The True Benjamin Franklin

Name: The True Benjamin Franklin
Author: Fisher, Sydney George

Fisher, Sydney George

Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790

“Be this a Memorial
             Of T---- and R---- P----
                 P---- of P----
            Who with estates immense
            Almost beyond computation
             When their own province
          And the whole British empire
   Were engaged in a bloody & most expensive war
       Begun for the defence of those estates
            Could yet meanly desire
           To have those very estates
              Totally or partially
             Exempted from taxation
    While their fellow subjects all around them
                    Groaned
           Under the universal burden.
               To gain this point
          They refused the necessary laws
          For the defence of their people
  And suffered their colony to welter in its blood
          Rather than abate in the least
       Of these their dishonest pretensions.
       The privileges granted by their father
            Wisely and benevolently
   To encourage the first settlers of the province
                      They
              Foolishly and cruelly,
        Taking advantage of public distress,
  Have extorted from the posterity of those settlers;
      And are daily endeavoring to reduce them
            To the most abject slavery;
   Though to the virtue and industry of those people,
            In improving their country
      They owe all that they possess and enjoy.
                A striking instance
        Of human depravity and ingratitude;
            And an irrefragable proof,
            That wisdom and goodness
        Do not descend with an inheritance;
            But that ineffable meanness
      May be connected with unbounded fortune.”

Dickinson’s followers, of course, assailed Franklin on all sides. Their
pamphlets are very exciting reading, especially Hugh Williamson’s “What
is Sauce for a Goose is also Sauce for a Gander,” which describes itself
in its curious old-fashioned subtitle as

    “Being a small Touch in the Lapidary Way, or Tit for Tat, in
    your own way. An Epitaph on a certain Great Man. Written by a
    Departed Spirit, and now most humbly inscribed to all his
    dutiful Sons and Children, who may hereafter choose to
    distinguish him by the Name of A Patriot. Dear Children, I send
    you here a little Book for you to look upon that you may see
    your Pappy’s Face when he is dead and gone. Philadelphia,
    Printed in Arch Street 1764.”

“Pappy” is then described for the benefit of his children in an epitaph:

                 “An Epitaph &c
         To the much esteem’d Memory of
             B ... F ... Esq., LL.D.

        *       *       *       *       *

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

The True Benjamin FranklinFisher, Sydney George

History

The True Benjamin Franklin

Fisher, Sydney George

Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790

“Be this a Memorial
             Of T---- and R---- P----
                 P---- of P----
            Who with estates immense
            Almost beyond computation
             When their own province
          And the whole British empire
   Were engaged in a bloody & most expensive war
       Begun for the defence of those estates
            Could yet meanly desire
           To have those very estates
              Totally or partially
             Exempted from taxation
    While their fellow subjects all around them
                    Groaned
           Under the universal burden.
               To gain this point
          They refused the necessary laws
          For the defence of their people
  And suffered their colony to welter in its blood
          Rather than abate in the least
       Of these their dishonest pretensions.
       The privileges granted by their father
            Wisely and benevolently
   To encourage the first settlers of the province
                      They
              Foolishly and cruelly,
        Taking advantage of public distress,
  Have extorted from the posterity of those settlers;
      And are daily endeavoring to reduce them
            To the most abject slavery;
   Though to the virtue and industry of those people,
            In improving their country
      They owe all that they possess and enjoy.
                A striking instance
        Of human depravity and ingratitude;
            And an irrefragable proof,
            That wisdom and goodness
        Do not descend with an inheritance;
            But that ineffable meanness
      May be connected with unbounded fortune.”

Dickinson’s followers, of course, assailed Franklin on all sides. Their
pamphlets are very exciting reading, especially Hugh Williamson’s “What
is Sauce for a Goose is also Sauce for a Gander,” which describes itself
in its curious old-fashioned subtitle as

    “Being a small Touch in the Lapidary Way, or Tit for Tat, in
    your own way. An Epitaph on a certain Great Man. Written by a
    Departed Spirit, and now most humbly inscribed to all his
    dutiful Sons and Children, who may hereafter choose to
    distinguish him by the Name of A Patriot. Dear Children, I send
    you here a little Book for you to look upon that you may see
    your Pappy’s Face when he is dead and gone. Philadelphia,
    Printed in Arch Street 1764.”

“Pappy” is then described for the benefit of his children in an epitaph:

                 “An Epitaph &c
         To the much esteem’d Memory of
             B ... F ... Esq., LL.D.

        *       *       *       *       *

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The True Benjamin Franklin

The True Benjamin Franklin

No reviews yet