Benjamin Franklin; Self-Revealed, Volume 2 (of 2): A Biographical and Critical Study Based Mainly on his own WritingsBruce, Wiliam Cabell
History
Benjamin Franklin; Self-Revealed, Volume 2 (of 2): A Biographical and Critical Study Based Mainly on his own Writings
Bruce, Wiliam Cabell
Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790
The next sitting of the Assembly was not to be held until the succeeding
October, and before that time the annual election for members of the
Assembly was to take place. For the purpose of influencing public opinion,
Dickinson, upon its adjournment, published his speech with a long preface
by Dr. William Smith. Galloway followed suit by publishing his speech with
a long preface by Franklin. This preface is one of Franklin's masterpieces,
marked it is true by some quaint conceits and occasional relaxations of
energy, but full of power and withering sarcasm. Preceded by such a lengthy
and brilliant preface, Galloway must have felt that his speech had little
more than the secondary value of an appendix. With the consummate capacity
for pellucid statement, which was one of Franklin's most remarkable gifts,
it narrated the manner in which the practice of buying legislation from the
Proprietaries had been pursued. With equal force and ingenuity, it
demonstrated that five out of the six amendments, proposed by the Lords in
Council to the Act, approved by Governor Denny, did not justify the charge
that the circumstances, in which they originated, involved any real
injustice to the Proprietaries, and that the sixth, which forbade the
tender to the Proprietaries of paper bills of fluctuating value, in payment
of debts payable to them, under the terms of special contracts, in coin,
if a measure of justice to them, would be also a measure of justice to
other creditors in the same situation, who were not mentioned in the
amendment.
Referring to the universal practice in America of making such bills a legal
tender and the fact that the bills in question would have been a legal
tender as respects the members of the Assembly and their constituents as
well as the Proprietaries, Franklin's preface glows like an incandescent
furnace in these words:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account