Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Michel-Alain Chartier de Lotbinière, 10 March 1755
From: Lotbinière, Michel-Alain Chartier de
To: Franklin, Benjamin

[In margin: FF]
  Mr. Benjamin franklin a filadelphie dans la pinsylvanie
Monsieur,
du 10 mars 1755
J’etois a paris en 1752 lorsque Les experiences sur lelectricité que vous aviez communiqué a Mr. Collinson parurent traduite en nôtre langue. Je fus temoin De l’admiration qu’elles causerent dans cette Capitale. Je suivois pour lors un Cours de phisique chez Mr. L’abbé Nollet qui nous en repeta plusieures bien singulieres; comme il n’est point douteux que vos découvertes en ce genre nayent eté multipliées a linfinie depuis le tems, je serois au désespoir etant près de vous comme je le suis qu’elles fussent porté a nos phisiciens de paris par d’autres que moy; l’abbé Nollet surtout qui craint de n’etre point informé de tous vos progrés en cette partie m’engage fort a ne rien négliger pour entretenir vôtre corresponddance et a lui faire part de tout ce que j’aurai appris de vous; vous pouvez Monsieur vous assurer que j’aurai grande attention a lui faire passer éxactement ce que vous m’aurez addressé lorsque les occasions me le permettront; comme nous n’avons icy que de mauvais traducteur de vôtre langue s’il vous etoit possible de menvoyer en françois ce que vous voudrez bien me communiquer je vous serai infiniment obligé.
Je me servirai pour vous faire passer mes lettres De Mr. De Couagne negotiant a Montreal qui est celui a qui je connois plus de relations dans la nouvelle Angletere; et je ne doute point que vous nayez a vous louer de son exactitude. Mon addresse est Mr. De Lotibiniere officier des troupes de la marine Detachées pour le Canada a québec. Si je puis recevoir quelques instrumens De paris je mattacherai a repeter quelques expériences et si jetes assez heureux pour trouver du nouveau je vous en ferois part a linstant même.
Je suis avec beaucoup d’attachement et de respect Mr. etc.


Title: Scheme of the Second Academy Lottery, 11 March 1755
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To:

Before their lottery for 3000 pieces of eight (see above, p. 435) was drawn, the trustees of the Academy of Philadelphia, encouraged by the approval of a charter making their institution a college (issued on May 14), announced a second lottery, to raise 9375 pieces of eight for maintenance, scientific apparatus, and endowment of salaries. Tickets sold slowly — it was the summer of Braddock’s defeat: the first class was not drawn until August 18 and 19, and the fourth class not until June 1756. Except for the second and third paragraphs explaining the purpose of the lottery and the hopes of its promoters, and the paragraphs near the end giving the date of the first drawing and the names and functions of the managers, this paper is identical with the Scheme of the Second Philadelphia Lottery, 1748, for the benefit of the Association (see above, III, 288–96).

Scheme Of a Lottery, to raise 9375 Pieces of Eight, for the Use of the College, Academy and Charity-School of Philadelphia.
This Lottery consists of 7500 Tickets, and is divided into four Classes, to be drawn at four different Times. Each Ticket is divided into four Billets, one for each Class. The Price of each Billet is, for the first Class one Piece of Eight, for the second two Pieces of Eight, for the third three Pieces of Eight, and for the fourth four Pieces of Eight.
The yearly Expence of supporting the Academy, and paying the necessary Salaries, being found to exceed considerably the Income from the Scholars, the Trustees propose this Lottery for these Purposes, viz.
1. To repair and glaize the Hall, and fit it for the Accommodation of the Auditories at the Time of publick Exercises, and Commencements, when the Students in the College take their Degrees. 2. To purchase a compleat Apparatus for Experimental Philosophy, with such Books in that Science as are most necessary. 3. To purchase some Ground-rents, towards establishing a perpetual Fund for the Payment of Salaries; and for the Support of the two Charity Schools, in which 70 poor Boys, under a Master and Assistant, are now taught to read, write, and cast Accounts; and 40 Girls, under a Mistress and Assistant, are taught to read, knit, sew, &c. and likewise to write under the Charity Master. Most of these Children, tho’ between 8 and 13 Years of Age when admitted, had never been at any School, and it is thought must have been brought up in entire Ignorance, if it had not been for this Institution; which was begun, supported, and now greatly enlarged, entirely at the Expence of private Persons, tho’ solely calculated for the Benefit of the Publick, and the Honour of the Province.
As therefore this Lottery is proposed for the most useful and charitable Purposes, it is hoped that it will meet with due Encouragement; for even its Blanks may be deemed Prizes, as the Satisfaction arising from a Consciousness of doing Good, is, to benevolent Minds, far more valuable than Money.
The First Class, at one Piece of Eight, each Billet.

Prizes.
Value in Pieces of Eight.

Sum in Do.

1
of
500
is
500

2
of
250
are
500

3
of
100
are
300

3
of
80
are
240

4
of
40
are
160

10
of
20
are
200

10
of
10
are
100

125
of
4
are
500

750
of
2
are
1500

2
The first and last drawn, each
10
are
20

2

The Tickets drawn next before and after the Prize of 500, each
}

10
  are
   20

912
Prizes

4040

Cash Dr. received on 7500 Tickets, 7500 Pieces,

Cr. paid in Prizes, – – – –
4040

Remains 3460 to be carried to the Fourth Class.

The Second Class, at two Pieces of Eight each Billet.

Prizes.
Value in Pieces of Eight.

Sum in Do.

1
of
750
is
750

1
of
500
is
500

2
of
250
are
500

3
of
150
are
450

4
of
100
are
400

6
of
80
are
480

10
of
50
are
500

12
of
40
are
480

25
of
20
are
500

10
of
15
are
150

45
of
10
are
450

50
of
6
are
300

250
of
4
are
1000

750
of
3
are
2250

2
The first and last drawn, each
15
are
30

    2
The Tickets drawn next before and after the 750, each
15
  are
  30

2
The Tickets drawn next before and after the 500, each
  10
  are
   20

1176
  Prizes, – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
– – – –
– – – –
– – – –  8810

Cash Dr. received on 7500 Tickets, 15000 Pieces,

Cr. paid in Prizes,  – – – –

8810

Remains
6190 to be carried to the Fourth Class.

The Third Class, at three Pieces of Eight each Billet.

Prizes.
Value in Pieces of Eight.

Sum in Do.

1
of
1000
is
1000

1
of
750
is
750

1
of
500
is
500

2
of
400
are
800

3
of
250
are
750

5
of
150
are
750

8
of
100
are
800

10
of
60
are
600

15
of
40
are
600

20
of
30
are
600

47
of
20
are
940

141
of
10
are
1410

250
of
6
are
1500

750
of
4
are
3000

2
The first and last drawn, each
  20
  are
  40

  2
  The Tickets drawn next before and after the 1000, each
  20
  are
  40

2
  The Tickets drawn next before and after the 750, each
15
  are
  30

    2
  The Tickets drawn next before and after the 500, each
  10
  are
   20

1262
  Prizes – – – – – – – –
  – – – – –
  – – – – –
  – – – – 14130

Cash Dr. received on 7500 Tickets,
  22500
  Pieces,

Cr. paid in Prizes,  – – – – –

  14130

  Remains 8370 to be carried to the Fourth Class.

The Fourth and Last Class, at four Pieces of Eight each Billet.

Prizes.
Value in Pieces of Eight.

Sum in Do.

1
of
1500
is
1500

2
of
1000
are
2000

3
of
750
are
2250

4
of
500
are
2000

6
of
400
are
2400

10
of
250
are
2500

10
of
150
are
1500

15
of
100
are
1500

20
of
80
are
1600

30
of
60
are
1800

24
of
50
are
1200

60
of
40
are
2400

1248
of
20
are
24960

  2
The first and last drawn, each
50
  are
  100

  2
The Tickets drawn next before and after the 1500, each
  30
  are
  60

  4
The Tickets drawn next before and after the two of 1000, each
  20
  are
  80

  6
The Tickets drawn next before and after the three of 750, each
  15
  are
  90

 8
The Tickets drawn next before and after the four of 500, each
  10
  are
   80

1455
  Prizes,– – – – – –
– – –
  – –
48020

Cash Dr. received on 7500 Tickets,

30000

Paid more than received in this Class,

18020

Being what was brought forward from the preceding Classes.

State of the Account of the Four Classes, viz.

Received.
Pieces of Eight.
Pieces.

For 7500 Billets in first Class, at
1 each,
  7500

  For Ditto, in second Class, at
  2 each,
  15000

  For Ditto, in third Class, at
  3 each,
  22500

  For Ditto, in fourth Class, at
  4 each,
  30000

75000

Prizes paid.
Amounting to

In first Class,
912
4040

In second Class,
1176
8810

In third Class,
1254
14130

In fourth Class,
1455
48020

75000

Twelve and a Half per Cent. deducted from 75000 Pieces of Eight, is 9375 Pieces, to be applied to the Use of the College, Academy and Charity-School.
  Explanation.
A Lottery, in the common Form, is subject to these Inconveniences. If the Price of each Ticket be high, many, who would have been Purchasers, are discouraged and excluded. If low, the Number of Tickets must be great, and that occasions the Drawing to take up more Time, which encreases the Expence, and is an Injury to many, who neglect other Business to attend it. If the Capital of the Lottery is large, ’tis an Inconveniency that so much Money as is necessary to fill it, should be damm’d up, and restrained from being current in Trade, till the whole is compleated, and all the Lottery drawn.
The present Scheme is calculated to remedy these Inconveniences. It divides the Lottery into four distinct Classes, to be drawn at four different Times, and is so contrived, as that all the four Drawings will take but little more Time than one Drawing would do in the common Way. The Price of a Ticket is also divided into four gradual Payments, to be made, if the Buyer pleases, at four different and distant Times. The first Entry is low and easy, and if the Adventurer is successful in the first Class, he is enabled as well as encouraged to go on. And a very great Part of the Money is to return several Times into the Hands of the People, before the Conclusion.
The four Billets into which each Ticket is divided, are all of the same Number, but of different Prizes, according to the several Classes to which they belong.
Every Adventurer in the first Class, receives a Billet for each Piece of Eight he pays, entitling the Bearer to such Prize in that Class as may be drawn against its Number, subject to no Deduction, unless the Prize be Twenty Pieces of Eight, or upwards. For a like Billet in the second Class he pays Two Pieces of Eight. For a Billet in the third Class three Pieces of Eight; and four for a Billet in the fourth Class: So that the Price of a whole Ticket, to go through the Lottery, is Ten Pieces of Eight.
Adventurers in the first Class have a Right to go thro’ the subsequent Classes, but are not obliged to do it. If any neglect or decline taking out, or paying the Price of their Billets for a subsequent Class, till within three Days of the Drawing of such Class, the common Stock is to have the Benefit of it to the End; unless such Adventurers have left equivalent Prizes for that Purpose in the Hands of the Managers, which is the same Thing as paying: And the greatest Number of Prizes in the first, second, and third Classes, are made just the Price of a Billet in the Class next succeeding, that such Prizes may defray the Charge of new Billets, without the Trouble of paying Money.
A sum equal to Twelve and a Half per Cent. on the whole, is to be deducted from the fortunate Tickets for the Use of the Academy and Charity School: But as it would occasion Trouble in making Change, and be otherwise inconvenient, if such Deduction was to be made from the smaller Prizes, (which indeed cannot so well afford it) therefore nothing is deducted from any Prize that is under Twenty Pieces of Eight. And the Prizes are so calculated and order’d, that 15 per Cent. which is to be deducted from such as are Twenty Pieces of Eight, and upwards, is equal to Twelve and a Half per Cent. on the Whole, and no more. Thus this Lottery is Two and a Half per Cent. more advantageous to Adventurers, than any that have lately been made on this Continent. And there are yet several other Advantages; for, in the first Place, the Adventurer’s whole Ticket cannot be struck dead at a Blow, as in common Lotteries. If he has a Blank in the first Class, ’tis a Blank only of one Tenth of his Ticket, and he has still three good Chances left for the remaining nine Tenths, every Chance better than the preceding One, and the last best of all. Then he is under no Necessity of paying the whole Ten Pieces of Eight for each Ticket at once; and, if fortunate in the first Class, may have occasion to advance no more than the first. In former Lotteries, the Price of a Ticket was Thirty, and in some Forty Shillings, the whole to be paid at once, and yet its best Chance was to be doubled but 3 or 400 times: In this Lottery one Piece of Eight may possibly gain several Thousands. And lastly, the Number of Prizes is more than Half the Number of Tickets.

Publick Notice is to be given before each Drawing, of the Time and Place when and where the Numbers and Prizes are to be put into the Wheels, that such Adventurers as think fit may be present if they please.
The Manner of Drawing is this: All the 7500 Numbers are to be put into one Wheel, and well mixed, the Wheel to be frequently turn’d during the Drawing. In the other Wheel are put the Prizes of the first Class, without any Blanks among them. Then a Number is drawn out of one Wheel, and a Prize against it out of the other, till the Prizes are all drawn; so ends the Drawing of the first Class, which may be finished in one Day.
The rest of the Numbers remain in their Wheel, seal’d up, till the Drawing of the second Class.
The Prizes drawn in each Class may be demanded within three Days after the Drawing of that Class is finished.
Six Weeks Time to be allowed between the Drawings, to take out Billets for the succeeding Class, prepare for drawing it, &c.
Before drawing the second Class, all the Numbers drawn out in the first Class are again to be roll’d up and tied, put into the Wheel to the rest, and well mixed among them.
Then the Prizes of the second Class being put into the other Wheel, without Blanks, the Drawing proceeds as in the first Class.
In the same Manner is the third Class managed.
In drawing the fourth and last Class, Blanks are to mixed with the Prizes, so many as to draw out all the Numbers in the Number Wheel, and complete the Whole.
The Drawing of the first Class is to begin on Monday the 23d of June next, without postponing or Delay, or sooner if sooner full; if any Tickets should then remain unsold, they are to be drawn on Account of the Stock.
The following Persons are appointed Managers of this Lottery, viz. Messieurs William Allen, John Inglis, William Masters, Samuel M’Call, junior, Joseph Turner, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Leech, William Shippen, Philip Syng, Phineas Bond, Richard Peters, Abraham Taylor, William Plumsted, Thomas Cadwallader, and Alexander Stedman, who are to give Bond, and be on Oath for the faithful Performance of their Trust.
Prizes not demanded within six Months after the last Drawing, to be deemed as generously given to the common Stock, for the same Use as the Twelve and a Half per Cent. and not to be demanded afterwards, but applied accordingly.
The Tickets are sold by the Managers at their respective Houses.


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to John and Thomas Leverett, 11 March 1755
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Leverett, John,Leverett, Thomas

Sir
Philada. March 11. 1755
Mrs. Franklin is confident that she sent 20 Reams of the Paper I order’d for you, but has no Bill of Lading for it, and has forgot the Captain’s Name. Please to enquire of Mr. Williams, whether it came to him. If not perhaps it was sent per Dole, and Mr. Williams can tell where he usually stores the Goods he leaves in Boston. Lest you should be under any Disappointment, I have this Day shipt you 13 Reams more of the same sort in the Care of my Kinsman Mr. North, which I hope will come safe to hand. It is the finest I have in the House, but if it will not do, give it to Mr. Williams, and I shall soon be able to send some finer. I am, Sir, Your humble Servant
B Franklin

13 Reams at 11s. 6d. per Ream is —————— £7 9s. 6d. Pensilvania Money
Boston January 25th Received of John and Thomas Leverett Seven pounds Nine shillings and Six pence in full for the above Thirteen Reams paper per Mr. Franklins Letter to me to receive the above Sum for his use and for which I am to be accountable to him for.
per Jona. Williams


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Ezra Stiles, 12 March 1755
From: Stiles, Ezra
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Sir
Y.C. [Yale College] Mar. 12. 1755
This accompanies your Letters and Manuscript, which I have perused with very great Pleasure and Admiration. Please to accept my grateful Acknowledgments for them. Must ask your Pardon for not Returning them sooner — but as sundry Gentlemen here were desirous to read them, I hoped your Benevolence and Love of Communicating ingenious Discoveries to Mankind, would forgive me. Without Adulation, am extremely charmed with them; they read with the highest philosophic Delight. I have, with a great deal of Pleasure, read over and explained the Substance of them to my Pupils, and thank you for this Opportunity of Openning them to an Acquaintance with what, will doubtless soon become the most considerable Branch of Natural Philosophy. I much want to have the negative State of Electricity in the Clouds confirmed, by the Experiment you conceived at Dr. Eliots. Please to give my Compliments to Mr. Alison and Mr. Kennersly of whose Humanity I retain a grateful Remembrance. I wish Prosperity to your Academy, and am, Sir, With Gratitude and Honour Your most Obedient Servant
Ezra Stiles
To B Franklin Esqr.

[In the margin:] I should be glad to peruse the 2d part of your Letters, and your Extracts from Bishop Wilkins philosophic Language.


Title: Electrical Experiments, 14 March 1755
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To:

Philadelphia March 14. 1755.
Electrical Experiments, made in pursuance of those per Mr. Canton, dated Decr. 3[6]. 1753. With Explanations by B.F.

Principles.
I. Electric Atmospheres that flow round non electric Bodies, being brought near each other, do not readily mix and unite into one Atmosphere, but remain separate and repel each other.
This is plainly seen in suspended Cork Balls, and other Bodies electrified.
II. An Electric Atmosphere not only repells another Electric Atmosphere, but will also repel the Electric Matter contained in the Substance of a Body approaching it; and without joyning or mixing with it, force it to other Parts of the Body that contained it.
This is shown by some of the following Experiments.
III. Bodies electrified negatively, or deprived of Part of their natural Quantity of Electricity, repel each other (or at least appear to do so, by a mutual Receding) as well as those electrified positively, or which have electric Atmospheres.
This is shewn by applying the negatively charged Wire of a Phial to two Cork Balls suspended by Silk Threads, and by many other Experiments.

Preparation
Fix a Tassel of 15 or 20 Threads, 3 Inches long at one End of a Tin Prime Conductor; (mine is about 5 Feet long, and 4 Inches Diameter) supported by Silk Lines.
Let the Threads be a little damp, but not wet.

Experiment I.
Pass an excited Glass Tube near the other End of the Prime Conductor, so as to give it some Sparks, and the Threads will diverge.
  Because each Thread as well as the Prime Conductor has acquired an electric Atmosphere, which repels and is repelled by the Atmospheres of the other Threads: If those several Atmospheres would readily mix, the Threads might unite and hang in the Middle of one Atmosphere common to them all.
Rub the Tube afresh, and approach the Prime Conductor therewith, crossways, near that End, but not nigh enough to give Sparks, and the Threads will diverge a little more.
  Because the Atmosphere of the Prime Conductor is pressed by the Atmosphere of the excited Tube, and driven towards the End where the Threads are, by which each Thread acquires more Atmosphere.
Withdraw the Tube, and they will close as much.
  They close as much, and no more, because the Atmosphere of the Glass Tube, not having mix’t with the Atmosphere of the Prime Conductor, is withdrawn intire, having made no Addition to, or Diminution from it.
Bring the excited Tube under the Tuft of Threads, and they will close a little.
They close, because the Atmosphere of the Glass Tube repels their Atmospheres, and drives Part of them back on the Prime Conductor.
Withdraw it and they will diverge as much.
  For the Portion of Atmosphere they had lost returns to them again.

Experiment II
Excite the Glass Tube, and approach the Prime Conductor with it, holding it across near the opposite End to that on which the Threads hang, at the Distance of 5 or 6 Inches. Keep it there a few Seconds, and the Threads of the Tassels will diverge. Withdraw it and they will close.
  They diverge because they have received electric Atmospheres, from the electric Matter before contained in the Substance of the Prime Conductor: but which is now repelled and driven away, by the Atmosphere of the Glass Tube, from the Parts of the Prime Conductor opposite and nearest to that Atmosphere, and forced out upon the Surface of the Prime Conductor at it’s other End, and upon the Threads hanging thereto. Were it any Part of the Atmosphere of the Glass Tube that flowed over and along the Prime Conductor to the Threads and gave them Atmospheres (as in the Case when a Spark is given to the Prime Conductor from the Glass Tube) such Part of the Tubes Atmosphere would have remained, and the Threads continue to diverge; but they close, on withdrawing the Tube; because the Tube takes with it all its own Atmosphere, and the Electric Matter which had been driven out of the Substance of the Prime Conductor, and form’d Atmospheres round the Threads, is thereby permitted to return to it’s Place.
Take a Spark from the Prime Conductor, near the Threads, when they are diverged as before, and they will close.
  For by so doing you take away their Atmospheres, composed of the Electric Matter driven out of the Substance of the Prime Conductor, as aforesaid, by the Repellency of the Atmosphere of the Glass Tube. By Taking this Spark you rob the Prime Conductor of part of it’s natural Quantity of the Electric Matter; which Part so taken is not supply’d by the Glass Tube, for when that is afterwards withdrawn, it takes with it it’s whole Atmosphere, and leaves the Prime Conductor electris’d negatively, as appears by the next operation.
Then withdraw the Tube and they will open again.
  For now the Electric Matter in the Prime Conductor, returning to its Equilibrium or equal Diffusion in all Parts of its Substance, and the Prime Conductor having lost some of it’s natural Quantity, the Threads connected with it, lose Part of theirs, and so are electris’d negatively, and therefore repel each other, by Pr. III.
Approach the Prime Conductor with the Tube near the same Place as at first, and they will close again.
  Because the Part of their natural Quantity of Electric Fluid which they had lost is now restored to them again by the Repulsion of the Glass Tube forcing that Fluid to them from other Parts of the Prime Conductor; so they are now again in their natural State.

Withdraw it and they will open again.
  For what had been restored to them is now taken from them again, flowing back into the Prime Conductor, and leaving them once more electris’d negatively.
Bring the excited Tube under the Threads, and they will diverge more.
  Because more of their natural Quantity is driven from them into the Prime Conductor, and thereby their negative Electricity increased.

Experiment III
The Prime Conductor not being electrified, bring the excited Tube under the Tassel, and the Threads will diverge.
  Part of their natural Quantity is thereby driven out of them into the Prime Conductor, and they become negatively electrised, and therefore repell each other.
Keeping the Tube in the same Place with one Hand, attempt to touch the Threads with the Finger of the other Hand, and they will recede from the Finger.
  Because the Finger being plung’d into the Atmosphere of the Glass Tube as well as the Threads, Part of its natural Quantity is driven back thro’ the Hand and Body by that Atmosphere, and the Finger becomes, as well as the Threads, negatively electrised, and so repels and is repelled by them. To confirm this, Hold a Slender light Lock of Cotton two or three Inches long, near a Prime Conductor that is electrified by a Glass Globe or Tube. You will see the Cotton stretch it self out towards the Prime Conductor. Attempt to touch it with the Finger of the other Hand, and it will be repelled by the Finger. Approach it with a positively Charg’d Wire of a Bottle, and it will fly to the Wire. Bring near it a negatively charg’d Wire of a Bottle, it will recede from that Wire in the same manner that it did from the Finger; which demonstrates the Finger to be negatively electrised, as well as the Lock of Cotton so situated.

 Endorsed: Electrical Experiments by B.F.
Read at R.S. 18 Decmb. 1755 Communicated by Mr. Collinson F.R.S. Ph. Trans. Vol. 49. Part 1. p. 300.


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to John Lining, 18 March 1755
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Lining, John

Sir,
Philadelphia, March 18, 1755
I send you enclosed a paper containing some new experiments I have made, in pursuance of those by Mr. Canton that are printed with my last letters. I hope these, with my explanation of them, will afford you some entertainment.
In answer to your several enquiries. The tubes and globes we use here, are chiefly made here. The glass has a greenish cast, but is clear and hard, and, I think, better for electrical experiments than the white glass of London, which is not so hard. There are certainly great differences in glass. A white globe I had made here some years since, would never, by any means, be excited. Two of my friends tried it, as well as myself, without success. At length, putting it on an electric stand, a chain from the prime-conductor being in contact with it, I found it had the properties of a non-electric; for I could draw sparks from any part of it, though it was very clean and dry.
All I know of Domien, is, that by his own account he was a native of Transylvania, of Tartar descent, but a Priest of the Greek church: He spoke and wrote Latin very readily and correctly. He set out from his own country with an intention of going round the world, as much as possible by land. He travelled through Germany, France, and Holland, to England. Resided some time at Oxford. From England he came to Maryland; thence went to New-England; returned by land to Philadelphia; and from hence travelled through Maryland, Virginia, and North-Carolina to you. He thought it might be of service to him in his travels to know something of Electricity. I taught him the use of the tube; how to charge the Leyden phial, and some other experiments. He wrote to me from Charles-Town, that he had lived eight hundred miles upon Electricity, it had been meat, drink, and cloathing to him. His last letter to me was, I think, from Jamaica, desiring me to send the tubes you mention, to meet him, at the Havanah, from whence he expected to get a passage to La Vera Cruz; designed travelling over land through Mexico to Acapulco; thence to get a passage to Manilla, and so through China, India, Persia, and Turkey, home to his own country; proposing to support himself chiefly by Electricity. A strange project! But he was, as you observe, a very singular character. I was sorry the tubes did not get to the Havanah in time for him: If they are still in being, please to send for them, and accept of them. What became of him afterwards I have never heard. He promised to write to me as often as he could on his journey, and as soon as he should get home after finishing his tour. It is now seven years since he was here. If he is still in New Spain, as you imagine from that loose report, I suppose it must be that they confine him there, and prevent his writing: but I think it more likely that he may be dead.
The questions you ask about the pores of glass, I cannot answer otherwise, than that I know nothing of their nature; and suppositions, however ingenious, are often mere mistakes. My hypothesis, that they were smaller near the middle of the glass, too small to admit the passage of Electricity, which could pass through the surface till it came near the middle, was certainly wrong: For soon after I had written that letter, I did, in order to confirm the hypothesis, (which indeed I ought to have done before I wrote it) make an experiment. I ground away five-sixths of the thickness of the glass, from the side of one of my phials, expecting that the supposed denser part being so removed, the electric fluid might come through the remainder of the glass, which I had imagined more open; but I found myself mistaken. The bottle charged as well after the grinding as before. I am now, as much as ever, at a loss to know how or where the quantity of electric fluid, on the positive side of the glass, is disposed of.
As to the difference of conductors, there is not only this, that some will conduct Electricity in small quantities, and yet do not conduct it fast enough to produce the shock; but even among those that will conduct a shock, there are some that do it better than others. Mr. Kinnersley has found, by a very good experiment, that when the charge of a bottle hath an opportunity of passing two ways, i.e. strait through a trough of water ten feet long, and six inches square; or round about through twenty feet of wire, it passes through the wire, and not through the water, though that is the shortest course; the wire being the better conductor. When the wire is taken away, it passes through the water, as may be felt by a hand plunged in the water; but it cannot be felt in the water when the wire is used at the same time. Thus, though a small vial containing water will give a smart shock, one containing the same quantity of mercury will give one much stronger, the mercury being the better conductor; while one containing oil only, will scarce give any shock at all.
Your question, how I came first to think of proposing the experiment of drawing down the lightning, in order to ascertain its sameness with the electric fluid, I cannot answer better than by giving you an extract from the minutes I used to keep of the experiments I made, with memorandums of such as I purposed to make, the reasons for making them, and the observations that arose upon them, from which minutes my letters were afterwards drawn. By this extract you will see that the thought was not so much “an out-of-the-way one,” but that it might have occurred to any electrician.
“Nov. 7, 1749. Electrical fluid agrees with lightning in these particulars: 1. Giving light. 2. Colour of the light. 3. Crooked direction. 4. Swift motion. 5. Being conducted by metals. 6. Crack or noise in exploding. 7. Subsisting in water or ice. 8. Rending bodies it passes through. 9. Destroying animals. 10. Melting metals. 11. Firing inflammable substances. 12. Sulphureous smell. The electric fluid is attracted by points. We do not know whether this property is in lightning. But since they agree in all the particulars wherein we can already compare them, is it not probable they agree likewise in this? Let the experiment be made.”
I wish I could give you any satisfaction in the article of clouds. I am still at a loss about the manner in which they become charged with Electricity; no hypothesis I have yet formed perfectly satisfying me. Some time since, I heated very hot a brass plate, two feet square, and placed it on an electric stand. From the plate a wire extended horizontally four or five feet, and, at the end of it, hung, by linnen threads, a pair of cork balls. I then repeatedly sprinkled water over the plate, that it might be raised from it in vapour, hoping that if the vapour either carried off the electricity of the plate, or left behind it that of the water, (one of which I supposed it must do, if, like the clouds, it became electrised itself, either positively or negatively) I should perceive and determine it by the separation of the balls, and by finding whether they were positive or negative; but no alteration was made at all, nor could I perceive that the steam was itself electrised, though I have still some suspicion that the steam was not fully examined, and I think the experiment should be repeated. Whether the first state of electrised clouds is positive or negative, if I could find the cause of that, I should be at no loss about the other, for either is easily deduced from the other, as one state is easily produced by the other. A strongly positive cloud may drive out of a neighbouring cloud much of its natural quantity of the electric fluid, and, passing by it, leave it in a negative state. In the same way, a strongly negative cloud may occasion a neighbouring cloud to draw into itself from others, an additional quantity, and, passing by it, leave it in a positive state. How these effects may be produced, you will easily conceive, on perusing and considering the experiments in the enclosed paper: And from them too it appears probable, that every change from positive to negative, and from negative to positive, that, during a thunder gust, we see in the cork-balls annexed to the apparatus, is not owing to the presence of clouds in the same state, but often to the absence of positive or negative clouds, that, having just passed, leave the rod in the opposite state.
The knocking down of the six men was performed with two of my large jarrs not fully charged. I laid one end of my discharging rod upon the head of the first; he laid his hand on the head of the second; the second his hand on the head of the third, and so to the last, who held, in his hand, the chain that was connected with the outside of the jarrs. When they were thus placed, I applied the other end of my rod to the prime-conductor, and they all dropt together. When they got up, they all declared they had not felt any stroke, and wondered how they came to fall; nor did any of them either hear the crack, or see the light of it. You suppose it a dangerous experiment; but I had once suffered the same myself, receiving, by accident, an equal stroke through my head, that struck me down, without hurting me: And I had seen a young woman that was about to be electrified through the feet, (for some indisposition) receive a greater charge through the head, by inadvertently stooping forward to look at the placing of her feet, till her forehead (as she was very tall) came too near my prime-conductor: She dropt, but instantly got up again, complaining of nothing. A person so struck, sinks down doubled, or folded together as it were, the joints losing their strength and stiffness at once, so that he drops on the spot where he stood, instantly, and there is no previous staggering, nor does he ever fall lengthwise. Too great a charge might, indeed, kill a man, but I have not yet seen any hurt done by it. It would certainly, as you observe, be the easiest of all deaths.
The experiment you have heard so imperfect an account of, is merely this. I electrified a silver pint cann, on an electric stand, and then lowered into it a cork ball, of about an inch diameter, hanging by a silk string, till the cork touched the bottom of the cann. The cork was not attracted to the inside of the cann as it would have been to the outside, and though it touched the bottom, yet, when drawn out, it was not found to be electrified by that touch, as it would have been by touching the outside. The fact is singular. You require the reason; I do not know it. Perhaps you may discover it, and then you will be so good as to communicate it to me.

   *[Note in printed version:] Mr. F. has since thought, that, possibly, the mutual repulsion of the inner opposite sides of the electrised cann, may prevent the accumulating an electric atmosphere upon them, and occasion it to stand chiefly on the outside. But recommends it to the farther examination of the curious.

 I find a frank acknowledgment of one’s ignorance is not only the easiest way to get rid of a difficulty, but the likeliest way to obtain information, and therefore I practice it: I think it an honest policy. Those who affect to be thought to know every thing, and so undertake to explain every thing, often remain long ignorant of many things that others could and would instruct them in, if they appeared less conceited.
The treatment your friend has met with is so common, that no man who knows what the world is, and ever has been, should expect to escape it. There are every where a number of people, who, being totally destitute of any inventive faculty themselves, do not readily conceive that others may possess it: They think of inventions as of miracles; there might be such formerly, but they are ceased. With these, every one who offers a new invention is deem’d a pretender: He had it from some other country, or from some book: A man of their own acquaintance; one who has no more sense than themselves, could not possibly, in their opinion, have been the inventer of any thing. They are confirmed, too, in these sentiments, by frequent instances of pretensions to invention, which vanity is daily producing. That vanity too, though an incitement to invention, is, at the same time, the pest of inventors. Jealousy and Envy deny the merit or the novelty of your invention; but Vanity, when the novelty and merit are established, claims it for its own. The smaller your invention is, the more mortification you receive in having the credit of it disputed with you by a rival, whom the jealousy and envy of others are ready to support against you, at least so far as to make the point doubtful. It is not in itself of importance enough for a dispute; no one would think your proofs and reasons worth their attention: And yet if you do not dispute the point, and demonstrate your right, you not only lose the credit of being in that instance ingenious, but you suffer the disgrace of not being ingenuous; not only of being a plagiary, but of being a plagiary for trifles. Had the invention been greater it would have disgrac’d you less; for men have not so contemptible an idea of him that robs for gold on the highway, as of him that can pick pockets for half-pence and farthings. Thus through Envy, Jealousy, and the Vanity of competitors for Fame, the origin of many of the most extraordinary inventions, though produced within but a few centuries past, is involved in doubt and uncertainty. We scarce know to whom we are indebted for the compass, and for spectacles, nor have even paper and printing, that record every thing else, been able to preserve with certainty the name and reputation of their inventors. One would not, therefore, of all faculties, or qualities of the mind, wish, for a friend, or a child, that he should have that of invention. For his attempts to benefit mankind in that way, however well imagined, if they do not succeed, expose him, though very unjustly, to general ridicule and contempt; and, if they do succeed, to envy, robbery, and abuse. I am, &c.
B. F.


Title: Robert Hunter Morris to Franklin and Hall, 19 March 1755
From: Morris, Robert Hunter
To: Franklin, Benjamin,Hall, David

Governor Morris’ immediate response to the foregoing message was to demand that the printers eliminate Robinson’s letters from the printed House journals. He told the Council the next day why he had done it, pointing to the dangerous consequences of publishing in full letters from the King’s ministers, for, as it was well known that newspapers and other publications were sent to Canada, “foreign Princes in actual Enmity or such as were wanting Pretences of Quarrel and Contention with the British Nation might thence furnish themselves with Materials prejudicial to the King’s Interest, as well as that the Means which his Majesty should think proper to make use of … may be frustrated.”

Gentlemen,
Wednesday, March 19, 1755, Four o’Clock, p.m.
Observing by the Minutes of the Assembly which you sent me, that two Letters, from Sir Thomas Robinson, one of his Majesty’s principal Secretaries of State, to me, the one of July 5, and the other of October 26, 1754, are there printed at large; and as no Person or Body in this Province has any Right to make publick his Majesty’s Commands to me, signified by a Secretary of State, further than I shall think proper, and as I conceive it may be very prejudicial to his Majesty’s Service to publish those Letters, I do therefore notify the same to you, and do hereby forbid you to publish the same. I am, Gentlemen, Your most humble Servant,
Robert Hunter Morris
To Messieurs Franklin and Hall, Printers in Philadelphia.


Title: Pennsylvania Assembly: Reply to the Governor, 20 March 1755
From: Pennsylvania Assembly
To:

On the morning of March 18 Governor Morris sent the Assembly a message announcing the arrival of General Braddock in Virginia and urging them to display “Vigour, Unanimity and Dispatch” in taking measures to supply men, provisions, and money for the army’s use. He listed the following desiderata: roads to be opened between the settled parts of the province and the Ohio country; a law to prevent Pennsylvania supplies from reaching the French; cooperation with the military operations of New England; a postal service between Philadelphia and Winchester; and a treasurer to receive the contributions of the several provinces to the common fund recommended by Sir Thomas Robinson. Evan Morgan, Franklin, Mahlon Kirkbride, Peter Worral, John Smith, Moses Starr, and James Burnside were appointed, March 20, to draft a reply. It was reported, read, and approved later the same day.

May it please the Governor,
[March 20, 1755]
Though the Season of the Year, and the Badness of the Roads, have made it difficult for many of us to attend the Governor’s Call of the House at this Time, yet considering the present Circumstances of Affairs, and the Matters of Importance he has been pleased to lay before us, we return him our Thanks for giving us this Opportunity of continuing to demonstrate our Loyalty to our King, our Regard to the British Interest in America, and our Care of the People we represent.
As we are resolved to contribute such Sums of Money as may be consistent with our Circumstances on the present Occasion, we shall immediately proceed to consider the best Methods of raising and discharging the same, and shall forthwith prepare a Bill for that Purpose to be laid before the Governor for his Assent.
The other Parts of his Message will also come under our Deliberation with all possible Dispatch, that nothing may be wanting on our Part which may contribute to the Prosperity or Honour of this Colony; and if the Governor has received any further Intelligence which may be of Service to us in the Course of our Business, we make no Doubt he will be pleased to communicate it to us for our Consideration.


Title: Franklin and Hall to Robert Hunter Morris, 20 March 1755
From: Franklin, Benjamin,Hall, David
To: Morris, Robert Hunter

When he had received Governor Morris’ letter of March 19, Franklin begged Secretary Peters to have it withdrawn because, he explained, if he had to show it to the Assembly, they would order him nonetheless to publish the Votes including Sir Thomas Robinson’s letters, “and so the Differences would encrease between the Two Branches of the Legislature and the King’s Business be thereby exceedingly retarded.” The Council, meeting March 20, unanimously supported the governor in principle; as individuals, however, they saw the weight of Franklin’s argument and advised Morris to postpone the issue. He was adamant, however, still angry that the Assembly had delayed sending him copies of their proceedings (see above, p. 529), and, despite his councilors’ advice, believed “that this and no other Time was the proper one, and thought it would have a good Effect on public Business and make the Assembly more careful in their other Proceedings.” The outcome proved Franklin’s estimate correct.
He laid Morris’ letter before the Assembly on the afternoon of March 20, and the House replied at once that Robinson’s letters “were properly inserted” in the printed Votes and Proceedings, that the House was the sole judge of what should or should not be inserted in its minutes, “and that the Governor hath not, nor can have, any Right to interfere therein”; and accordingly they directed their printer to publish the proceedings as they stood. Franklin thereupon sent the governor Franklin and Hall’s reply.

Sir
March 20. 1755
We should with great Readiness and Submission have obey’d your Honour’s Commands, in Forbearing to publish the two Letters from Sir Thomas Robinson, of July the 5th. and October the 26th, were it only a Concern of our own, or a Matter in our Disposition. But as those Letters are contain’d in the Votes and Proceedings of the Assembly, and inserted therein by their Order, we could not omit them without obtaining the Directions of the House. To that End we laid the Commands received from your Honour before the Assembly. But the House has expressly order’d us to proceed directly in publishing the Votes containing those Letters; and we being, as their Printer, the immediate Servants of the House, are oblig’d in this Matter to obey their Orders. We therefore hope your Honour will excuse us, and believe us to be, with all possible Respect Your Honours most obedient and most humble Servants
Franklin & Hall
To the honble. Govr. Morris
 Endorsed: March 20th. 17[55] Franklin & Hall


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Catharine Ray, [March 1755–April 1755]
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Ray, Catharine

[March–April 1755]
[I told him that as] I did not know her, I must refer him for Advice to his good Friends in Boston, who could better adapt it to Situations, Tempers and Circumstances. Only this I hinted in general, that I thought he would do well not to be too forward in Professions of Love, till by his Assiduities and little Services he had made some Progress in gaining the Lady’s Esteem and Affection. For when he had brought Matters to such a Pass, as that she would wish to know his Intention, think he delay’d too long his Declaration, and, as the Song says,
Had rather be marry’d than plagu’d with him so,
  his Proposals, in my Opinion, would be likely to meet with much less Difficulty. I find, however, by yours, that he has declar’d himself all at once violently in love with you. He seems like a Brand brought flaming to a fresh Hearth; not kindled there, indeed, but it burns nevertheless. Nobody can judge for you in this Affair, better than you can for yourself; you know both the Gentlemen, and I believe you will determine rightly. I only pray God to bless you in your Choice; whether it be either of them or any other; and you may depend I shall mention nothing of your having communicated the Matter to me.
You may write freely everything you think fit, without the least Apprehension of any Person’s seeing your Letters but myself. You have complimented me so much in those I have already receiv’d, that I could not show them without being justly thought a vain Coxcomb for so doing; and the Hint you give in your last is sufficient for those you may favour me with hereafter. I know very well that the most innocent Expressions of warm Friendship, and even those of meer Civility and Complaisance, between Persons of different Sexes, are liable to be misinterpreted by suspicious Minds; and therefore though you say more, I say less than I think, and end this Letter coolly in the plain common Form, with only Dear Miss, Your humble Servant
B Franklin
My respectful Compliments to your good Father, Mother and Sister. I am glad to hear of his Recovery.
Miss Katy Ray


Title: Josiah Quincy: Memorial to the Pennsylvania Assembly, 1 April 1755
From: Quincy, Josiah, Sr.
To:

Governor Shirley appointed Thomas Pownall, Andrew Oliver, and Josiah Quincy to solicit aid from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania for Massachusetts’ projected expedition against the French at Crown Point. Only Quincy came to Philadelphia. There on March 21, at the suggestion of Governor Morris, he prepared a short statement and appeal for “a quantity of Provisions sufficient for the subsistance of the men proposed to be raised for the above-mentioned Service.” On March 24 Morris laid this letter and supporting documents before the Assembly, with a request for an appropriation. Franklin tried to get the House to approve a bill for £40,000, to be sunk by taxes in five years, but in vain. Instead the Assembly enacted a paper-money bill for £25,000, of which £5000 was to repay the colony’s indebtedness for provisions for Braddock’s army, £10,000 was for provisions for the New England troops, £5000 was to be subject to Braddock’s drafts, and the remaining £5000 was to remain in the Loan Office subject to the Assembly’s orders for the Indian allies, carriage hire, and road building. Like so many that had preceded it, the bill violated the Proprietors’ instructions, and the governor disapproved it, April 1. That afternoon Quincy’s memorial was presented. “As I was in the Assembly, knew its Temper, and was Mr. Quincy’s Countryman,” Franklin remembered (though in fact Quincy must have been in touch with him from the beginning of his mission), “he apply’d to me for my Influence and Assistance. I dictated his Address to them which was well receiv’d.”
To provide the money Franklin suggested the unusual method of drawing it from the Loan Office, as the Assembly had a right to do. But because “there was indeed little or no Money at that time in the Office,” he “propos’d that the Orders should be payable in a Year and to bear an Interest of Five per Cent.” The House accepted Quincy’s memorial and approved Franklin’s resolutions. They authorized £15,000 “to the King’s Use,” of which £5000 should repay the expenditure for victualling Braddock’s troops in Virginia and the remaining £10,000 should go for provisions for the Massachusetts expedition. Quincy personally thanked the Assembly on April 3 and, according to Franklin, returned home “highly pleas’d with the Success of his Embassy, and ever after bore for me the most cordial and affectionate Friendship.” The scheme amply fulfilled Franklin’s expectations: in a short time all the orders were bought up, and supplies of pork, beef, rum, peas, meal, and flour were on their way to New England.

  Philadelphia, April. 1, 1755.
  To the Honourable House of Representatives of the Province of Pennsylvania, now sitting in Philadelphia.
Gentlemen,

I am extreamly sorry to find, that notwithstanding all the Motives and Arguments I was able to offer his Honour the Lieutenant-Governor, he did not see his Way clear to give his Consent to the Money-Bill you have laid before him.
The Chearfulness with which you therein granted Ten Thousand Pounds, for victualling the Forces, intended to march from New-England to secure his Majesty’s Territories, leaves me no Room to doubt your Zeal for his Majesty’s Service, or your hearty Concurrence with the Government I have the Honour to represent, in the Measures now proposed for our common Safety: And therefore, though you are unhappily disappointed in the Manner of your Grant, I flatter myself you will not fail to find some other Means of rendering it effectual.
The Advantages which a speedy and vigorous Execution of those Measures promises to all the Colonies, and the Mischiefs which a Neglect of them will intail upon us and our Posterity, are clearly pointed out, and fully illustrated in the Papers which have been the Subject of your late Deliberations.
In rendering this important Service to the Crown, to the British Nation, and to their Fellow Subjects in the other Governments, New-England offers to spend her Treasure as freely as her Blood, and were her Abilities equal to her Zeal, would as chearfully bear the whole Expence, as she undertakes the whole Hazard of the Enterprize. But the vast yearly Charge she is subjected to, by her Vicinity to the French, and the Necessity of defending so extensive a Frontier from the Incursions of those perfidious People, and their Indians, both in Time of Peace and War, has so exhausted her Finances, and burdened her with such a Load of Debt, that without the Assistance of the neighbouring more wealthy Colonies, she must drop the Design, however promising and glorious, as utterly impracticable.
Happy will your Province be, Gentlemen, if you can still keep those dangerous People at a Distance from your Borders, by which you will be free from the many Mischiefs we have always suffered by their Neighbourhood.
The Opportunity is now offered you, and, if embraced, will, by the Blessing of God, secure your future Peace and Prosperity. But whatever you do, should be determined instantly, for the Season flies, and a Delay may be as pernicious as a Refusal.
I have just received Advice, that Connecticut has voted Fifteen Hundred Men, and that even the little Government of Rhode-Island has granted Four Hundred, the Expence of which will be more than is ask’d of you. New-York seems heartily disposed to do her Part; and there is Reason to think that your good Example may have an advantageous Influence on your Neighbours of New-Jersey.
I need say no more to urge you to a speedy and effectual Resolution, but conclude, with the utmost Respect, Gentlemen, Your most humble and obedient Servant,
Josiah Quincy


Title: Pennsylvania Assembly: Orders Concerning Provisions, 2 April 1755
From: Pennsylvania Assembly
To:

[April 2, 1755]
Resolved, That the Sum of Fifteen Thousand Pounds be now given to the King’s Use; Five Thousand Pounds thereof to repay the Money borrowed for victualling the King’s Troops in Virginia; and that Isaac Norris, Evan Morgan, Joseph Fox, and Benjamin Franklin, Members of this House, and Reese Meredith, John Mifflin, and Samuel Smith, Gentlemen, be a Committee to lay out the remaining Ten Thousand Pounds in purchasing and transporting Provisions, now requested by the Government of the Massachusetts-Bay, to victual the Forces about to march for securing his Majesty’s Territories.
Ordered, That the said Committee draw Bills, or Orders, on the Treasurer and Trustees of the General Loan-Office, for the said Fifteen Thousand Pounds; and that the Bills, or Orders, so drawn by the Committee, be made payable to the Bearer after Twelve Months, with Interest at Five per Cent. per Annum, until paid.
Ordered, That the Treasurer and Collectors of the Excise do readily receive the Bills, or Orders, of the said Committee, in all Payments for Excise, or in Exchange for any Publick Money in their Hands, and allow the Interest due thereon at the Time of Tender, whether before or after the Expiration of the Twelve Months.
Ordered, That the Trustees of the General Loan-Office do readily receive the Bills, or Orders, of the said Committee, in Discharge of any principal Sums or Interest due to that Office; and allow the Interest due on such Bills, or Orders, at the Time of Payment, whether before or after the Expiration of the Twelve Months.
Ordered, That the Treasurer urge the Collectors of the Excise to more Diligence and Punctuality in collecting and Paying the same; and that he remove such as continue negligent or delinquent.
Ordered, That the Trustees of the General Loan-Office use the utmost of their Care and Diligence to collect the outstanding Quota’s and Interest now due to the said Office, that the Money may be in Readiness to discharge the Bills, or Orders, drawn on them, when tendered for Payment.
Ordered, That the Trustees of the General Loan-Office, Treasurer and Collectors of the Excise, do, when they receive any of the aforesaid Bills, or Orders, for the Publick, endorse, on the Back thereof, the Time of receiving the same, and the Interest by them allowed thereon.


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to John Franklin, 3 April 1755
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Franklin, John

Dear Brother
Philada. April 3. 55
Your Commissioner or Agent Mr. Quincey has done Wonders here. He has executed his Commission extreamly well, and obtained yesterday a Vote for £10,000 in Provisions for your New England Forces, which will be rendered effectual without the Necessity of the Governor’s Assent to a Law for the purpose.
Govr. Shirley is not yet come, but daily expected.
My Love to all New England. I am in haste Your affectionate Brother
B Franklin


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to John Fothergill, 6 April 1755
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Fothergill, John

Dear Sir
Philada. April 6. 1755
I am but just return’d from a long Journey, having been absent near [six months]. I find your Favour of Novr. [I, which I shall?] answer particularly per Reeve [who sails for London?] in about 10 Days. This [will only serve to bring?] Dr. Douglas’ Piece (and another) on the [one and a half lines missing] Copy, [one line missing]. With [complimentary close]
[B Franklin]
Dr. Fothergill


Title: Pennsylvania Assembly: Reply to the Governor, 9 April 1755
From: Pennsylvania Assembly
To:

Scaroyady, the Oneida chief who represented the Six Nations in their dealings with the Ohio Indians, after reporting to Governor Morris at Philadelphia on March 31, complained bitterly that the English were niggardly in making presents, compared with the French, who gave the Indians fine laced clothes; and he advised the Pennsylvanians “to open those large Pieces of Goods that your City is full of, and cut them up into fine Cloathes” so that the Indians who returned from the treaty with the English would not be laughed at and made ashamed by those who visited the French. These complaints of “nakedness” were repeated in a conference with Morris and the just-arrived Governors Shirley and DeLancey on April 8.
Accordingly, on April 1 Morris advised the Assembly that the chief and his companions should be sent away well clothed and otherwise satisfied, since he wished to employ them further. He also asked the House to provide for an ensuing Indian treaty. On April 4 the Assembly appointed two of its members to provide Scaroyady and the others with clothes and necessities. On the same day an Assembly committee on George Croghan’s accounts reported that they considered his charges for supporting Indians too high and asked for vouchers for the actual number of Indians fed, sheltered, and clothed. They also recommended that as spring was advancing the Indians should be moved to French Town on the west branch of the Susquehanna, where they could hunt and plant for themselves. On April 5 the governor’s message and Croghan’s accounts were submitted to a committee composed of Joseph Fox, Joseph Stretch, James Pemberton, Franklin, William Callender, and Joseph Hamton. Their reply was presented to the House and approved on April 8, and sent to the governor the next day.

May it please the Governor,
[April 9, 1755]
As the Season of the Year is now favourable, and the Time when the Indians ought to plant their Corn, we hope the heavy Charges we have sustained for supporting them through the Winter, are nearly over: Nevertheless, as we are unwilling to leave them entirely beyond our Notice, we are of Opinion, it may be advisable to settle the Indians from Aughwick, and such others as may continue to take Refuge among us, upon their own Lands, at French Town, where there is, as our Interpreter informs us, a considerable Quantity of cleared Land, formerly an Indian Settlement. Here they might plant their Corn, and hunt, towards their own Subsistance, and occasionally apply to this Government for Help in Cases of real Necessity. But as our Treasury is exhausted by the immediate Calls of the Crown, in Support of the British Interest in North-America, we are not able to assist them in the Manner we could wish and desire; and what we can do must be conducted with Justice and Frugality.
The Governor has been pleased to recommend to us particularly “to make Provision for the ensuing Treaty — and to enable him to take proper Notice of Scarroyady, and the young Men he has brought along with him.” We shall provide for this Chief, and the young Men, to their Satisfaction, But as this is the first Time we have heard of the Treaty, and the Governor has not been pleased to lay before us the Necessity of such a Treaty, or the Matters to be treated of when there, we presume he will not expect any immediate Resolves of this House, till he shall be pleased to communicate such further Information on that Head as he may judge necessary.


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Sarah Browne, 12 April 1755
From: Browne, Sarah
To: Franklin, Benjamin

Sir,
Philadelphia, April 12, 1755
I will give you as exact a description of my sister’s case as I can. First she complained of a slow fever, and then of sudden stitches in her side; which she would compare to the prick of a pin; and would slap her side with her hand, which never failed giving her relief for some time. She then began to complain of a pain in her shoulder, and that would be more violent and last longer, the pains increasing and being more frequent, she would say it was just like the sting of a Bee. Afterwards she began to complain of a pain under her shoulder, just below the shoulder blade. She said it had form’d itself into three points: it was always worst in the night. This was her case for about ten months: her pains then began to be violent, and she would scream out, and would beg me to pound her back, or shoulder, which I did for 10 or 15 minutes at a time, and slap’d her side. I then spoke to Doctor T. Bond. He advis’d her to ride, but she was at the time so ill, that she could neither sit up nor lie down half an hour together; and said it was impossible for her to set on horseback, and that it would kill her: the Doctor insisted upon it; and she to please us (as she said) would try. She had hardly got out of town, before she found a great alteration for the better; and before she reach’d Francfort, was perfectly easy. She went to Trenton that day; to Princeton the next; and continued riding three weeks every day; came home, as she thought, in perfect health, and continued so for two weeks. She was then taken with a violent pain in her side. Doctor Bond order’d her to be let blood; which was done immediately, but to no purpose. She was then blister’d, but all in vain, her pains still increasing. She was then put under a course of physic, but still to no purpose. It would be too tedious to relate all the medicines that were applied.
She next complained of a quirling pain, that wou’d last three or four hours with the utmost violence; and nothing would relieve her but strong anodines; and, when their force were over, she would be awak’d with a violent pain under her shoulder; which she could compare to nothing but a great bull-dog tearing her liver. She would lie, to all appearance, in the agonies of death, five or six hours, without the least intermission, untill she took another anodine.
She then began to swell; first her feet, then her legs, and at length her whole body, except her hands and arms; but there was one spot under her shoulder, that might be cover’d with a hand, more puff’d than any other part, and extremely sore: her soreness was very great from head to foot; but she said it pointed at that spot. We used divers pultices; one of which was made of rye-meal, honey, and Castile soap, and it had not been on half an hour, before the pain left that spot, and she said it was the best pultice she ever had. She lay tolerably easy for about half an hour, and then began to scream out with a violent drawing pain at the bottom of the small ribs; and said the pains were drawing over to the left side. She said it was a drawing pain at the small ribs, and a tickling pain at her back; at the same time, all who saw her, judg’d her to be in the agonies of death. The Doctor, at my request, gave her an anodine; which reliev’d her for a few hours. It was about four o’clock when she took this anodine: at eleven she took another; and at eight next morning a third. She continued in this agony for three days, when all at once she scream’d out, and said the quirling pain was got into her stomach; call’d for all her friends, and took leave of them in a most affectionate manner. She herself and all present expected her last moment was at hand. The agonies she was in cannot be express’d. From that time nothing would stay on her stomach, except strong brandy or geneva punch; and nothing would give any tolerable ease, except strong anodines. She has taken two and three hundred drops in a day; which had no other effect, but to enable her to converse with her friends. For about three weeks she continued in this constant agony, and then felt a sudden change; and calling to her nurse, ask’d if she did not perceive an alteration. She said yes, but that she hoped it was for the better: my sister said she hoped so too, but said it was for death: for though the quirling pain was gone, her swallow was gone with it also; and her stomach was closed, but felt no pain. This was about two o’clock on Thursday morning; and at eleven in the forenoon she voided by stool the first of a worm: and about four in the afternoon that part which you saw. I am Sir, &c.
Sarah Browne


Title: Advertisement for Wagons, 26 April 1755
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To:

Advertisement
Lancaster, April 26, 1755.
Whereas 150 Waggons, with 4 Horses to each Waggon, and 1500 Saddle or Pack-Horses are wanted for the Service of his Majesty’s Forces now about to rendezvous at Wills’s Creek; and his Excellency General Braddock hath been pleased to impower me to contract for the Hire of the same; I hereby give Notice, that I shall attend for that Purpose at Lancaster from this Time till next Wednesday Evening; and at York from next Thursday Morning ’till Friday Evening; where I shall be ready to agree for Waggons and Teams, or single Horses, on the following Terms, viz.
1st. That these shall be paid for each Waggon with 4 good Horses and a Driver, Fifteen Shillings per Diem: And for each able Horse with a Pack-Saddle or other Saddle and Furniture, Two Shillings per Diem. And for each able Horse without a Saddle, Eighteen Pence per Diem.
2dly, That the Pay commence from the Time of their joining the Forces at Wills’s Creek (which must be on or before the twentieth of May ensuing) and that a reasonable Allowance be made over and above for the Time necessary for their travelling to Wills’s Creek and home again after their Discharge.

3dly, Each Waggon and Team, and every Saddle or Pack Horse is to be valued by indifferent Persons, chosen between me and the Owner, and in Case of the Loss of any Waggon, Team or other Horse in the Service, the Price according to such Valuation, is to be allowed and paid.
4thly, Seven Days Pay is to be advanced and paid in hand by me to the Owner of each Waggon and Team, or Horse, at the Time of contracting, if required; and the Remainder to be paid by General Braddock, or by the Paymaster of the Army, at the Time of their Discharge, or from time to time as it shall be demanded.
5thly, No Drivers of Waggons, or Persons taking care of the hired Horses, are on any Account to be called upon to do the Duty of Soldiers, or be otherwise employ’d than in conducting or taking Care of their Carriages and Horses.
6thly, All Oats, Indian Corn or other Forage, that Waggons or Horses bring to the Camp more than is necessary for the Subsistence of the Horses, is to be taken for the Use of the Army, and a reasonable Price paid for it.
Note. My Son William Franklin, is impowered to enter into like Contracts with any Person in Cumberland County.
B. Franklin.

To the Inhabitants of the Counties of Lancaster, York, and Cumberland.
Friends and Countrymen,

Being occasionally at the Camp at Frederic a few Days since, I found the General and Officers of the Army extreamly exasperated, on Account of their not being supply’d with Horses and Carriages, which had been expected from this Province as most able to furnish them; but thro’ the Dissensions between our Governor and Assembly, Money had not been provided nor any Steps taken for that Purpose.
It was proposed to send an armed Force immediately into these Counties, to seize as many of the best Carriages and Horses as should be wanted, and compel as many Persons into the Service as would be necessary to drive and take care of them.
I apprehended that the Progress of a Body of Soldiers thro’ these Counties on such an Occasion, especially considering the Temper they are in, and their Resentment against us, would be attended with many and great Inconveniencies to the Inhabitants; and therefore more willingly undertook the Trouble of trying first what might be done by fair and equitable Means.
The People of these back Counties have lately complained to the Assembly that a sufficient Currency was wanting; you have now an Opportunity of receiving and dividing among you a very considerable Sum; for if the Service of this Expedition should continue (as it’s more than probable it will) for 120 Days, the Hire of these Waggons and Horses will amount to upwards of Thirty thousand Pounds, which will be paid you in Silver and Gold of the King’s Money.
The Service will be light and easy, for the Army will scarce march above 12 Miles per Day, and the Waggons and Baggage Horses, as they carry those Things that are absolutely necessary to the Welfare of the Army, must march with the Army and no faster, and are, for the Army’s sake, always plac’d where they can be most secure, whether on a March or in Camp.
If you are really, as I believe you are, good and loyal Subjects to His Majesty, you may now do a most acceptable Service, and make it easy to yourselves; for three or four of such as cannot separately spare from the Business of their Plantations a Waggon and four Horses and a Driver, may do it together, one furnishing the Waggon, another one or two Horses, and another the Driver, and divide the Pay proportionably between you. But if you do not this Service to your King and Country voluntarily, when such good Pay and reasonable Terms are offered you, your Loyalty will be strongly suspected; the King’s Business must be done; so many brave Troops, come so far for your Defence, must not stand idle, thro’ your backwardness to do what may be reasonably expected from you; Waggons and Horses must be had; violent Measures will probably be used; and you will be to seek for a Recompence where you can find it, and your Case perhaps be little pitied or regarded.
I have no particular Interest in this Affair; as (except the Satisfaction of endeavouring to do Good and prevent Mischief) I shall have only my Labour for my Pains. If this Method of obtaining the Waggons and Horses is not like to succeed, I am oblig’d to send Word to the General in fourteen Days; and I suppose Sir John St.Clair the Hussar, with a Body of Soldiers, will immediately enter the Province, for the Purpose aforesaid, of which I shall be sorry to hear, because I am, very sincerely and truly your Friend and Well-wisher,
B. Franklin
 Endorsed: Benja. Franklin Esqr. Advertisemt abt. Waggons Apr. 26. 1755.


Title: From Benjamin Franklin to Susanna Wright, [28 April 1755]
From: Franklin, Benjamin
To: Wright, Susanna

Dear Madam
Monday morning. [April 28, 1755]
I thought from the first, that your Proposal of calling the several Townships together, was very judicious. I was only at a Loss how to get them call’d by some Appearance of Authority. On the Road from your House hither, I considered that at the Court of Oyer and Terminer here, there would probably be Constables from most of the Townships, and if the Chief Justice could be prevail’d on to recommend it from the Bench, that the Constables should immediately call the Inhabitants of their respective Townships together, perhaps the Business might by that means be effectually done. I know not whether he will think a Person in his Station, can, in Court, regularly intermeddle in such Affairs; but I shall endeavour to persuade him to it, as strict Forms ought, in my Opinion, to be disregarded in Cases of Necessity.

The Dutche Advertisement is composing, and will be printed in two or three Hours, as Mr. Dunlap tells me. I have taken the Liberty of detaining your Servant so long, after enquiring and being inform’d by him, that his immediate Return was not absolutely necessary. I am, with the greatest Esteem and Respect, Madam Your most humble Servant
B Franklin
 Addressed: To / Mm Susanna Wright / Sasquehanah


Title: Deborah Franklin to Peter Collinson, 30 April 1755
From: Franklin, Deborah
To: Collinson, Peter

Sir
Philada. Apl. 30. 1755
Mr. Franklin is from home, and can not have by this Conveyance an Opportunity of answering your Favours by the last Ships. I have forwarded your Letters to Mr. Elliot, Mr. Bartram, Mr. Barton and Mr. Franklin. My Husband is now in the Back Counties, contracting for some Waggons and Horses for the Army, which tho’ so much out of his Way, he was obliged to undertake, for preventing some Inconveniencies that might have attended so many raw Hands sent us from Europe, who are not accustomed to necessary Affairs.
I am very sincerely and truly Your very sincere Friend and humble Servant
Deborah Franklin
 Addressed: To / Mr. Peter Collinson / Mercht / in London


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Harbanus Ashebriner: Contract for a Wagon and Horses, 2 May 1755
From: Ashebriner, Harbanus
To: Franklin, Benjamin

[May 2, 1755]
I  Harbanus Ashebriner of Parradice Township.  in the County of York and Province of Pennsylvania, do hereby agree and promise that I will, on the Terms hereunder mentioned, provide  one  good Waggon with four able Horses and a Driver, to be at Wills’s Creek in Virginia, with as much Oats, Indian Corn, or other Forage as I can procure and carry thither with the same, on or before the twentieth Day of May Instant, then and there to attend the Orders of General Braddock. And I do acknowledge to have received the Sum of  Five Pounds Five Shillings  from Benjamin Franklin, in Advance towards the Pay or Hire of the said Waggon Team and Driver and do oblige myself to return to him or his Order, Double the said Sum in Case I fail of performing this Agreement.

I Benjamin Franklin of Philadelphia, being for that purpose duly and fully empowered by his Excellency Edward Braddock Esq; General of all his Majesty’s Forces in North America, do hereby in his Name and Behalf, promise and agree, that the said  Harbanus Ashebriner  shall receive for the Hire of his said Waggon Team and Driver Fifteen Shillings a Day,  Pensilva: Money  the Pay to commence the Day of their Arrival at Wills’s Creek; and shall farther receive for travelling thither and home again the Sum of  a reasonable Allowance.  And in Case of the Loss of the said Waggon or any of the Horses, in the Service the same shall be paid for according to the underwritten Valuation. The Driver shall not be employ’d as a Soldier, nor any Duty required of him but to take Care of his Horses and Waggon. And whatever Indian Corn, or other Forage shall be brought in the Waggon to Wills’s Creek, more than is necessary for the Subsistence of the Horses belonging to the Waggon shall be paid for at a reasonable Price. To this Agreement, the Parties have interchangeably set their Hands, this  Second  Day of May, 1755.

  ARBAN ASCHENBRENNER

Witnesses present

  John Read

  Michael Swoope [?]

B Franklin

 Endorsed: Harbanus Ashe[briner] I Waggon Advance £5 [5s.] York Co[unt]y


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from William Shirley, Junior, 10 May 1755
From: Shirley, William, Jr.
To: Franklin, Benjamin

May 10, 1755
A sentence from this unlocated letter is printed in the Pennsylvania Assembly’s reply, Sept. 29, 1755, to Governor Morris’ charge, September 24, that the Assembly had done little to support Braddock’s expedition (below, p. 207).


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Thomas Dunbar, 13 May 1755
From: Dunbar, Thomas
To: Franklin, Benjamin

May 13, 1755
A sentence from this unlocated letter is printed in the Pennsylvania Assembly’s reply, Sept. 29, 1755, to Governor Morris’ charge, September 24, that the Assembly had done little to support Braddock’s expedition (below, p. 208).


Title: Pennsylvania Assembly: Reply to the Governor, 17 May 1755
From: Pennsylvania Assembly
To:

The Assembly met on May 12 pursuant to its adjournment. They voted Franklin their thanks for his services to the army, resolved to defray the costs of the roads being built through Cumberland County to Wills Creek and the Monongahela, paid a few bills, replied to Governor Morris’ amendments to the bill regulating the importation of German servants, and on May 15, having made no appropriation for defense, informed the governor they would adjourn on May 17. Morris replied at once, May 16, rebuking them for inactivity, reciting their offenses in his eyes, and charging them with “trifling with the King’s Commands” and attempting “to take Advantage of your Country’s Danger, to aggrandize and render permanent your own Power and Authority, and to destroy that of the Crown,” by “grasping at the Disposition of all Publick Money, and at the Power of filling all the Offices of Government, especially those of the Revenue.” The Assembly named Evan Morgan, Franklin, Mahlon Kirkbride, George Ashbridge, Arthur Patterson, John Wright, and James Burnside to draft an answer. This was reported the next day, read, approved, transcribed, and sent to the governor; and the House adjourned.

May it please the Governor,
[May 17, 1755]
When we met, in Obedience to the Governor’s Summons, on the 17th of March last, we really brought with us the sincerest Inclinations to promote the publick Service, by granting the Supplies expected by the Crown; and we trust it will appear to all who impartially examine the Proceedings of that Session, that we did every Thing in our Power, as our Affairs were then circumstanced; and consequently that the Danger to which this Country stood exposed, and his Majesty’s repeated and affectionate Calls, had great Weight with us, whatever they had with the Governor.
The Bill we sent up, for striking the Sum of Twenty-five Thousand Pounds, and giving the same to the King’s Use, and for providing a Fund to sink it, had nothing extraordinary in its Nature, or differing from other Bills heretofore passed or presented for like Purposes in this Province, excepting that the Sum given was extraordinary, compared with the Time proposed for sinking it; the Sum for the Canada Expedition, in the last War, being but Five Thousand Pounds, to be sunk in ten Years, and this Sum, tho’ five Times greater, was to be sunk by the same Fund, in the same Number of Years. In the Bill, Five Thousand Pounds of the Sum was appropriated to pay for Provisions bought and given for the Use of the Forces in Virginia, under General Braddock; Ten Thousand Pounds more was given to buy Provisions for the New-England Forces under his Command; Five Thousand Pounds more was subjected to his Order, and to be disposed of for the King’s Service as he should think fit; and the remaining Five Thousand Pounds was appropriated for the Subsistence of Indians taking Refuge in this Province, Payment of Posts or Expresses, Hire of Carriages, Clearing of Roads, and other necessary contingent Expences for the King’s Service, as might be incumbent on this Government to discharge. Thus the whole Twenty-five Thousand Pounds was appropriated to the King’s Service; and almost all of it to the immediate Use of General Braddock, or to such Purposes as were by him especially recommended in his Letters, laid before the House by the Governor. The Members of the House, mentioned by the Governor, were to have no Share in the Disposition of it; it was disposed of by the Bill, and they could only have the Trouble of laying it out according to the Appropriation, and keeping the Accounts. This is Truth, and well known to the Governor, if he perused our Bill with any Degree of Attention: Yet how differently is it represented in the Governor’s Message! It is called only, “A Bill for striking Twenty-five Thousand Pounds;” which is but a Part of the Title, the Words, “and for giving the same for the King’s Use,” being (as it would seem) carefully omitted, lest they might militate against the Assertion which immediately follows, that “Twenty Thousand Pounds of it was subjected to the Disposition of some Members of the House, and of the Assembly for the Time being.” Then it is said, “It gave General Braddock a Power over no more than Five Thousand Pounds,” because it gave him a Power to draw for, and appropriate as he pleased, no more than that Sum, tho’ all the Twenty-five Thousand Pounds (except a small Part for the Support of Indian Refugees, which is likewise for the King’s Service) was appropriated for his, and his Army’s Use, or Services by him required; and we cannot learn that any other Colony besides, hath given, or offered to give, that Gentleman a Power over as many Pence. Great Subtilty and Dexterity appear in this Manner of disguising Truths, and changing Appearances, but we see in it very little Candour or Ingenuity.
In the next Paragraph of the Governor’s Message, there are many Assertions in which we think we are equally misrepresented; we are charged with “offering Money in a Way, and upon Terms which we knew the Governor could not, consistent with his Duty to the Crown, consent to.” We really thought, and still think, it was inconsistent with his Duty to the Crown to refuse it: If we are mistaken, ’tis an Error in Judgment; we have appealed to our gracious King on this Head, and we hope for a favourable Determination. We are charged with “trifling with the King’s Commands, and refusing to give at all,” tho’ we have actually given great Sums in Obedience to those Commands, and earnestly endeavoured to give much greater, which the Governor refused, unless we would give in a Manner which we think inconsistent with our present just Liberties and Privileges, held under the Royal Charter. We are charged with “resolving to aggrandize our own Power, and destroy that of the Crown:” A Charge, as we conceive, utterly groundless, and for which we have never given the least Foundation. We are charged with a “Scheme of Independency.” We have no such Scheme, nor ever had; nor do we, as a Part of the Legislature, desire any Independency but what the Constitution authorizes, which gives us a Right to judge for ourselves and our Constituents, of the Utility and Propriety of Laws, or Modes of Laws, about to be made; and does not yet, and we confide never will, oblige us to make Laws by Direction. We are charged with grasping at the Disposition of all publick Money, and at the Power of filling all the Offices of Government; a Charge, as we conceive, equally groundless and invidious: We have, by Law, a Right to dispose of some publick Money, and we cannot be properly said to grasp at what we are in Possession of: That Part of the publick Money which the Governor receives, arising by Licenses, &c. great as it is, he disposes of as he pleases, and we have never attempted to interfere in it; nor can one Instance be given of our attempting to fill any Office, which we are not by some express Law impowered to fill. But the heaviest Charge of this Paragraph concludes it; the Governor is pleased to say, “When his Majesty and the Nation are at the Expence of sending Troops for the Protection of these Colonies, you refuse to furnish them with Provisions and necessary Carriages, tho’ your Country is full of both; unless you can at the same time encroach upon the Rights of the Crown.” This Charge is really amazing! It requires, however, no other Answer, than a simple Relation of Fact. In the same Session, and as soon as it appeared there was no Hope of obtaining the Bill for giving Twenty Thousand Pounds to the King’s Use, and many Weeks before the Forces arrived, we voted and gave Five Thousand Pounds to purchase Provisions and other Necessaries for those Forces; these Provisions were accordingly bought, and are sent to Virginia, being the full Quantity required of us: We have since given Ten Thousand Pounds to purchase Provisions for the New-England Forces; it was given as soon as requested, and before the Troops were raised; those Provisions are most of them actually purchased, great Part sent away, and all will probably be at the Place appointed before they are wanted. We gave not a Pound of Provision less than was asked of us, and all the Carriages required of us have been furnished. This has been done with the greatest Readiness and Alacrity, and done, we conceive, without the least Encroachment on the Rights of the Crown, unless “borrowing Money on our own Credit” (which we thought even every private Man had a Right to do, if he had any Credit) be indeed such an Encroachment.
Indeed the next Paragraph begins with charging this upon us as a Crime,”You have,” the Governor is pleased to say, “by a Vote of your own House, without the Consent of the Government, impowered a Committee of your Members to borrow Money upon the Credit of the Assembly, and to dispose of the same to certain Uses in that Vote mentioned.” By this Caution in expressing the Uses, a Stranger might imagine, that they were wicked, if not treasonable Uses; and that the Governor, out of mere Tenderness for his People, forbore to explain them: But the Uses mentioned in the Votes, are, to purchase fresh Victuals, and other Necessaries, for the Use of the King’s Troops at their Arrival; and to purchase and transport Provisions, requested by the Government of the Massachusetts-Bay, to victual the Forces about to march for securing his Majesty’s Territories. These are the Uses, in the Votes mentioned, and the only Uses; and we can conceive no Reason for touching them so gently by the Name of certain Uses, unless the Governor thought, that being more explicit on the Uses, might seem to lessen, in some Degree, the heinous Crime of borrowing Money on our own Credit.
The Governor is pleased to add, “You have also, by Votes and Resolves of your own House, created Bills, or Notes of Credit, made payable to the Bearers thereof, to the Amount of Fifteen Thousand Pounds, which you have issued in Lieu of Money, and they are now circulating in this Province, without the Approbation of the Government.” This Charge, we presume, will, like the rest, vanish on a little Explanation. By the Laws of this Province now in Force, and which have received the Royal Assent, the Disposition of the Interest-Money, and Excise, is vested in the Assembly for the Time being: Out of this Revenue the Assemblies have, from Time to Time, defray’d the Charges of Government. The constant Method of Payment was always this; when an Account against the Publick was allowed, or any Expence for publick Service agreed to, an Order issued, drawn on the Treasurer, or Trustees of the Loan-Office, and signed by the Speaker, or the Clerk, by Order of the House. As these Orders were generally paid on Sight, they naturally obtained some Credit, and sometimes passed through several Hands before Payment was demanded. At the last Settlement of the Publick Accounts, it appeared, that a considerable Sum of this Interest and Excise-Money, over which the Assembly alone had a legal Power, ought to be in the Hands of the Treasurer and Trustees. The Governor himself was pleased to point this Money out to us, to compute the Sum, and urge the House to make Use of it, when in January last he refused their Bill for giving Twenty-five Thousand Pounds to the King’s Use. The House alledged, and truly, that the Money was outstanding in many Hands, and could not suddenly be collected, without distressing and ruining the People. However, on the Credit of this Fund, we voted the first Five Thousand Pounds for Provisions, and ordered the Money to be borrowed on Interest. And at the last Sitting, when the Governor refused to pass our Bill for giving Twenty-five Thousand Pounds to the King’s Use, he may be pleased to remember, that he sent us down a Message, in which, after the Reason given for not passing the Bill, there are these Words; “As this is a Time of imminent Danger, and the Forces, raised and destined for the Service of the Colonies, must wait the Supplies from this Province, I again intreat you to fall upon some other Method of raising Money, that we may not lose this happy Opportunity of recovering his Majesty’s Dominions now invaded by the French King.” The House accordingly fell on this other Method; they gave Ten Thousand Pounds of the Money in their Power to the King’s Use; they appointed a Committee to purchase the Provisions required, and impowered them to draw for the Sum on the Treasurer or Trustees of the Loan-Office, as had been usual; with this only Difference, that as former Draughts were payable on Sight, and therefore bore no Interest, these being payable in a Year, were to bear Interest; and in the mean time the outstanding Money was ordered to be got in, that the Draughts might be punctually discharged. Money’d Men, knowing the Goodness of the Fund, and confiding in the Justice and Punctuality of the Assembly, which has always honourably discharged the Publick Debts, have voluntarily furnished the Committee with Cash for these Draughts, which they have laid by in their Chests to receive in Time the Interest. Thus the King’s Forces have been expeditiously supply’d, the People have Time to pay off their Debts to the Publick, and no one is oppressed, distressed or injured; nor is any Encroachment made on the Powers of Government, or any Thing done that has not been usual, or which the Assembly are not by Law impower’d to do. Yet this is what the Governor represents as “creating Bills of Credit, and issuing them in Lieu of Money, without the Approbation of the Government;” by which, Persons unacquainted with the Fact, might understand we had been making Paper-Money, and issuing it on Loan, or in some other Manner, to produce an Advantage to ourselves, and attempted to make it a legal Tender without the Governor’s Assent, &c. all which is mere Misrepresentation or Misapprehension, as will appear by the Resolves themselves, to which we beg Leave to refer. After this Explanation of our Conduct, we believe it will clearly appear, that the Governor’s Insinuation, as if we had used Powers dangerous to the Government, is as groundless as it is unkind.
The other Charges, of “denying the Governor Access to our Journals, and printing the Secretary of State’s Letters,” having been made and answered in former Messages between the Governor and the House, we think it unnecessary to take any further Notice of them here. But we are surprized to find, that after having effectually given Fifteen Thousand Pounds, in Provisions and other Necessaries for the King’s Forces, maintained at so great an Expence our Indian Allies, establishing a constant regular Post through Two Hundred Miles of Country, merely for the Service of the Army, and advanced a considerable Sum to make a long and Chargeable Road through the Wilderness and Mountains to the Ohio, for the Use of the King’s Forces, the whole Expence of which we have engaged to defray, we should still be flatly told by the Governor, “That he is convinced, from the whole Tenor of our Behaviour, that we have no Design to contribute any Thing towards the Defence of this Country.”
The Governor is pleased further to censure us, for not desiring a Conference on the Bill to prevent the Importation of Germans, or other Passangers, in too great Numbers in one Ship or Vessel, and to prevent the Spreading of contagious Distempers, &c. We own that it is sometimes practised, when the Governor and Assembly differ in Judgment concerning a Bill, to request a Conference, if there be any Hope by such a Conference to obtain an Agreement; but we being, from many Circumstances attending the Bill, without such Hope at present, contented ourselves with laying before the Governor, in a Message, our Reasons for not agreeing to his proposed Amendments, and submitted those Reasons to his Consideration; the Bill may still be resumed, and a Conference entered into at a future Session, if there should be any Prospect of Success. If our Proceeding was irregular, which we think it was not, the Governor may be pleased to remember, he himself set us a more irregular Example at our last Sitting, when we presented him the Bill for granting Twenty-five Thousand Pounds to the King’s Use; for he neither proposed any Amendment, nor desired any Conference, nor would return us our Bill (when we expresly sent for it to be re-considered) according to the constant Custom in this Government, but only acquainted us, that “it being a Bill of a very extraordinary Nature, he would send it Home to the Ministry,” which we hope he has accordingly done, as we believe it will be found, however the Governor may have misapprehended it, to have nothing extraordinary in its Nature, or inconsistent with our Duty to the Crown, or assuming more than our just Rights and Privileges.
On the whole; while we find the Governor transforming our best Actions into Crimes; and endeavouring to render the Inhabitants of Pennsylvania odious to our gracious Sovereign and his Ministers, to the British Nation, to all the neighbouring Colonies, and to the Army that is come to protect us; we cannot look upon him as a Friend to this Country. We are plain People, unpractised in the Sleights and Artifices of Controversy, and have no Joy in Disputation. We wish the Governor the same Disposition; and when he shall, as we hope he will, on better Consideration, alter his Conduct towards us, and thereby convince us that he means well to the Province, we may then be able to transact the Publick Business together with Comfort both to him and ourselves; of which till then we have small Expectation.


Title: Pennsylvania Assembly Committee to Robert Hunter Morris, 19 May 1755
From: Pennsylvania Assembly Committee
To: Morris, Robert Hunter

May it Please the Governor
Philada.: 19th. 5th mo: May: 1755.
The money put into the hands of the Committee of Assembly (to whom the Governor is pleas’d to direct his letter) for the purchase of Provisions and other necessaries for the service of the Kings Troops, is all laid out, and expended agreeable to the Trust reposed in them. And we have no Power over any other Publick money, nor can procure any, as the Assembly is risen and gone home. But if the Governor approves of it, We are willing as private persons, to advance the Money that may be necessary on this Occasion, as well as to use our Endeavours to have Forage purchas’d and carried to Will’s Creek from time to time as it may be wanted, upon the most reasonable terms, that can be obtain’d; Not doubting but that General Braddock will duly reemburse us.

Isaac Norris
B Franklin

Jos: Fox
Wm Callender

Joseph Stretch
Peter Worrall

Jams. Pemberton

 Endorsed: May 19: 1755. Letter from the Committee to the Governor. No: 42


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from William Shirley, Junior, 20 May 1755
From: Shirley, William, Jr.
To: Franklin, Benjamin

May 20, 1755
A sentence from this unlocated letter is printed in the Pennsylvania Assembly’s reply, Sept. 29, 1755, to Governor Morris’ charge, September 24, that the Assembly had done little to support Braddock’s expedition (see below, p. 208).


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Thomas Dunbar, 21 May 1755
From: Dunbar, Thomas
To: Franklin, Benjamin

May 21, 1755
Two sentences from this unlocated letter are printed in the Pennsylvania Assembly’s reply, Sept. 29, 1755, to Governor Morris’ charge, September 24, that the Assembly had done little to support Braddock’s expedition (see below, pp. 208–9).


Title: To Benjamin Franklin from Robert Hunter Morris, 21 May 1755
From: Morris, Robert Hunter
To: Franklin, Benjamin

May 21, 1755
I forget to tell you that if possible I would have the waggons set off with the forage on Tuesday or Wednesday next, …