their education in it, distinguished by their improved abilities, serviceable in public stations, and ornaments to their country.

IX. RETIREMENT FROM BUSINESS, BURGESS, POST

MASTER-GENERAL

1748-1754

COMMENT. When Franklin retired from business he was but forty-two years of age, but he had acquired a comfortable competence. By the terms of his agreement with Hall, the business was to go on under the firm name, “Franklin and Hall," and he was to receive, each year, for eighteen years, £1000. He owned a farm in New Jersey and houses in Philadelphia. Beside these sources of income, he had established young men in the printing business in various colonies and in the West Indies, from whom he received a per cent of income. When he became postmaster he at first expended private money to bring about the reforms he wished, but in the end he received from this office a considerable income. He also received an indirect advantage from the office, for he did not hesitate to employ relatives in need of support in the subordinate positions under his control. He at once appointed his son William to be controller of the Philadelphia office, and he kept some one of his own family in this important position until his own dismissal in 1774. To his brother John, he gave the Boston Post-Office, and he found profitable employment for relatives and friends in many minor positions. It does not appear, however, that he allowed the post-office to suffer by this nepotism; in one instance, at least, he refused to cause a vacancy for a nephew, by dismissing a good man before he wished to go. It cannot be denied, however, that Franklin left an example of the use of public office for private gain not in accord with the highest ideals of public service.

When Franklin entered on the management of the Post-Office

in the Colonies, mails were irregular, and many abuses had crept in. He reorganized the service, increased the frequency of mails, regulated the carrying of papers, and brought the whole system to a state of efficiency heretofore unknown in America. At the end of eight years, he sent to the general office in England a remittance of £494 4s. 8d., profits above all expenses; the record of it in the department contains these words: "and this is the first remittance ever made of the kind."

In the management of other public business, Franklin met with the same success. This was due in great part to the exact information he at once obtained about the undertaking and to the care with which he arranged a plan of administration which provided for the orderly and systematic performance of all details. The ability of Franklin to hold every part of a subject in consideration, and to devise practical schemes which he was able to present in writing with great force and clearness, soon made him a leader in other affairs than business. He was appointed as commissioner to negotiate treaties, and the paper drawn by him, in 1754, to present a plan for the union of the colonies for defense quickly became famous. Although it was rejected by both parties, without doubt it exercised great influence in turning the thoughts of the colonists toward union.

D.

Franklin's Outline. Put in the commission of the peace. Logan fond of me. His library. Appointed Postmaster-General.1 Chosen Assemblyman. Commissioner to treat with Indians at Carlisle and at Easton. Project and establish Academy. Pamphlet on it. Journey to Boston. At Albany, Plan of union of the colonies. Copy of it. Remarks upon it. It fails, and how. Journey to Boston in 1754. Disputes about it in our Assembly. My part in them. New Governor. Disputes with him. His character and sayings to me. Chosen Alderman. Project of Hospital. My share in it. Its success. Boxes. Made a Commissioner of the Treasury.

1 In writing this part of the Autobiography, Franklin frequently deviated from the outline he had made long before,

When I disengaged myself, as above mentioned, from private business, I flattered myself that, by the sufficient though moderate fortune I had acquired, I had secured leisure during the rest of my life for philosophical studies and amusements. I purchased all Dr. Spence's apparatus, who had come from England to lecture here, and I proceeded in my electrical experiments' with great alacrity; but the public, now considering me as a man of leisure, laid hold of me for their purposes, every part of our civil government, and almost at the same time, imposing some duty upon me. The governor put me into the commission of the peace; the corporation of the city chose me of the' common council, and soon after an alderman; and the citizens at large chose me a burgess to represent them in Assembly. This latter station was the more agreeable to me, as I was at length tired with sitting there to hear debates, in which, as clerk, I could take no part, and which were often so unentertaining that I was induced to amuse myself with making magic squares or circles, or anything to avoid weariness; and I conceived my becoming a member would enlarge my power of doing good. I would not, however, insinuate that my ambition was not flattered by all these promotions; it certainly was; for, considering my low beginning, they were great things to me; and they were still more pleasing, as being so many spontaneous testimonies of the public good opinion, and by me entirely unsolicited.

The office of justice of the peace I tried a little, by attending a few courts, and sitting on the bench to hear causes; but finding that more knowledge of the common

1 For an account of Franklin's electrical experiments at this time see page 250.

law than I possessed was necessary to act in that station with credit, I gradually withdrew from it, excusing myself by my being obliged to attend the higher duties of a legislator in the Assembly. My election to this trust was repeated every year for ten years, without my ever asking any elector for his vote, or signifying, either directly or indirectly, any desire of being chosen. On taking my seat in the House, my son was appointed their clerk.

The year following, a treaty being to be held with the Indians at Carlisle, the governor sent a message to the House, proposing that they should nominate some of their members, to be joined with some members of council, as commissioners for that purpose. The House named the speaker (Mr. Norris) and myself; and, being commissioned, we went to Carlisle, and met the Indians accordingly.

As those people are extremely apt to get drunk, and, when so, are very quarrelsome and disorderly, we strictly forbade the selling any liquor to them; and when they complained of this restriction, we told them that if they would continue sober during the treaty, we would give them plenty of rum when business was over. They promised this, and they kept their promise because they could get no liquor, and the treaty was conducted very orderly, and concluded to mutual satisfaction. They then claimed and received the rum; this was in the afternoon: they were near one hundred men, women, and children, and were lodged in temporary cabins, built in the form of a square, just without the town. In the evening, hearing a great noise among them, the commissioners walked out to see what was the matter. We found they had made a