The Life of Benjamin Franklin: With Many Choice Anecdotes and admirable sayings of this great man never before published by any of his biographersWeems, M. L. (Mason Locke)
Philosophy
The Life of Benjamin Franklin: With Many Choice Anecdotes and admirable sayings of this great man never before published by any of his biographers
Weems, M. L. (Mason Locke)
Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790; Statesmen -- United States -- Biography
The exalted expectations formed of him by the public were not
disappointed. Heartily a lover of man and the friend of equal rights,
he had scarcely taken his seat in the legislature before he had to
turn the torrent of his honest indignation against the _proprietaries_
and their creatures the _Governors_.
The reader will please here be reminded that in the year 1680, that
great GOOD man, William Penn, a quaker, was paid off a large claim
against Charles II. of England, by a grant of lands in North America.
To make the best of a bad bargain, honest William gathered together a
caravan of his poor persecuted brethren, and taking ship came over to
North America.
The good angel that guided the steps of pious Jacob as he sojourned
from Padan-aram to the land Uz, seeking a rest, guided Penn and his
gentle followers to the mouth of the Delaware bay. He followed the
stately flood in all its wanderings among the green marshes and
forests of the new found world, until he reached the pleasant spot
where now Philadelphia stands. The majestic grove that shaded the
extended level on the western bank, bordered on the back by the
beautiful serpentine river called by the natives, the SCHUYLKILL,
struck his eye as a fine site for his future city.
Abhorring the idea of killing his fellow men, the poor natives, and
taking away their lands, he sent around among them the Calumet, or
_pipe of peace_, inviting them to "A FRIENDLY TALK." Painted in red
ochre, and decked in all the savage pomp of wild skins and feathers,
the kings of the soil with all their simple tribes assembled
themselves together. The meeting was in the summer of 1681, under the
trees near the margin of the great river. The scene was lovely to the
eye of humanity. The red and white men from different continents were
seen to meet, not as enemies for mutual slaughter, but as brothers for
loving commerce. The shores were covered with British merchandize. The
eyes of the simple children of nature sparkled on those rich wares,
the like of which they had never seen before.
Penn gave them every thing. He gave them precious axes to master the
forests; and still more magic guns to master the wolves and panthers.
He gave them warm clothes for defence against the cold, and
plough-shares and hoes for plentiful harvests. In return they gave him
that large tract of land in their country, which, in honour of this
good man, has been called Pennsylvania. Instantly the aged forests
began to resound with the strokes of axes and the crash of falling
trees. And the corner stone was laid of the new city, which, with
great propriety, was named of Penn, PHILADELPHIA, or the city of
_brotherly love_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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