14 - Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin

Penned as a heartfelt letter to his son, Benjamin Franklins autobiography is not just a chronicle of his life, but also a pioneer in the self-help genre in America. The book is an intriguing blend of personal history and timeless advice on success, beautifully edited by Frank Woodworth Pine (1869-1919). Join us as we delve into Franklins wisdom-filled world. (Summary by Gary)

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Chapter thirteen. This is a
LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, edited by Frank Woodworth Pine,

(00:23):
Chapter thirteen, Public Services and Duties seventeen forty nine to
seventeen fifty three. Peace being concluded, and the Association business
therefore at an end, I turned my thoughts again to
the affair of establishing an academy. The first step I
took was to associate in the design of a number

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of active friends, to whom the Junto furnished a good part.
The next was to write and publish a pamphlet entitled
Proposals relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania. This
istributed among the principal inhabitants gratus, and as soon as
I could suppose their minds a little prepared by the

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perusal of it, I set on foot a subscription for
opening and supporting an academy. It was to be paid
in quota as yearly for five years. By so dividing it,
I judged the subscription might be larger, and I believe
it was so, amounting to no less, if I remember right,
than five thousand pounds. In the introduction to these proposals,

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I stated their publication not as an act of mine,
but of some public spirited gentleman, avoiding as much as
I could, according to my usual rule, the presenting myself
to the public as the author of any scheme for
their benefit. The subscribers to carry the project into immediate execution,

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chose out of their numbers twenty four trustees, and appointed
mister Francis, then Attorney General, and myself to draw up
constitutions for the government of the academy, which, being done
and signed, a house was hired, masters engaged, and the
schools opened, I think in the same year seventeen forty nine.

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Begin footnote. Trench Francis, uncle of Sir Philip Francis, emigrated
from England to Maryland to become attorney for Lord Baltimore.
He removed to Philadelphia and was Attorney General of Pennsylvania
from seventeen forty one to seventeen fifty five. He died

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in Philadelphia August sixteenth, seventeen fifty eight. End footnote. The
scholars increasing fast. The house was soon found too small,
and we were looking out for a piece of ground
properly situated with intention to build. When providence drew to
our way a large house already built, which, with a

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few alterations might well serve purpose. This was the building
before mentioned, erected by the hearers of mister Whitfield, and
was obtained for us in the following manner. It is
to be noted that the contributions to this building being
made by people of different sects. Care was taken in
the nomination of trustees in whom the building and ground

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was to be vested, that a predominancy should not be
given to any sect, least in time that predominancy might
be a means of appropriating the whole to the use
of such sect, contrary to the original intention. It was
therefore that one of each sect was appointed viz. One

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Church of England, man, one Presbyterian, one Baptist, one Morovian,
et cetera. Those in case of vacancy by death were
filled it by election from among the contributors. The Morovian
happened not to please his colleagues, and on his death
they resolved to have no other of that zine. The

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difficulty then was how to avoid having two of some
other sect by means of the new choice. Several persons
were named, and for that reason not agreed to at length.
One mentioned me, with the observation that I was merely
an honest man and of no sect at all, which
prevailed with them to choose me. The enthusiasm which existed

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when the house was built had long since abated, and
its trustees had not been able to procure fresh contributions
for paying the ground rent and discharging some of the
other debts the building had occasioned, which embarrassed them greatly.
Being now a member of both sets of trustees, that
for the building and that for the academy, I had

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a good opportunity of negotiating with both, and brought them
finally to an agreement by which the trustees for the
building were to cede it to those of the academy,
the latter undertaking to discharge the debt to keep or
ever open in the building a large hall for occasional
preachers according to the original intention, and maintain a free

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school for the instruction of poor children. Writings were accordingly drawn,
and on paying the debts, the Trustees of the Academy
were put in possession of the premises, and by dividing
the great and lofty hall into stories and different rooms
above and below for the several schools, and purchasing some
additional ground, the whole was soon made fit for our purpose,

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and the scholars removed into the building. The care and
trouble of agreeing with the workmen, purchasing materials, and superintending
the work fell upon me, and I went through it
the more cheerfully, as it did not then interfere with
my private business, having the year before taken a very able,

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industrious and honest partner, mister David Hall, with whose character
I was well acquainted, as he had worked for me
for he took off my hands all care of the
printing office, paying me punctually my share of the profits.
The partnership continued eighteen years successfully for us. Both the

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Trustees of the Academy, after a while were incorporated by
a charter from the Governor. Their funds were increased by
contributions in Britain and grants of land from the proprietaries
to which the Assembly had since made considerable addition, and
thus was established The present University of Philadelphia. I have

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been continued one of its trustees from the beginning, now
near forty years, and have had the very great pleasure
of seeing a number of the youth who have received
their education in it, distinguished by their proven abilities, serviceable
in public stations and ornaments to their country. Begin footnote.

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The institution was later called the University of Pennsylvania. Footnote.
When I disengaged myself, as above mentioned, from private business,
I flattered myself that by the sufficient though moderate fortune
I had acquired, I had secure leisure during the rest
of my life for philosophical studies and amusements. I purchased

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all of doctor Spencer's apparatus, who had come from England
to lecture here, and I proceeded in my electrical experiments
with great aliquity. But the public, now considering me as
a man of leisure, laid hold of me for their
purposes every part of our civil government, and almost at
the same time imposing some duty upon me. The Governor

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put me into the Commission of the Peace. A corporation
of the city chose me of the common council, and
soon after an alderman, and the citizens at large chose
me a burgess to represent them in Assembly. This latter
station was more agreeable to me, as I was at
length tired with sitting there to hear debates in which,

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as clerk I could take no part, and which were
often so unentertaining that I was induced to amuse myself
with making magic squares or circles or anything to avoid weariness.
And I conceived my becoming a member would enlarge my
power of doing good. I would not, however, insinuate that
my ambition was not flattered by all these promotions. It

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certainly was, for considering my low beginning, they were great
things to me, and they were still more pleasing as
being so many spontaneous testimonies of the public good opinion,
and by me entirely unsolicited the office of justice of
the peace. I tried a little by attending a few
courts and sitting on the bench to hear cases, but

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finding that more knowledge of the common law than I
possessed was necessary to act in that station with credit,
I gradually withdrew from it, excusing myself by being obliged
to attend the higher duties of a legislature in the Assembly.
My election to this trust was repeated every year for
ten years, without my ever asking any elector for his

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vote or signifying either directly or indirectly, any desire of
being chosen. On taking my seat in the House, my
son was appointed their clerk. The year following a treaty
being held with the Indians at Carlisle, the Governor sent
a message to the House proposing that they should nominate
some of their members to be join'd with some members

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of Council as commissioners. For that purpose, the House named
the speaker mister Norris, and myself, and being commissioned, we
went to Carlisle and met the Indians accordingly, as those
people are extremely apt to get drunk, and whenso, are
very quarrelsome and disorderly, we strictly forbade this selling of

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any liquor to them, And when they complained of this restriction,
we told them that if they would continue sober during
the treaty, we would give them plenty of rum when
business was over. They promised this, and they kept their
promise because they could get no liquor, and the treaty
was concluded very orderly and concluded to mutual satisfaction. They

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then claimed and received the rum. This was in the afternoon.
They were near one hundred men, women and children, and
were lodged in temporary cabins built in the form of
a square just without the town. In the evening, hearing
a great noise among them, the commissioners walked out to
see what was the matter. We found they had made

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a great bonfire in the middle of the square. They
were all drunk, men and women, quarreling and fighting, their
dark colored bodies half naked, seen only by the gloomy
light of the bonfire. Running after and beating one another
with firebrands, accompanied by their horrid yellings, formed a scene
the most resembling our ideas of hell that could well

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be imagined. There was no appeasing the tumult, and we
retired to our lodging. At midnight, a number of them
came thundering at our door, demanding more rum, of which
we took no notice. The next day, sensible they had
misbehaved in giving us that disturbance, they sent three of

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their old counselors to make their apology. The order acknowledged
the fault, but laid it upon the rum, and then
endeavored to excuse the rum by saying the great Spirit
who made all things, made everything for some use, and
whatever use he designed anything, for that use, it should
always be put to. Now. When he made rum, he said,

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let this be for the Indians to get drunk with.
And it must be so. And indeed, if it be
the design of Providence to extirpate these savages in order
to make room for cultivators of the earth, it seems
not improbable that drum may be the appointed means. It
has already annihilated all the tribes who formerly inhabited the

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sea coast. In seventeen fifty one, doctor Thomas Bond, a
particular friend of mine, conceived the idea of establishing a
hospital in Philadelphia, a very beneficent design which has been
ascribed to me, but was originally his, for the reception
and cure of poor sick persons, whether inhabitants of the

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province or strangers. He was zealous and active in endeavoring
to procure subscriptions for it, but the proposal, being a
novelty in America and at first not well understood, he
met but with small success. At length he came to
me with the complaint that he found there was no
such thing as carrying a public spirited project through without

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my being concerned in it. For says he, I am
often asked by those to whom I propose subscribing, have
you consulted Franklin upon this business? And what does he
think of it? And when I tell them that I
have not supposing it rather out of your line, they
do not subscribe, but say they will consider of it.
I inquire into the nature and probable utility of his scheme,

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and received from him a very satisfactory explanation. I not
only subscribed to it myself, but engaged heartily in the
design of procuring subscriptions from others. Previously, however, to the solicitation,
I endeavored to prepare the minds of the people by
writing on the subject in the newspapers, which was my

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usual custom in such cases, but which he had omitted.
The subscriptions afterward were more free and generous, but beginning
to flag, I saw they would be insufficient without some
assistance from the Assembly, and therefore proposed a petition for it,
which was done. The country members did not at first

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relish the project. They objected that it could only be
so irvisable to the city, and therefore the citizens alone
should be at the expense of it, and they doubted
whether the citizens themselves generally approved of it. My allegation,
on the contrary, that it met with such approbation as
to leave no doubt of our being able to raise

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two thousand pounds by voluntary donations, they considered as a
most extravagant supposition and utterly impossible. On this I formed
my plan and asked Leave to bring a bill for
incorporating the contributions according to the prayer of their petition,
and granting them a blank sum of money. Which Leave

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was obtained, chiefly on the consideration that the House would
throw the bill out if they did not like it.
I drew it so as to make the important clause
a conditioned one viz. And be it enacted by the authority.
Aforesaid that when the said contributions shall have met and
chosen their managers and treasurer, and shall have raised by

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their contributions a capital stock of blank value, the yearly
interest of which is to be applied to the accommodating
of the sick poor in the said hospital, free of
charge for diet, attendance, advice, and medicines, and shall make
the same appear to the satisfaction of the Speaker of
the Assembly for the time being, that then it shall

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and may be lawful for the said Speaker, And he
is hereby required to sign an order on the Provincial
Treasurer for the payment of two thousand pounds in two
yearly payments to the Treasurer of the said hospital, to
be applied to the founding building and furnishing of the same.
The condition carried the bill through. For the members who

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had opposed the grant and now conceived they might have
the credit of being charitable without the expense, agreed to
its passage. And then, in soliciting subscriptions among the people,
we urged the conditional promise of the law as additional
motive to give, since every man's donation would be doubled.
Thus the clause worked both ways. The subscriptions soon exceeded

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their requisite sum, and we claimed and received the public
gift which enabled us to carry the design into execution.
A convenient and handsome building was soon erected. The institution has,
by constant experience, been found useful and flourishes to this day,
and I do not remember any of my political maneuvers.

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The success of which gave me at the time more pleasure,
or wherein, after thinking of it, I more easily excused
myself for having made some use of cunning. It was
about this time that another projector, the Reverend Gilbert Tennant,
came to me with a request that I would assist
him in procuring a subscription for erecting a new meeting house.

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It was to be for use of a congregation he
had gathered among the Presbyterians who were originally disciples of
mister Whitchbane. Unwilling to make myself disagreeable to my fellow
citizen by two frequents soliciting their contributions, I absolutely refused.
He then desired I would furnish him with a list
of names of persons I knew by experience to be

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generous and public spirited. I thought it would be unbecoming
in me, after their kind compliance with my solicitations, to
mark them out to be worried by other beggars, and
therefore refused also to give him such a list. He
then desired I would at least give him my advice
that I will readily do, said I. And in the

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first place, I advise you to apply to all those
whom you know will give something, next to those whom
you are uncertain whether they will give anything or not,
and show them the lists of those who have given.
And lastly, do not neglect those whom you are sure
will give nothing, or in some of them you may

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be mistaken. He laughed and thanked me, and said he
would take my advice. He did so, for he asked
of everybody, and he obtained a much larger sum than
he expected, with which he erected the capacious and very
elegant meeting house that stands in Arch Street. Begin footnote.
Gilbert Tenant seventeen o three to seventeen sixty four came

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to America with his father, Reverend William Tennant, and taught
for a time in the log College, from which sprang
the College of New Jersey. End footnote. Our city, though
laid out with a beautiful regularity, the streets large, straight
and crossing each other at right angles, had the disgrace
of suffering those streets to remain long unpaved, and in

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wet weather, bills of heavy carriages plowed them into a quagmire,
so that it was difficult to cross them, and in
dry weather the dust was offensive I had lived near
what was called the Jersey Market, and saw with pain
the inhabitants waiting in mud while purchasing their provisions. A
strip of ground down the middle of that market was

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at least paved with brick, so that being once in
the market, they had firm footing, but were often overshoes
in dirt to get there. By talking and writing on
the subject, I was at length instrumental in getting the
street paved, with some stone between the market and the
bricked foot pavement that was on each side next to

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the houses. This for some time gave an easy access
to the market dry shod, but the rest of the
street not being paved. Whenever a carriage came out of
the mud upon the pavement, it shook off and left
its dirt upon it, and it was soon covered with mire,
which was not removed the city as yet having no scavengers.

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After some inquiry, I found a poor industrious man who
was willing to undertake keeping the pavement clean by sweeping
it twice a week, carrying off the dirt from before
all the neighbor's doors, for the sum of sixpence per month,
to paid by each house. I then wrote and printed
a paper setting forth the advantages to the neighborhood that

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might be obtained by this small expense. The greater ease
in keeping our houses clean, so much dirt not being
brought in by people's feet, the benefit of the shops
by more custom et cetera, et cetera, as buyers could
more easily get at them, and by not having, in
windy weather the dust blown in upon their goods, et cetera,

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et cetera. I sent one of these papers to each house,
and in a day or two went round to see
who would subscribe an agreement to pay these sixpence. It
was unanimously signed, and for a time well executed. All
the inhabitants of the city were delighted with the cleanliness
of the pavement that surrounded the market, it being a
convenience to all, and thus raised a general desire to

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have all the streets paved, and made the people more
willing to submit to attacks for that purpose. After some
time I drew a bill for paving the city, and
brought it into the Assembly. It was just before I
went to England in seventeen fifty seven, and did not
pass until I was gone. And then with an alteration

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in the mode of assessment, which I thought not for
the better, but with an additional provision for lighting as
well as paving the streets, which was a great improvement.
It was by a private person, the late mister John Clifton,
his giving a sample of the utility of lamps by
placing one at his door, that the people were first

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impressed with the idea of enlightening all the city. The
honor of this public benefit has also been ascribed to me,
but it belongs truly to that gentleman. I did but
follow his example, and have only some merit to claim.
Respecting the form of our lamps, as differing from the
globe lamps we were at first supplied with from London,

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those we found inconvenient in these resps. They admitted no
air below. The smoke therefore did not readily go out above,
but circulated in the globe, lodged on its inside, and
soon obstructed the light they were intended to afford, giving
besides the daily trouble of wiping them clean, and an

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accidental stroke on one of them would demolish it and
render it totally useless. I therefore suggested the composing them
of four flat panes with a long funnel above to
draw up the smoke, and crevices admitting air below to
facilitate the ascent of the smoke. By this means they

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were kept clean and did not grow dark in a
few hours, as the London lamps do, but continued bright
till morning, and an accidental stroke would generally break, but
a single pane easily repaired. I have sometimes wondered that
the Londoners did, not, from the effect holes in the

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bottom of the globe lamps used at Vaxall have, in
keeping them clean, learned to have such holes in their
street lamps. But these holes being made for another purpose, viz.
To communicate flame more suddenly to the wick by a
little flax hanging down through them. The other use of

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letting in air seems not to have been thought of,
and therefore after the lamps had been lit a few hours,
the streets of London were very poorly illuminated. Begin footnote.
Vaxall Gardens once a popular and fashionable London resort, situated
on the Thames above Lambeth. The gardens were closed in

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eighteen fifty nine, but they will always be remembered because
of Sir Roger de Covery's visit to them in the Spectator,
and from the description in Smollett's Humphrey Clinker and Thackeray's
Vanity Fair end of footnote. The mention of these improvements
puts me in mind of one I proposed, when in

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London to doctor Fothergill, who was among the best men
I have known, and a great promoter of useful projects.
I had observed that the streets, when dry, were never swept,
and the light dust carried away, but it was suffered
to accumulate till the wet weather reduced it to mud,
and then after lying some days so deep on the

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pavement that there was no crossing, but in paths kept
clear by poor people with brooms, it was with great
labor raked together and thrown up into carts open above
the sides of which suffered some of the slush at
every jolt on the pavement, to shake out and fall,

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sometimes to the annoyance of foot passengers. The reason given
for not sweeping the dusty streets was that the dust
would fly in the windows of shops and houses, and
accidentally currents had instructed me how much sweeping might be
done in a little time. I found at my door
in Craven Street one morning, a poor woman sweeping my

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pavement with a birch broom. She appeared very pale and feeble,
and just come out of a fit of sickness. I
asked who employed her to sweep there? She said nobody,
But I am very poor and in distress, and I
sweeps before gentlefolks's doors and hopes they will give me something.
I bid her sweep the whole street clean and I

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would give her a shilling. This was at nine o'clock.
At twelve she came for the shilling. From the slowness
I saw at first in her working, I could scarce
believe that the work was done so soon, and sent
my servant to examine it, who reported that the whole
street was swept perfectly clean, and all the dust placed

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in the gutter which was in the middle, and the
next rain washed it quite away, so that pavement and
even the kennel were perfect clean. I then judge that
if that feeble woman could sweep such a street in
three hours, a strong active man might have done it
in half the time. And here let me remark the

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convenience of having but one gutter in such a narrow
street running down its middle, instead of two, one on
each side near the footway. For where all the rain
that falls on a street runs from the sides and
meets in the middle, it forms there a current strong
enough to wash away all the mud it meets with.

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But when divided into two channels, it is often too
weak to cleanse either, and only makes the mud it
finds more fluid, so that the wheels of carriages and
feet of horses throw and dash it upon the foot pavement,
which is thereby rendered fowl and slippery, and sometimes splash
it upon those who are walking. My proposal, communicated to

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the Good Doctor, was as follows. For the more effectual
cleaning and keeping clean the streets of London and Westminster.
It is proposed that the several watchmen be contracted with
to have the dust swept up in dry seasons and
the mud raked up at other times, each in their

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several streets and lanes of his round. That they be
furnished with brooms and other proper instruments for these purposes,
to be kept at their respective stands, ready to furnish
the poor people they may employ in the service that
in the dry summer months, the dust will all be
swept up into heaps at proper distances before the shops

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and windows of houses are usually opened, when the scavengers
with close covered carts, shall also carry it away. That
the mud, when raked up, be not left in heaps,
to be spread abroad again by the wheels of carriages
and trampling of horses, But that the scavengers be provided
with bodies of carts, not placed high upon wheels, but

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low upon slide, with lattice bottoms, which, being covered with straw,
will retain the mud thrown into them, and permit the
water to drain from it. Thereby it will become much lighter, water,
making the greatest part of its weight. And these bodies
of carts to be placed at convenient distances, and the
mud brought to them in wheelbarrows, by remaining there placed

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till the mud is drained, and the horses brought to
draw them away. I have since had doubts of the
practicality of the latter part of this proposal, on account
of the narrowness of some streets, and the difficulty of
placing the draining sleds so as not to encumber too
much of the passage. But I am still of opinion
that the former, requiring the dust to be swept up

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and carried away before the shops are open, is very
practicable in the summer when the days are long. For
In walking through the Strand and Fleet Street one morning
at seven o'clock, I observed there was not one shop open,
though it had been daylight and the sun up above
three hours. The inhabitants of London, choosing voluntarily to live

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much by candle light and sleep by sunshine, and yet
often complain a little absurdly of the duty on candles
and the high price of tallow. Some may think these
trifling matters not worth minding or relating. But when they
consider that though dust blown into the eyes of a
single person or into a single shop on a windy day,

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is but of small importance, yet the greater number of
the instances in a populous city, and its frequent repetitions
give it weight and consequence, perhaps they will not censor
very severely those who bestow some attention to affairs of
this seemingly low nature. Human felicity is produced not so

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much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen
as by little advantages that occur every day. Thus, if
you teach a poor young man to shave himself and
keep his razor in order, you may contribute more to
the happiness of his life than in giving him a
thousand guineas the money may be soon spent, the regret
only remaining of having foolishly consumed it. But in the

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other case he escapes the frequent vexation of waiting for barbers,
and of there sometimes dirty fingers, offensive breaths, and dull razors.
He shaves when most convenient to him, and enjoys daily
the pleasure of its being done with a good instrument.
With these sentiments, I have hazarded the few preceding pages,

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hoping that they may afford hints which, some time or
other may be useful to a city I love, having
lived many years in it very happily, and perhaps to
some of our towns in America. Having been for some
time employed by the Postmaster General of America as his
comptroller in regulating several offices and bringing the offices to account,

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I was, upon his death in seventeen fifty three, appointed
jointly with mister William Hunter, to succeed him by a
commission from the Postmaster General in England. The American Office
never had hitherto paid anything to that of Britain. We
were to have six hundred pounds a year between us,

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if we could make that sum out of the profits
of the office. To do this, a variety of improvements
were necessary. Some of these were inevitably at first expensive,
so that in the first four years the office became
above nine hundred pounds in debt to us. But it
soon after began to repay us, And before I was
displaced by a freak of the ministers of which I

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shall speak hereafter we had brought it to yield three
times as much clear revenue to the Crown as the
Post Office of Ireland. Since that imprudent transaction they have
received from it not one farthing. The business of the
post Office occasioned by taking a journey this year to
New England, where the College of Cambridge, of their own motion,

(32:01):
presented me with a degree of Master of Arts. Yale
College in Connecticut had before made me a similar compliment. Thus,
without studying in any college, I came to partake of
their honors. They were conferred in consideration of my improvements
and discoveries in the electric branch of natural philosophy. End

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of chapter thirteen,