Rock Island Argus., 1906-01-15

dice against him. None of the other
American representatives even ap.
proa ched his popularity. Lee was final
IL recalled, Silas Deane was disgraced,
John Adams failed to please, and
Franklin was left to represent the colo
nies alone. The services lie rendered
at the court of France can never be
overestimated. He >has been credited,
and no doubt rightfuIly, with having
been the most considerable influence in
securing Frances intervention in our
behalf He certainly secured loans in
Vulnerable. arms and ammunition for
the struggling colonists. Whenever con-
gress needed money, which was quite
often, 1t drew on Franklin, and he
never failed to meet the drafts.
His crowning services as diplomat
were in signing the treaty of peace
with Great Britain. BY his influence
and tact ne secured more favorable
terms than could have been got by an
other. 1t was he who insisted on hold
ing the territory west of the Allegha-
nies. At the end of the diplomatic Dat
tie Ii was seen that Franklin and his
fellow American ENJOYS had scored a
substantial triumph. The signing Of
that document made new natioD I'M
der the sun, and the sage who had
done so much 10 bring the republic to
birth soon hastened back to its well
coming shore. Before leaving, how
ever, he ended his diplomatic career
by signing treaty with Prussia.
The record of this versatile man as
statesman is fully as conspicuous as
the part he played in other fields. He
was always Interested in public ques-
tons. He was clerk of the PennSyl-
vania assembly for years and after
ward a member of that body. He was
postmaster OF Philadelphia, assistant
postmaster general of the colonies and
postmaster general after independence
was declared.
He was a colonel in the French and
Indian war, though he participated in
no battle. He was a member of the
Albany convention about the time of
that war and proposed the first plan
of union for the colonies. which was
the forerunner of the union under
which they gained freedom. He was
a member of the Continental congress,
one OF the committee appointed to draft
the Declaration OF Independence and
one of its signers. He was one of the
members of the constitutional conven-
ton. where he was known as the peace
maker and where his tact and finesse
were in daily requisition to bring about
an agreement between the bitterly con-
tending factions. He proposed the plan
of congressional and senatorial repre-
sentation which finally made it posi-
BILE for the factions to get together.
For a time Franklin held the Office
that corresponded to the Governorship
Of Pennsylvania. He founded the Phil
adelphia Public library He founded
the American Philosophical society.
He founded a school that grew into the
University of Pennsylvania. He en-
dowed scholarships and left a sum Of
money to bear interest for a hundred
years, which was partly used to build
q great manual training school in BOs-
ton. He was ever busy in some work
to benefit mankind.
His last public act was to sign
memorial to congress against slavery.
He was president of the antislavery
society that drafted this memorial, by
the way. and his last paper. and one Of
tack upon 1t.
He died in 1890. year after Wash
ington had been inaugurated president.
The new nation was safe. His work
was done. A very inconspicuous slab
is all that marks his grave. That is as
he would have it. Let those have mon-
uments who need them.
Perhaps no SIX etch of Benjamin Frank
lin would be complete without quoting
his epitaph, written in youth, and his
hanging remark. The epitaph runs like
this: The body of Benjamin Franklin,
printer, like the cover OF an old book,
Its contents torn out and stripped of Its
lettering and gliding. lies here, food for
worms. But the work shall not be lost,
for it will, as he believed, appear once
more In a new and more elegant edi-
ton, revised and corrected by the Au-
thor"
The hanging remark was made in the |
second Continental congress. Presi- |