ACCLAIM FOR H W BRANDS’ The First American “A vivid portrait of the 18th-century milieu and of the 18th-century man… [Brands is] a master storyteller.” —The Christian Science Monitor “A thorough biography of Benjamin Franklin, America’s prose … Brands relates the entire, dense-packed life.” rst Renaissance man… In graceful, even witty —The Washington Post “A comprehensive, lively biography… The largest, most detailed Franklin biography in more than sixty years… [Brands] is a skilled narrator who believes in making good history accessible to the non-specializing book lover, and the general reader can read this book with sustained enjoyment.” “Supremely readable… Deserves unstinting praise… A —The Boston Globe ne example of a particular type of historical writing, the presentation of history as narrative… Brands shows [Franklin] in lively detail at each stage of his life… An excellent history.” —The London Free Press “A rousing, rst-rate life of a Founding Father… Brands is the best sort of popularizer… [He] adds esh to a hallowed ghost, and the result is that the reader admires Benjamin Franklin all the more Superb.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Engaging… Brands is a skilled biographer… [He] deftly life.” “A fluid, clear, and nicely paced book… Enjoyable to read.” lls in the contours of Franklin’s extraordinary —The Star-Ledger (Newark, New Jersey) —The Weekly Standard “Stunning… Brands, with admirable insight and arresting narrative, constructs a portrait of a complex and in uential man … in a highly charged world… [He] does an excellent job of capturing Franklin’s exuberant versatility as a writer who adopted countless personae … that not only predestined his prominence as a man of letters but also as an agile man of politics.” “Stirring and eloquent.” “Worthwhile reading on an American worth remembering.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) —The News & Observer (Raleigh, North Carolina) —BookPage “A humanizing biography that enhances … the founding fathers’ greatness.” —Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale) “Eminently readable… [Brands] create[s] an absorbing portrait of the 18th-century world that was the backdrop—and the stage—for America’s multidimensional journalist, inventor, diplomat, propagandist, moralist, humorist, and revolutionary.” “A logical choice for anyone who wants to learn about Franklin’s life.” —Library Journal (starred review) —The Oregonian “Informative… Brands writes in a clear, lively, novelistic style and is especially good at revealing Franklin, the living, breathing, flawed human being.” “Highly praised… A frank account of the remarkable Renaissance man.” —Book —Gene Shalit, NBC Today “A delightful mosaic… Brands gives new life to the mythic hero we thought we already knew.” —American History H W BRANDS The First American H W Brands is Distinguished Professor and Melbern G Glasscock Chair of History at Texas A&M University He is the author of many books, among them T.R.: The Last Romantic, the critically acclaimed biography of Theodore Roosevelt; The Reckless Decade: America in the 1890s; and The Strange Death of American Liberalism He lives in Austin, Texas ALSO BY H W BRANDS The Strange Death of American Liberalism The Selected Letters of Theodore Roosevelt (editor) Critical Reflections on the Cold War: Linking Rhetoric and History (editor, with Martin J Medhurst) The Use of Force after the Cold War (editor) Beyond Vietnam: The Foreign Policies of Lyndon Johnson (editor) Masters of Enterprise: Giants of American Business from John Jacob Astor and J P Morgan to Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey What America Owes the World: The Struggle for the Soul of Foreign Policy T.R.: The Last Romantic Since Vietnam: The United States in World Affairs, 1973–1995 The Wages of Globalism: Lyndon Johnson and the Limits of American Power The Reckless Decade: America in the 1890s The United States in the World: A History of American Foreign Policy Into the Labyrinth: The United States and the Middle East, 1945–1993 The Devil We Knew: Americans and the Cold War Bound to Empire: The United States and the Philippines Inside the Cold War: Loy Henderson and the Rise of the American Empire, 1918–1961 India and the United States: The Cold Peace The Specter of Neutralism: The United States and the Emergence of the Third World, 1947–1960 Cold Warriors: Eisenhower’s Generation and American Foreign Policy Contents PROLOGUE: JANUARY 29, 1774 BOSTON BEGINNINGS: 1706–23 FRIENDS AND OTHER STRANGERS: 1723–24 LONDON ONCE: 1724–26 AN IMPRINT OF HIS OWN: 1726–30 POOR RICHARD: 1730–35 CITIZEN: 1735–40 ARC OF EMPIRE: 1741–48 ELECTRICITY AND FAME: 1748–51 A TASTE OF POLITICS: 1751—54 10 JOIN OR DIE: 1754–55 11 THE PEOPLE’S COLONEL: 1755—57 12 A LARGER STAGE: 1757–58 13 IMPERIALIST: 1759–60 14 BRITON: 1760–62 15 RISING IN THE WEST: 1762–64 16 STAMPS AND STATESMANSHIP: 1764–66 17 DUTIES AND PLEASURES: 1766–67 18 REASON AND RIOT: 1768–69 19 THE RIFT WIDENS: 1770–71 20 TO KICK A LITTLE: 1772–73 21 THE COCKPIT: 1774–75 22 REBEL: 1775–76 23 SALVATION IN PARIS: 1776–78 24 BONHOMME RICHARD: 1778–79 25 MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY: 1779–81 26 BLESSED WORK: 1781–82 27 SAVANT: 1783–85 28 HOME: 1785–86 29 SUNRISE AT DUSK: 1786–87 30 TO SLEEP: 1787-90 EPILOGUE: APRIL 17, 1990 SOURCE NOTES ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Prologue January 29, 1774 A lesser man would have been humiliated Humiliation was the purpose of the proceeding It was the outcome eagerly anticipated by the lords of the Privy Council who constituted the official audience, by the members of the House of Commons and other fashionable Londoners who packed the room and on the rails of the balcony, by the London press that lived on scandal and milled outside to see how this scandal would unfold, by the throngs that bought the papers, savored the scandals, rioted in favor of their heroes and against their villains, and made politics in the British imperial capital often unpredictable, frequently disreputable, always entertaining The proceeding today would probably be disreputable It would certainly be entertaining The venue was tting: the Cockpit In the reign of Henry VIII, that most sporting of monarchs in a land that loved its bloody games, the building on this site had housed an actual cockpit, where Henry and his friends brought their prize birds and wagered which would tear the others to shreds The present building had replaced the real cockpit, but this room retained the old name and atmosphere The victim today was expected to depart with his reputation in tatters, his fortune possibly forfeit, his life conceivably at peril Nor was that the extent of the stakes Two days earlier the December packet ship from Boston had arrived with an alarming report from the royal governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Hutchinson The governor described an organized assault on three British vessels carrying tea of the East India Company The assailants, townsmen loosely disguised as Indians, had boarded the ships, hauled hundreds of tea casks to deck, smashed them open, and dumped their contents into the harbor—fortyve tons of tea, enough to litter the beaches for miles and depress the company’s pro ts for years This rampage was the latest in a series of violent outbursts against the authority of Crown and Parliament; the audience in the Cockpit, and in London beyond, demanded to know what Crown and Parliament intended to about it Alexander Wedderburn was going to tell them The solicitor general possessed great rhetorical gifts and greater ambition The former had made him the most feared advocate in the realm; the latter lifted him to his present post when he abandoned his allies in the opposition and embraced the ministry of Lord North Wedderburn was known to consider the Boston tea riot treason, and if the law courts upheld his interpretation, those behind the riot would be liable to the most severe sanctions, potentially including death Wedderburn was expected to argue that the man in the Cockpit today was the prime mover behind the outburst in Boston The crowd quivered with anticipation They all knew the man in the pit; indeed, the whole world knew Benjamin Franklin His work as political agent for several of the American colonies had earned him recognition around London, but his fame far transcended that He was, quite simply, one of the most illustrious scientists and thinkers on earth His experiments with electricity, culminating in his capture of lightning from the heavens, had won him universal praise as the modern Prometheus His mapping of the Gulf Stream saved the time and lives of countless sailors His ingenious replace conserved fuel and warmed homes on both sides of the Atlantic His contributions to economics, meteorology, music, and psychology expanded the reach of human knowledge and the grip of human power For his accomplishments the British Royal Society had awarded him its highest prize; foreign societies had done the same Universities queued to grant him degrees The ablest minds of the age consulted him on matters large and small Kings and emperors summoned him to court, where they admired his brilliance and basked in its reflected glory Genius is prone to producing envy Yet it was part of Franklin’s genius that he had produced far less than his share, due to an unusual ability to disarm those disposed to envy In youth he discovered that he was quicker of mind and more facile of pen than almost everyone he met; he also discovered that a boy of humble birth, no matter how gifted, would block his own way by letting on that he knew how smart he was He learned to de ect credit for some of his most important innovations He avoided arguments wherever possible; when important public issues hinged on others’ being convinced of their errors, he often argued anonymously, adopting assumed names, or Socratically, employing the gentle questioning of the Greek master He became almost as famous for his sense of humor as for his science; laughing, his opponents listened and were persuaded Franklin’s self-e acing style succeeded remarkably; at sixty-eight he had almost no personal enemies and comparatively few political enemies for a man of public a airs But those few included powerful gures George Grenville, the prime minister responsible for the Stamp Act, the tax bill that triggered all the American troubles, never forgave him for single-handedly demolishing the rationale for the act in a memorable session before the House of Commons Grenville and his allies lay in wait to exact their revenge on Franklin Yet he never made a false step Until now A mysterious person had delivered into his hands dential letters from Governor Hutchinson and other royal o cials in Massachusetts addressed to an undersecretary of state in London These letters cast grave doubt on the bona des of Hutchinson, for years the bête noire of the Massachusetts assembly As Massachusetts’s agent, Franklin had forwarded the letters to friends in Boston Hutchinson’s enemies there got hold of the letters and published them 485 “If you should ever”: to Jonathan Williams Sr., Sept 28, 1774 485 “I am in”: to Cushing, Oct 6, 1774 485 “My situation”: to Joseph Galloway, Oct 12, 1774 486–89 “What is to be done … tea &c.”: Franklin journal, Mar 22, 1775 490 “I, the underwritten”: draft to Dartmouth, Mar 16, 1775 490 “He looked … national affront”: Franklin journal, Mar 22, 1775 490 “dangerous consequences”: from Thomas Walpole, Mar 16, 1775 22 REBEL: 1775–76 492 “Her death”: from WF, Dec 24, 1774 493 “a valuable”: to Joseph Priestley, May 16, 1775 493 “This motion”: Journal entry for Apr 5, 1775 494 “Yesterday evening”: Broadside, May 8, 1775, PBF 494 “The die”: Stanley Ayling, George the Third, 247–48 494 “It will surely”: Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious Cause, 266 495 “Will you let”: ibid., 271 496 “I believe”: from Jane Mecom, May 14, 1775 497 “a tolerable speaker … glorious cause”: James Thomas Flexner, George Washington: The Forge of Experience (Boston, 1965), 324–25, 332, 334, 341 498 “A frenzy”: Papers of Jefferson, 1:165 499 “The youngest boy”: to Jane Mecom, June 17, 1775 499 “I have but … conspicuous”: Papers of Madison, 1:149–52 499 “a pusillanimity”: Flexner, Washington, 1:330 499–500 “Hath any thing … our cause”: Papers of Madison, 1:158–60 500 “a disposition”: Adams to Abigail Adams, July 23, 1775, Adams Papers 500 “which the youngest”: to Jonathan Shipley, May 15, 1775 500 “But, as Britain”: to Humphry Marshall, May 23, 1775 500 “She has begun”: to Priestley, July 7, 1775 500 “All Europe … madness”: to Shipley, July 7, 1775 501 “Mr Strahan”: to Strahan [unsent], July 5, 1775 501 “Words and arguments”: to Strahan, July 7, 1775 [quoted in letter from Strahan, Sept 6, 1775] 501 “It has been”: to Priestley, July 7, 1775 501 “Articles of Confederation”: July 21, 1775, PBF 504–5 “ímport all … regularly sent”: minutes of conference with Washington et al., Oct 18–24, 1775 505 “Here is a fine”: to Bache, Oct 19, 1775 505 “Tell our good friend”: to Priestley, Oct 3, 1775 507 “I have just heard”: WF to Germain, Mar 28, 1776, DAR 507 “I begin”: to Quincy, Apr 15, 1776 507 “utmost dispatch”: to John Hancock, May 1, 1776 508 “We have daily”: to Hancock, May 8, 1776 509 “an ingenious”: to Bache, Sept 30, 1774 509 “Dr Kearsley”: from Thomas Paine, Mar 4, 1775 510 “I offer”: Thomas Paine, Common Sense (New York, 1942), 21, 40 510 “great impression”: to Charles Lee, Feb 19, 1776 510 “that these United Colonies”: Papers of Jefferson, 1:298 510 “You can write”: John Adams to Timothy Pickering, Aug 8, 1822, Adams Papers 510 “I am just recovering”: to Washington, June 21, 1776 511 “Will Doctor Franklin”: from Jefferson, probably June 21, 1776 511 “reduce them … destroy us”: Carl Becker, The Declaration of Independence (New York, 1933), 160–71 511 “I was sitting”: Writings of Jefferson, 18:169–70 512 “There must be … hang separately”: Sparks, 1:408 513–14 “Let the smaller … insurrections”: BF quoted in Adams Papers, 2:245–46 514 “My Worthy Friend”: from Howe, June 20, 1776 515 “Directing pardons”: to Howe, July 20, 1776 516 “I watched”: PBF, 22:518–19 517–18 “At Brunswick … and mutton”: Adams Papers, 3:418–20 518 “I also gave”: Howe to Germain, Sept 20, 1776, DAR 519 “Dr Franklin”: Adams Papers, 3:422 23 SALVATION IN PARIS: 1776–78 520 “I suppose”: Adams Papers, 3:422 521 “It would be”: BF et al to Arthur Lee, Dec 12, 1775 521 “Perhaps, however”: to Don Gabriel Antonio de Bourbon, Dec 12, 1775 522 “On your arrival”: to Silas Deane, Mar 2, 1776 523 “It will be proper”: from John Hancock, Sept 24, 1776 524 “I have only”: in Rush to Thomas Morris, Oct 22, 1776, Letters of Rush 525 “very magnificent”: Sheila Skemp, William Franklin, 192 525 “virulent enemy”: ibid., 212 526 “I will not distress”: from Elizabeth Franklin, Aug 6, 1776 526 “I have considered”: to William Temple Franklin, Sept 19, 1776 527 “short but rough”: to the Committee of Secret Correspondence, Dec 8, 1776 527 “almost demolished me”: to Richard and Sarah Franklin Bache, May 10, 1785, Smyth 527 “I have acquainted”: to Deane, Dec 7, 1776 528 “The carriage … ever beheld”: Memoirs 2:48 528 “The celebrated … mantelpiece”: Edward E Hale and Edward E Hale Jr., Franklin in France (Boston, 1888), 1:69–70; Alfred Owen Aldridge, Franklin and his French Contemporaries (New York, 1957), 66 529 “Intelligent”: Vergennes to Aranda, Dec 28, 1776, PBF 23:113n 530 “As other princes”: to Vergennes, Jan 5, 1777 531 “of giving umbrage”: to the Committee of Secret Correspondence, Mar 12–Apr 9, 1777 531 “with which they mean”: to the Committee of Secret Correspondence, Jan 17–22, 1777 531–32 “Their fleet … betrays it”: to the Committee of Secret Correspondence, Mar 12–Apr 9, 1777 536 “Count Pulaski”: to Washington, May 29, 1777 536 “the Baron”: to Washington, Sept 4, 1777 536 “the Marquis”: to Washington, Aug or Sept 1777 536 “The bearer”: to Washington, Mar 29, 1777 536 “Our corps”: from Washington, Aug 17, 1777 537 “These applications”: to Barbeu-Dubourg, after Oct 2, 1777 537 “Sir”: unaddressed model letter, Apr 2, 1777 538–39 “The Commissioners … from Europe”: to Vergennes and Aranda, Sept 25, 1777 539 “We are scarce”: to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Nov 30, 1777 539 “We have prevented”: Washington to Lund Washington, Dec 17, 1776, Writings of Washington 540 “Not a word”: Adams to Abigail Adams, Aug 20, 1777, Adams Papers 541 “In consciousness”: Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious Cause, 372 542 “Sir, is Philadelphia … of war”: PBF, 25:234–35n 542 “the total reduction”: to Vergennes, Dec 4, 1777 542 “You mistake”: PBF, 25:236n 543 “He said”: Richard Henry Lee, Life of Arthur Lee (Boston, 1829), 1:357 543 “to make peace”: Philip Gibbes’ minutes of conversation, c Feb 5, 1777, PBF 543 “America is ready”: Gibbes’ minutes of conversation, Jan 5, 1778, PBF 543 “I called on 72”: Paul Wentworth to William Eden, Jan 7, 1778, PBF 544 “lively and long”: Vergennes to Comte de Montmorin, Jan 30, 1778, Facsimiles, vol 21, no 18 24 BONHOMME RICHARD: 1778–79 546 “Let me whisper … wicked measures”: Richard Henry Lee, Life of Arthur Lee, 2:124–27 546 “It is true”: to Arthur Lee [not sent], Apr 3, 1778 547 “That he was”: Adams Papers, 4:69 547–48 “On Dr F… fanatic”: ibid., 2:347–52 548 “Mr M.”: ibid., 2:391 548 “The history”: Letters of Rush, 2:1207 549 “The life”: Adams Papers, 4:118–19 551 “He would grasp”: Claude-Ann Lopez, Mon Cher Papa: Franklin and the Ladies of Paris (New Haven, Conn., 1966), 128 551 “the magnificence”: Adams Papers, 4:109 551 “one of the most”: ibid., 4:63–64 551 “Alas!”: ibid., and (for the translation) Lopez, Mon Cher Papa, 129 551–52 “All the family … very white”: ibid., 134 552 “Madame Brillon”: Adams Papers, 4:46–47 553 “You were kind”: Lopez, Mon Cher Papa, 38–39 553 “The first”: to Madame Brillon”: Mar 10, 1778 553–54 “Let us start”: Lopez, Mon Cher Papa, 40–44 554–55 “You renounce … tenderness”: to Madame Brillon, July 27, 1778 555 “Judge … appetites”: Lopez, Mon Cher Papa, 47–48 556 “You remember”: to Brillon, Sept 20, 1778 557 “That she might not”: Adams Papers, 4:58–59 558 “ladies for whose”: from Adams, May 14, 1779 558–59 “She entered”: Letters of Mrs Adams, ed Charles Francis Adams (Boston, 1840), 252–53 559 “Oh, to be seventy”: Lopez, Mon Cher Papa, 246–47 559–61 “If Notre Dame … avenge ourselves!”: based on ibid., 259–71 562 “He had his hair”: Lee, Life of Arthur Lee, 1:403 562–63 “The King … le Seigneur Franklin”: Lopez, Mon Cher Papa, 179–84 564 “When I gave”: Voltaire to Abbé Gaultier, Feb 21, 1778, in Ouevres Complètes de Voltaire (Paris, 1883), 50:372 564 “my child … Tolerance”: Alfred Aldridge, Franklin and His French Contemporaries, 10 564 “There presently”: Adams Papers, 4:80–82 566 “When I was”: Lopez, Mon Cher Papa, 79 566 “My God!”: Bagatelles, 32ff; Bigelow, 8:312ff 569 “The Doctor … men’s truths”: Writings of Jefferson, 18:171–72 570 “Come, Monsieur”: ibid., 170 570 “If you Frenchmen”: Lopez, Mon Cher Papa, 21 570 “we not take kings”: Writings of Jefferson, 18:168 25 MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY: 1779–81 571 “I am a king”: Writings of Jefferson, 18:168 572 “What have you”: Robert Middlekauff, The Glorious Cause, 413 572 “We have”: Washington to President of Congress, Dec 23, 1777, Writings of Washington 573 “Believe me”: John McAuley Palmer, General von Steuben (New Haven, Conn., 1937), 157 574 “Our Great Faithful”: Congress to Louis XVI, Oct 21, 1778 575 “the God-like”: from Lafayette, Aug 29, 1779 575 “Dear general”: Lafayette to Washington, Feb 19, 1778, Lafayette Letters 575 “zeal, military ardour”: from Washington, Dec 28, 1778 576 “In our kingly”: from Lafayette, Feb 21, 1779 576 “My blood”: Andreas Latzko, Lafayette (New York, 1936), 81 576 “If you undertake”: Lafayette to Comte d’Estaing, Sept 21, 1778, Lafayette Letters 576 “I admire much”: to Lafayette, Mar 22, 1779 578 “The Marquis”: to Jones, Apr 27, 1779 578 “by all means”: to Jones, Apr 28, 1779 579 “Your liberal”: from Jones, May 1, 1779 579 “No! I’ll sink … to ght”: Peter Reaveley, “The Battle,” in Jean Boudriot (ed.), John Paul Jones and the Bonhomme Richard, trans David H Roberts (Annapolis, Md., 1987), 82 580 “The scene”: from Jones, Oct 3, 1779 580 “For some days”: to Jones, Oct 15, 1779 580 “I must acquaint”: to Jones, Feb 19, 1780 581 “Though an evil”: to Stephen Sayre, Mar 31, 1779 581 “The whole”: to Samuel Cooper, Apr 22, 1779 581 “The extravagant luxury”: to Jay, Oct 4, 1779 581 “When I began”: to Sarah Franklin Bache, June 3, 1779 582 “Though I never”: from Sarah Franklin Bache, Sept 14, 1779 582 “great politician”: Bigelow 8:46–57 582–83 “I take no other”: to Richard Bache, June 2, 1779 583 “Ben, if I should”: to Sarah Franklin Bache, June 3, 1779 584 “The King’s ambassador”: Catherine M Prelinger, “Benjamin Franklin and the American Prisoners of War in England during the American Revolution,” WMQ 32 (1975), 261–94 584 “the air doth”: ibid 585 “This is to continue”: to the Committee for Foreign Affairs, May 26, 1779 585 “oiling the sentry’s”: Prelinger, “Franklin and Prisoners of War.” 585 “I cannot describe”: from Digges, Nov 10, 1779 586 “By the letters”: to Sartine, Nov 28, 1779 586 “He that robs”: to William Hodgson, Apr 1, 1781, Smyth 586 “a tacit cession”: “Observations by Mr Hartley,” Bigelow, 8:38–39 587 “A little time”: from David Hartley, Apr 22, 1779 587 “But this is”: to Hartley, May 4, 1779 589 “a post in which”: Carl Van Doren, Secret History of the American Revolution (New York, 1941), 463 589 “Arnold’s baseness”: to James Searle, Nov 30, 1780 589 “We are naked”: from Lafayette, Oct 9, 1780 589 “I doubt not”: from Washington, Oct 9, 1780 590 “the unalterable resolution”: to Vergennes, Feb 13, 1781 591 “I have, however”: to Adams, Feb 22, 1781 591 “I have passed”: to Samuel Huntington, Mar 12, 1781 592–93 “He has vast designs … admit of”: Clarence L Ver Steeg, Robert Morris: Revolutionary Financier (Philadelphia, 1954), 13, 38 593 “From your intelligence”: to Morris, July 26, 1781, Smyth 594 “I am quite tired”: Charles, First Marquis Cornwallis, Correspondence, ed Charles Ross (London, 1859), 1:87 594 “The moment is critical … Hampton Roads”: Douglas Southall Freeman, George Washington (New York, 1952), 5:312– 15 595 “Lord Cornwallis’s conduct”: ibid., 367 595 “A man was killed … manner”: Edward M Riley, “St George Tucker’s Journal of the Siege of Yorktown, 1781,” WMQ (1948), 375–95 595 “Our shot and shell”: Freeman, Washington, 5:367 595 “Our provisions”: from a captured British journal in Riley, “Tucker’s Journal.” 596 “He might have beat”: Freeman, Washington, 5:376 596 “A solemn stillness”: Riley, “Tucker’s Journal.” 596 “Welcome, Brother Debtor”: ibid 596 “When the King … Upside Down”: Freeman, Washington, 5:388n 26 BLESSED WORK: 1781–82 597 “My God”: R.J White, The Age of George III (New York, 1968), 137 597 “to guide me”: ibid 598 “I wish”: to Thomas Pownall, Nov 23, 1781, Giunta 598 “I have never”: to Adams, Oct 12, 1781, Giunta 598 “Some writer”: to Charles Dumas, Aug 6, 1781, Bigelow 598 “Poor as we are”: to Jay, Oct 2, 1780, Bigelow 599 “by the absolute”: Lee to James Warren, Aug 1780, Giunta 599 “They hate us”: Adams to John Jay, Aug 13, 1782, Giunta 599 “He tells me”: to Samuel Huntington, Aug 9, 1780 599 “It was evident”: Jay to Livingston, Nov 17, 1782, Giunta 600 “We ought not”: Jay to Livingston, Sept 18, 1782, Giunta 600 “Your enemies”: from Morris, Sept 28, 1782, Giunta 600 “extremely sorry”: to Samuel Cooper, Dec 26, 1782, Smyth 601 “a gentleman”: Giunta, 1:341 601 “He is a wise man”: Vergennes to Montmorin, Apr 18, 1782, Giunta 601 “wise and honest”: to Shelburne, Apr 18, 1792, Giunta 601 “I let him know”: BF journal, Bigelow, 9:254 601 “Yet I could”: Oswald’s journal, Apr 18, 1782, Giunta 601 “In case France”: BF journal, Bigelow, 9:259 601 “It is a sweet word”: Conversation notes, Bigelow, 9:262–64 602 “We parted”: BF journal, Bigelow, 9:264 602 “I desire”: to Shelburne, Apr 18, 1782, Giunta 603 “On the whole”: BF journal, Bigelow, 9:282 603 “After having seen”: Fox to Grenville, Apr 30, 1782, Giunta 604 “America does not ask”: BF journal, Bigelow, 9:287–88 604–5 “He belongs”: Vergennes to Montmorin, May 11, 1782, Giunta 605 “A, a stranger”: BF journal, Bigelow, 9:295–96 606 “I see … were gone”: Bagatelles, 104–5 606 The Morals of Chess, ibid., 108–12 608 “From him”: to Deane, Mar 2, 1776 609–10 “as repugnant … to government”: in Samuel Flagg Bemis, “British Secret Service and the French-American Alliance,” AHR 29 (1924), 474–95 610 “You are surrounded”: from Juliana Ritchie, Jan 12, 1777 610–11 610–11 “As it is impossible”: to Ritchie, Jan 19, 1777 611 “If the rascals”: P.J.G Cabanis, Oeuvres (Paris, 1825), 5:230, 248; Esmond Wright, Franklin of Philadelphia (Cambridge, Mass., 1986), 296 611 “If I were not”: from Burke, Aug 15, 1781, Smyth, 8:317–19 611 “Since the foolish”: to Burke, Oct 15, 1781, Smyth 612 “Difficulties remain”: from Burke, Feb 28, 1782, Smyth, 8:320 612 “the United States of America”: Political, Miscellaneous, and Philosophical Pieces, ed Benjamin Vaughan (London, 1779), title page and vi 612 “Be assured”: to Joseph Banks, Sept 9, 1782, Bigelow 612 “Supplement”: Smyth, 8:437–40 614 “The form”: to Charles Dumas, May 3, 1782, Smyth 614 “the most important”: Fox to Thomas Grenville, May 21, 1782, Giunta 614 “trembled for the news”: Adams to Livingston, Sept 23, 1782, Giunta 615 “They want to treat”: BF journal, Bigelow, 9:315 615–16 “an air … each other”: ibid., 329–31 616–17 “necessary … imagine”: Oswald to Shelburne, July 10, 1782, Giunta 618 “speedily concluded”: Shelburne to Oswald, July 27, 1782, Giunta 618 “This Court”: Jay to Livingston, Sept 18, 1782, Giunta 618 “firmness and independence … same system”: Adams Papers, 3:38, 82 620 “After much”: to Jonathan Shipley, June 10, 1782, Bigelow 27 SAVANT: 1783–85 621 “Let us now”: to Shipley, Mar 17, 1783, Bigelow 622 “Our Revolution”: to Price, Aug 16, 1784, Bigelow 622 “the contemplation”: to Edward Newenham, Oct 2, 1783, Bigelow 622 “My dear friend”: to Strahan, Aug 19, 1784, Bigelow 623 “The remissness”: to Morris, Dec 25, 1783, Bigelow 624 “You tell me”: to Cooper, Dec 26, 1783, Bigelow 624 “the great”: to Thomson, May 13, 1784, Bigelow 624 “Is not the hope”: to Vaughan, July 26, 1784, Bigelow 625 “Meteorological Imaginations”: Bigelow, 10:323–26 626 “Universal space”: to David Rittenhouse, June 25, 1784, Bigelow 627 “In which case”: to Crèvecoeur, Bigelow, 10:363–65 627 “By this means”: to George Whately, May 23, 1785, Smyth 628 “Not less than”: to Joseph Banks, Aug 30, 1783, Bigelow 628–29 “All Paris”: to Banks, Dec 1, 1783, Bigelow 629 “a new epoch”: to Richard Price, Aug 16, 1784, Bigelow 629 “It is a serious thing”: to Ingenhousz, Jan 16, 1784, Bigelow 629 “The people were furious”: Benjamin Franklin Bache diary, July 11, 1784, APS 630 “What good”: Correspondance Littéraire, Philosophique et Critique par Grimm, 631 Diderot, Raynal, Meister, etc (Paris, 1877–82), 13:349 630 “Convincing sovereigns”: to Jan Ingenhousz, Jan 16, 1784, Smyth 631 “In heaven”: Claude-Ann Lopez, Mon Cher Papa, 170 631–32 “There being”: to la Sabliere de la Condamine, Mar 19, 1784, Smyth 632 “Touch them”: Lopez, Mon Cher Papa, 175 633 “The report”: to William Temple Franklin, Aug 25, 1784, Smyth 633 “I am pestered”: to Thomson, Mar 9, 1784, Smyth 633 Information to Those Who Would Remove to America: Bagatelles, 77–88 635 “I am rather”: from Vergennes, Dec 15, 1782, Giunta 635 “It was certainly”: to Vergennes, Dec 17, 1782, Giunta 636 “storm of indignation”: Alleyne Fitzherbert to Henry Strachey, Dec 19, 1782, Giunta 636 “It passed … consideration”: Vergennes to Luzerne, Dec 21, 1782, Giunta 637 “that the King”: Madison’s notes, Mar 12–15, 1783, Giunta 637 “the gout and gravel”: to Samuel Chase, Jan 6, 1784, Smyth 637 “I cannot bear”: to Thomas Mifflin, June 16, 1784, Smyth 637 “My face”: to Jane Mecom, Oct 25, 1779 637 “Repose”: to John and Mrs Jay, May 13, 1784, Smyth 637 “Mr Jay”: to Henry Laurens, Apr 29, 1784, Smyth 638 “I may then”: to WF, Aug 16, 1784, Smyth 638 “If all”: to Whately, Aug 21, 1784, Smyth 638 “I hope”: to Morris, Mar 7, 1783, Smyth 638 “Mr Jay”: to Laurens, Apr 29, 1784, Smyth 639 “the ornament”: Writings of Jefferson, 8:24 639 “Justice”: to Vaughan, Mar 14, 1785, Smyth 640 “I think it”: Bigelow, 10:299–300 641 “I went home”: “To the Authors of the Journal of Paris,” Smyth 9:183–89 28 HOME: 1785–86 644 “A few”: Smyth, 8:650–51 644 “The name”: to Francis Maseres, June 26, 1785, Smyth 645 “revive that affectionate”: Sheila Skemp, William Franklin, 269 645 “Dear Son”: to WF, Aug 16, 1784, Smyth 645 “Let us now”: to Shipley, Mar 17, 1783, Smyth 645–46 “Nothing has”: to WF, Aug 16, 1784, Smyth 646 “You are permitted”: from John Jay, Mar 8, 1785, LC 647 “They press me”: to Sally and Richard Baches, May 10, 1785, Smyth 647 “This minister”: Vergennes to Marbois, May 10, 1785, Giunta 647 “I think”: to Ferdinand Grand, Mar 5, 1786, Smyth 647 “When he left”: James Parton, Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin (Boston, 1884), 2:531 647 “who walk very easy”: to Jonathan Shipley, undated, Yale 647 “I have perused”: Journal of journey from Paris to Philadelphia, Bigelow 11:191 648 “My heart”: Lopez, Mon Cher Papa, 299–301 648 “I cannot … love me some”: ibid., 299–300 649 “Had I been”: from Charles de Castries, July 10, 1785, Bigelow 649 “I feel”: Lopez, Mon Cher Papa, 301 649 “I went”: BF journal, Bigelow, 11:194–95 649 “I trust”: to WF, Aug 16, 1784, Smyth 650 “my fate”: Skemp, William Franklin, 271 650 “The captain”: BF journal, Bigelow, 11:196 650 “We all left”: from Catherine Shipley, Aug 2, 1785, Bigalow 651 “the thermometer”: to David Le Roy, Aug 1785, Smyth 652 “In traveling”: to Jan Ingenhousz, Aug 28, 1785, Smyth 652 “With the flood”: BF journal, Bigelow, 11:196–97 653 “generally agreed”: Harry M Tinkcom, “The Revolutionary City, 1765–1783,” in Philadelphia, ed Russell Weigley, 154 655 “The ease”: to Paine, Sept 27, 1785, Smyth 655 “The people”: to Edward Newenham, Oct 3, 1785, LC 655 “Old as I am”: to Williams, Feb 16, 1786, Smyth 655 “I apprehend”: to Paine, Sept 27, 1785, Smyth 655 “I am now so well”: to the John and Sarah Jay, Sept 21, 1785, Smyth 655 “The stone”: to Daniel Roberdeau, Mar 25, 1786, Smyth 656 “I am now”: to the Jays, Sept 21, 1765, Smyth 656 “They are”: to Shipley, Feb 24, 1786, Smyth 657 “He ne’er cared”: to Whately, May 23, 1785, Smyth 658 “Though your reasonings”: to (Paine?), July 3, 1786, Smyth 658 “I am encouraged”: Webster to Washington, Mar 31, 1786, Papers of Washington 659 “I wonder”: to Grand, July 11, 1786, Smyth 659 “I conjecture”: to Thomson, Jan 25, 1787, Smyth 660 “The Assembly”: to d’Estaing, Apr 15, 1787, Smyth 660 “My own estate”: to Grand, Jan 29, 1786, Smyth 660 “I propose”: to Jane Mecom, Sept 21, 1786, Smyth 661 “an old man’s amusement”: to Grand, Apr 22, 1787, Smyth 661 “The affairs”: to Veillard, Apr 15, 1787, Smyth 661 “He appeared”: Letters of Rush, 1:389–90 662 “The accumulation”: Tinkcom, “Revolutionary City,” 159 662 “It is expected”: Letters of Rush, 1:409 663 “The conductor”: to Landriani, Oct 14, 1787, Smyth 663 “I lament”: to Jane Mecom, Sept 20, 1787, Smyth 664 “This field”: Carl Van Doren, Benjamin Franklin, 737 664 “amuses himself”: to Lafayette, Apr 17, 1787, Smyth 664 “He sits”: Jeremy Belknap in William Parker Cutler, Life, Journals and Correspondence of Rev Manasseh Cutler (Cincinnati, 1888), 2:234 664 “I have found”: to Mary Hewsom, May 6, 1786, Smyth 29 SUNRISE AT DUSK: 1786–87 666 “Your newspapers”: to William Hunter, Nov 24, 1786, Smyth 667 “That there should be”: to Lafayette, Apr 17, 1787, Smyth 667 “Our public affairs”: to Abbés Chalut and Arnaud, Apr 17, 1787, Smyth 667–68 “How inconsistent … the o cers”: Washington address, Mar 15, 1783 (and footnote), Writings of Washington; Douglas Southall Freeman, George Washington, 5:433–35 668 “order of hereditary”: to Sarah Bache, Jan 26, 1784, Smyth 670 “a party of madmen … this mob”: David P Szatmary, Shays’ Rebellion (Amherst, 1980), 71–81 670–71 “most fatal … property”: The Boisterous Sea of Liberty, ed David Brion Davis and Stephen Mintz, 227 671 “Good God!”: Washington to Knox, Dec 26, 1786, Papers of Washington 672 “render the federal constitution”: Records of Convention, 3:14 672 “It seems probable”: Madison to Edmund Pendleton, Feb 24, 1787, Writings of Madison 672 “some disorderly people”: to Chevalier de Chastellux, Apr 17, 1787, Smyth 673 “I hope good”: to Jefferson, Apr 19, 1787, Smyth 673 “Your presence”: to Washington, Apr 3, 1787, Papers of Washington 673 “by any commercial”: Catherine Drinker Bowen, Miracle at Philadelphia (Boston, 1966), 22 674 “We have here”: to Thomas Jordan, May 18, 1787, Smyth 674 “If you will”: Records of Convention, 3:85 674–75 “The nomination”: ibid., 1:4 675 “Dr Franklin”: ibid., 3:91 676 “There are”: ibid., 1:81–85 677 “The motion”: ibid., 1:85 677 “How has it happened”: Smyth, 9:600–1 679 “bastard brat … within himself”: Bowen, Miracle, 108–9 679 “deservedly celebrated”: Records of Convention, 3:89 679 “I believe”: ibid., 1:299–300 680 “A single person’s”: ibid., 1:102–3 681 “Some contend”: ibid., 1:471 681 “Are not the large”: ibid., 1:491–92 681 “This country”: ibid., 1:530 682 “The diversity”: ibid., 1:488–89 682 “There was no curiosity”: William Cutler, Life, Journals and Correspondence of Rev Manasseh Cutler, 1:267–69; 2:363 684 “Gentlemen … alarmed”: Records of Convention, 3:86–87 684–85 “The Doctor”: Cutler, Life, Journals and Correspondence of Manasseh Cutler, 1:269–70 686 “A veritable torture”: Bowen, Miracle, 97 686 “so weak”: to Jones, July 22, 1787, Smyth 686–87 “What was the practice”: Records of Convention, 2:65 687 “contrary to”: ibid., 2:120 687 “It is of great”: ibid., 2:204–5 687 “to debase”: ibid., 2:249 688 “not against”: ibid., 2:236–37 688 “generally virulent”: ibid., 2:348 688 “We seem”: ibid., 2:542 689 “I confess”: ibid., 2:641–43 690 “Done in Convention”: ibid 691 “Whilst the last”: ibid., 2:648 30 TO SLEEP: 1787–90 692 “It is now”: Washington to Lafayette, Sept 18, 1787, Papers of Washington 693 “As I enter …fruits of it”: Jackson Turner Main, The Anti-Federalists (New York, 1974), 122, 129, 132–34 694 “The smaller”: The Federalist Papers, ed Andrew Hacker (New York, 1964), 22–23 694 “very great satisfaction”: The Documentary History of the Rati cation of the Constitution, ed Merrill Jensen (Madison, Wis., 1976–), 2:60 695 “highly reverenced … old age”: Independent Gazetteer, Oct 5, 1787, and Freeman’s Journal, Oct 17, 1787; in The Documentary History, 2:160, 185 695 “Doctor Franklin’s”: Madison to Washington, Dec 20, 1787, Papers of Washington 695 “Three and twenty”: Richard Miller, “The Federal City, 1783–1800,” in Philadelphia, ed Russell Weigley, 164 696 “I beg”: Lemay, 1144–48 696 “Independence … President”: Miller, “Federal City,” 164–65 697 “I must own”: to Jane Mecom, Nov 4, 1787, Smyth 697 “Some tell me”: to Mecom, Sept 20, 1787, Smyth 697 “a very great pleasure”: to John Lathrop, May 31, 1788, Smyth 698 “They are wonderfully”: to Mecom, Aug 3, 1789, Smyth 698 “as I find”: to Alexander Small, Feb 19, 1787, Bigelow 698 “I thank you”: to Vaughan, Nov 2, 1789, Bigelow 698 “As the roughness”: to Buffon, Nov 19, 1787, Smyth 699 “Our ancient”: to Bowdoin, May 31, 1788, Smyth 700 “Remarks Concerning”: Lemay, 969–74 701 “The bad people”: Smyth, 9:523–25 701 “always very friendly”: to John Jay, July 6, 1786, Smyth 702 “prejudicial”: to the Public Advertiser, Jan 30, 1770 702 “some generous”: PBF, 19:187–88 703 “Slavery is such”: Lemay, 1154–55 704 “Our grand machine”: to Carroll, May 25, 1789, Smyth 704–5 “I have long”: to John Lathrop, May 31, 1788, Smyth 705 “The arrêt”: to Louis Le Veillard, June 8, 1788, Smyth 705 “The revolution”: to Vaughan, Nov 2, 1789, Smyth 705 “It is now”: to Jean-Baptiste Le Roy, Nov 13, 1789, Smyth 705 “I hope”: to Samuel Moore, Nov 5, 1789, Smyth 705–6 “The convulsions”: to Hartley, Dec 4, 1789, Smyth 706 “But in this world”: to Le Roy, Nov 13, 1789, Smyth 706 “I can give”: to Le Veillard, Sept 5, 1789, Smyth 706 “which, calling”: to Abbé Morellet, Dec 10, 1788, Smyth 706 “Canada—delenda est”: BF notes to himself, n.d [1790], LC 706 “As much”: from Stiles, Jan 28, 1790, Smyth, 10:85–86 706 “It is the first”: to Stiles, Mar 9, 1790, Smyth 708 “Is it supposed”: Smyth, 10:59 708 “the chapeau bras”: Smyth, 10:31 708 “Mankind”: Parton, Franklin, 2:609–10 709 “put me in mind”: to the Federal Gazette, Mar 23, 1790, Smyth 709 “Would to God”: from Washington, Sept 23, 1789, Smyth, 10:41–42 710 “At Philadelphia”: Writings of Jefferson, 1:161–62 710 “The evening”: Rush to Richard Price, Apr 24, 1790, Letters of Rush EPILOGUE: APRIL 17, 1990 713 “to such young”: Last will and testament, Smyth, 10:493ff 713 “Everyone”: Boston Globe, Apr 17, 1990 714 “in the true spirit”: United Press International, Apr 18, 1990 715 “He has returned”: Alfred Aldridge, Franklin and His French Contemporaries, 213 715 “A man is dead”: ibid., 230 715 “The Body”: PBF, 1:111 716 “Benjamin and Deborah Franklin”: Smyth, 10:508 716 “A republic”: Records of Convention, 3:85 Acknowledgments For their help in the various tasks required to produce this book, the author would like to thank Roger Scholl of Doubleday; Roy Goodman of the American Philosophical Society; Ellen Cohn, Jonathan Dull, Claude-Anne Lopez, and Kate Ohno of the Benjamin Franklin Collection at Yale University; Laura Beardsley of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; J A Leo Lemay of the University of Delaware (for graciously making his Franklin materials available on the Internet); and James Hornfischer, my agent FIRST ANCHOR BOOKS EDITION, MARCH 2002 Copyright © 2000 by H W Brands All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions Published in the United States by Anchor Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, in 2000 Anchor Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc The Library of Congress has cataloged the Doubleday edition as follows: Brands, H W The first American: the life and times of Benjamin Franklin / H.W Brands.—1st ed p cm eISBN: 978-0-307-75494-3 Franklin, Benjamin, 1706–1790 Statesman—United States—Biography United States—Politics and government—To 1775 United States—Politics and government—1775–1783 Printers—United States—Biography Scientists—United States—Biography I Title E302.6.F8 B83 2000 973.3′092—dc21 [B] 00-027930 www.anchorbooks.com v3.0 ... Benjamin, who was named for his father’s next-older and favorite brother, was the eighth child of his mother and the fteenth of his father He was born on January 6, 1705, by the calendar then... seventh child, the father—after the practical, if unromantic, fashion of the age —wasted little time mourning her; within six months he was married to Abiah He was thirty-two; she was ten years... foodstu s and other raw and partially processed materials from elsewhere in North America Only when the coldest weather encased the harbor in ice did the tra c cease Scores of wharves lined the waterfront