You have perfectly forgiven the royalists, and you seem to wonder, that we should still retain any resentment against them for their joining with the savages to burn our houses, and murder and scalp our friends, our wives, and our children. I forget who it was that said, "We are commanded to forgive our enemies, but we are nowhere commanded to forgive our friends." Certain it is, however, that atrocious injuries done to us by our friends are naturally more deeply resented than the same done by enemies. They have left us, to live under the government of their King in England and Nova Scotia. We do not miss them, nor wish their return; nor do we envy them their present happiness. The accounts you give me of the great prospects you have respecting your manufactures, agriculture, and commerce, are pleasing to me; for I still love England and wish it prosperity. You tell me, that the government of France is abundantly punished for its treachery to England in assisting us. You might also have remarked, that the government of England had been punished for its treachery to France in assisting the Corsicans, and in seizing her ships in time of full peace, without any previous declaration of war. I believe governments are pretty near equal in honesty, and cannot with much propriety praise their own in preference to that of their neighbours. You do me too much honour in naming me with Timoleon. I am like him only in retiring from my public labours; which indeed my stone, and other infirmities of age, have made indispensably necessary. I hope you are by this time returned from your visit to your native country, and that the journey has given a firmer consistence to your health. Mr. Penn's property in this country, VOL. X-F which you inquire about, is still immensely great; and I understand he has received ample compensation in England for the part he lost. I think you have made a happy choice of rural amusements; the protection of the bees, and the destruction of the hop insect. I wish success to your experiments, and shall be glad to hear the result. Your Theory of Insects appears the most ingenious and plausible of any, that have hitherto been proposed by philosophers. Our new Constitution is now established with eleven States, and the accession of a twelfth is soon expected. We have had one session of Congress under it, which was conducted with remarkable prudence, and a good deal of unanimity. Our late harvests were plentiful, and our produce still fetches a good price, through an abundant foreign demand and the flourishing state of our commerce. I am ever, my dear friend, yours most affectionately, B. FRANKLIN. 1782. AN ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC; FROM THE PENNSYLVANIA SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY, AND THE RELIEF OF FREE NEGROES UNLAWFULLY HELD IN BONDAGE. It is with peculiar satisfaction we assure the friends of humanity, that, in prosecuting the design of our association, our endeavours have proved successful, far beyond our most sanguine expectations. Encouraged by this success, and by the daily progress of that luminous and benign spirit of liberty, which is diffusing itself throughout the world, and humbly hoping for the continuance of the divine blessing on our labours, we have ventured to make an important addition to our original plan, and do therefore earnestly solicit the support and assistance of all who can feel the tender emotions of sympathy and compassion, or relish the exalted pleasure of beneficence. Slavery is such an atrocious debasement of human nature, that its very extirpation, if not performed with solicitous care, may sometimes open a source of serious evils. The unhappy man, who has long been treated as a brute animal, too frequently sinks beneath the common standard of the human species. The galling chains, that bind his body, do also fetter his intellectual faculties, and impair the social affections of his heart. Accustomed to move like a mere machine, by the will of a master, reflection is suspended; he has not the power of choice; and reason and conscience have but little influence over his conduct, because he is chiefly governed by the passion of fear. He is poor and friendless; perhaps worn out by extreme labour, age, and disease. Under such circumstances, freedom may often prove a misfortune to himself, and prejudicial to society. Attention to emancipated black people, it is therefore to be hoped, will become a branch of our national policy; but, as far as we contribute to promote this emancipation, so far that attention is evidently a serious duty incumbent on us, and which we mean to discharge to the best of our judgment and abilities. To instruct, to advise, to qualify those, who have been restored to freedom, for the exercise and enjoyment of civil liberty, to promote in them habits of industry, to furnish them with employments suited to their age, sex, talents, and other circumstances, and to procure their children an education calculated for their future situation in life; these are the great outlines of the annexed plan, which we have adopted, and which we conceive will essentially promote the public good, and the happiness of these our hitherto too much neglected fellow-creatures. A plan so extensive cannot be carried into execution without considerable pecuniary resources, beyond the present ordinary funds of the Society. We hope much from the generosity of enlightened and benevolent freemen, and will gratefully receive any donations or subscriptions for this purpose, which may be made to our treasurer, James Starr, or to James Pemberton, chairman of our committee of correspondence. Signed, by order of the Society, It is now more than a year, since I have heard from my dear friend Le Roy. What can be the reason? Are you still living? Or have the mob of Paris mistaken the head of a monopolizer of knowledge, for a monopolizer of corn, and paraded it about the streets upon a pole. Great part of the news we have had from Paris, for near a year past, has been very afflicting. I sincerely wish and pray 1 From "The Private Correspondence of Benjamin Franklin" (1818), Vol. I, p. 258. — Ed. it may all end well and happy, both for the King and the nation. The voice of Philosophy I apprehend can hardly be heard among those tumults. If any thing material in that way had occurred, I am persuaded you would have acquainted me with it. However, pray let me hear from you a little oftener; for, though the distance is great, and the means of conveying letters not very regular, a year's silence between friends must needs give uneasiness. Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. My health continues much as it has been for some time, except that I grow thinner and weaker, so that I cannot expect to hold out much longer. My respects to your good brother, and to our friends of the Academy, which always has my best wishes for its prosperity and glory. Adieu, my dear friend, and believe me ever yours most affectionately, B. FRANKLIN. 1784. TO M. LE VEILLARD (L. C.) Philada., Nov. 13, 1789 DEAR FRIEND:-This must be but a short Letter, for I have mislaid your last and must postpone answering them till I have found them; but to make you some Amends I send you what is done of the Memoirs, under this express Condition however, that you do not suffer any Copy to be taken of them, or of any Part of them, on any Account whatever, and that you will, with your excellent Friend the Duke de la Rochefoucault, read them over carefully, examine them critically, |