Benjamin Franklin | Page 4

placing him in the earlier constellation. Yet, though not more prominent than many others, in fact hardly to be called prominent at all in the events which led up to the Revolution, he became a leader in the first Congress, and it is probable that no one contributed more than he did--possibly no one contributed so much--towards forcing the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.
Washington, though a member of Congress, was by no means conspicuous in the agitation which preceded the actual outbreak of hostilities. His entry in his uniform among his civilian comrades was indeed dramatic; but his important public career really began with his acceptance of the position of commander in chief. In this capacity he achieved the overthrow of the British supremacy, and brought to a successful close the period of destruction.
This first group is a small one, for the first Congress brought no new men to the front. Indeed, that body lost its own prestige very soon after independence was declared; thereafter it was no stage on which new men could win distinction, or men already famous could add to their store; indeed, members were lucky if they escaped without diminution of their reputations, by very reason of being parts of so nerveless and useless a body. The fact is, that the civilians, after they had set the ball going, did little more. They contributed almost nothing to the Revolution in any practical way during its actual progress. Perhaps they could not; but certainly they did not. Washington and his officers and soldiers deserve all the credit for making independence a reality instead of an assertion. They were not very strenuously or generously backed by the mass of the people after the first fervor was over. The truth is that that grand event was the work of a small body of heroes, who presented freedom and nationality to the people of the thirteen colonies. John Adams and Congress said that the colonists were free, and there left the matter, functi officio. Washington and the troops took up the business, and actually made colonists into freemen. Those upon whom this dignity and advantage were conferred were, for the most part, content somewhat supinely to allow the new condition to be established for them.
JOHN T. MORSE, JR.
September, 1898.

CONTENTS
I. EARLY YEARS 1
II. A CITIZEN OF PHILADELPHIA: CONCERNMENT IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS 17
III. REPRESENTATIVE OF PENNSYLVANIA IN ENGLAND: RETURN HOME 59
IV. LIFE IN PHILADELPHIA 86
V. SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND: I. 100
VI. SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND: II. 142
VII. SECOND MISSION TO ENGLAND: III. THE HUTCHINSON LETTERS: THE PRIVY COUNCIL SCENE: RETURN HOME 177
VIII. SERVICES IN THE STATES 204
IX. MINISTER TO FRANCE: I. DEANE AND BEAUMARCHAIS: FOREIGN OFFICERS 220
X. MINISTER TO FRANCE: II. PRISONERS: TROUBLE WITH LEE AND OTHERS 248
XI. MINISTER TO FRANCE: III. TREATY WITH FRANCE: MORE QUARRELS 267
XII. FINANCIERING 304
XIII. HABITS OF LIFE AND OF BUSINESS: AN ADAMS INCIDENT 337
XIV. PEACE NEGOTIATIONS: LAST YEARS IN FRANCE 357
XV. AT HOME: PRESIDENT OF PENNSYLVANIA: THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION: DEATH 403
INDEX 429

ILLUSTRATIONS
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
From the original by Jean Baptiste Greuze, in the Boston Public Library. It was painted for Benjamin Franklin as a gift to Richard Oswald, the English commissioner associated with him in the peace negotiations of 1782. Gardner Brewer of Boston bought the painting in 1872 and presented it to the Library.
Autograph from the Declaration of Independence.
The vignette of Independence Hall is after a drawing in the possession of the American Bank Note Co., Philadelphia.
COUNT VERGENNES
From the frontispiece to Doniol, "Histoire de la Participation de la France à l'Establissement des Etats-Unis d'Amérique," Paris, 1886, 5 vols., 4to. vol. i.; an engraving by Vangelisti, from the original painting by Antoine Francois Callet.
Autograph from same book.
LORD HILLSBOROUGH (Born Wills Hill; afterwards Marquis of Downshire)
From a painting by J. Rising, owned by Lord Salisbury.
Autograph from MS. collection in the New York Public Library, Lenox Building.
PAUL JONES
From the original portrait by C. W. Peale in Independence Hall.
Autograph from MS. collection in Library of Boston Athen?um.
SEA-FIGHT BETWEEN THE SERAPIS AND BON HOMME RICHARD
Off Flamborough Head, September 3, 1779. Paul
Jones's ship, in compliment to the author of "Poor Richard's Maxims," was named "Bon Homme Richard." Captain Pearson, who commanded the Serapis, was knighted for his heroic resistance. Paul Jones, tradition says, on hearing of the honor conferred on Pearson, good-naturedly observed, "If I ever meet him again, I'll make a lord of him."

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
CHAPTER I
EARLY YEARS
It is a lamentable matter for any writer to find himself compelled to sketch, however briefly, the early years of Benjamin Franklin. That autobiography, in which the story of those years is so inimitably told, by its vividness, its simplicity, even by its straightforward vanity, and by the quaint charm of its old-fashioned but well-nigh faultless style, stands among the few masterpieces of English prose. It ought to have served for the perpetual protection of