Homes of American Statesmen; With Anecdotical, Personal, and Descriptive SketchesVarious
History
Homes of American Statesmen; With Anecdotical, Personal, and Descriptive Sketches
Various
Historic buildings -- United States; Statesmen -- United States; United States -- Biography
virtue by a systematic course of conduct, the particulars of which he
has given in his biography. At the end of this period he commenced his
"Poor Richard's Almanac," the publication of which was continued by him
twenty-five years. It was the first successful attempt in authorship on
this side of the Atlantic. His first "promotion," as he calls it,
meaning his first public employment, was on being chosen Clerk of the
General Assembly; and the next year he was appointed Postmaster at
Philadelphia. His private business all the time increased; he founded
societies for philosophical purposes; continued to publish his paper;
wrote innumerable pamphlets; was elected colonel of a regiment; invented
his stove, and engaged in all manner of beneficial projects; he
established hospitals and academies, made treaties with the Indians,
became Postmaster General, and after devising means for cleaning the
streets of Philadelphia, turned his attention to those of London and
Westminster.
[Illustration Grave of Franklin, Philadelphia]
But, it is with the "Homes" of Franklin that our limited space must be
occupied, and not with his life and actions. Although he occupied, at
various times, almost as many different houses as there are headquarters
of Washington, yet there are few of them now left; living always in
cities, the houses he inhabited have been destroyed by the irresistible
march of improvement. In his fifty-first year, he was sent to London by
the General Assembly to present a petition to the king, and to act as
the agent of Pennsylvania in England. He sailed from New-York and
arrived in London in July, 1757, and at this point of his life his
autobiography ends. From an original letter of his in our possession,
written on the eve of his departure from Philadelphia, he directs that
letters must be sent to him in London at the Pennsylvania Coffee House,
in Birchin Lane, where he doubtless lived on his first arrival, but his
permanent home in London, during fifteen years, was at Mrs. Stevenson's
in Craven-street. He travelled much in Great Britain and on the
continent, was present at the coronation of George III., and returned to
America in 1762, having stopped awhile at Madeira on the voyage. He went
to England again in 1764, and after a brilliant and most serviceable
career abroad, returned to his native home in season to sign his name to
the Declaration of Independence, giving a greater weight of personal
character, and a more potent popular influence to the cause than any
other of the immortal participators in that glorious act. He died in the
year 1790, on the 17th of April, at 11 o'clock at night, in his 85th
year, in his house in Market-street, Philadelphia, which he had built
for his own residence. His remains lie by the side of his wife's, in the
burying ground of Christ Church, covered by a simple marble slab, in
conformity with his directions. There is a small granite pyramid in the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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