Part 6 (1/2)
”_A._ No, by no means absolutely necessary; with industry and good management they may very well supply themselves with all they want.
”62. _Q._ Will it not take a long time to establish that manufacture among them? and must they not in the mean while suffer greatly?
”_A._ I think not. They have made a surprising progress already. And I am of opinion that, before their old clothes are worn out, they will have new ones of their own making.
”84. _Q._ If the Act is not repealed, what do you think will be the consequence?
”_A._ A total loss of the respect and affection the people of America bear to this country, and of all the commerce that depends on that respect and affection.
”85. _Q._ How can the commerce be affected?
”_A._ You will find that, if the Act is not repealed, they will take a very little of your manufactures in a short time.
”86. _Q._ Is it in their power to do without them?
”_A._ I think they may very well do without them.
”87. _Q._ Is it their interest not to take them?
”_A._ The goods they take from Britain are either necessaries, mere conveniences, or superfluities. The first, as cloth, etc., with a little industry they can make at home; the second they can do without till they are able to provide them among themselves; and the last, which are much the greatest part, they will strike off immediately.
They are mere articles of fas.h.i.+on, purchased and consumed because the fas.h.i.+on in a respected country; but will now be detested and rejected.
The people have already struck off, by general agreement, the use of all goods fas.h.i.+onable in mournings, and many thousand pounds' worth are sent back as unsaleable.
”173. _Q._ What used to be the pride of the Americans?
”_A._ To indulge in the fas.h.i.+ons and manufactures of Great Britain.
”174. _Q._ What is now their pride?
”_A._ To wear their old clothes over again till they can make new ones.”
The month following Franklin's examination, the repeal of the Stamp Act received the royal a.s.sent. Thereupon Franklin sent his wife and daughter new dresses, and a number of other little luxuries (or toilet necessaries).
In 1767 Franklin visited Paris. In the same year his daughter married Mr. Richard Bache. Though Parliament had repealed the Stamp Act, it nevertheless insisted on its right to tax the colonies. The Duty Act was scarcely less objectionable than its predecessor. On Franklin's return from the Continent, he heard of the retaliatory measures of the Boston people, who had a.s.sembled in town-meetings, formally resolved to encourage home manufactures, to abandon superfluities, and, after a certain time, to give up the use of some articles of foreign manufacture. These _a.s.sociations_ afterwards became very general in the colonies, so that in one year the importations by the colonists of New York fell from 482,000 to 74,000, and in Pennsylvania from 432,000 to 119,000.
The effect of the Duty Act was to encourage the Dutch and other nations to smuggle tea and probably other India produce into America.
The exclusion from the American markets of tea sent from England placed the East India Company in great difficulties; for while they were unable to meet their bills, they had in stock two million pounds'
worth of tea and other goods. The balance of the revenue collected under the Duty Act, after paying salaries, etc., amounted to only 85 for the year, and for this a fleet had to be maintained, to guard the fifteen hundred miles of American coast; while the fall in East India Stock deprived the revenue of 400,000 per annum, which the East India Company would otherwise have paid. At length a licence was granted to the East India Company to carry tea into America, duty free. This, of course, excluded all other merchants from the American tea-trade. A quant.i.ty of tea sent by the East India Company to Boston was destroyed by the people. The British Government then blockaded the port. This soon led to open hostilities. Franklin worked hard to effect a reconciliation. He drew up a scheme, setting forth the conditions under which he conceived a reconciliation might be brought about, and discussed it fully with Mr. Daniel Barclay and Dr. Fothergill. This scheme was shown to Lord Howe, and afterwards brought before the Ministry, but was rejected. Other plans were considered, and Franklin offered to pay for the tea which had been destroyed at Boston. All his negotiations were, however, fruitless. At last he addressed a memorial to the Earl of Dartmouth, Secretary of State, complaining of the blockade of Boston, which had then continued for nine months, and had ”during every week of its continuance done damage to that town, equal to what was suffered there by the India Company;” and claiming reparation for such injury beyond the value of the tea which had been destroyed. The memorial also complained of the exclusion of the colonists from the Newfoundland fisheries, for which reparation would one day be required. This memorial was returned to Franklin by Mr.
Walpole, and Franklin shortly afterwards returned to Philadelphia.
During this visit to England he had lost his wife, who died on December 19, 1774; and his friend Miss Stevenson had married and been left a widow.
In April, 1768, Franklin was appointed Agent for Georgia, in the following year for New Jersey, and in 1770 for Ma.s.sachusetts, so that he was then the representative in England of four colonies, with an income of 1200 per annum.
In 1771 he spent three weeks at Twyford, with the Bishop of St. Asaph, who remained a fast friend of Franklin's until his death. In 1772 he was nominated by the King of France as Foreign a.s.sociate of the Academy of Sciences.
During his negotiations with the British Government Franklin wrote two satirical pieces, setting forth the treatment which the American colonists were receiving. The first was ent.i.tled ”Rules for Reducing a Great Empire to a Small One,” the rules being precisely those which, in Franklin's opinion, had been followed by the British Government in its dealings with America. The other was ”An Edict by the King of Prussia,” in which the king claimed the right of taxing the British nation; of forbidding English manufacture, and compelling Englishmen to purchase Prussian goods; of transporting prisoners to Britain, and generally of exercising all such controls over the English people as had been claimed over America by various Acts of the English Parliament, on the ground that England was originally colonized by emigrants from Prussia.
Before Franklin reached America, the War of Independence, though not formally declared, had fairly begun. He was appointed a member of the second Continental Congress, and one of a committee of three to confer with General Was.h.i.+ngton respecting the support and regulation of the Continental Army. This latter office necessitated his spending some time in the camp. On October 3, 1775, he wrote to Priestley:--
Tell our dear good friend, Dr. Price, who sometimes has his doubts and despondencies about our firmness, that America is determined and unanimous; a very few Tories and placemen excepted, who will probably soon export themselves. Britain, at the expense of three millions, has killed a hundred and fifty Yankees this campaign, which is 20,000 a head; and at Bunker's Hill she gained a mile of ground, half of which she lost again by our taking the post on Ploughed Hill. During the same time sixty thousand children have been born in America. From these _data_ his mathematical head will easily calculate the time and expense necessary to kill us all and conquer our whole territory.