Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed, Volume 1 (of 2): A Biographical and Critical Study Based Mainly on his own WritingsBruce, Wiliam Cabell
History
Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed, Volume 1 (of 2): A Biographical and Critical Study Based Mainly on his own Writings
Bruce, Wiliam Cabell
Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790
Most touching of all are the words which she addressed to her brother
shortly before his death, "Who that know and love you can bear the thought
of surviving you in this gloomy world?" Even after his death, his goodness
continued to shield her from want, for by his will he devised to her
absolutely the house in Unity Street, Boston, in which she lived, and
bequeathed to her an annuity of sixty pounds. By his will, he also
bequeathed to her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, living
at the time of his decease, in equal shares, fifty pounds sterling; the
same amount that he bequeathed to the descendants living at that time of
his brother Samuel, his sister Anne Harris, his brother James, his sister
Sarah and his sister Lydia, respectively.
As we have seen, Franklin's feelings about Deborah's relatives were hardly
less cordial than his feelings about his own. In addition to his
mother-in-law, Mrs. Read, and Brother John Read and Sister Read, and Cousin
Debbey, and young cousin Johnny Read, two other kinsmen of Deborah, Joseph
Read and James Read are mentioned in his letters. Indeed, at one time he
even contrived to ward off the Franklins, Mecoms and Davenports from the
Post Office long enough to appoint Joseph to the Postmastership at
Philadelphia; but James was so unfortunate as to rub against one of the
most highly sensitive surfaces of his disposition. In a letter to him,
Franklin says, "Your visits never had but one thing disagreeable in them,
that is, they were always too short"; but, in a later letter, he assails
Read fiercely for surreptitiously obtaining a judgment against Robert
Grace, one of the original members of the Junto, and produces a power of
attorney to himself from William Strahan, authorizing him to recover a
large sum of money that Read owed Strahan. "Fortune's wheel is often
turning," he grimly reminds Read. The whole letter is written with a degree
of asperity that Franklin rarely exhibited except when his sense of
injustice was highly inflamed, and the circumstances, under which Read
secured the judgment, the "little charges," that he had cunningly
accumulated on it, and the cordial affection of Franklin for Grace would
appear to have fully justified Franklin's stern rebuke and exultant
production of Strahan's power of attorney. But everything, it must be
confessed, becomes just a little clearer when we learn from a subsequent
letter of Franklin to Strahan that, before he received Strahan's power of
attorney and account, there had been a misunderstanding between Read and
himself,
occasion'd by his endeavouring to get a small Office
from me (Clerk to the Assembly) which I took the more
amiss, as we had always been good Friends, and the
Office could not have been of much Service to him, the
Salary being small; but valuable to me, as a means of
securing the Public Business to our Printing House.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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