RULES BY WHICH A GREAT EMPIRE

First published in the Gentleman's Magazine, September, 1773.

DIALOGUE BETWEEN FRANKLIN AND THE GOUT 126. Enclosed in a letter to Mme. Brillon. First published by W. T. Franklin in

1818.

LETTER TO MISS MARY STEVENSON

130. The "Dear Polly" of this letter, later the wife of Dr. Thomas Hewson, was the daughter of Mrs. Margaret Stevenson, in whose house at 7 Craven Street, Strand, Franklin took lodgings in 1757. His friendship with the Stevensons endured till the day of his death.

LETTER TO MME. BRILLON

133. Madame Brillon, the wife of a French official, is the best known of Franklin's French friends, as she seems to have been the one whose company he enjoyed the most. During his stay in Paris as Minister it was his custom to visit the Brillons at their home on every Wednesday and Saturday. The intervals between were brightened by a constant interchange of letters. The socalled Fable of the Ephemera was written in 1778.

LETTER TO SAMUEL MATHER

135. The recipient was the son of Cotton Mather, and pastor of his father's and grandfather's church in Boston.

LETTER TO GEORGE WASHINGTON

136. See Washington's reply, p. 196, below.

LETTER TO EZRA STILES

One of Franklin's intimate friends was the Reverend Ezra Stiles (1727-1795), who in addition to serving as President of Yale College, found time to do a considerable amount of scientific work.

JOHN DICKINSON (1732-1808)

Dickinson's unofficial title, "The Penman of the American Revolution," is suggestive of his importance in American history and literature. From 1767 to the end of 1775 he was not merely the leading American writer on political themes; he was the only onesave Franklin-whose words were listened to on both sides of the Atlantic. After 1775, when more fiery leaders forced Dickinson to one side, his influence waned. Today, however, it is clear that he was at once the most influential prose writer of the troublous years that led up to the actual break with Eng

land, and that the disrepute which was his lot later on, was the inevitable result of his conscientious adherence to legal and constitutional principles at a time when bayonets and bullets were of more significance than historical precedents.

He was born in Maryland in 1732, and in 1750 began reading law in Philadelphia. Three years later he entered the Middle Temple, London, for further study of his profession. In 1757 he began the practice of law in Philadelphia. From 1774 to 1776 he was a member of the Continental Congress, and again from 1779 to 1780. He also served in the army; and when his enemies, who could not forgive him for having refused assent to the Declaration of Independence, forced him to resign his commission as Brigadier General, he at once volunteered as a private. He was Governor of Pennsylvania from 1782 to 1785, a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and was extremely influential in securing the ratification of the Constitution by Pennsylvania and Maryland. During his later years, though he continued the practice of law, he found time to interest himself in education, and to assist materially in the founding of Dickinson College. He died in Delaware in 1808.

A list of Dickinson's writings during the period of his greatest literary activity includes among other items-the "Declaration of Rights" and "Petition to the King" adopted by the Stamp Act Congress, the two "Petitions to the King" of 1774 and 1775, and the first draft of the "Articles of Confederation" under which the colonies governed themselves till 1788. But it was the Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania that made Dickinson known to his contemporaries, and that seem today the best representatives of his intellectual power and literary skill.

These letters began to appear in December, 1767, in a Philadelphia newspaper, and ran till February, 1768, when the twelfth and final number was published. As fast as they came out they were reprinted in virtually every important newspaper in the colonies. were issued in pamphlet form on completion of the series, and were republished in England, France, and Holland. They made Dickinson known and honored throughout the entire English-reading world.

Essentially, the letters are the argument of a constitutionalist, pleading, on legal and historical grounds, for justice for America. Dickinson felt that the colonists could secure their rights without breaking with Great Britain. When, eight years later, the Declaration of Independence had been voted, he alone of the members of Congress refused to sign it. It thus became inevitable that to some he should appear cowardly or treacherous, and that the importance of his earlier work should be overlooked. But with the end of the war his reputation was in large

Though Hopkinson was by turns jurist, scientist, musician, artist, essayist, and poet, he is remembered chiefly because of his contribution to the satirical literature of the Revolution. In his capacity as writer, his task was to ridicule his country's foes, and to destroy the traditional respect which attached to the Crown and Sceptre. That he accomplished this task with skill, was admitted by both his friends and enemies.

He was born in Philadelphia, in 1737, and after graduating from the newly established College of Philadelphia, was admitted to the Bar in 1761. Thirteen years later, following a long residence in England, where he won the friendship of Lord North, he was sent as a delegate to the Continental Congress. He helped Dickinson draft the Articles of Confederation, and signed the Declaration of Independence. During the war his pen was constantly busy with either prose or verse, and almost always he wrote with satiric intent. To be sure, Hopkinson composed a handful of graceful lyrics which show him to have had more than one string to his bow. It is clear, however, that his most significant work was done in the field of political satire, in which his only contem

porary American rivals were Trumbull and Freneau. The latter years of his life Hopkinson served as a Judge, first in the Admiralty Court at Philadelphia, and finally in the United States District Court at the same place. He died in 1791.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hopkinson's varied and interesting work is available in its entirety only in the original collected edition, Miscellaneous Essays and Occasional Writings, Philadelphia, 1792, 3 vols. A Pretty Story, and the better known poems, have been many times reprinted, however, and may be found in virtually any anthology of Revolutionary lit

erature.

NOTES

A PRETTY STORY

143. This political allegory was published in September, 1774, in Fhiladelphia, just at the time when the first Continental Congress was assembling in that city. The pamphlet was, in effect, an account of the events which had led up to and necessitated that Congress. The allegory is clearly intelligible throughout; consequently only a few of the less obvious allusions are explained in the notes.

b. 2. A certain nobleman. Great Britain.

144. a. 12. His wife. Parliament.

a. 53. The great paper. Magna Charta. b. 43. Wild, uncultivated country. America. 146. a. 19. Sent over several of his servants. Military aid furnished the colonies.

a. 51. The tailors of his family were greatly injured. The stupidity of the British colonial policy appeared in the laws forbidding the erection of iron mills or foundries in America, limiting the number of apprentices a craftsman might employ, and forbidding him to export his manufactured goods by any means whatsoever.

b. 15. A particular kind of cyder. Jamaica rum.

b. 45. The head of one of the families. The legislature of New York complied with the royal decree, concerning provisioning the troops, in all major matters; but out of principle refused to furnish salt, pepper, or vinegar. As a result of these omissions the legislature was dissolved and forbidden to meet. 147. a. 9. His steward. The Prime Minister; or, possibly, the entire ministry. a. 37. An edict. The Stamp Act, passed in 1765.

148. a. 13. To reverse the order. The Stamp Act was repealed in 1766.

a. 19. A right to mark all their furni ture. The "Declaratory Resolution," or

"Dependency Act," ," passed when the Stamp Act was repealed, asserted that Parliament had the right "to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever."

b. 51. Another decree. The act of 1767, which laid duties on paper, glass, tea, and a few other articles.

a. 47. The tax upon water-gruel. In 1770 all the taxes laid in 1767 were repealed except the tax on tea.

a. 51. An exclusive right of selling water-gruel. The reference is to the East India Company, which suffered greatly through the colonial boycott of tea. a. 20. Jack. Boston; or, possibly, Massachusetts. The following reference is, of course, to the "Boston Tea Party." b. 11. A very large padlock. The Boston Port Bill, passed in 1774 as an act of reprisal, closed the port to navigation.

b. 33. Dragged to the gallows. Transported to England for trial.

a. 9. An overseer. General Gage, with four regiments of regulars, arrived in Boston in May, 1774.

a. 49. Advised with their brethren. Consulted the other colonies.

b. 53. Cetera desunt. The rest is lacking. Hopkinson carries the story to the point when the "Inhabitants of the new farm" sent delegates to the Congress of 1774. A row of thirteen stars brings the Pretty Story to a close.

THE BATTLE OF THE KEGS

One of the best-known of the Revolutionary ballads. The slight foundation of fact on which Hopkinson rested his poem is this: Early in the winter of 1778 the Americans, under the leadership of David Bushnell, prepared certain "infernal machines," loaded with powder, and supplied with detonating devices, which were floated down the river at Philadelphia with the intent of destroying the British shipping by fire and explosion. When the British discovered what was taking place, they opened a furious cannonade upon everything visible on the surface of the water, though at no time do their vessels appear to have been in much danger. The ballad was published in 1788, immediately after the event it celebrates. 33. Sir William. After defeating the Americans at Brandywine and Germantown, Sir William Howe had retired to Philadelphia, to spend the winter in comfort and security.

PATRICK HENRY (1736-1799) rick Henry is everywhere remembered greatest orator of the American Revo

lution. A Virginian, eminent in the practise of law, he had been elected a member of the House of Burgesses in 1765, when only twenty-nine years old, and had at once assumed the leadership of the radical group by introducing the so-called "Virginia Resolves," setting forth the doctrine that only the Virginia Burgesses and Governor had the right to tax the colony. In support of his resolution he made one of the many brilliant speeches that were to mark his career. Ten years later, as a member of the Virginia Provincial Convention, he introduced a resolution putting the colony in a state of armed defense, and supported it with the speech printed in this volume. The exact words Henry used on this occasion will probably never be known, for no adequate records were kept at the time. But the text here given, for which Wirt's Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry, Philadelphia, 1817, is immediately responsible, is the traditional version, and is almost as much a part of American literature as if an attested copy were in existence. Furthermore, as Tyler puts it, "It is probably far more accurate and authentic than are most of the famous speeches attributed to public characters before reporters' galleries were opened, and before the art of reporting was brought to its present perfection." (Patrick Henry, Boston, 1887.)

In July of 1775 Henry was made commander of all the Virginia troops; several times he was elected Governor of Virginia, and more than once-so great were his executive abilities-the Legislature to all intents and purposes made him a military dictator. He died in June of 1799, having established a secure reputation as one of Virginia's foremost patriots, as well as the most distinguished public speaker in the entire thirteen colonies.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Two admirable biographies of Henry are readily available: Moses Coit Tyler's Patrick Henry, Boston, 1887 and 1898, and W. W. Henry's Patrick Henry: Life, Correspondence, and Speeches; N. Y. 1891, 3 vols. The latter is the best source to which to turn for the texts of Henry's addresses.

JOHN ADAMS (1735-1826)

John Adams was one of the comparatively small group of able and fearless men to whom the United States owes its existence. He was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, in October, 1735; graduated from Harvard in 1755; studied law, and was admitted to the Bar in 1758. During the agitation over the Stamp Act (1765) he became prominent as one of the leading Whigs, and from that time till his retirement from the Presidency was I constantly engaged in politics. Though sec

ond to none in his opposition to the policies of the North ministry, he showed his courage and devotion to justice by successfully defending the British soldiers charged with murder after the "Boston Massacre." From 1774 to 1778 he was a member of the Continental Congress. In 1782, after serving the colonies in various capacities at home and abroad, he was appointed one of the commissioners to negotiate a peace with Great Britain. In 1785 he had the honor of being the first Minister of the United States to the Court of St. James's. Four years later he became Vice-President, retaining the office till Washington's retirement in 1797, when Adams himself became President. His four years in the chief magistracy added little to his fame, and when he left the Presidency in 1801 he retired to private life. He died on the same day as Thomas Jefferson: July 4, 1826.

154. b. 38. While the Congress is assembling. The first Continental Congress. 155. a. 22. Rumor of the cannonade of Boston. The rumor was groundless. a. 42. Sortes Biblicae. Literally, Biblical lots. The reference is to the belief that questions may be answered, and a line of conduct determined upon, by opening the Bible at random and being guided by the first verse that catches the reader's eye.

156. a. 7. The arrival of Dr. Franklin. Franklin had just returned from France. a. 47. Suspicions entertained of designs of independency. At the time Adams was writing thus, only the most hot-headed Whigs ever mentioned actual independence from England. The colonists were united in demanding their rights, but rarely went beyond asking for the rights to which all British subjects were entitled.

b. 35. Dunmore. John Murray, Earl of Dunmore (1732-1809), royal gover

nor of Virginia from 1771 till the end of the war.

b. 45. Do you not want to see Boston? The city had been only recently evacuated by the British, who withdrew to Halifax.

157. b. 31. The second day of July, 1776. On the relation between the second of July and the fourth, see the note on the Declaration of Independence, p. 1128, this volume.

THOMAS PAINE (1737-1809)

To Thomas Paine, an English emigrant who landed in America in 1774, leaving a rather bad reputation behind him, and having as his only visible asset a guardedly written letter of introduction from Franklin-to this unpromising bankrupt and fugitive belongs the honor of having written what Tyler calls "the first open and unqualified argument in championship of the doctrine of American Independence."

His record in England, before his emigration, gave no indication of the talent which was to develop when once he found himself absorbed in the problem of America's future. Born in 1737, the son of a corsetmaker, he had worked-off and on-at his father's trade; had been twice appointed to the Excise, and twice dismissed for inefficiency and neglect of duty; had been sold out by the Sheriff as a bankrupt; and had come to America with no prospect save the very vague one of getting on in the world somehow. He possessed, however, a clever journalist's ability to write prose which plain people could understand; he had the journalist's instinct for timely topics. When once he had familiarized himself with the American situation, he became a passionate advocate of independence-and this at a time when the majority of Colonial leaders were still protesting that no thought of independence would ever enter their heads.

The pamphlet in which he urged this new and treasonable doctrine appeared in January, 1776, bearing the appropriate title, Common Sense. Discarding such conservative and constitutional arguments as Dickinson had made the framework for his Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, Paine argued that things had now gone so far as to make all thoughts of union with Great Britain ridiculous, and that the only rational program for America was immediate and complete separation from the oppressing monarchy.

The pamphlet was republished up and down the land; it found its way at once across the Atlantic, and was reprinted in France, Germany, and England. So clear was the style, so lucid the argumentation, that the document-published anonymously-was generally attributed to either John Adams or Benjamin Franklin. It was as popular, in

the hot-tempered days of 1776, as Dickinson's Letters had been in 1768.

That the rapid change in American public opinion which took place between January and July of 1776 was due in considerable measure to Common Sense, seems established beyond reasonable doubt. It appeared at a time when the leaders of the American cause were decrying any discussion of separation from England; but within six months the Declaration of Independence had been issued.

Only once again, in America at least, did Paine write so effectively, and this was in the series of sixteen papers entitled The Crisis, which appeared at various times between December, 1776, and December, 1783. The circumstances of the publication of the first number are well known. Washington's army was retreating before the British in New Jersey; the victory at Trenton had not yet been won; American hopes seemed doomed to an early blight. It was then that Paine wrote his appeal, beginning with the words that have not yet lost their thrill: "These are the times that try men's souls." The impression made by this paper is evidenced by the fact that Washington ordered it read at the head of every regiment in his army.

During the next few years Paine was serving in many capacities, part of the time with the army, part of the time as Secretary to Congress, and, as occasion demanded, issuing new numbers of The Crisis to enhearten his countrymen. In 1781 he went to France with Laurens to solicit a loan from Louis XVI, to return with two and a half million livres in silver, as well as a ship-load of military supplies. When peace was restored Paine found himself more or less without an occupation, and in 1787 he sailed for Europe, where he at once plunged into the political battle then raging.

When the French Revolution broke out, and Burke, in 1790, published his Reflections, Paine replied with The Rights of Man (1791), an essay which won for him a reputation in France equal to that which Common Sense had gained for him in America. He was considered a dangerous revolutionist by the British, among whom he was living at the time the work appeared, and in May of 1792 was indicted for treason. He at once fled to France, where he had already been elected a member of the Assembly. In 1793 he urged moderation towards the King, and soon found himself imprisoned by Robespierre, and under sentence of death. Through the efforts of the American consul he escaped the guillotine, and remained in France till 1802, when he returned to America. He died in 1809, on a farm which many years before had been given him by the State of New York.

It is impossible in the space here available to give a satisfactory estimate of Paine's

superb journalistic skill, or of his invaluable contribution to the American cause. Enough has been said, however, to indicate the main facts, and to suggest Paine's significance as the most trenchant and effective prose writer of the days from 1776 to 1781.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Both The Crisis and Common Sense have been so many times reprinted that copies are available in any large library. The best biography is M. D. Conway's Life of Thomas Paine, N. Y. 1892, 2 vols. Conway's The Works of Thomas Paine, N. Y. 1894, is a good edition of Paine's writings.

NOTES

COMMON SENSE

158. b. 13. Prior to the nineteenth of April. I.e., prior to the outbreak of actual hostilities at Lexington and Concord. 160. a. 41. Boston, that seat of wretchedness. When Common Sense appeared, in January, 1776, Boston was occupied by the British, and Washington was besieging it. Two months later the British were forced to evacuate it. 161. a. 23. As Milton wisely expresses it. Paradise Lost IV, 98, ff.

a. 43. The repeal of the Stamp Act. In 1766.

b. 2. To be always running, etc. It is in such statements as this, and in the paragraph which follows, that Paine's "common sense" method of argumentatation appears most vividly.

b. 46. Masaniello. A fisherman of Naples, who in July of 1647 organized, and led to success, a revolt of the "common people."

162. a. 52. The social compact. Such a casual phrase as this indicates-what is sufficiently clear on other groundsthat Paine drew much of his political theory from Rousseau.

THE CRISIS

162. b. 44. "To bind us in all cases whatsoever." Quoted from the "Dependency Act," which Parliament insisted on passing at the time the Stamp Act was repealed.

163. a. 8. Howe. General Sir William Howe, British Commander-in-Chief in America from 1775 to February, 1776, when he was succeeded by his brother, Vice-Admiral Earl Howe.

b. 16. I was with the troops at Fort Lee. Paine was attached to General Lee's force, and took part in the hurried evacuation of Fort Lee in November, 1776. It was at Newark, during the retreat from the abandoned post, that he began the composition of the first number of The Crisis.