New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1859-03-11
MR, EVERETT ON FRANKLIN.
The report which we published yesterday of Mr..
Eyeretts GRAFTON on Franklin contains the following

The report whi.h we published yesterday of Mr.
Eyeretts GRAFTON on Franklin contains the following
passage:
Norhsm n.he the Genital county Of Ensnd the
c,ubtj from which WshiD The father Of Ben
within Thirty miles Of each other IN the Enssnt and
about the middle Of the Seventeenth Century both emses
fortune. beyond the deep Historians overlooked
20 % here went over to the New World The Of
luton,
There is we are afraid, great deal more Of
oratory than of history in this "curous fact" or,
more exactly this striking statement. All things
considered, it u.s. perhaps, not so strange that his-
toIans should have overlooked it. George Wash
iDgtons ereat-grandfather John Washington, emf
grated to Virginia in the year 1867. His father
and grandfather lived in Northamptonshire, and
perhaps he did in lis younger days but he came
last from Yorkshire Josiah Franklin, the father
Of Bepjsmin Franklin, according to the sons auto.
biography, married young, aud carried his wife and
three children to New England about 1888. 1t
would therefore seem quite doubtful whether
Josiah Franklin was even born when John Wash
ipqton-not the grandfather, bu. the great grand
That Washir gto,.'s grandfather was not then born
is evident from the fact that John Washington
married after his emigration. Historically speak.
ing, there does not seem TO be much in this won
deIful coincidence.
There is another passage in the same Grafton
which is WORTHY of notice, as being altogether
more in the oratorca than in the historical pbio
sOphicd vein. 1t appears to be implied BY the
enthusiastic orator that the birth Of Franklin was
necessary TO the electrical discoveries in which
be took 50 prominent part, and even to the sue
cess Of tie American Revolution. This, however,
We apprehend, is bu. q specimen OF that hero
worship by which, in all sges and nations, certain
Individual men are made to ecIpse-in the eyes of
gaping sdorers-God, providence, and the eternal
and Inevitable laws Of human progress; being eI-
slted by an inconsiderate admiration into the
Efficient causes Of events of which they only the
instruments, and which woald equally have oc.
cured had they never been born. The greatest men
are but as single waves among the innumerable ones
OF the ocesn Of time, at the most only Little over
topping their fellows raised by the same momentum
that moves the whole mass, and generally owing
their fame to course Of esenta which they neither
originate nor control. Franklin was remarkable
msn, but had Franklin never lived, the identity OF
electricity and lightning would just Is certainly
have been discovered about the middle OF the
eighteenth century, and the independence Of the
United States achieved during the latter half Of It,
This, however, is perhaps 10 more than she
allowable licerse Of the panegyTicsl orator; AID If
Mr.. Everett as to some matters sgerates. there
10 one, at least as 10 which he rather behttles his
subject. Abiding TO Franklin's comrannicat;ons
to The Ner- Engtsnd Cerrani, he remarked with
empha,is, that I'm. hin did cot d.adain 10 become