were together in the expedition against Fort Duquesne under General Forbes, in the year 1758. Colonel Bouquet likewise distinguished himself in a successful battle with the Indians, August 5th and 6th, 1763, near the head of Turtle Creek, while on his march to the Ohio River. FROM A COMMITTEE OF RHODE ISLAND TO B. FRANKLIN.* Proceedings of the Rhode Island Assembly for opposing the Design of Parliament to tax the Colonies. Rhode Island, 8 October, 1764. SIR, We have been appointed a committee by the General Assembly of the colony of Rhode Island to correspond, confer, and consult with any committee or committees that are or shall be appointed by any of the British colonies on the continent, and, in concert with them, to prepare and form such representations of the condition of the colonies, the rights of the inhabitants, and the interests of Great Britain, as connected with them, as may be most likely to be effectual to remove or alleviate the burdens which the colonists at present labor under, and to prevent new ones being added. The impositions already laid on the trade of these colonies must have very fatal consequences. The act in embryo, for establishing stamp duties, if effected, will further drain the people, and strongly point out their servitude. And the resolution of the House of Commons, that they have a right to tax the colonies, if carried into execution, will leave us nothing to call our own. How far the united endeavours of all the colonies might tend to prevent those evils, cannot be determined; but certain it is worth their while to try This letter was directed to Franklin as Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly, although he had ceased to act in that capacity when it was received. The letter itself is remarkable for the sentiments it contains, and as showing, that, on this occasion, the same system of Committees of Correspondence for uniting the colonies in a common cause was suggested by Rhode Island, which was afterwards adopted with so much success at the beginning of the revolution. every means in their power, to preserve every thing they have worth preserving. Zealous to do all we can in a business of so much importance, more especially as the colony that employs us seems heartily disposed to exert its utmost efforts to preserve its privileges inviolate, looking on this as the critical conjuncture when they must be effectually defended, or finally lost; we have given you the trouble of this address, desiring to be informed whether your colony has taken these matters under consideration; and, if it has, what methods have been thought of as most conducive to bring them to a happy issue. If all the colonies were disposed to enter with spirit into the defence of their liberties; if some method could be hit upon for collecting the sentiments of each colony, and for uniting and forming the substance of them all into one common defence of the whole; and this sent to England, and the several agents directed to join together in pushing and pursuing it there, in the properest and most effectual manner, it might be the most probable method to produce the end aimed at. However, as we do not pretend to prescribe rules, but to receive information, we hope to be excused for this freedom, and that the cause we are concerned in, and your candor, will procure us your pardon for this trouble, given by, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servants, STEPHEN HOPKINS, VOL. VII. 34 W |