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
Most of them did well, being enabled at the end of our
term, six years, to purchase the types of me and go on
working for themselves, by which means several families
were raised. Partnerships often finish in quarrels; but
I was happy in this, that mine were all carried on and
ended amicably, owing, I think, a good deal to the
precaution of having very explicitly settled, in our
articles, everything to be done by or expected from
each partner, so that there was nothing to dispute,
which precaution I would therefore recommend to all who
enter into partnerships; for, whatever esteem partners
may have for, and confidence in each other at the time
of the contract, little jealousies and disgusts may
arise, with ideas of inequality in the care and burden
of the business, etc., which are attended often with
breach of friendship and of the connection, perhaps
with lawsuits and other disagreeable consequences.
Two other business enterprises of Franklin merit notice. He was the founder
of the first newspaper in the United States to be published in a foreign
tongue, namely, the _Philadelphische Zeitung_, which owed its origin to the
large number of Germans who came over to Pennsylvania during the Colonial
Period. He was also the founder of a monthly literary magazine which for
some reason he does not mention in the _Autobiography_ at all. It was the
second enterprise of the kind undertaken in America, and was known as _The
General Magazine and Historical Chronicle for All the British Plantations
in America_. To Franklin as a business man might aptly be applied the words
of Emerson with respect to Guy:
Stream could not so perversely wind
But corn of Guy's was there to grind.
One exception, however, appears to have been this magazine which lasted but
a short time. It was ill-starred from the start. When Franklin was ready to
spring it upon the public, he engaged John Webbe as its editor, but Webbe
betrayed the project to Bradford, who at once announced that, a little
later, a magazine would be offered to the public edited by Webbe, and
published by himself. When the first number of Franklin's magazine came
out, he stated that its publication was earlier than he had intended
because of the faithless conduct of Webbe. This Webbe resented by charging
Franklin, who was then Postmaster at Philadelphia, with shutting out
Bradford's _Mercury_ from the post, but Franklin silenced his fire by
stating and proving that he had had no choice in the matter, because he had
been commanded by Postmaster-General Spottswood, on account of Bradford's
failure as Postmaster at Philadelphia to account with him, to suffer no
longer any of his newspapers or letters to be conveyed by post free of
charge.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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