Ss Soa eer aera SSanntbepeeab- ine SITS Se oe oem ere aoe ant = SOS DDPLEEQOEOEOD Marine Biological Laboratory | oO ( Received sh ( Ec r ; Accession No. 7956 ) Q ewan By Dr. E. “. Conklin : Place, Princeton University _ ( ) () \ a o tetoooo TOEO O WO ML IOHM/18N FRANKLIN BI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION PHILADELPHIA 1906 oe > * ie ate eee SS. foe * a i" “# Pa? BENJAMIN FRANKLIN After the Miniature by J. S. DuPpLessis Painted about the year 1782 Belonging to Dr. and Mrs. Epwarpb P. Davis) Copyright, 1900, by Dr. and Mrs. Edward P. Davis THE RECORD OF THE ‘CELEBRATION ‘OF Pe TWO) HUNDREDTH, ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE AMERI- CAN PHIBOSOPHICAL, SOCIETY HELD AT FAIDADELPHIA FOR PROMOTING USEFUL KNOWLEDGE, APRIL THE SEVENTEENTH TO APRIL THE TWENTIETH, A. D. NINE- TEEN HUNDRED AND SIX VOL."1 PRINTED FOR THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY PHILADELPHIA 1906 Copyright, 1906, by THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY HELD AT PHILADELPHIA For PROMOTING USEFUL KNOWLEDGE PRESS OF THE NEW ERA PRINTING COMPARY, LANCASTER, PA PREFACE At the General Meeting of the American Philosoph- ical Society, held on April 2-4, 1903, the following preamble and resolution, offered by Dr. I. Minis Hays, were unanimously adopted: Inasmuch as the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin occurs in January, 1906, it is proper that the American Philosophical Society, which owes its existence to his initiative and to which he gave many years of faithful service, should take steps to commemorate the occasion in a manner befitting his eminent services to this Society, to science and to the Nation. Therefore be it Resolved, That the President is authorized and directed to appoint a committee, of such number as he shall deem proper, to prepare a plan for the appropriate celebration of the bi-centennial of the birth of Franklin, and to report the same to this Society. The President thereupon appointed the following members to constitute the Committee: Hon. George F. Edmunds, Chairman, Prof. Alexander Agassiz, Boston, Pres’t James B. Angell, Ann Arbor, Prof. George F. Barker, Philadelphia, Prof. A. Graham Bell, Washington, \ (v} V1 THE FRANKLIN BI-CENTENNIAL Mr. Andrew Carnegie, New York, Prof, C.F *Chandier, New York, Hon. Grover Cleveland, Princeton, Pres't Charles W. Eliot, Cambridge, Pres’t Daniel C. Gilman, Baltimore, Pres’t Arthur T. Hadley, New Haven, Provost C. C. Harrison, Philadelphia, Hon. John Hay, Washington, Dr. I. Minis Hays, Philadelphia, Prof. Samuel P. Langley, Washington, Capt. "Alfred Mahan, US: 9N; Dr. S. Weir Mitchell, Philadelphia, Prof. Simon Newcomb, Washington, Governor S. W. Pennypacker, Harrisburg, Prof. E. C. Pickering, Cambridge, Prof. Michael I. Pupin, New York, Pres’t Ira Remsen, Baltimore, Prof. John Trowbridge, Cambridge, Dr. Charles D. Wolcott, Washington, Hon. Andrew D. White, Ithaca, Pres’t Woodrow Wilson, Princeton. The Committee met for organization at the call of its Chairman, Hon. George F. Edmunds, on May 23, 1903, and after general discussion appointed a subcom- mittee consisting of Dr. Edgar F. Smith, Chairman, Messrs. Angell, Barker, Gilman, Harrison, Hays and Pickering to prepare a plan for carrying out the reso- PREFACE Vil lution of the Society and to report the same to the full Committee. At a meeting held April 6, 1904, the subcommittee presented the outline of a plan of celebration which was adopted. A Committee was appointed to urge upon Congress that it should order a medal to be struck to commem- morate the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Franklin, of which there should be a single impression in gold to be presented by the President of the United States to the Republic of France, other impressions in bronze to be distributed under the direction of the President of the United States and certain number to be placed at the disposition of The American Philosophical Society for purposes of presentation. A Committee was also appointed to request the Legis- lature of Pennsylvania to make an appropriation to aid in defraying the expenses of the celebration, and at the solicitation of this Committee the following Act was passed. An Act: Making an appropriation to the American Philosophical Society, held at Philadelphia, for pro- moting useful knowledge, for the celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin. WHEREAS, The two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin will occur on the seventeenth Vill THE FRANKLIN BI-CENTENNIAL day of January, Anno Domini one thousand nine hun- dred and six: And WHEREAS, By his services to the city of Philadel- phia in suggesting and promoting the first public library established in this country, the school which subse- quently developed into the University of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Hospital, the American Philosophical Society, the formation of the first Masonic lodge estab- lished in America, and other institutions of charity and learning; By his services to Pennsylvania in the defense of its frontier against the French and Indians, in resisting the unjust claims of the proprietors, as a member of the Assembly and its Speaker, as the agent of the Colony in England, as president of the convention which framed the first Constitution for the State, and as president of the State for three consecutive terms; By his services to all the colonies in defending their rights and advancing their interests abroad, and as a member of the Continental Congress in promoting their development and formation into an independent nation; By his services to the United States as a Commis- sioner, and subsequently as their sole Plenipotentiary at the Court of France, during the revolution, under cir- cumstances most difficult and discouraging, which were of decisive benefit and effect in establishing the Inde- pendence of the United States, and as a delegate from Pennsylvania to the convention which framed the Con- stitution of the United States; and, By his contributions to knowledge, through his dis- coveries in electrical and other sciences, he earned the grateful remembrance of the people of this State, and it 1s proper that the approaching bicentenary of his birth should be appropriately celebrated, therefore: PREFACE ix Section 1. Be it enacted, etc., That the sum of thirty- five thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, be and the same is hereby specifically ap- propriated to the American Philosophical Society, held at Philadelphia, for promoting useful knowledge, to defray the expenses of the proposed celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin. APPROVED—The eleventh day of May, Anno Domini one thousand nine hundred and five, in the sum of $20,000. I withhold my approval from the remainder of said appropriation, for the reason that the condition of the State revenue does not justify a larger expendi- ture at this time. SAML. W. PENNYPACKER. An invitation to be represented at the celebration was extended to the Congress of the United States, and the following joint resolution was adopted by that Hon- orable Body: Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the invitation extended to the Congress of the United States by the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to attend the celebra- tion of the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin, to be held at Philadelphia, Penn- sylvania, commencing April seventeenth, nineteen hun- dred and six, be, and is hereby, accepted. That the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives be, and they are hereby, authorized and directed to appoint a committee to con- sist of six Senators and ten Representatives of the Fifty- x THE FRANKLIN BI-CENTENNIAL ninth Congress to attend the celebration referred to and to represent the Congress of the United States on that occasion. An invitation was likewise extended to the Legislature of Pennsylvania to be represented at the celebration, and, as the Legislature was not at the time in session, the invitation was forwarded to the Hon. Cyrus E. Woods, President pro-tem. of the Senate, and to the Hon. Henry F. Walton, Speaker of the House of Representatives. The following subcommittees of the General Com- mittee were appointed to carry out the details of the Celebration: INVITATIONS.—Charles C. Harrison, Chairman, S. Weir Mitchell, Albert H. Smyth, Henry C. Chapman, Hampton L. Carson. ACADEMY OF Music.—Horace Jayne, Chairman, Frank Miles Day, Emlen Hutchinson, James Mac- Alister, Leslie W. Miller. WITHERSPOON HALL.—Henry G. Bryant, Chairman, E. V. d’Invilliers, James W. Holland. HoreLs.—John Marshall, Chairman, R. C. H. Brock, Samuel G. Dixon, Joseph C. Fraley, R. A. F. Penrose, Fe: RECEPTION.—W. W. Keen, Chairman, R. A. Clee- mann, Francis B. Gummere, Robert G. LeConte, An- drew A. Blair. PREFACE Xi LUNCHEON.—J. Rodman Paul, Chairman, Harry F. Keller, Ernest W. Brown. DINNER.—Stuart Wood, Chairman, George Tucker Bispham, Charles E. Dana, John Cadwalader, Charles H. Cramp. TRANSPORTATION.—George F. Baer, Chairman, A. J. Cassatt, Samuel Dickson, C. Stuart Patterson, Theodore N. Ely. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.—Edgar F. Smith, Chairman, I. Minis Hays, Secretary, Charles C. Harrison, George F. Barker, S. Weir Mitchell, Samuel Dickson, Joseph G. Rosengarten and the Chairmen of the subcommittees. The Chairman and Secretary were made ex-officiis members of all the subcommittees. The Executive Committee requested Dr. I. Minis Hays to edit this record of the Bicentennial Celebration. ony | Lak whet RORY. Ae en th Wey PEL ei ve Patan 4 PALS Ar a ny Ny end , i i a if ey vi Mea he Neg i i i ! 2 iii i Men a o ia +) X ‘| yD ! il bn ; Ay tv) Past f , my yas ee r nw P é ' h , Toni Hl if ig walla ae BAT oN ny J i iy nv bf), i , ri Ey: te! 4] ' Weis PY yj iH he ny, sar 7 ns it Aa ae ial as ) A al Peon it Lik ine | me i ah oe Piae t ay ie bi ae i ie} en ae nae, Py TABLE, OF (CONTENTS PAGE. RE le ROG RAEN UE tu U iran Ms wo OR REED ee ly ISON GO BLEGMERS) yo. cca * oe ein in COMMEMORATIVE ADDRESSES Franklin as Citizen and Philanthropist. BY. HORACE EIOWARD FURNESS 2.9. 22. 1 Franklin as Printer and Philosopher. By CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT, LL.D. . . 55 Franklin as Statesman and Diplomatist. By JOSEPH HopGes CHOATE, LL.D., DTG Tear ope it ape eek Nesp et haw cade gal Presentation to France of the Gold Medal Au- thorized by The Congress of the United States. By THE HONORABLE ELIHU ROOT, Secre- LAGNEOP UST OLE. tg paul hey hat ea ae em se EO Reception of the Medal. By His EXCELLENCY, M. J. J. JUSSERAND, The rench: Ambassador | 3.) OG ( xiil ) X1V THE FRANKLIN BI-CENTENNIAL Franklin’s Researches in Electricity. By PROFESSOR EDWARD L. NICHOLS The Modern Theories of Electricity and Their Relation to the Franklinian Theory. By PROFESSOR ERNEST RUTHERFORD, F.R.S. THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. Conferring of Honorary Degrees Address by THE HONORABLE HAMPTON L. CARSON THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS. Conferring of the Honorary Degree of LL.D. By ANDREW CARNEGIE, LL.D., Lord Rector ADDRESSES FROM SISTER SOCIETIES AND INSTITU- TIONS OF LEARNING PAGE. : LOR ZJu22 se So - 195 ILLUSTRATIONS . MINTAGURE) OF [FRANKLIN 2121-4), “Prontisprece. Painted by Joseph-Siffrein Duplessis, at Passy, about the year 1782. PORTRAIT: OF FRANKEIN( . 52, «>. 21) Pacing Page 31. Painted by Benjamin Wilson in London in 1759. The history of this portrait is explained in the fol- lowing correspondence which was read by Hon. joseph, TI. (Choate, on April 20; at! the American Academy of Music, when the portrait was first shown after its return to this country. GOVERNMENT HOUSE, Ottawa, February 7, 1906. My Dear Mr. President:—The fortune of war and the accident of inheritance have made me the owner of the portrait of Franklin, which Major André took out of his house in Philadelphia and gave to his Commanding Officer, my great-grandfather, General Sir Charles Grey. This portrait, which Franklin stated was “allowed by those who have seen it tonhave ‘oreat merit as’ a picture in) every fe- spect, has, for over a century “occupied: the ' chief place of honor on the walls of my Northumbrian (xv) XV1 THE FRANKLIN BI-CENTENNIAL home. Mr. Choate has suggested to me that the approaching Franklin Bicentennial Celebration at Philadelphia on April 20, provides a fitting oppor- tunity for restoring to the American people a picture which they will be glad to recover. I gladly fall in with his suggestion. In a letter from Franklin, written from Philadel- phia, October 23, 1788, to Madame Lavoisier, he says: “Our English enemies, when they were in possession of this city and my home, made a prisoner of my portrait and carried it off with them.” As your English friend, I desire to give my pris- oner, after the lapse of 130 years, his liberty, and shall be obliged if you will name the officer into whose custody you wish me to deliver him. If agree- able to you, I should be much pleased if he should find a final resting-place in The White House, but | leave this to your judgment. I remain with great respect and in all friendship, Yours truly, GREY THE WHITE HOUSE, Washington, February 12, 1906. My Dear Lord Grey:—I shall send up an officer to receive that portrait, and I cannot sufficiently thank you for your thoughtful and generous gift. The announcement shall be made by Mr. Choate at the time and place you suggest. I shall then formally thank you for your great and thoughtful courtesy. Meanwhile, let me say privately how much I appre- ciate, not only what you have done, but the spirit in which you have done it, and the way in which the manner of doing it adds to the generosity of ILLUSTRATIONS XV1l the gift itself. I shall have placed on the portrait, which shall, of course, be kept at The White House as you desire, the circumstances of its taking and return. With heartiest regard, Sincerely yours, THEODORE ROOSEVELT. PORTRAIT OF 'FRANKEIN ©! 2 \ 2. |» Pacing Page 71. Painted, about the year 1766 in London, by David Martin. The original was copied in 1785 by Charles Willson Peale for the American Philosophical So- ciety, and the photogravure is from this copy. The history of this portrait is explained in the following memorandum attached to the back of the original portrait painted by Martin for Mr. Alex- ander and now in the possession of Mr. Henry Williams Biddle, of Philadelphia. The portraite of Benjamin Franklin, LL.D., was painted by Martin, in London, when the Doctor was about sixty years of age. It was ordered and paid for by Robert Alexander, then of the House of William Alexander and Sons, of Edenburgh, and was designed to perpetuate the circumstance of his advice, given in consequence of the perusal of cer- tain important papers. . . . After the death of Robert it decended to his Brother, William Alexander. Jonathan Williams, a grandson of Dr. Franklin’s sister, having married the daughter of William Alex- ander, the portraite has been given to them, to decend XV1ll THE FRANKLIN BI-CENTENNIAL to the eldest male heir perpetually as the joint repre- sentative of both Parties... . This disposition is hereby confirmed. January 1, 1806. Jon* WILLIAMS. MARIAMNE WILLIAMS. Note.—Doctor Franklin was so well satisfied with Mr. Martin’s performance & the likeness was deemed so perfect, that he was induced to have a copy made by the same Artist at his own expense, & it was sent to his Family in Philadelphia. It was after his death, left by his will, to the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, of which he had been the chief, & was accordingly suspended in their cham- ber. By the new Constitution, the Council of State was abolished & and this poor portraite, became an abandoned orphan, without having any place in which it had a right to hang itself. The celebrated Peale, a declaired enemy of every- thing unnatural—took pity on the wretched outcast and has humanely hung it up among his natural curiosities in the Philadelphia Museum. The foregoing memorandum is copied from the original, in the Handwriting of my Father, Jonathan Williams, and the signatures are those of himself and my Mother. . . . By virtue of the direction contained in it, the above mentioned portraite passed to me, and has continued in my possession since his death. .. . I hereby in accordance with the disposition made by them bequeath it to my eldest male heir. November 1, 1828. Henry J. WILLIAMS. ILLUSTRATIONS xx rep e RANICRIN WAEDALS 0 i.) 0 Bacing Page 97. Designed by Louis and Augustus St. Gaudens. This Medal was struck in accordance with the fol- lowing Act of Congress, approved April 27, 1904. “To enable the Secretary of State to have struck a medal to commemorate the two hundredth anni- versary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin, for dis- tribution in connection with the occurrence of the bicentennial anniversary of his birth, on the seven- teenth day of January, nineteen hundred and six, one single impression on gold to be presented, under fhe direction on the President of the ‘United States. to the Republic of France, and one hundred and fifty impressions on bronze, of which one hundred shall be distributed as may be directed by the President of the United States, and fifty shall be for the use of the American Philosophical Society, held at Philadel- phia, for promoting useful knowledge, founded by Franklin, five thousand dollars.” it aia) ” Vee Tint ye Ap Living ERT a iA \ me AN Ty Fi i ie u ie an r rg ‘ i aly nd | ie Aten Aenea tit i f he Ea a} ry buf ey th wh SMEG ANTE Re CAT pe ORS TN GTE em THE PROGRAMME pi rp ne i i" Nf | height ; in asl fat ne f A Nt 4) h AO leant Th! i) Ong Deny Wey i walt (LCE eds ih Mh Ht , a i) . * iN wan J etree oe AG ee tha ny eae AN are me haat, 4 Meh: F 1 nay a i} My mh han i] A . Dy eu it, Mt mut iy a ai MM ni} ay a mh a iif i ‘i i MA a Ma AAP na nature he AL aaKh Rh ris Pty el i | Er 4 Ny aval) sat hg i yey in he nie My: than ! mae aL iy inet Hb mi bi Ra th si ae Rae Ce pit Mi My ions f A i TUESDAY EVENING, APRIL 17TH AT WITHERSPOON HALL The delegates, invited guests and members of the Society met in Westminster Hall at 7.45 P. M. and proceeded in a body to Witherspoon Hall OPENING SESSION—S8 0’CLOCK Address by the President Reception of Delegates from Learned Societies and Institutions of Learning Presentation of Addresses THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS Conferring of the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws, by the Lord Rector, MR. ANDREW CARNEGIE. Upon Agnes Irwin, Dean of Radcliffe College. An Informal Reception was held in the Assembly Room, after adjourn- ment. (3) 4 THE FRANKLIN BI-CENTENNIAL WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18TH IN THE HALL OF THE SOCIETY on Independence Square MEETING FOR THE READING OF PAPERS ON SUBJECTS OF SCIENCE Morninc Session 10 A. M. The Statistical Method in Chemical Geology By FranK WIGGLESWoRTH CLaRKE, Sc.D., of Washington On a possible Reversal of the Deep Sea Circulation and its Effect on Geological Climates By Pror. THomas C. CHAMBERLIN, of Chicago Elementary Species in Agriculture By Pror. Huco peEVries, of Amsterdam, Holland An International Southern Observatory By Pror. Epwarp C. PicKERING, of Cambridge, Mass. The Figure and Stability of a Liquid Satellite By Sir Georce Darwin, K.C.B., F.R.S., of Cambridge, England Form Analysis By Pror. Atsgert A. MICHELSON, of Chicago EXECUTIVE SESSION—I2.30 O'CLOCK For the transaction of the private business of the Society STATED BUSINESS—Candidates for membership balloted for PROGRAMME FOR WEDNESDAY 5 AFTERNOON SESSION—2 O'CLOCK The Present Position of the Problem’ concerning the First Principles of Scientific Theory By Pror. JostaH Royce, of Cambridge, Mass. The Human Harvest By PresipENT Davip STARR JORDAN, of Stanford University, Cal: On Positive and Negative Electrons By Pror. H. A. Lorentz, of Amsterdam The Elimination of Velocity-Head in the Measurements of Pressures in a Fluid Stream By Pror. Francis E. Nrpuer, of St. Louis. Old Weather Records and Franklin as a Meteorologist By Pror. CLEVELAND ABBE, of Washington. Was Lewis Evans or Benjamin Franklin the first to rec- ognize that our North-east Storms come from the South-west? By Pror. WILLIAM Morris Davis, of Cambridge, Mass. Notes on the Production of Optical Planes of large Dimensions By Dr. JoHN A. BraAsHEar, of Allegheny, Pa. A new Mountain Observatory By Pror. GrEorGE E. HALE, Pasadena, Cal. 6 THE FRANKLIN BI-CENTENNIAL EVENING SESSION—8 O’CLOCK AT WITHERSPOON HALL ADDRESSES Franklin’s Researches in Electricity By Pror. Epwarp L. Nicuots, Ph.D., of Ithaca The Modern Theories of Electricity and their Relation to the Franklinian Theory By Pror. ERNEST RUTHERFORD, F.R.S., of Montreal THURSDAY, APRIL 19TH AT THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF Music 11 A. M. THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA Conferring of Honorary Degrees Oration By the Hon. Hampton L. Carson, Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania At CuHrist CHURCH BuRYING GROUND Fifth and Arch Streets AUP YONI: Ceremonies at the Grave of Franklin The delegates and members assembled in the Hall of the Society at 4 o'clock and proceeded to the Grave of Franklin in the Christ Church Burying Ground at Fifth and Arch Streets. The American Philosophical Society had requested permission of the Christ Church authorities for the designated representatives of the PROGRAMME FOR THURSDAY 7 institutions with which Franklin was connected either as a founder or a member, and for them only, to enter the grave yard and place wreaths upon the grave of Franklin. This permission was graciously granted by the Vestry “in strict accordance with the terms of the letter’ of request—the limitation being necessary to prevent injury to the ancient graves, which completely fill the yard. In honor of the occasion, the following organizations paraded: The First Troop of Philadelphia City Cavalry ; A battalion of United States Marines; A battalion of United States Sailors; The First Regiment of Infantry of the National Guard of Pennsylvania; The Veteran Corps of the same regiment; A provisional battalion of 800 United States Letter Carriers; The Veteran Firemen’s Association ; A deputation from the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania. The parade was under the charge of Col. Benjamin C. Tilghman as Grand Marshal; and Major George E. Kemp, Major Charles T. Cresswell, and First Lieutenant Henry Norris as Aides. The parade formed on the west side of Broad Street, facing east, the right of the line being opposite the Masonic Temple, and moved at 4 P. M. over the following route: South on Broad to Market, passing to the east of the City Hall, east on Market to Twelfth, south on Twelfth to Chestnut, east on Chestnut to Fifth, north on Fifth to Arch, east on Arch to Fourth Street. When the head of the column arrived at Fourth and Arch Streets, the column halted and was formed to the right. Wreaths were then placed on the grave of Franklin on behalf of THE NatTIoN, By the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES through his specially appointed representative, CoMMANDER R. McN. Wins ow, U. S. N.; 8 THE FRANKLIN BI-CENTENNIAL THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA, By the GOVERNOR OF THE STATE, through his specially appointed representative, Mr. BroMLtey WuartTon, Private Secretary; THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, By its PRESIDENT, Dr. Epcar F. SMITH; THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, By Provost CHARLES C. Harrison; Tue Lisrary CoMPANY OF PHILADELPHIA, By its PResmprinc Director, Mr. Epwin S. BucKLey; THE PENNSYLVANIA HospPITAL, By its PRESIDENT, Mr. BENJAMIN H. SHOEMAKER; THE PHILADELPHIA CONTRIBUTIONSHIP FOR THE INSURANCE OF Houses FRoM Loss FROM FIRE, By Mr. J. RopDMAN PAUL, ACTING PRESIDENT; THE Granp LopcGE oF FREE AND ACCEPTED Masons oF PENN- SYLVANIA, By the RiGHT WorSHIPFUL GRAND MASTER, GeorcE W. KENDRICK, JR.; THE SELECT AND CoMMON COUNCILS OF THE CITY OF PHILA- DELPHIA, By Mr. Witiiam HarkKNEss, CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMIT- TEE OF COUNCILS; THE KONIGLICHE GESELLSCHAFT DER WISSENSCHAFTEN ZU GOT- TINGEN, By its DELEGATE, Dr. Emit WIECHERT; THE KONIGLICHE PREUSSISCHE AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN, and THe UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN, By their DELEGATE, Dr. ALots BRANDL; PROGRAMME FOR ‘THURSDAY 9 THE MANCHESTER GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY, By its DELEGATE, J. U. BRower. A wreath was also deposited in the name of THE PENNSYLVANIA SOCIETY OF THE DAUGHTERS OF THE REVO- LUTION. As the wreaths were placed upon the grave, a National Salute was fired by the U. S. Battleship Pennsylvania, anchored at the foot of Arch Street, and the troops in line presented arms, and the unarmed bodies in line uncovered. Brief addresses were then made under the direction of the Grand Lodge of F. & A. M. of Pennsylvania, as follows: INVOCATION, By Frank B. Lyncu, D.D.; FRANKLIN IN Masonry, By Grorce W. KeEnprICcK, JR.; FRANKLIN AS A FREE Mason, By James W. Brown; FRANKLIN AS A DIPLOMATIST, By JoHN L. Kinsey; FRANKLIN AS A SCIENTIST, By Peter Boyp; BENEDICTION, By Rosert Hunter, D.D. At the conclusion of the ceremonies, the parade again formed in col- umn and the march was resumed south on Fourth Street to Walnut, and thence west on Walnut to Broad Street, where the parade was dismissed. AT THE BELLEVUE-STRATFORD : Pa vi: Reception IO THE FRANKLIN BI-CENTENNIAL FRIDAY, APRIL 20TH AT THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF Music ProAy Iv. The Delegates, Invited Guests and Members of the American Philo- sophical Society met in the Foyer of the Academy at 10.45 A. M. and proceeded in a body to the Auditorium. ADDRESSES IN COMMEMORATION OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. As Citizen and Philanthropist By Horace Howarp Furness, Litt.D. (Cantab.) As Printer and Philosopher By PRESIDENT CHARLES WILLIAM ExiotT, LL.D. As Statesman and Diplomatist By the Hon. JosepH Hopces Cuoate, LL.D., D.C.L. PRESENTATION OF THE FRANKLIN MEDAL TO THE REPUBLIC OF FRANCE (In accordance with the Act of Congress) By the Honoras_e Extrnvu Root, Secretary of State (by direction of The President) RECEPTION OF THE MEDAL By His ExceLiency, M. J. J. JussERAND, The French Ambassador PROGRAMME FOR FRIDAY II IN THE HALL OF THE SOCIETY on Independence Square MEETING FOR THE READING OF PAPERS ON SUBJECTS OF SCIENCE Zc ba: Repetition and Variation in Poetic Structure By Pror. FRANcISs BARTON GuUMMERE, of Haverford, Pa. The Herodotean Prototype of Esther and Sheherazade By Pror. Paut Haupt, of Baltimore, Md. Heredity and Variation, Logical and Biological By Pror. Wm. KEITH Brooks, of Baltimore Notes on a Collection of Fossil Mammals from Natal By Pror. W1LuIAM B. Scott, of Princeton The use of Dilute Solutions of Sulphuric Acid as a Fungicide By Pror. Henry Kraemer, of Philadelphia Franklin and the Germans By Pror. M. D. Learnep, of Philadelphia The use of High-Explosive Projectiles By Pror. Cuaries E. Munroe, of Washington. Ammoniacal Gas Liquors By Pror. CHarites E. Munroe, of Washington. The Chromosomes in the Spermatogenesis of the Hemiptera Heteroptera By Pror. THomas H. Montcomery, Jr., of Austin, Texas 12 THE FRANKLIN BI-CENTENNIAL AT THE BELLEVUE-STRATFORD Broad and Walnut Streets 9 PS Mi. Dinner NOTE The papers on subjects of science, read on Wednesday, April 18, and Friday, April 20, appear in THE PRO- CEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, Volume XLV. 1906. LIST OF DELEGATES The Congress of the United States Hon. Hon. Hon. Hon. Hon. Hon. Hon. Hon. Hon. Hon. Hon. Hon. Hon. Hon. Hon. Hon. The State Hon. Hon. Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge John Kean Elmer J. Burkett George Sutherland Murphy J. Foster Asbury Churchwell Latimer on behalf of the Senate Marlin Edgar Olmsted Frederick Clement Stevens Robert G. Cousins James E. Watson J. Sloat Fassett Rockwood Hoar Thomas Alexander Smith Edward William Pou William Henry Ryan John Thomas Watkins on behalf of the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania John M. Scott William C. Sproul A. E. Sisson 14 THE FRANKLIN BI-CENTENNIAL Hon. Algernon B. Roberts Hon. Arthur G. Dewalt Hon. David A. Wilbert The President of France M. J. J. Jusserand I! Ministero di Agricoltura, Industria e Commercio (Rome) Count Naselli The University of Oxford—XII Century Mr. Roger Bigelow Merriman The University of Cambridge—XII Century Sir George Howard Darwin, K.C.B. Regia Universita di Pavia—r361 The President of the American Philosophical Society The University of St. Andrews—1411 The Lord Rector, Mr. Andrew Carnegie Professor Alfred Mercier The University of Glasgow—1450 Professor “Thomas Gray Professor William R. Lang Rey. Duncan B. Macdonald The University of Edinburgh—1 583 Rev. William Paterson Paterson Dr. S. Weir Mitchell LIST OF DELEGATES rs Reale Accademia di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti in Padova —1599 Professor Simon Newcomb Reale Accademia dei Lincei, Rome—1603 Professor Simon Newcomb L’Académie des Sciences de Paris—1629 Professor Simon Newcomb Harvard University—1636 President Charles W. Eliot Dr. Horace Howard Furness The Royal Society (London)—1645 Sir George Howard Darwin, K.C.B. Professor Ernest W. Brown Professor Ernest Rutherford Professor J. W. Mallet L’ Académie Nationale des Sciences, Arts et Belles Lettres de Caen—1652 Professor Rev. Florian J. C. Vurpillot College of William and Mary (Williamsburg, Va.)— 1693 President Lyon Gardiner Tyler KG6nigliche Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften (Berlin) —1700 Dr. Alois Brandl 16 THE FRANKLIN BI-CENTENNIAL Yale University—17o01 President Arthur T. Hadley Professor Charles $. Hastings The University of Pennsylvania—1740 Provost Charles C. Harrison Princeton University—1746 Professor William F. Magie Professor William B. Scott Konigliche Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Gottingen—1751 Dr. Emil Wiechert The Society of Arts (London)—1754 Right Honorable Sir H. Mortimer-Durand Sir William Henry Preece, K.C.B., F.R.S. Columbia University (New York)—1754 Professor William Milligan Sloan Mr. John B. Pine Real Academia de Ciencias y Artes de Barcelona—1763 Hon. George C. Perkins Mr. George W. Dickie Mr. Marsden Manson Bataafsch Genootschap der Proefondervindelijke Wijsbegeerte (Rotterdam)—1769 Dr, H.-A: Lorentz L’Académie de Médecine de Paris—1776 Dr. S. Weir Mitchell LIST OF DELEGATES 17 The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Boston) —1780 President W. W. Goodwin Professor William Morris Davis Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society (Eng.) —1781 Dr. F. W. Clarke Societa Italiana delle Scienze (Rome)—1782 Professor Simon Newcomb Reale Accademia delle Scienze di Torino—1783 Professor Simon Newcomb The University of the State of New York (Albany)— 1784 Hon. T. Guilford Smith The College of Physicians of Philadelphia—1787 Dr. J. William White Franklin and Marshall College (Lancaster, Pa.) —1787 President John S. Stahr The Linnean Society (London)—1788 Professor William Gilson Farlow The Massachusetts Historical Society—1791 Vice President Samuel A. Green The University of Vermont—1791 President Matthew H. Buckham 18 THE FRANKLIN BI-CENTENNIAL Bowdoin College (Brunswick, Me.)—1794 Professor Henry L. Chapman The Royal Institution of Great Britain—1800 Sir George Howard Darwin, K.C.B. The Library of Congress (Washington) —1800 Mr. Herbert Putnam The Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow—1802 Professor Peter Bennett The New York Historical Society—1804 Vice-President F. Robert Schell The American Antiquarian Society (Worcester, Mass.) —1812 Dr. Andrew McFarland Davis The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia— 1812 President Samuel G. Dixon The New York Academy of Sciences—1817 Professor N. L. Britton Professor J. McKeen Cattell Professor J. J. Stevenson The University of Cincinnati—1819 President Charles W. Dabney The Royal Astronomical Society (London)—1820 Professor Ernest W. Brown LIsT OF DELEGATES 19 The Royal Scottish Society of Arts (Edinburgh) —1821 Professor William Morris Davis Amherst College (Mass.)—1821 President George Harris The British Association for the Advancement of Science—1822 Sir George Howard Darwin, K.C.B. The Rhode Island Historical Society—1822 President Wilfred H. Munro The New Hampshire Historical Society—1823 Hon. Samuel C. Eastman The Franklin Institute (Philadelphia) —1824 President John Birkinbine The Historical Society of Pennsylvania—1824 Chief Justice James T. Mitchell The Connecticut Historical Society—1825 President Samuel Hart The Zoological Society of London—1826 Mr. Arthur Erwin Brown The University of Toronto—1827 President James Loudon The Royal Geographical Society of London—1830 Professor William Morris Davis 20 THE FRANKLIN BI-CENTENNIAL The Boston Society of Natural History—1830 Professor Angelo Heilprin Haverford College (Pennsylvania) —1833 President Isaac Sharpless The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain—1834 Professor Charles Rockwell Lanman The University of Michigan—1837 President James B. Angell Professor Charles L. Doolittle Reale Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti—1838 Professor Edwin G. Conklin The Vermont Historical Society—1838 President G. G. Benedict The University of Missouri—1839 Acting President J. C. Jones The American Oriental Society (New Haven)—1842 Dr. Daniel C. Gilman The Maryland Historical Society—1844 Hon. Ferdinand C. Latrobe The Smithsonian Institution (Washington) —1846 Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (London)— 1847 Mr. Robert W. Hunt Mr. Coleman Sellers LIST OF DELEGATES The Essex Institute (Salem, Mass.) —1848 Hon. Robert S. Rantoul The University of Wisconsin—1849 Dr. Richard T. Ely The Royal Meteorological Society (London)—18so0 Sir George Howard Darwin, K.C.B. The American Geographical Society (New York)— 1852 Mr. Levi Holbrook Mr. Edwin Swift Balch Professor William Libbey The North of England Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers—1852 Mr. F. C. Keighley The California Academy of Sciences—1853 Hon. George C. Perkins Mr. George W. Dickie Mr. Marsden Manson Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen (Amsterdam) —1855 Dr. H. A. Lorentz Kaiserliche Konigliche Geographische Gesellschaft (Vienna)—1856 Dr. Eugen Oberhummer 21 22 THE FRANKLIN BI-CENTENNIAL The Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders (Glasgow) —1857 Mr. Charles H. Davis Mr. John H. Macalpine Mr. James V. Patterson Mr. Andrew Fletcher The Academy of Science of St. Louis—1857 Professor Francis Eugene Nipher The Peabody Institute (Baltimore) —1857 Dr. Daniel C. Gilman Mr. Faris C. Pitt The Geological Society of Glasgow—1858 Professor Peter Bennett The Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia—1858 Mr. Cornelius Stevenson La Société d’Anthropologie de Paris—r859 Professor George Grant MacCurdy The Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences—1861 President IT. Guilford Smith The Massachusetts Institute of Technology—1861 President Henry S. Pritchett The Portland Society of Natural History (Maine)— 1862 Dr. William Converse Kendall LIST OF DELEGATES The National Academy of Sciences (Washington, D. C.)—1863 Professor Edward L. Nichols Cornell University (Ithaca, N. Y.)—1865 President J. G. Schurman The New Zealand Institute (Wellington)—1867 Professor Ernest Rutherford The Davenport Academy of Sciences (lowa)—1867 Mr. H. S. Putnam The American Museum of Natural History (New York)—1869 Dr. Hermon C. Bumpus The Peabody Museum (Salem, Mass.)—1869 Mr. L. W. Jenkins Istituto Botanico di Pavia—187o0 Professor William Gilson Farlow Deutscher Seefischerei (Verein) —1870 Dr. Herman Boeker The Cincinnati Society of Natural History—1870 Mr. William Hubbell Fisher The Torrey Botanical Club (New York)—1870 Professor L. M. Underwood Dr. T. D. MacDougal 23 24 THE FRANKLIN BI-CENTENNIAL The Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters—1870 Hon. John W. Hoyt The Institution of Electrical Engineers (London)— 1871 Sir William Henry Preece, K.C.B. Mr. Elihu Thomson The Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (London)—1871 Professor F. W. Putnam The Philosophical Society of Washington—1871 Professor Cleveland Abbe The Asiatic Society of Japan—1872 Mr. J. C. Hepburn Rev. G. W. Knox Rev. W. E. Griffis Mr. Benjamin Smith Lyman The Physical Society of London—1874 Professor A. A. Michelson Professor R. W. Wood La Société Géologique de Belgique (Liege) —1874 Dr. Persifor Frazer The Lancaster Co. (Pennsylvania) Historical Society—1874 Dr. Joseph Henry Dubbs Mr. Samuel M. Sener Dr. Frank Reid Diffenderffer LIST OF DELEGATES 25 La Société Royale de Géographie d’Anvers—1876 M. Henri Thys The Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland (Manchester)—1876 Dr. William H. Dall The Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, Md.)— 1876 Professor Paul Haupt The Archaeological Institute of America (Cambridge, Mass.) —1879 President Thomas Day Seymour The Biological Society of Washington (D. C.)—1880 Dr. Theodore Gill The Colorado Scientific Society (Denver)—1882 Mr. E. N. Hawkins The Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (Victorian Branch) —1883 Hon. Col. J. M. Morgan La Société Internationale des Electriciens de Paris— 1883 Mr. Carl Hering La Société des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles de Bordeaux—1883 Dr. Samuel G. Dixon 26 THE FRANKLIN BI-CENTENNIAL Sociedad Cientifica ‘“ Antonio Alzate”’ (Mexico) — 1884 Mr. Edwin Swift Balch Dr. Persifor Frazer Prof. Angelo Heilprin The Royal Geographical Society of Manchester—1885 Jacob Vradenburg Brower The Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, Queensland Branch—1885 Dr. J. P. Thomson La Société Belge de Géologie, de Paléontalogie et d’Hydrologie (Brussels) —1887 Professor J. J. Stevenson The American Mathematical Society (New York)— 1888 Professor Edward V. Huntington The Geological Society of America—1888 Dr. Persifor Frazer L’Ecole d’Anthropologie de Paris—1889 Professor George Grant MacCurdy The Missouri Botanical Garden (St. Louis) —1889 Director William release The West of Scotland Iron and Steel Institute (Glasgow) —1892 Professor Henry M. Howe LIST OF DELEGATES aT The Colonial Society of Massachusetts (Boston) —1892 Mr. Henry Herbert Edes The Engineer’s Club of Philadelphia—18g2 Mr. Arthur Falkenau The Geographical Society of Philadelphia—1893 President Henry G. Bryant The Carnegie Museum (Pittsburg, Pa.) —1896 Director W. J. Holland The Washington Academy of Sciences (D. C.)—1808 Professor Cleveland Abbe Professor Frank W. Clarke The Pennsylvania Society (New York)—1899 Secretary Barr Feree The Carnegie Institution (Washington, D. C.)—1902 President Robert S. Woodward Sociedad Aragonesa de Ciencias Naturales Mr. Philip Calvert ea Ry le il hy uy i Mi it ve ah Mi A al iat vi ‘i ip ba ‘i i Lui i” et bapa ta a ni f ‘4 A i ly Noe i REPORT OF THH PROCEEDINGS ( 29 ) ie ; re nh a Ai i i 7 Harel st ela Na a ‘ Tavis alk | tA \ th ‘i i ; ins i a) = j : - J \ ‘ ey 6 , ; . . My are i eS : ‘ ie Say Pier ee a | ae PS ah ? its Root ne ; a, y ‘ ares . in 7 ar ' di td BSaR We r 10° . , . " i a ve ste r TAN, May . 4 : f hae pi deci i Aled A as 2 a ; Shih) eee ee # EOL AE hia yi bavane veal hl “Oe 1 i uae ie q Ree ay an) j ee ! mah 7 i] wy ir f PP On As Ou Uv aa Tee i hye Vs hy fet bien . ue 2 1 ONO OE Ia ‘sl > 4 ; i t 1a % i ne Lg } a n * Te | ony ? ma ret . Ay | . 4 e : ee | { v) Mt, pis a ies a | | oa i ar et be, ry ne PHOTOGRAVURE € BENJAMIN FRANKLIN PORTRAIT BY B INTED IN 1759 ON.THE EARL GREY, FRANKLIN AS, CUhIZEN AND PHILANTHROPIST By HorACE HOWARD FURNESS [Address delivered in The Academy of Music, Friday, April 20.] N compliance with the request of my fellow associ- | ates of The American Philosophical Society, | am to speak to you on the “Character of Franklin as a Citizen and a Philanthropist.” And if I dwell chiefly on his Citizenship, it is because it is the larger term, and includes Philanthropy. The words that I utter cannot be many,—who can com- press, within the limits of patience, an account of the trials, and the triumphs of eighty yearsPp—and they must be trite and mere iterations,—for has not Franklin’s every deed and word been set before you, within the last few months, in mouths of far wiser censure than mine? Let us, then, here and now, approach this great mem- ory with the reverence of children and stammer our gratitude by rehearsing some elements of the inextin- guishable indebtedness due from every one of us to that great benefactor, to whom, at this very hour, we owe comforts, without which life, civic or social, would be barely tolerable. (31) 32 FURNESS: FRANKLIN If, at the time when Macaulay’s ‘New Zealander,’ standing on a broken arch of London Bridge, is cleaning his palette after a successful sketch of the ruins of St. Paul’s, a Philadelphia ‘Directory’ of the present year should be submitted, as the sole survival of this city, to the eminent archeologists of that distant day, they will find, to their bewilderment, that about thirty trades or manufactures from biscuit-making to bottling, from banks to buttons, from skirt-making to sugar-refining, one and all are preceded by a name or symbol almost as mysterious as that on any cuneiform tablet now unearthed at Nippur. Whereupon, a theory is evolved that all tradesmen had a fetich or totem, called “ Franklin.” Of course, the Higher Criticism of that day will maintain that it was merely the name of a deified king. Let us project our gratitude to the Higher Criticism on that dim and nebulous horizon for coming so near the truth, nearer possibly than it comes now-a-days, and for dis- cerning the divinity that hedges this Franklin, this king of men. Ay, every inch a king! (An extremely high compliment to kings, let us remark in passing.) In sooth, for his own fame, Franklin was born too late. Had he lived in ages nearer the beginning, when the childhood of our race was fashioning the images of its gods out of mud and clay in the uncouth likeness of its heroes and benefactors, no station less august than the Father of the World would have then sufficed for him; AS CITIZEN AND PHILANTHROPIST 33 and their clay-baked “‘ Jupiter Omnipotens ” or, possibly, more appropriately “Jupiter Tonans ” would have borne the lineaments of Benjamin Franklin, spectacles and all. But for us, he was not born too late. No more aus- picious star twinkles for us in the firmament than that which shone on the birth of Franklin. Under it, he was endowed with an inappeasible hunger for knowledge; with a temperament so equable that the sight of injustice could alone disturb its poise; with a wisdom so com- prehensive that no experience of life, however humble, failed to enlarge it; with a sagacity so sure that it par- took of a prophet’s fire; with an honesty so ingrained that in his ‘‘ Autobiography ” he would endure disgrace rather than seem to be what he was not; with a sense of humour so keen that it kept him from yielding to the obtrusive vagaries of overwrought enthusiasm. And, to crown all, this happy mingle was born into the world just in time to reach its full maturity when this young nation was struggling perilously into manhood, and on the stroke of the hour when there was needed precisely the very help which a man like Franklin, and Franklin alone, could supply. It is such times,—“ times,” as Tom Paine then said, “which try men’s souls,’—that cry aloud for all the finest elements of citizenship. Then it is that the Commonwealth demands of her sons, from the highest to the lowest, the very all and the very best, they can give, and at the sacrifice of every other tie. 4 34 FURNESS: FRANKLIN Accordingly, at her summons, Franklin obediently broke away from wife and children, from friends who were dear, from fellow-citizens by whom he was re- vered, from the ease of affluence, to reside in London, where, for ten years, as the agent of refractory rebels, he was treated by the Government and the Tories, with neglect, contumely, and scorn. But, as was said by “Junius” of Wilkes, “the rays of royal indignation, con- centrated upon him, served only to illumine, they could not consume him.” So much did it cost, in the Tory England, of that time, to be a faithful citizen of an American colony. But in the American colony itself the atmosphere was far different. Franklin had reached Philadelphia, a truant from his apprenticeship in Boston, when he was seventeen years old. Of all the thirty thousand inhabitants about him, he knew personally not a single soul, and all the money he had in the world was a shilling in copper and a solitary ‘Dutch dollar.” ‘This dollar is so demoninated by Franklin himself in his “ Autobiography,” and when- ever it has since been mentioned, it is always termed “Dutch,” but whether it was more or less than an ordi- nary dollar, I do not know, yet certain it is that it gives out a contemptuous ring, which magnifies Franklin’s poverty and is soothing to our feelings. And yet, within fourteen short years, so deep was the impression made by AS CITIZEN AND PHILANTHROPIST 35 his character on his fellow-citizens, that this friendless, penniless boy had been chosen Clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly, made a Justice of the Peace, and appointed Postmaster. A career so remarkable, rising so rapidly from absolute pennilessness to competence, from friendless- ness to political prominence, may well give us pause. Those early years must assuredly bear in them the promise, whereof the following fifty bore the fruit. What manner of man, then, must Franklin have been when he was young? His portraits have made the venerable appearance of his old age so familiar that we never think of him as a jocund youth. No contem- porary testimony will help us. We have only his own “Autobiography ” wherein with invincible honesty he presents the worse side of his own character. We must read between the lines of this “Autobiography,” if we are to answer this question, and thence draw our conclu- sions. If we search we shall there find the following pic- ture: It is evening, in New Jersey, on the road to Philadelphia, and a youth of seventeen applies for lodging at a roadside inn; he is footsore after a solitary tramp of thirty miles, his clothes are shabby, dirty, and show the effects of a thorough drenching in the rain of the day before, with the pockets stuffed out with shirt and stockings. He looks suspiciously like a fugitive 36 FURNESS: FRANKLIN from justice, but the inn-keeper was, strangely enough for those days, a man of some education, a doctor, who had been, probably, an itinerant physician, and had travelled somewhat; he took the uninviting tramp in, and while the latter was eating supper entered into conversa- tion with him. They must have had an entertaining, a delightful talk; evidently the rough diamond sparkled and shone, and so dazzled the eyes, and so won the heart of the good doctor that when they parted the next morn- ing the unknown bedraggled boy carried with him the friendship of his host which survived through life. Here is another incident of Franklin’s youth, which happened only a few months after he was settled here in this city. ‘The Governor of the Province, Sir William Keith, had been shown a letter of the young Franklin, written, we may well suppose, in his direct and for- cible style; he thereupon conceived a high opinion of the writer. One day, therefore, Sir William, “ finely dressed,” as we are told, called at the printing office where the youth was at work, talked with him awhile and, evidently captivated by the unusual cleverness of his conversation, insisted upon carrying him off to the tavern, just as he was, in his workingman’s clothes, “ to taste, as he said, some excellent Madeira.” ‘This in- terview led to others, and several times in the next few weeks the Governor invited the young printer to dine with him, “ conversing with me,” says Franklin, “ in AS CITIZEN AND PHILANTHROPIST 27 the most affable, familiar, and friendly manner imagi- nable.” “My heart doth joy,’ said Brutus just before he fell upon his sword after his defeat at Philippi, ‘““ My heart doth joy that yet in all my life I found no man but he was true to me.” Therein Brutus pays, unconsciously, the highest tribute to his own truth. It was his honour that evoked honour wheresoever he dealt. When we find, therefore, in Franklin’s ‘“Auto- biography ” or in his “ Letters,” commendations of his friends as being affable or agreeable, witty or charming, we may know that those qualities were but reflections of himself. How could it be otherwise? He must have been the best company in the world,—never dull; always alert; that active brain was never idle for the thousandth part of a minute; never gloomy, always cheerful; with flashes of wit, and a fund of anecdotes to illustrate the homely problems of life. Thus he must have been as a companion. As a Councillor, a Justice, or a Legislator the smile vanishes and is re- placed, for a while, by the furrows of thought. His popularity could have been no secret to those who met him day by day. From the age of thirty, and for fifty years onward, until the very close of his long life, he was continuously fulfilling the duties of public office, fairly forced upon him by his fellow-citizens, or by the rulers of the 38 FURNESS: FRANKLIN Province. In every emergency, it was to Franklin that his fellow-citizens appealed for counsel, in absolute trust that in his discerning sagacity, in the fertility of his resources, in his promptitude and unwearied self- sacrifice, they would find all needed aid. And never did they appeal in vain. Did Philadelphia happen to be in danger from privateers of France and Spain at war with Great Britain, it was Franklin, the private citizen, who lulled all fears by organizing bands for defence and by raising money to build and equip a battery. Were the Indians threatening the frontiers, it was Franklin, the citizen, who was deputed to confer with the British general on the means of de- fence, and in so doing, in order to purchase sup- plies for the soldiers, he advanced his own hardly earned money to the extent of a thousand pounds,— equivalent at the present day to at least five times as much,—which should the English Government fail to repay, meant his financial ruin. Thus it was, that, in the eyes of his fellow-citizens, towering above all, in his sterling combination of the qualities of a good citizen, he verily anticipated his own electrical discoveries, and, like a lightning-rod, dissi- pated every ominous cloud that threatened the serenity of the Commonwealth. Under his benign protection there dwelt safety and secure repose. AS CITIZEN AND PHILANTHROPIST 39 What wonder then, that when the Province en- deavoured to raise money for a defence against the threatening Indians, and encountered the “ indescrib- able meanness” of the proprietaries, William Penn’s own sons, in utterly refusing to allow their vast tracts of land to be taxed for this or for any purpose, —what wonder that the distressed colonists should turn to Franklin, the citizen who, of all others, had been their wisest counsellor in the past, and send him to England to petition the King for relief. Of course, he was as successful as was possible in the circumstances and gained great but temporary relief by a compro- mise,—that “ heretic that works on leases of short num- bered hours.” It is not my province to speak, you will shortly hear it from a more golden mouth, of his diplomacy on these missions, of his brilliant success in an examination be- fore Parliament, when, for hours, on no throne did there ever beat a fiercer light than on one unassum- ing, dignified citizen, who, with imperturbable calm- ness, answered every question triumphantly, and with the tongue, dowered on that occasion, with the Elfin Queen’s gift to Thomas of Ercildoun, “the tongue that could not lie,’ set forth with unflinching frankness the manifold grievances of the colonies. But it does fall, I think, within my limits to urge that this triumph was due to Franklin’s absolute mastery of every quality which goes 40 FURNESS: FRANKLIN to the making of a citizen. No detail of civic life was there, with which he was not familiar. Hence what- ever else the guise under which he stands proudly forth on this occasion, every word that he uttered, every fibre of his mind, heralds him as the great citizen. Nor was this citizen’s voice, while reverberating in England, ever silent here at home. Again, it is, prob- ably, not within my province to speak about “ Poor Richard’s Almanacs” or ‘“ Father Abraham’s Speech” or the issues from Franklin’s press. They will be duly set forth by a voice whose music you will soon hear. But I am not encroaching, when I call atten- tion to the pure philanthropy which lies in scattering broadcast over the land maxims inculcating honesty, sobriety, frugality, and industry, the four cardinal points of civic life, couched in proverbs, whereof the wit and pungency drive the meaning home. We could laugh together, sans intermission, by the half hour, over the shrewdness, the knowledge of human nature, the keenness of those winged words, and barbed shafts, all of them feathered with wit and humour; they are popular today, and will be tomorrow and tomorrow, to the last syllable of recorded time, or as long as “ laughter holding both its sides” is friend to man. You know, it is reported that Thomas Jefferson said that the reason why Franklin was not deputed to write “The Declaration of Inde- ) pendence” was because he would be sure to put a joke AS CITIZEN AND PHILANTHROPIST 41 in it. But is it too much to claim that those maxims thus sinking deep into the minds of men, as possibly no others sink save those of Holy Writ, swayed and moulded the temper and character of this nation in its early impressible years? If, therefore, Franklin is to be regarded as a type, it is because he himself created the species. As time went on, the weak bantling among nations, these United States, needed a representative in Eu- rope, who could secure for them recognition as a nation, an alliance if possible, and, at all hazards, money. The task seemed well nigh hopeless. Never- theless, Congress unanimously appointed Franklin, with two others, a commissioner to France. Faith- ful to his self-sacrificing duty as a citizen, Franklin accepted the appointment, although he was then seventy years old,—many, many years beyond the limit, at which, as we have been recently assured, we cease to be of any use either to the community, to ourselves, or to anybody. But before he left Philadelphia, he performed one act which places him high, very high, in the list of great citizens and of eminent patriots. The life of the nation was very feeble and very flickering. En- thusiasm is truly admirable, but it will not pay salaries nor arm soldiers. A new-born government without either money or credit is as helpless as a new-born child. Franklin’s single-eyed devotion to his country 42 FURNESS: FRANKLIN taught him exactly what to do. He gathered all the money he could command, amounting to three or four thousand pounds, certainly of five times the purchasing value that it is at present, and lent it all to the govern- ment. This tangible proof, by so cautious and thrifty a man, of confidence in the stability of the government, afforded untold encouragement to his fellow-citizens to follow his example. Language would be deemed extravagant that should describe the admiration, the adulation, and the respect wherewith Franklin was welcomed in France. Ah, that name, France, can it be ever spoken by an American, mindful of our early struggles, without bring- ing “the crimson to the forehead and the lustre to the eye,” as the kindled flush of gratitude starts from our heart of heart! I care not for motives. Gratitude recks not of them. The fact remains that under God, we owe to France the success of our Revolution! When above, below, and on every hand, there was naught but gloom and black despair, that dear, dear land rose to us, on the horizon, like a constellation on the brow of night. It has been happily said that the thought of future applause is like the majestic sound of the distant ocean; present applause is like that same ocean dashed in the face, and requiring a rock to stand it. But nigh a decade of such applause as has never been lavished on living man had no effect on Franklin’s granitic, AS CITIZEN AND PHILANTHROPIST 43 republican character. The rock withstood the ocean! Now although it may not prove a title to the claim of consummate citizenship that a man has his por- trait in bracelets and on snuff-boxes, and his bust in every house, and his likeness in every shop-window, yet it does reveal how thoroughly ingrained are all the best elements of democratic citizenship when all such blandishments fail to have the faintest influence on character or deportment. “The glories of our birth and state Are shadows, not substantial things,” and Dr. Franklin returned to his home here the same unbending republican citizen that he was when he left these shores, and among the charges brought against him by envy and party-spirit (we have the highest authority that ‘““woe be unto us when a// men speak well of us”), I cannot recall any which denied his re- publican simplicity in garb or demeanor, or one that accused him of aping foreign aristocratic manners. In- deed, his sense of humour kept him from all ostenta- tion; the incongruity,—one of the elements of humour,— between the simplicity of a republic and the gewgaws of a monarchy was too palpable. Moreover, “ silks and satins, scarlet and velvet put out the kitchen fire, as Poor Richard says,” and ‘“ Pride that dines on vanity, sups on contempt, as Poor Richard says.” Verily, his 44 FURNESS: FRANKLIN undisguised exultation in being one of the people is revealed in his final solemn utterance to the public; he begins his Last Will and Testament with “I, Benjamin Franklin, “Printer.” He was seventy-nine years old when he returned from France, and a few weeks after his arrival was elected President, we should now say, Governor, of the State, and was re-elected unanimously in the two fol- lowing years. His high standard of the duty a citizen owes to his Commonwealth induced him, notwithstand- ing his great age, to accept the position. Moreover, did he not know that “the used key is always bright, as Poor Richard says”? He declined to accept any salary for himself, but devoted it all to schools and churches. In his last year of office his supremacy as a citizen was again acknowledged. He was called upon to aid in framing the Constitution of the United States. He was eighty-one years old, and, while fulfilling every duty required by his presidency of the State, neglected not a single demand on his time or attention as a dele- gate of this Constitutional Convention. A noteworthy fact has been pointed out by our accomplished Secre- tary, Dr. Hays, namely, that the signature of Franklin, and of Franklin alone of all the giants in those days, is to be found on the triple pillars of our government, —it is on the Declaration of Independence, on the AS CITIZEN AND PHILANTHROPIST 45 Treaty of Peace with Great Britain acknowledging that Independence, and on the Constitution of the United States. After all, what is it to be a good citizen? Without entering into any analysis, always tiresome, may we not assume that he who leaves the Commonwealth better than he found it, be it even in so humble a degree as the giving or the bequeathing of a good example, or of an honest name, has earned the right to be entitled a good citizene Apply this test to Franklin and what do we find? When Franklin was a very young man, the first civic duty that he performed was the reformation of the “night watch,” which at that time would apparently compare favourably with that of London, where it had only very slightly improved since the days of Dog- berry. The nightly tippling in taverns of the Phila- delphia watchmen possibly surpassed that of their Lon- don rivals, but their slumbers when on duty were no less profound than those of their British cousins, and what these slumbers were we may learn from Lord Erskine. “A friend of mine,” said Lord Erskine, on one occasion, “ was suffering from a continual wake- fulness, and various methods were tried to send him to sleep, but in vain. At last, his physicians resorted to an experiment which succeeded perfectly; they dressed 46 FURNESS: FRANKLIN him in a watchman’s coat, put a lantern in his hand, placed him in a sentry-box, and—he was asleep in ten minutes.” After much persevering effort, Franklin at last succeeded in breaking up the old system and in substituting one which was supported by a tax levied in proportion to the value of property. When Franklin was twenty-five years old, there was not in all America a public circulating library. He began one, and it still survives as “The Philadelphia Library,” and is one of the largest in the land. In a small town mostly of wooden houses, a conflagra- tion in those early days was only a little less alarming than an attack by Indians. Franklin organized the first Fire Company, whereof every member was obliged to keep on hand “six leather fire-buckets, and two bags made of good oznaburg” (whatever that may be) for the preservation of personal effects. When Franklin was thirty-seven, there was not a single organized scientific society in America. He founded this, our American Philosophical Society. The first militia law in this State was drawn up by Franklin, and, when a battery was built below the city, he took his turn in the nightly sentinel’s watch as a common soldier, although the battery had been built and equipped mainly by his exertions, and he had been offered the colonelcy of the regiment that manned it. AS CITIZEN AND PHILANTHROPIST 47 Franklin was the first to propose a public Fast-day in this State and wrote the Proclamation for it, which the Governor adopted and issued. And all this while he was filling many another civic duty. The Governor put him on the Commission of the Peace; the corporation of the city chose him as one of the Common Council, and soon after, an Alderman; and the citizens at large elected him a Burgess to rep- resent them in the Assembly, and continued to elect him annually for fourteen years, even during his absence in France. In 1749, when he was forty-three, he planned and started the Academy which finally became The Univer- sity of Pennsylvania,—now one of the leading univer- sities of the United States, dear to all of us, and, in our own time, re-created by its great Provost, Dr. Pep- per, also Franklin’s successor as presiding officer of this, our Philosophical Society. The idea of a public hospital originated in 1751, with Dr. Thomas Bond, but, discouraged by the apathy of his fellow-citizens, he appealed for aid to Dr. Frank- lin with the plea that there was no carrying through any public-spirited project unless Dr. Franklin counte- nanced it. Dr. Bond’s confidence was not misplaced. Dr. Franklin speedily secured two thousand pounds in voluntary gifts, and then induced the Assembly to con- _ tribute as much more. With these sums the Hospital 48 FURNESS: FRANKLIN was built, the earliest in America, and it still stands at Ninth and Pine streets, with its hourly increasing record of beneficence. All duties are a weariness, but is there any of the minor duties of life more enervating than that of ask- ing for subscriptions to a charity? How eagerly we seek to ameliorate it by converting the appeal into tickets for a Lecture, a Concert, or a Reading,—but the pill is merely disguised,—it has to be swallowed. No one is exempt from the distasteful task. Listen, then, my poor brothers and sisters, to the worldly-wise words of Dr. Franklin. Rules for your guidance may alleviate your woe. . “Jin the first place,” says that guides oe advise you to apply to all those who, you know, will give something; next to those about whom you are un- certain whether they will give anything or not, and show them the list of those who have given; and, lastly, do not neglect those, who, you are sure, will give nothing, for in some of them you may be mistaken.” We are the heirs to another bequest from Franklin. In 1756 the city streets were neither paved nor lighted at night. Franklin caused a portion of the street about the market to be paved, and so pleased were the citi- zens with its manifest comfort and cleanliness that they consented to be taxed for the paving of the whole city. And then followed scavengers, unknown before. And for the lighting of the streets at night Franklin pro- . AS CITIZEN AND PHILANTHROPIST 49 posed square lamps with ventilation instead of the round globes imported from England, which became immedi- ately smoky and dim. And for none of his manifold inventions would he take out a patent, but presented them all freely to the public. Those steel-grey eyes observed everything from the lightning in the skies to an improvement in spectacles, from smoky chimneys to currents in the ocean, from the best rigging for ships to stoves for burning pit-coal. Franklin’s last official act before leaving France, in 1785, was the signing of the treaty between Prussia and the United States. The twenty-third article of this treaty, written by Franklin, constitutes one of the fair- est jewels in the crown of his philanthropy,—a philan- thropy so broad that it embraces every nation that “heaven’s air in this huge rondure hems.” It is the article against privateering, and in favour of the free- dom of trade and of the protection of private property in time of war. This standard of philanthropy and of justice is so exalted that even yet (I speak under cor- rection), a hundred and twenty years later, the nations of the earth are but just beginning to acknowledge and obey it. Thus he passed his life. Serving his fellow-citizens for fifty years, breathing the breath of civic devotion into a newly born nation, and welding the hoop of 5 50 FURNESS: FRANKLIN gold, to bind these brother States in a union which is to be perpetual. Nor was it alone in civic life that he won admiration and reverence; his presence was at firesides in thronged cities, and by smouldering logs in lone frontier cabins, uttering words of counsel, and appeals for the practice of honesty, frugality and in- dustry, driving the counsel home in the irresistible proverbs of Poor Richard. But let us not be carried away by an undue enthusi- asm. In praise of Poor Richard we may exhaust all adjectives and pant for more. But we must never forget that the virtues which Poor Richard inculcates are those which lie on the surface of our work-a-day life,—vir- tues truly admirable, truly indispensable,—russet yeas and honest kersey noes will be for ever respectable, and life will glide the smoother where they are heeded. But there is a life beyond life, illuminated “By the light that never was on sea or land The consecration and the poet’s dream,” a life in the music, in the colour of this fair world of God; and when ambition would pierce to this life, we must, as Emerson says, “hitch our wagon to a star.” But for all life below the stars, on the level of this homespun world, we may hitch our wagon to Poor Richard. But I must bring to a close these remarks, fragmentary as they must be in dealing with a character so colossal AS CITIZEN AND PHILANTHROPIST ‘I and complete as Franklin’s. He has at last reached his eighty-fourth year, and the case of that huge spirit is growing old and racked by torturing pain. Yet in the midst of all, but a few months before his death, he placed the supreme crown and effulgent glory on a career of philanthropy by writing an appeal to Congress for the abolition of slavery, that ‘‘ atrocious debasement,” so he termed it, “of human nature.” In thus pleading for the very least of his brethren, he laid his just hands on the golden key that opes the palace of eternity, and gained a mansion on the starry threshold of Jove’s court. Bear with me one minute longer while I recall to your memory the conclusions of two letters. I care not how well-known to you they may be. They should be rehearsed until they are as familiar in our mouths as household words. The first is addressed to Wash- ington and was written from Franklin’s dying bed: “ For my own personal ease,” Franklin writes, “I should have died two years ago; but, though these years have been spent in excruciating pain, I am pleased that I have lived them, since they have brought me to see our pres- ent situation. I am now finishing my eighty-fourth year, and probably with it my career in this life; but in whatever state of existence I am placed hereafter, if I retain any memory of what has passed here, I shall with it retain the esteem, respect, and affection, with which (373 FURNESS: FRANKLIN I have long been, my dear friend, Yours most sincerely, B. Franklin.” Now listen to the conclusion of the reply: “If to ’ writes Washington, “ if be venerated for benevolence,’ to be admired for talents, if to be esteemed for patriot- ism, if to be beloved for philanthropy, can gratify the human mind, you must have the pleasing consolation to know, that you have not lived in vain. And I flat- ter myself that it will not be ranked among the least grateful occurrences of your life to be assured, that, so long as I retain my memory, you will be recollected with respect, veneration, and affection by your sincere friend, George Washington.” Ah, throughout the inflowing tide of time and cir- cumstance, will history ever, ever see again the like of him, the greatest of all our citizens? But let our gratitude, like incense, mount the skies that one such has been vouchsafed to us. “There’s not a breathing of the common wind That will forget him.” The demi-god of war, who brought into millions of homes, bitter sobs and blinding tears, sleeps beneath a lofty dome, with marble angels gazing sadly on his porphyry tomb. The demi-god of peace, who scattered plenty o’er a smiling land, and brought into millions of homes, AS CITIZEN AND PHILANTHROPIST 53 honesty, and frugality, and sterling virtue, lies, as he wished to lie, in the heart, and in the hearts, of the city that he loved, under the humble walls of the churchyard of Christ Church. “ Daily the tides of life go ebbing and flowing beside him, Thousands of [scheming] brains, where his no longer are busy, Thousands of toiling hands, where his have ceased from their labours, Thousands of weary feet, where his have completed their journey.” Mette APY fs sf i, f i La aT ; } Ni ‘ ; : ; ih ihe EN eee 4 i N° ay 4 er i nea, LE ; pay elie . i ; ob 7 its: 7 FA Oe hal: ( ip f ea \ AMON aE ny) 0 he! yt Dae LR Haat hah Nt i j Dt! 4 AE A OM AO eR a neg } \ { ve wu iN | i ad Wiles in Pou) ein ] Any aa re ame al TY) an Havana evan), | hh a mony ey ‘ { { i a! Vi, he aD oie Oat) Ff Ht tae TR I \ We ‘a i AP jn WALES a h ig 4 FRANKLIN AS) PRINTER AND PHILOSOPHER By CHARLES WILLIAM ELIoT, LL.D. [Address delivered in The American Academy of Music, Friday, April 20] HE facts about Franklin as printer are simple and plain, but impressive. His father, respecting the boy’s strong disinclination to become a tallow-chandler, selected the printer’s trade for him, after giving him opportunities to see members of several different trades at their work, and considering the boy’s own tastes and aptitudes. It was at twelve years of age that Franklin signed indentures as an apprentice to his older brother James, who was already an established printer. By the time he was seventeen years old he had mastered the trade in all its branches so completely that he could ven- ture with hardly any money in his pocket first into New York and then into Philadelphia without a friend or acquaintance in either place, and yet succeed promptly in earning his living. He knew all the departments of the business. He was a pressman as well as a compos- itor. He understood both newspaper work and book work. There were at that time no such sharp sub- divisions of labor and no such elaborate machinery as exist in the trade to-day, and Franklin could do with (55) 56 ELIOT: FRANKLIN his own eyes and hands, long before he was of age, everything which the printer’s art was then equal to. When the faithless Governor Keith caused Franklin to land in London without any resources whatever except his skill at his trade, the youth was fully capable of sup- porting himself in the great city as a printer. Franklin had been induced by the Governor to go to England, where he was to buy a complete outfit for a good print- ing office to be set up in Philadelphia. He had already presented the Governor with an inventory of all the materials needed in a small printing office, and was com- petent to make a critical selection of all these materials; but when he arrived in London on this errand he was only eighteen years old. Thrown completely on his own resources in the great city, he immediately got work at a famous printing house in Bartholomew Close, but soon moved to a still larger printing house, in which he remained during the rest of his stay in London. Here he worked as a pressman at first, but was soon trans- ferred to the composing room, evidently excelling his comrades in both branches of the art. The customary drink money was demanded of him, first by the press- men with whom he was associated, and afterwards by the compositors. Franklin undertook to resist the second demand; and it is interesting to observe that after a resistance of three weeks he was forced to yield to the demands of the men by just such measures as are now AS PRINTER AND PHILOSOPHER 57 used against any scab in a unionized printing office. He says in his autobiography: “I had so many little pieces of private mischief done me by mixing my sorts, transposing my pages, breaking my matter, and so forth, neil were ever so little out of the room. . . that; not- withstanding the master’s protection, I found myself obliged to comply and pay the money, convinced of the folly of being on ill terms with those one is to live with continually.” He was stronger than any of his mates, kept his head clearer because he did not fuddle it with beer, and availed himself of the liberty which then existed of working as fast and as much as he chose. On this point he says: ‘‘ My constant attendance (I never making a St. Monday) recommended me to the master; and my uncommon quickness at composing occasioned my being put upon all work of dispatch, which was gen- erally better paid. So I went on now very agreeably.” On his return to Philadelphia Franklin obtained for a few months another occupation than that of printer; but this employment failing through the death of his em- ployer, Franklin again returned to printing, becoming the manager of a small printing office, in which he was the only skilled workman and was expected to teach sev- eral green hands. At that time he was only twenty-one years of age. This printing office often wanted sorts, and there was no type-foundry in America. Franklin succeeded in contriving a mold, struck the matrices in 58 ELIOT: FRANKLIN lead, and thus supplied the deficiencies of the office. The autobiography says: “‘ I also engraved several things on occasion; I made the ink; I was warehouse man and everything, and in short quite a factotum.” Neverthe- less, he was dismissed before long by his incompetent employer, who, however, was glad to re-engage him a few days later on obtaining a job to print some paper money for New Jersey. Thereupon Franklin contrived a copperplate press for this job—the first that had been seen in the country—and cut the ornaments for the bills. Meantime Franklin, with one of the apprentices, had ordered a press and types from London, that they two might set up an independent office. Shortly after the New Jersey job was finished, these materials arrived in Phila- delphia, and Franklin immediately opened his own ““was, however, no com- printing office. His partner positor, a poor pressman, and seldom sober.” ‘The office prospered, and in July, 1730, when Franklin was twenty- four years old, the partnership was dissolved, and Frank- lin was at the head of a well-established and profitable printing business. ‘This business was the foundation of Franklin’s fortune; and better foundation no man could desire. His industry was extraordinary. Contrary to the current opinion, Dr. Baird of St. Andrews tes- tified that the new printing office would succeed, “ For the industry of that Franklin,” he said, “is superior to anything I ever saw of the kind; I see him still at work AS PRINTER AND PHILOSOPHER 59 when I go home from club, and he is at work again before his neighbors are out of bed.’ No trade rules or customs limited, or levied toll on, his productiveness. He speedily became by far the most successful printer in all the colonies, and in twenty years was able to retire from active business with a competency. One would, however, get a wrong impression of Frank- lin’s career as a printer if he failed to observe that Franklin constantly used, from his boyhood, his connec- tion with a printing office to facilitate his remarkable work as an author, editor, and publisher. Even while he was an apprentice to his brother James he succeeded in getting issued from his brother’s press ballads and newspaper articles of which he was the anonymous au- thor. When he had a press of his own, he used it for publishing a newspaper, an almanac, and numerous es- says composed or compiled by himself. His genius as a writer supported his skill and industry as a printer. The second part of the double subject assigned to me is Franklin as a philosopher. The philosophy he taught and illustrated related to four perennial subjects of human interest: education, natural science, politics, and morals. I propose to deal in that order with these four topics. Franklin’s philosophy of education was elaborated as he grew up, and was applied to himself throughout 60 ELIOT: FRANKLIN his life. In the first place, he had no regular education of the usual sort. He studied and read with an extra- ordinary diligence from his earliest years; but he studied only the subjects which attracted him, or which he him- self believed would be good for him, and throughout life he pursued only those inquiries for pursuing which he found within himself an adequate motive. The most important element in his training was reading, for which he had a precocious desire, which was imperative and proved to be lasting. His opportunities to get books were scanty; but he seized on all such opportunities, and fortunately he early came upon the Pilgrim’s Progress, the Spectator, Plutarch, Xenophon’s Memorabilia, and Locke On the Human Understanding. Practice of Eng- lish composition was the next agency in Franklin’s edu- cation; and his method—dquite of his own invention— was certainly an admirable one. He would make brief notes of the thoughts contained in a good piece of writ- ing, and lay these notes aside for several days; then without looking at the book he would endeavor to ex- press these thoughts in his own words as fully as they had been expressed in the original paper. Lastly, he would compare his products with the original, thus dis- covering his shortcomings and errors. To improve his vocabulary, he turned specimens of prose into verse, and later, when he had forgotten the original, turned the verse back again into prose. This exercise enlarged AS PRINTER AND PHILOSOPHER 61 his vocabulary and his acquaintance with synonyms and their different shades of meaning, and showed him how he could twist phrases and sentences about. His times for such exercises and for reading were at night after work, before work began in the morning, and on Sun- days. This severe training he imposed on himself; and he was well advanced in it before he was sixteen years of age. His memory and his imagination must both have served him well; for he not only acquired a style fit for narrative, exposition, or argument, but also learnt to use the fable, parable, paraphrase, proverb, and dia- logue. Thirdly, he began very early, while he was still a young boy, to put all he had learnt to use in writing for publication. When he was but nineteen years old he wrote and published in London “A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain.” In after years he was not proud of this pamphlet; but it was nevertheless a remarkable production for a youth of nineteen. So soon as he was able to establish a news- paper in Philadelphia he wrote for it with great spirit and in a style at once accurate, concise, and attractive, making immediate application of his reading and of the conversation of intelligent acquaintances on both sides of the ocean. His fourth principle of education was that it should continue through life, and should make use of the social instincts. ‘To that end he thought that friends and acquaintances might fitly band together in a sys- 62 ELIOT: FRANKLIN tematic endeavor after mutual improvement. The Junto was created as a school of philosophy, morality, and pol- itics; and this purpose it actually served for many years. Some of the questions read at every meeting of the Junto, with a pause after each one, would be curiously oppor- tune in such a society at the present day. For example, No. 5, ‘‘ Have you lately heard how any present rich man, here or elsewhere, got his estater” And No. 6, “Do you know of a fellow-citizen . . . who has lately committed an error proper for us to be warned against and avoid?” When anew member was initiated he was asked among other questions the following: “ Do you think any person ought to be harmed in his body, name, or goods for mere speculative opinions or his external way of worship?” and again, “ Do you love truth for truth’s sake, and will you endeavor impartially to find, receive it yourself, and communicate it to others?” The Junto helped to educate Franklin, and he helped greatly to train all its members. The nature of Franklin’s own education accounts for many of his opinions on the general subject. Thus, he believed, contrary to the judgment of his time, that Latin and Greek were not essential subjects in a liberal educa- tion, and that mathematics, in which he never excelled, did not deserve the place it held. He believed that any one who had acquired a command of good English could learn any other modern language that he really needed, AS PRINTER AND PHILOSOPHER 63 when he needed it; and this faith he illustrated in his own person, for he learnt French, when he needed it, sufficiently well to enable him to exercise great influence for many years at the French Court. As the fruit of his education he exhibited a clear, pungent, persuasive Eng- lish style both in writing and in conversation,—a style which gave him great and lasting influence among men. It is easy to say that such a training as Franklin’s is suit- able only for genius. Be that as it may, Franklin’s philosophy of education certainly tells in favor of liberty for the individual in his choice of studies, and teaches that a desire for good reading and a capacity to write well are two very important fruits of any liberal culture. It was all at the service of his successor Jefferson, the founder of the University of Virginia. Franklin’s studies in natural philosophy are charac- terized by remarkable directness, patience, and inven- tiveness, absolute candor in seeking the truth, and a powerful scientific imagination. What has been usu- ally considered his first discovery was the now famil- iar fact that northeast storms on the Atlantic coast begin’ toi leeward. . The. Pennsylvania; fireplace he invented was an ingenious application to the warm- ing and ventilating of an apartment of the laws that regulate the movement of hot air. )At (the age of forty-one he became interested in the subject of electricity, and with the aid of many friends and ac- 64 ELIOT: FRANKLIN quaintances pursued the subject for four years, with no thought about personal credit for inventing either the- ories or processes, but simply with delight in experimen- tation and in efforts to explain the phenomena he ob- served. His kite experiment to prove lightning to be an electrical phenomenon very possibly did not really draw lightning from the cloud; but it supplied evidence of electrical energy in the atmosphere which went far to prove that lightning was an electrical discharge. The sagacity of Franklin’s scientific inquiries is well illus- tracted by his notes on colds and their causes. He main- tains that the influenzas usually classed as colds do not arise as a rule from either cold or dampness. He points out that savages and sailors, who are often wet, do not catch cold, and that the disease called a cold is not taken by swimming. He maintains that people who live in the forest, in open barns, or with open windows, do not catch cold, and that the disease called a cold is generally caused by impure air, lack of exercise, or over-eating. He comes to the conclusion that influenzas and colds are contagious—a doctrine which, a century and a half later, was proved, through the advance of bacteriological sci- ence, to be sound. The following sentence exhibits re- markable insight, considering the state of medical art at that time: “ I have long been satisfied from observation, that besides the general colds now termed influenzas (which may possibly spread by contagion, as well as by AS PRINTER AND PHILOSOPHER 65 a particular quality of the air), people often catch cold from one another when shut up together in close rooms and coaches, and when sitting near and conversing so as to breathe in each other’s transpiration; the disorder being in a certain state.” In the light of present knowl- edge what a cautious and exact statement is that! There being no learned society in all America at the time, Franklin’s scientific experiments were almost all recorded in letters written to interested friends; and he was never in any haste to write these letters. He never took a patent on any of his inventions, and made no effort either to get a profit from them, or to establish any sort of intellectual proprietorship in his experiments and speculations. One of his English correspondents, Mr. Collinson, published in 1751 a number of Franklin’s let- ters to him in a pamphlet called ‘“‘ New Experiments and Observations in Electricity made at Philadelphia in America.” ‘This pamphlet was translated into several European languages, and established over the continent —particularly in France—Franklin’s reputation as a nat- ural philosopher. A great variety of phenomena en- gaged his attention, such as phosphorescence in sea water, the cause of the saltness of the sea, the form and tem- peratures of the Gulf Stream, the effect of oil in stilling waves, and the cause of smoky chimneys. Franklin also reflected and wrote on many topics which are now clas- sified under the head of political economy, such as paper 6 66 ELIOT: FRANKLIN currency, national wealth, free trade, the slave trade, the effects of luxury and idleness, and the misery and destruction caused by war. Not even his caustic wit could adequately convey in words his contempt and abhorrence of war as a mode of settling questions arising between nations. He condensed his opinions on that subject into the epigram: “‘ There never was a good war or a bad peace.” Franklin’s political philosophy may all be summed up in seven words—first freedom, then public happiness and comfort. The spirit of liberty was born in him. He resented his brother’s blows when he was an apprentice, and escaped from them. As a mere boy he refused to attend church on Sundays in accordance with the custom of his family and his town, and devoted his Sundays to reading and study. In practicing his trade he claimed and diligently sought complete freedom. In public and private business alike he tried to induce people to take any action desired of them by presenting to them a mo- tive they could understand and feel—a motive which acted on their own wills and excited their hopes. This is the only method possible under a regime of liberty. A perfect illustration of his practice in this respect is found in his successful provision of one hundred and fifty four-horse wagons for Braddock’s force when it was detained on its march from Annapolis to Western Pennsylvania by the lack of wagons. The military AS PRINTER AND PHILOSOPHER 67 method would have been to seize horses, wagons, and drivers wherever found. Franklin persuaded Braddock, instead of using force, to allow him (Franklin) to offer a good hire for horses, wagons, and drivers, and proper compensation for the equipment in case of loss. By this appeal to the frontier farmers of Pennsylvania he se- cured in two weeks all the transportation required. To defend public order Franklin was perfectly ready to use public force, as for instance when he raised and com- manded a regiment of militia to defend the north- western frontier from the Indians after Braddock’s de- feat, and again when it became necessary to defend Phil- adelphia from a large body of frontiersmen who had lynched a considerable number of friendly Indians, and were bent on revolutionizing the Quaker government. But his abhorrence of all war was based on the facts, first, that during war the law must be silent, and secondly, that military discipline, which is essential for effective fighting, annihilates individual liberty. ‘‘ Those,” he said, “who would give up essential liberty for the sake of a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” The foundation of his firm resistance on behalf of the colonies to the English Parliament was his im- pregnable conviction that the love of liberty was the ruling passion of the people of the colonies. In 1766 he said of the American people: “ Every act of oppres- sion will sour their tempers, lessen greatly, if not anni- 68 ELIOT: FRANKLIN hilate, the profits of your commerce with them, and hasten their final revolt; for the seeds of liberty are universally found there and nothing can eradicate them.” Because they loved liberty, they would not be taxed without representation; they would not have soldiers quartered on them, or their governors made independent of the people in regard to their salaries; or their ports closed or their commerce regulated by Parliament. It is interesting to observe how Franklin’s experiments and speculations in natural science.often had a favorable in- fluence on freedom of thought. His studies in economics had a strong tendency in that direction. His views about religious toleration were founded on his intense faith in civil liberty; and even his demonstration that lightning was an electrical phenomenon brought deliverance for mankind from an ancient terror. It removed from the domain of the supernatural a manifestation of formid- able power that had been supposed to be a weapon of the arbitrary gods; and since it increased man’s power Over nature, it increased his freedom. This faith in freedom was fully developed in Franklin long before the American Revolution and the French Revolution made the fundamental principles of liberty familiar to civilized mankind. His views concerning civil liberty were even more remarkable for his time than his views concerning religious liberty; but they were not developed in a passionate nature inspired by AS PRINTER AND PHILOSOPHER 69 an enthusiastic idealism. He was the very embodiment of common sense, moderation, and sober honesty. His standard of human society is perfectly expressed in the description of New England which he wrote in 1772. “T thought often of the happiness in New England, where every man is a freeholder, has a vote in public affairs, lives in a tidy. warm house, has plenty of good food and fuel, and whole clothes from head to foot, the manufacture perhaps of his own family. Long may they continue in this situation!” Such was Franklin’s conception of a free and happy people. Such was his political philosophy. The moral philosophy of Franklin consisted almost exclusively in the inculcation of certain very practical and unimaginative virtues, such as temperance, frugal- ity, industry, moderation, cleanliness, and tranquility. Sincerity and justice, and resolution—that indispensable fly-wheel of virtuous habit—are found in his table of virtues; but all his moral precepts seem to be based on observation and experience of life, and to express his convictions concerning what is profitable, prudent, and on the whole satisfactory in the life that now is. His philosophy is a guide of life, because it searches out virtues and so provides the means of expelling vices. It may reasonably determine conduct. It did determine Franklin’s conduct to a remarkable degree, and has had a prodigious influence for good on his countrymen and 70 ELIOT: FRANKLIN on civilized mankind. Nevertheless, it omits all con- sideration of the prime motive power which must impel to right conduct, as fire supplies the power which actuates the engine. That motive power is pure, unselfish love,— love to God and love to man. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart . . . and thy neighbor as thyself.” Franklin never seems to have perceived that the su- preme tests of civilization are the tender and honorable treatment of women as equals, and the sanctity of home life. There was one primary virtue on his list which he did not always practice. His failure in this respect diminished his influence for good among his contempor- aries, and must always qualify the admiration with which mankind will regard him as a moral philosopher and an exhorter to a good life. His sagacity, intellectual force, versatility, originality, firmness, fortunate period of service, and longevity combined to make him a great leader of his people. In American public affairs the generation of wise leaders next to his own felt for him high admiration and respect; and the strong Republic whose birth and youthful growth he witnessed will carry down his fame as political philosopher, patriot, and apostle of liberty through long generations. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN ED BY DAVID MARTIN ABOUT 176( ARLE W JN PEALE IN THE POSSESSION OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICA FRANKLIN Ap /SPATESMAN AND DIPLOMATIST By JOSEPH HopGEs CHOATE, LL.D., D.C.L. [Address delivered in The American Academy of Music, Friday, April 20] O attempt to portray Fraklin as statesman and ih diplomatist in forty minutes is like trying to write on the palm of your hand the history of the eighteenth century, of which he was so important a part. From the time when he began organizing the civic life of Philadelphia, and making it the model city of the con- tinent, until sixty years afterwards, when upon his death bed and in immediate expectation of death, he signed the Memorial to Congress for the abolition of slavery, “that it would be pleased to countenance the restora- tion of liberty to those unhappy men who alone in this land of freedom are degraded into perpetual bondage, and who amidst the general joy of surrounding freedom are groaning in servile subjection,’ he was always the statesman, and generally quite in advance of his times. From 1757, when he visited London to test the question whether the State of Pennsylvania, with its two hundred thousand inhabitants, was the property of the descen- dants of William Penn, or belonged to its own citizens, (71) 72 CHOATE: FRANKLIN till 1785, when he arrived home from Paris, bringing his sheaves with him in the shape of one of the most im- portant and beneficent treaties ever signed between na- tions, he was always the diplomatist, the foremost of his time, or, as I think, of any time. It is not in the nature of things to divide Franklin into three distinct sections or compartments, as our program of to-day invites us to do, and find in each a distinct being labelled “ philan- IC thropist,” ‘“ philosopher” and “ statesman,” because he was everywhere and always the same Franklin, unique and indivisible, and the same qualities which made him great in the other relations of life, in which he has just been depicted, made him also the great statesman. It was that marvellous common sense in uncommon propor- tions, that powerful and active brain, capable almost from childhood of dealing with any subject, his tireless industry, self-denial, tact, thrift and good nature, and his unfailing interest in human affairs, his courage and wit and self-assertion that made this all-round man pre- eminently fit for any service, public or private. He had one vast advantage over all the other chief founders of our republic, in his superior age and expe- rience and public prestige. When Franklin had already snatched the lightning from the clouds, and taken his place among the most famous of the earth, Washington was still following the modest career of a surveyor in the Alleghany hills and valleys. John Adams was still AS STATESMAN AND DIPLOMATIST 7 a school boy. Jefferson was just out of the nursery, and Hamilton was not to be born for ten years, and this long period of precedence he had spent in a way best suited to create the future statesman and diplomatist. It has often been said that in the New England town meeting the secret of political science was solved, and the foundations of republican government were laid. If this was so in the abstract, what a concrete example of true training for public life was Franklin’s experience here for the quarter of a century after his return home from that first hapless journey to London in 1826. He had a natural instinct for public life, quite as strong and controlling as marks the young men of the governing class in England, who are born and bred to it from gen- eration to generation, and how different had been his training! For him, no university, no college, and only school enough for the simplest rudiments of learning. The tallow chandler’s shop and the printing office and his own genius for self culture did the rest. It was his keen interest in human affairs, his concern for the wel- fare of the community in which he lived, and his natural ambition for leadership, that with him supplied the place of school and college and university. When he walked up Market Street, with a roll under each arm and munching the third, Philadelphia, the modest Quaker village of seven thousand inhabitants, seemed as little likely to be a nursery of greatness, as 74. CHOATE: FRANKLIN the runaway apprentice from Boston gave promise of being by and by the most eminent citizen of America. You can actually trace the successive steps here in Philadelphia by which this green and awkward youth, after sowing his wild oats in London, advanced from obscurity to recognition, from recognition to influence, from influence to leadership, in this town which he had made his home. Diligence in his business was at the bottom of it all. ‘Seest thou a man diligent in his business, he shall stand before Kings,” and he was proud to say in his old age that he had stood before five kings and sat with one of them; and then, constant study, read- ing and writing and thinking on every branch of knowl- edge in every hour that he could snatch from labor made him what he came to be. The founding of the Junto for debate and self-im- provement, composed of a dozen quick-witted, young working men of his own age, and its ramification into as- sociated clubs; the purchase and editing of the Pennsyl- vania Gazette, and the establishment of Poor Richard’s Almanac, into both of which he threw the whole weight of his rich and charming personality, making the one the best newspaper in the colonies and the other a familiar and welcome guest in nearly every household in the land, and both his personal organs, when no one else had an organ, through the whole period of his growth to greatness; his original conception of the library which AS STATESMAN AND DIPLOMATIST Gis has been such a vast benefit to Philadelphia, and the mother and model of many similar libraries througout the land; the printing and publishing of many valuable works, of all of which we may be sure he mastered the contents, in that hour or two of every day stolen for study,—during which he also learned French, Italian and Spanish; his constant and increasing correspondence with men of light and learning everywhere; the found- ing of this The American Philosophical Society; his achievements in electricity; the founding of the school that grew to be the University of Pennsylvania; his hearty support of the project for the Pennsylvania Hos- pital; the paving and lighting of the city, and his efforts to place the Province in a condition to defend itself; his service as a member of the City Council and as alderman, as clerk and member of the Assembly and as Public Printer, and finally his service as postmaster of Philadelphia and Deputy Postmaster-General of all the colonies and his long controversy and struggle with the proprietors,—these were the steady and gradual marches by which, by the middle of the eighteenth cen- tury, he had grown to be not only the best known man in America, but the best qualified for every form of public service. In him were concentrated all the best forms of practical politics. He was never anything if not practical. And now thus splendidly qualified and equipped for 76 CHOATE: FRANKLIN great affairs, in the very prime of life, known and hon- ored by all men in all civilized lands, he was to enter upon forty years of continuous public service of the highest character and dignity. It is the ordinary fate of public men to leave no indel- ible marks of their service to impress their memory upon future generations. Most of them make a great impres- sion upon their own time by their speeches. But the published speeches of even great orators fill the shelves of public libraries, unread and unopened, when their contemporaries have passed away. I know of but two in the English language, one upon either side of the water—Burke and Webster—who continue to be gener- ally read and studied by later generations. And Frank- lin made no speeches. Like Washington, he is said never to have spoken more than fifteen minutes at a time on any subject. It was his peculiar felicity to have been concerned in great actions, which speak, even to posterity, so much louder than words, and which preserve to remote ages the memory of the chief actors in them. To have stood as the responsible representative of America for fifteen years in England and for ten years in France, in periods most critical for those countries and his own, and so to have lived history at its best and most interesting points of time; to have been the author of the first plan of Union of the American colonies, which was the germ AS STATESMAN AND DIPLOMATIST a7 of the final plan; to have signed and helped to frame the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance, the Treaty of Commerce, the Treaty of Peace, and the Constitution of the United States—these great acts are sufficient to place him in the front rank of our construc- tive statesmen and designate him as the greatest of our diplomatists from the beginning until now. It is the fate of the average ambassador or minister to foreign countries to become generally subject to the influence of his new surroundings, and to look sometimes through foreign spectacles at public and social questions, and unduly to admire the rulers and institutions of the nations which welcome them so warmly and honor them so highly. But it was the unique merit of Franklin to be so intensely American that no foreign influence could touch him. Jefferson argued that it spoilt an American diplomatist to keep him abroad seven years—and I think many instances could be cited in support of his argu- ment. But Jefferson took care to add that this did not apply to Franklin, who, he says, was America itself when in France, not subjecting himself to French influence, but subjecting France to American influence, and I am sure that this is true of him in his fifteen years in England. The American ambassador of to-day can hardly re- alize the responsibility, difficulty and danger that sur- rounded his predecessor of the eighteenth century. Tied 78 CHOATE: FRANKLIN fast to the electric cable, he receives his instructions daily and even hourly, and has but to repeat them by rote to the foreign office of the government, to which he is accredited, with no discretion to withhold or to modify. He is seldom consulted as to the formation of the policy of his government which he is to enforce and maintain abroad, and until the wise reform recently inaugurated by Secretary Root, he has seldom been kept constantly informed of what was passing at home between his own chief and the ambassador here of the nation. at whose Court he resides—even upon matters with which he him- self had to do—so potent is the cable as the medium and instrument of complete control the world over. But it was not so in Franklin’s time, and the difficulties and perils that beset his path at every step were without number. There was no Secretary of State until October, 1781, nearly three years after the Treaty of Alliance with France had been signed, when Robert R. Livings- ton, who had been elected to the office, was able to enter upon its duties. But under the Confederation even the Secretary of State was not his own master. So jealous was the Congress of any executive power that he was obliged, as a practice, to send out no papers of impor- tance without first submitting them to Congress and also to submit to Congress all despatches and communications from abroad with his drafts of replies. ‘ Singularly able and accomplished as Livingston was,” says Whar- AS STATESMAN AND DIPLOMATIST 79 ton, “ he never was intrusted with those initiative diplo- matic powers which in England and now under the Con- stitution of the United States, are confided to the depart- ment having charge of foreign affairs. Congress con- tinued to pass resolutions directing the policy foreign ministers were to pursue.” So that it was to the resolu- tions of a vacillating Congress, and when Congress was not in session, to letters from a constantly shifting Com- mitee of Congress that Franklin had to look for general or specific instructions. As letters then, under the best circumstances, averaged two months in their passage from Philadelphia to Paris; and after the war between France and England began he was sometimes six months, and at one time eleven months, without advice from his government, he had to act upon his own responsibility and at his own peril in matters of the greatest concern; and so the greater the responsibility, the greater the credit for all his diplomatic achievements. In another respect, Franklin had a substantial advan- tage as our representative in Paris. ‘The Congress of the Confederation seems to have laid down the proper rule as to what was necessary to maintain the dignity of their diplomatic representatives abroad. When he was first appointed one of the Commissioners to Paris the salary of the Commissioners was not fixed at a spe- cific sum, Congress resolving “that they shall live in such a style and manner as they might find suitable and 80 CHOATE: FRANKLIN necessary to support the dignity of their public char- acter, and that besides the actual expenses of the Com- missioners a handsome allowance should be made to each of them as a compensation for their trouble, risk and services.’ By singular good fortune, which seemed always to attend him, Franklin was able to obey this in- junction of Congress, and to secure for himself and his embassy an establishment in the suburbs of Paris which served in a most perfect way as a dignified and suitable residence, where he continued to live during the whole of his nine years in France in a manner becoming the representative of his country abroad. The quarter of Passy, where Franklin’s abode was sit- uated, was then one of the most attractive in the environs of the capital, and was happily the property of M. de Chaumont, a great friend of the American cause, whom Franklin in a letter to Washington describes as “ the first in France who gave us credit and, before the Court showed us any countenance, trusted us with two thousand barrels of gunpowder, and from time to time afterwards exerted himself to furnish the Congress with supplies of various kinds.””’ De Chaumont, who, as Wharton infers, upon some understanding with the French government, freely offered this handsome mansion on grounds on which he himself resided for Franklin’s occupation, was a gentleman of fortune and distinction. He had been one of the Council of Louis XV and then held an im- AS STATESMAN AND DIPLOMATIST SI portant office under his successor, and was thus in close touch with the ministry, while also constantly in intimate contact with Franklin; and, as the interest of the French government in our affairs increased, there is good reason to believe that he was an active medium through whom confidential relations were maintained before and after the official recognition of the American Commissioners between them and the ministry without exciting the curiosity of the outside world. Mr. Bigelow truly says that “ his timely and judicious hospitality has associated his name only less prominently than Franklin’s with the fortunes of the great American republic,” and that the people of the United States should hold him in grateful and honored remembrance. It is impossible to state the value of Franklin’s public services. [hey are simply inestimable. The scheme of union which the Congress of the seven northern colonies adopted in 1754 was Franklin’s scheme. It contained some of the germs which afterwards took root in the Constitution of the United States. It aimed at the formation of a self-sustaining Federal government with authority as obligatory in its sphere as the local governments were in their spheres. The home govern- ment rejected it as too democratic, and the colonies as granting too much to prerogative, a test of its real mod- eration, which was generally characteristic of all that he ever proposed. The colonies were not yet ripe for 7 82 CHOATE: FRANKLIN union—and Franklin in proposing it was twenty years in advance of his age. Three years afterwards, when the fierce disputes be- tween the colonial governor and the Province of Penn- sylvania over the claims of the proprietaries that their vast estates should be exempt from taxation and its whole burden thrown upon the rest of the people whose united wealth scarcely equalled theirs, seemed hopeless of solu- tion, Franklin, who had long borne a conspicuous part in the quarrel on the side of the colony, was sent to England to maintain the popular cause. It proved to be a more difficult undertaking than even he had antic- ipated, involved negotiations which extended over a period of five years, and ended in a compromise pro- posed by him, which was a substantial triumph for his people. This first protracted stay of Franklin in England was probably the happiest of his life. Times had changed since his first visit thirty years before when, as a journey- man printer, he had lived in Little Britain on three and six pence a week and thought himself lucky to get that. All doors were thrown open to him, and he was wel- comed by all classes as one of the master spirits of the age. He reveled in the meetings of the Royal Society and enjoyed the personal acquaintance of many of Eng- land’s greatest men, such as Priestley, Fothergill, Gar- rick, Lord Shelbourne, Lord Stanhope, Edmund Burke, AS STATESMAN AND DIPLOMATIST 83 Adam Smith and David Hume, Dr. Robertson, Lord Kames and David Hartley and the “ Good Bishop” of St. Asaph’s, Dr. Shipley. He witnessed the coronation of George Third. But Pitt, who had vastly weightier things on his mind than Franklin’s errand,—Pitt, who afterwards as Lord Chatham proved to be one of his most stalwart and devoted admirers and champions, he found wholly inaccessible. He found leisure to visit France, Scotland and Holland, and to make himself master of European politics—and did much pamphlet- eering in behalf of British interests—for at that time, like all his countrymen, he was a most loyal and devoted British subject and gloried in the prospects of the future greatness of the British Empire. When Pratt, after- wards Lord Camden, told him that in spite of their boasted loyalty, the Americans would one day set up for independence, he answered that no such idea was ever entertained by the Americans, nor will any such ever enter their heads unless you grossly abuse them. “ Very true,” replied Pratt, “that is one of the main causes I see will happen, and will produce the event.” As Par- ton truly says of him at this time, “ It was one of Frank- lin’s most cherished opinions that the greatness of Eng- land and the happiness of America depended chiefly upon their being cordially united. The country which Franklin loved was not England nor America, but the great and glorious Empire which these two united to 84. CHOATE: FRANKLIN form.” He was a true imperialist in the broadest sense of the term and dreamed of the future prowess of the English race united all around the globe; and nobody would have rejoiced more proudly than he, if he could have looked across the gulf of time to our day to see that race, divided into two great branches, but united more truly and securely than in his day, standing together with double power, with the common object of promot- ing liberty and order and peace, not only in their own dominions but the world over, which to him was always an object so dear. Why need I dwell on the details of Franklin’s subse- quent political career, which have been made so familiar to everybody in connection with the celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of his birth? When he went again to England in 1764, in the vain hope of preventing the passage of the Stamp Act, he little dreamed that he would be detained there ten years in the brave and constant struggle to maintain the rights of the colonists, to keep the peace between them and the mother country, and to preserve unbroken the union of the race on which he had set his heart; that in the course of this struggle he would incur by turns the hostility and condemnation of both branches of the Empire, and that it would end at last in the temporary defeat of all his hopes and aspirations. He arrived too late to prevent the enactment of that AS STATESMAN AND DIPLOMATIST 85 disastrous measure, but not too late to secure its imme- diate repeal. The two most remarkable events which mark this, his last visit to England, occurred, one at its beginning in 1765, and the other at its close in 1774, his examination before the House of Commons and his hear- ing before the Privy Council in the Cockpit where he stood as a mute witness, yes, a martyr, to the wrongs of his countrymen, and vials of wrath were poured upon his devoted head. Each of these notable occasions exhibits him to the best advantage as a statesman, and displays most sig- nally the courage, the manliness and the simplicity of his character. On his examination before the House of Commons, with absolute calmness and serenity, with a mastery of his subject more complete than any other man on either side of the water could have had, with a simplicity of speech and honesty of conviction all his own, he dem- onstrated to his reluctant audience the bitter injustice and inexpediency of the fatal enactment. I know of no other piece of testimony in the English language so remarkable, and some of his answers can never be for- gotten. So convincing and irresistible was his evidence that the repeal of the Stamp Act followed immediately. His testimony before the Committee was closed on the thirteenth day of February. On the twenty-first Gen- eral Conway moved for leave to introduce in the House 86 CHOATE: FRANKLIN of Commons a Bill to Repeal, which was carried. The Bill took its third reading in that House on the fifth of March. It passed the House of Lords on the seventeenth and on the eighteenth, five weeks after Franklin had been heard, the King signed the Bill. Franklin cele- brated the happy event in his own simple and charac- teristic way by sending his wife a new gown, and wrote her, ‘‘As the Stamp Act is at length repealed, I am will- ing you should have a new gown, which you may sup- pose I did not send sooner, as J knew you would not like to be finer than your neighbors unless in a gown of your own spinning.” In the ten years that followed he labored incessantly and ardently to maintain the cause of union; he exercised a powerful influence on the great men of the nation, which was afterwards reflected in the speeches and con- duct of such noble advocates of the American cause as Burke and Chatham and Fox and Conway, in whose favor history has happily reversed contemporary opin- ion, and brought all Englishmen to accept their veiws. But labor as he would and hope as he did, it became impossible at last to stem the tide of discord that was sweeping both nations into the irrepressible and inevi- table conflict, which was to separate them for the time being, only to bring them after the lapse of four genera- tions into newer and better harmony and union. As the prolonged contest waxed hotter and fiercer, AS STATESMAN AND DIPLOMATIST 87 while Parliament was passing its obnoxious measures, and Boston harbor was a cauldron of cold tea un- happily taxed, Franklin, as the recognized representa- tive of all the colonies, became the very storm center round which all the elements of discord and growing hatred gathered in full force, and was often the target for both sides to attack. In England the ministry re- garded him as too much of an American, and the most ardent patriots at home denounced him as too much of an Englishman, another signal proof of his character- istic justice and moderation. At last the tempest burst in all its fury upon his de- voted head, and I regard that cruel hour in the Cockpit in January, 1774, as the grandest and most heroic of his whole public life. Scenes of great triumph and glory were in store for him in the future, but that day of suf- fering and humiliation for the imputed faults of all his countrymen surpassed them all in grandeur. His abso- lute self-command and unruffled dignity as he stood there to receive, amid the jeers of the Privy Council, that pitiless storm of calumny and abuse,—an attack univer- sally condemned to-day, alike in England and America, —is conclusive evidence of his heroism, of his conscious innocence, and of the purity and nobility of his char- acter. Let me repeat here a word which I spoke of him in England, and which seemed to receive the approval of a generous people: “‘ Upon the canvas of history he 88 CHOATE: FRANKLIN stands out from that ignoble scene an heroic figure, bear- ing silent testimony to the cause of the colonists for whose sake he suffered—not a muscle moved, not a heart beat quickened—and casting into the shade of lasting oblivion all those who joined in the assault upon him.” He said next day to Dr. Priestley that “ he had never before been so sensible of the power of a good con- science; for that, if he had not considered the thing for which he had been so much insulted as one of the best actions of his life, and what he should do again in the same circumstances, he could not have supported it.” No doubt this cruel event, which at once became the talk of the town and country, did seriously impair his popularity and prestige during the rest of his stay in London, which continued for another year, and which he steadily devoted to the hopeless cause of conciliation. But it did not cost him a single one of his great and true friends, and Lord Chatham spoke and acted for them all shortly afterwards when, on the occasion of a great de- bate in the House of Lords on American affairs, he in- vited him to attend in the House, “ being sure that his presence in that day’s debate would be of more service to America than his own,” and later, in answer to a fling at Franklin by another noble lord, declared, “ that if he were first minister of this country, and had the care of settling this momentous business, he should not be ashamed of calling to his assistance a person so perfectly AS STATESMAN AND DIPLOMATIST 89 acquainted with American affairs as the gentleman al- luded to and so injuriously reflected on; one whom all Europe held in high estimation for his knowledge and wisdom, and ranked with our Boyles and Newtons; who was an honor, not to the English nation only, ‘but to human nature.” How fortunate Franklin was in the accidents of his life, as well as in his marvellous gifts and happy tem- perament! Scarcely had he landed on his return from England, which he was never again to revisit, when the proud and grateful people of Pennsylvania made him one of their delegates to the Second Congress, to meet next day in Philadelphia. It was just three weeks after Lexington, where the colonists had unsheathed the sword and thrown away the scabbard—and from that day Franklin was as steadfast a champion of independence as he had before been of conciliation. He had the good fortune to join in the election of Washington as com- mander-in-chief, between whom and himself from the time of Braddock’s defeat, twenty-one years before, and his own death, fifteen years afterwards, the closest friend- ship and mutual confidence prevailed; and then he had the great honor to be one of the Committee of Five elected by ballot to draft the Declaration of Indepen- dence. Let no man detract by a word from the glory of Jefferson in being the sole author of that immortal instrument. The amendments made by Franklin and 90 CHOATE: FRANKLIN Adams were only verbal, but there can be no doubt that their fame and weight of character added to its dignity and general acceptance. And who will deny the happy merit of Franklin’s share in the signing, when he antic- ipated Lincoln’s faculty of relieving the most solemn and critical moments by a timely jest, and when Hancock, taking up the pen to sign first, declared, ‘‘ We must be unanimous; there must be no pulling different ways; we must all hang together,” Franklin made the reply which will live in history as one of its happiest jests: “‘ Yes, we must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately,” which did in felicitous phrase express the sober truth at that critical hour. But it was one thing to declare our independence and quite another to make that declaration good, and unless we could obtain foreign aid and alliance, the cause of the revolted colonies was desperate indeed. Franklin was the one man in all the world who could accomplish this, if indeed it were possible at all, and I need not tell you how perfectly, against what fearful odds, under what mighty difficulties, he did accomplish it. Without Sara- toga we should not have had the Alliance. Without Yorktown we should have waited long for the Treaty of Peace, but without Franklin, and Franklin in Paris, those great treaties would have been far less effective and full of benefit to America and to mankind than they were. AS STATESMAN AND DIPLOMATIST gI Although past seventy and already beginning to feel the weight of years and infirmities when he accepted the invitation of Congress as an irresistible command to go to Paris on his glorious mission, his labors in the next nine years were prodigious, the difficulties which he en- countered and sacrifices to which he submitted, were almost incredible; and his amazing success still remains one of the wonders of history. France was already crippled in her finances, wholly unable to afford the liberal aid which, with generous sympathy, she lavished upon us, in response to his urgent and tactful appeals, and was already suffering under those heavy burdens and evil domestic conditions, which before the close of the century brought her to the verge of ruin, and sure to be forced into a wasting war if she really came effectively to our rescue. But the enthu- siastic order of her mercurial people for the cause of liberty enabled Franklin to overcome all obstacles, and to win her to our sorely needed support. His world-wide fame and familiar personality had paved the way for his reception. His arrival was the signal for a tremendous outburst of popular enthusiasm, that met with a hearty response throughout Europe, which included the fashionable world and the philoso- phers and scholars and statesmen as well as the populace. ‘““ His virtues, and his renown,” says Lacretelle, “‘ nego- tiated for him, and before the second year of his mission 92 CHOATE: FRANKLIN had expired, no one conceived it possible to refuse fleets and armies to the countrymen of Franklin.” The German, Schlosser, says: ‘““Franklin’s appearance in the Paris salons, even before he began to negotiate, was an event of great importance to the whole of Europe. Paris at that time set the fash- ion for the civilized world, and the admiration of Frank- lin, carried to a degree approaching folly, produced a remarkable effect on the fashionable circles of Paris. His dress, the simplicity of his personal appearance, the friendly meekness of the old man, and the apparent humility of the Quaker procured for freedom a mass of votaries among the Court circles.” But all this incense never turned his head, which was always clear and level for the important business which he had in hand and of which he never lost sight. In view of the constant obstacles which prevented and hin- dered his communication with Congress, he was in his own person the American government in Europe, and obliged to act not merely as an Ambassador, but as a War Department, a Treasury Department, a Navy De- partment, a Prize Court, a Bureau for the Relief and Exchange of Prisoners, a Consul, and a dealer in cargoes which came from America. He procured large and in- creasing loans from the almost exhausted treasury of France, and when, at last, peace became possible, he took an active and the leading part in the negotiation of the AS STATESMAN AND DIPLOMATIST 93 Peace Treaty, which recognized forever the indepen- dence of his country and secured for the time being the peace of the three great nations concerned and of the world at large. The Treaty of Alliance was all his own, but in the Treaty of Peace,he had the great advantage of the codperation of John Adams and John Jay, and America will never cease to be grateful for the combined labors and wisdom of these great patriots, who thus brought about the consummation of our liberties, and to France, without whose triumphant assistance that con- summation might have been postponed for half a cen- tury. It would take many volumes to describe the activity, the brilliancy and success of Franklin’s career in France. Here he displayed on the highest plane they have ever reached the best qualities of American statesmanship and diplomacy. His great brain, always at work on themes that concerned the welfare of his country and his fellow men; his capacious heart, which made him so human and so interesting to all mankind; his untiring industry and never-failing tact; his genial wit and the sunshine of his spirit; his absolute truthfulness which led him to say always what he meant and to mean what he said; his hope that never failed; his contempt of the mere forms and husks of diplomatic intercourse, going always straight to the point and sticking to it; his self-taught literary faculty and charming style; and his universal knowledge 94 CHOATE: FRANKLIN of the world of human affairs, have made him at once the model and the despair of all later diplomatists. And, finally, how transcendently fortunate were his last years! Returning at last, honored of all men, to his dear old home in Philadelphia, broken in health by the exhaustive labors of his eighth decade, but yet with strength and courage sufficient to serve his fellow citizens of Pennsylvania as their president and, already in his ninth decade, to take an active part in the Convention that formed the Constitution of the United States, sitting five hours a day there for four summer months, taking a potential part in their debates, too weak and ill to stand and deliver his speeches but writing them out care- fully for others to read for him, and contributing the ripe fruits of his wisdom and patriotism to the great result. When that great compact of compromises and conces- sions was finished, it suited no member of the Convention exactly, so much had each yielded of his own opinions to meet the views of the rest. But Franklin, the father of them all, led the way in insisting upon the unanimous and unconditional signature of all the delegates to the matchless instrument of government. ‘““T consent, sir,” he said, ‘‘ to this Constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure that it is not the best. The opinions I have had of its errors I sacrifice to the public good. I have never whispered a AS STATESMAN AND DIPLOMATIST 95 syllable of them abroad. Within these walls they were born and here they shall die.” So long as this sublime spirit of patriotism and mutual concession shall govern the counsels and conduct of our rulers and statesmen, that sun which he saw behind the chair of Washington in Independence Hall, as they stood before him signing our Magna Charta, and which Franklin declared then and there to be the rising sun, will continue in its ascendent course. But when this spirit decays the sun of America will begin to set. NETMNVYS NIWVENSG JO HIYIG AHL 40 KYVSHBAINNY 4i002 JHL 3LVHYOWSWWOO OL SdIVIS G3LINA SHL 40 SSAYDNOD SHI AG MOANLS TVGIW Lede ive. Aver al VIUSSES UE Ate Noes HONIHG a DINalos« CBR AA ee Ui 1 Ran Ra REO ag tape \@)s > 2 : Lae Es WBS PELE anes { Nie ge Sed dig od OPcfL IN £ PRESENTATION TO FRANCE. OF THE GOLD MEDAL AUTHORIZED BY THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, APRN 27, 1904 By THE HONORABLE ELIHU ROOT, Secretary of State [In The American Academy of Music, Friday, April 20] EXCELLENCY: On the 27th of April, 1904, the Con- gress of the United States provided by statute that the Secretary of State should cause to be struck a medal to commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin, and that one single impres- sion on gold should be presented, under the direction of the President of the United States, to the Republic of France. Under the direction of the President I now execute this law by delivering the medal to you as the represen- tative of the Republic of France. This medal is the work of fraternal collaboration by two artists whose citizenship Americans prize highly, Louis and Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The name indicates that they may have inherited some of the fine artistic sense which makes France preeminent in the exquisite art of the medalist. On one side of the medal you will find the wise, benign, and spirited face of Franklin. On the other 8 (97) 98 Root: PRESENTATION side literature, science, and philosophy attend, while history makes her record. The material of the medal is American gold, as was Franklin. For itself this would be but a small dividend upon the investments which the ardent Beaumarchais made for the mythical firm of Hortalez & Company. It would be but scanty interest on the never-ending loans yielded by the steady friendship of de Vergennes to the dis- tressed appeals of Franklin. It is not appreciable even as a gift when one recalls what La Fayette, Rocham- beau, de Grasse and their gallant comrades, were to us, and what they did for us; when one sees in historical perspective, the great share of France in securing Amer- ican independence, looming always larger from our own point of view, in comparison with what we did for ourselves. But take it for your country as a token that with all the changing manners of the passing years, with all the vast and welcome influx of new citizens from all the countries of the earth, Americans have not forgotten their fathers and their fathers’ friends. Know by it that we have in America a sentiment for France; and a sentiment, enduring among a people, is a great and substantial fact to be reckoned with. We feel a little closer to you of France because of what you were to Franklin. Before the resplendence OF GOLD MEDAL TO FRANCE 99 and charm of your country’s history—when all the world does homage to your literature, your art, your exact science, your philosophic thought—we smile with pleasure, for we feel, if we do not say: “Yes: these are old friends of ours; they were very fond of our Ben Franklin and he of them.” Made more appreciative, perhaps, by what France did for us when this old philosopher came to you, a stranger, bearing the burdens of our early poverty and distress, we feel that the enormous value of France to civilization should lead every lover of mankind, in whatever land, earnestly to desire the peace, the pros- perity, the permanence, and the unchecked develop- ment, of your national life. We, at least, can not feel otherwise; for what you were to Franklin, we would be—we are—to you: always true and loyal friends. RECEPTION OF THE FRANKLIN MEDAL By His EXcELLENCY, M. J. J. JUSSERAND, The French Ambassador On behalf of the French Republic, with feelings of deepest gratitude, I receive the gift offered to my coun- try, this masterful portrait of Franklin, which a law of Congress ordered to be made and which is signed with the name, twice famous, of Saint-Gaudens. 100 JUSSERAND: REPLY Everything in such a present powerfully appeals to a French mind. It represents a man ever venerated and admired in my country—the scientist, the philosopher, the inventor, the leader of men, the one who gave to France her first notion of what true Americans really were. “When you were in France,” the Marquis de Chastellux wrote later to Franklin, “ there was no need to praise the Americans. We had only to say: Look; here is their representative.” The gift is offered in this town of Philadelphia where there exists a hall the very name of which is especially dear to every American and every French heart—the Hall of Independence—and at a gathering of a society founded “ for promoting useful knowledge,” which has remained true to its principle, worthy of its founder, and which numbers many whose fame is equally great on both sides of the ocean. I receive it at the hands of one of the best servants of the State which this great country ever produced, no less admired at the head of her diplomacy now than he was lately at the head of her Army, one of those rare men who prove the right man, whatever be the place. You have listened to his words, and you will agree with me when I say that I shall have two golden gifts to forward to my Government: the medal and Secretary Root’s speech. ON RECEIVING FRANKLIN MEDAL IOI The work of art offered by America to France will be sent to Paris to be harbored in that unique museum, our Museum of Medals, where French history is, so to say, written in gold and bronze, from the fifteenth century up to now, without any ruler, any great event, being omitted. Some of the American past is also written there: that period so glorious when the histories of France and America were the same history, when first rose a nation that has never since ceased to rise. There, awaiting your gift, are preserved medals struck in France at the very time of the events, in honor of Washington, to commemorate the relief of Boston in 1776; a medal to John Paul Jones in honor of his naval campaign of 1779; another medal representing Wash- ington, and one representing General Howard, to com- memorate the battle of Cowpens in 17813; one to cele- brate the peace of 1783 and the freedom of the thirteen States; one of La Fayette; one of Suffren, who fought so valiantly on distant seas for the same cause as Wash- ington; one, lastly, of Franklin himself, dated 1784, bearing the famous inscription composed in honor of the great man by Turgot: “ Eripuit celo fulmen, sceptrum- que tyrannis.” My earnest hope is that one of the next medals to be struck and added to the series will be one to commemo- rate the resurrection of that great town which now, at 102 JUSSERAND: REPLY this present hour, agonizes by the shores of the Pacific. The disaster of San Francisco has awakened a feeling of deepest grief in every French heart, and a feeling of admiration, too, for the manliness displayed by the pop- ulation during this awful trial. So that what will be commemorated will not be only the American nation’s sorrow, but her unfailing heroism and energy. Now your magnificent gift will be added to the col- lection in Paris; it will be there in its proper place. The thousands who visit that Museum will be reminded by it that the ties happily formed long ago are neither broken nor distended, and they will contemplate with a veneration equal to that of their ancestors the features of one whom Mirabeau justly called one of the heroes of mankind. PRAN KEEN S RESEARCHES IN ELECTRICITY By PROFESSOR EDWARD L. NICHOLS [Address delivered in Witherspoon Hall, Wednesday, April 18.] O estimate justly the achievements of Benjamin 4% Franklin in electricity it is necessary to consider briefly the state of that science at the time when he began his experiments. It was known at a very early day that certain substances such as amber when rubbed acquire the power of attracting light bodies, but no con- siderable advance beyond the observations recorded by Thales 600 B. C. and Theophrastus 300 B. C. appears to have been made up to the time when Gilbert began his work upon this subject about 1600. Gilbert greatly extended the list of bodies electrified by friction. He found various precious stones and many other substances such as sulphur, resin, and glass to possess this property. Towards the end of the seventeenth century Boyle added something to Gilbert’s observations. He discov- ered that the attraction between electrical bodies oc- curred in vacuo as well as through air at ordinary pres- sures, and that an electrified body was attracted by as well as being capable of attracting other bodies. He also studied what we now call the tribo-luminescence of ( 103 ) 104 NICHOLS: FRANKLIN’S diamonds, a phenomenon which he supposed to be con- nected in some way with electrification. Wall,’ about 1670, observed the sparks from amber when rubbed with wool and, what is remarkable, compared the noise and light produced to that of thunder and lightning. Newton? also paid some attention to electrical phenom- ena, and he was perhaps the first to observe electrostatic attraction through a solid dielectric. In his ‘“ Optics” he put forth the hypothesis of an elastic fluid emitted by electrified bodies and capable of penetrating solids such as glass. The most notable electrical discoveries of the seven- teenth century were, however, due to Otto von Guericke, the inventor of the air pump, whose experiments ex- tended from 1670 to 1700. He made an electrical ma- chine consisting of a globe of sulphur mounted on an axle and rubbed with the hand. He discovered the repulsion between charged bodies and found that bodies could be electrified without contact by bringing them into the field of a body previously charged. He de- scribed the sound of the electric discharge and compared the spark to the light emitted by sugar when pounded in the dark. The close of the seventeenth century is likewise notable as the period during which the members * Wall: Phil. Trans. 1670. *Newton: Phil. Trans. 1675. 3 Priestley: History of Electricity, Vol. I, Page 11. RESEARCHES IN ELECTRICITY 105 of the Italian Academy “del Cimento” began their studies of electricity. Among other things they observed the discharging power of flames afterwards rediscovered by Franklin. The earliest investigations of the eighteenth century were those of Hauksbee who studied the electric glow in vacuo over mercury, a phenomenon first observed by Picard in 1670, and noted the great difference between the discharge in vacuo and that occurring at ordinary pressures. Hauksbee made a machine having a revolving globe of glass rubbed with the hand. After Hauksbee there was a lull in electrical interest which lasted for a quarter of a century. Then came the period of intense activity which culminated in Frank- lin’s work. The revival appears to have had its origin in England about 1728, at which time Stephen Grey of London began a remarkable series of experiments in association with a friend, the Rev. Mr. Wheeler. ‘They found that such substances as hair, silk, linen, wool, paper and leather could be electrified by friction and discovered in 1729 the conduction of the charge from an electrified body to neighboring bodies. In attempt- ing to transmit the electrification along a linen thread they found it necessary to insulate the line by means of silk cords, and were thus led to a recognition of the distinction between conductors and non-conductors. They succeeded ultimately in transmitting the electric charge 106 NICHOLS: FRANKLIN’S over a line of pack thread to a distance of 765 feet, and having thus learned how to conduct the effect to a dis- tance they experimented upon the electrification of all sorts of bodies, such as a load-stone, a red-hot poker, a chicken, a soap bubble, a boy, suspended from the end of their line. They also compared in a rough way the electrification of a solid with that of a hollow body of same material and found them as nearly as they could judge to be alike. In 1734 Grey and Wheeler, working in a dark room, observed the brush discharge from a suspended metal rod which had been electrified, and made some observations upon the electric discharge. Speaking of electricity that year, Grey says: “‘ It seems to be of the same nature as thunder and lightning.” In 1733 Charles Francis DuFay, a retired army officer, and member of the Paris Academy, took up the study of electricity. He repeated many of the experiments of Grey and others, discovered the use of glass as an insulator for his lines and found that the thread con- ducted better when wet. DuFay announced the dis- covery of two kinds of electricity, vitreous and resinous, and the law of the repulsion of like and the attraction of unlike charges. He was assisted in his experiments by the Abbé Nollet, who became subsequently one of the most prolific writers of the time upon the subject of electricity. RESEARCHES IN ELECTRICITY 107 About 1740 electricity began to receive serious atten- tion in Germany, where the frictional machine of Hauks- bee was revived by Professors Hausen and Winkler of Leipzig. Winkler is said to have first substituted a rubbing pad or cushion for the hand. Gordon of Erfurt ‘ntroduced the use of a cylinder instead of the glass globe. Boze of Wittenberg further perfected the elec- trical machine by the addition of a conductor of metal insulated by silk threads. These improvements in electrical apparatus made it possible to generate charges of much greater quantity than before and to perform many new and surprising experiments, such as the ignition of volatile substances and the killing of small animals by means of the spark, the bleaching of colors, the ringing of bells and the pro- duction of various mechanical motions. Brilliant dis- charges in vacuum tubes were produced by Grummert, who even proposed to make use of this form of light in mines. These demonstrations soon began to attract not only scientific men but the general public. Prizes were offered by the various learned societies and public exhi- bitions were given. In 1745 the so-called Leyden jar was discovered by von Kleist,! dean of the cathedral in Camin and a few months later, independently, by Cuneus of Leyden. The 1 Hoppe: Geschichte der Elektricitat, p. 18. 108 NICHOLS: FRANKLIN’S extraordinary effects obtained with this simple device were of a character to further appeal to the imagination and to intensify public interest in electricity. Experi- mentation became the popular fad of the time; the elec- trical machine and its accessories were regarded as a necessary part of the equipment of people of fashion. Electricity became for the time being the amusement of the leisure class as well as the subject of study for savants. ‘The feature which especially excited interest was doubtless the violence of the shock felt by a person through whose body the discharge of a Leyden jar took place and the fact that the effect could be imparted to a number of individuals simultaneously. The Abbé Nollet demonstrated this fact by two famous experi- ments. In the first instance he imparted the shock of a Leyden jar to 180 of the King’s guards for the edifi- cation of Louis XV and subsequently to the monks of the Carthusian monastery in Paris; for which purpose all the members of that great establishment formed a line nine hundred toises, or about an English mile, in length. The effect upon the public mind of the discovery of the Leyden jar may be compared with that produced in our own time by the announcement of the X-rays, of liquid air, or of radium; but the interest excited was much more general and more intense and, owing to the simple nature of the apparatus necessary for repeating RESEARCHES IN ELECTRICITY 109 the experiments, a relatively larger number of would-be investigators took the subject up. Discoveries were an- nounced from day to day, and all sorts of theories, many of them more or less obscure, were promulgated. The excitement over electricity appears to have reached the American colonies in the spring of 1747. Benjamin Franklin, in the first of the famous series of letters in which his experiments on electricity are de- scribed, writes to Peter Collinson, Esq., of London as follows: ‘“ PHILADELPHIA, March 28, 1747. “ Sir:—Your kind present of an electric tube with directions for using it has put several of us on making electrical experiments in which we have observed some particular phenomena that we look upon to be new. I shall therefore communicate them to you in my next, though possibly they may not be new to you, as among the numbers daily employed in those experiments on your side of the water, ’tis probable some one or other has hit on the same observations. For my own part I never was before engaged in any study that so totally engrossed my attention and my time as this has lately done; for what with making experiments when I can be alone, and repeating them to my friends and acquaint- ances, who, from the novelty of the thing, come con- tinually in crowds to see them, I have, during some months past, had little leisure for anything else. I am, etc. ‘“ B. FRANKLIN.” I1O NICHOLS: FRANKLIN’S Such was the introduction of our illustrious country- man to the science of electricity. Franklin was at this time forty years of age, a prosperous citizen of Phila- delphia, self-educated and self-made. Like many of his contemporaries similarly situated in Europe, he took up the subject as an amusement or hobby. Unlike them, however, he labored under the disadvantage of residence in a remote colonial community. He was of necessity imperfectly acquainted with previous work in electricity and was compelled to rediscover for himself many of the things which had already been observed in Europe. That under these circumstances Franklin should have become the foremost electrician of his time, and that the series of letters in which he communicated his observa- tions and theories should have been received with accla- mation on the other side of the water and should have been translated into all the principal languages of Eu- rope is the more remarkable. The extraordinary suc- cess of his book with the greater public in Europe is doubtless due in great part to its admirable literary qual- ities. The epigrammatic terseness, the clearness and sim- plicity of style, the naive frankness and inimitable humor which have earned for Franklin an imperishable place in literature characterize these pages and give them life. Even now, after a century and a half, although he can tell us little about electricity that is not familiar, we read his pages with pleasure and derive from them RESEARCHES IN ELECTRICITY III the satisfaction which comes only from the contempla- tion of a masterpiece. Although Franklin was without scientific training in the modern sense, it was his life-long habit to observe the phenomena of nature and to reason about them. His native ability was so unusual as to compensate for his lack of an academic education and to fit him in rare degree for scientific pursuits. Franklin’s earliest achievement in electricity was his discovery of the power of a pointed conductor to dis- charge an electrified body when brought near the same, and to prevent the accumulation of charge upon a con- ductor to which it was attached. Of this property he later made application in the lightning rod. During the summer of 1847 he performed a series of experi- ments with the Leyden jar which were described with admirable brevity and lucidity in his third letter to Peter Collinson, dated September first of that year. Nothing could serve better to demonstrate the qualities of Franklin as a man of science than this little inves- tigation which occupied but a few weeks. The eleven experiments, to each of which a single brief paragraph is given, cover the essential phenomena of the condenser. As statements of fact they will stand almost without revision or amendment at the present day. Upon this device “ M. Muschenbroek’s wonderful bottle,’ as Franklin called it in his third letter,—of the 112 NICHOLS: FRANKLIN’S earlier experiments of von Kleist, Gralath and Winkler, he appears to have had no knowledge—the scientific attention of all Europe had been focused for more than a year, but it remained for Franklin to demonstrate ex- plicitly that the inside and outside of a jar are oppositely charged and that the charges reside in the dielectric and not in the coatings. He also showed that a jar cannot be discharged by contact with either coating separately, but only by providing a conducting circuit between them; that a jar cannot be charged without grounding one coating or in some way removing from one coating a charge equal but opposite in sign to that introduced into the other, and that a jar may be charged by the outer coating provided the inner meantime be grounded. He devised the cascade arrangement by which a num- ber of jars can be charged or discharged in series and made condensers of glass plates with coatings of lead— such as are still known as Franklin plates. In this, as he himself soon learned, he had, however, been antici- pated by both Smeaton and Bevis in England. He also magnetized and demagnetized steel needles and even re- versed their polarity by means of the discharge current from his condensers. Having established to his satisfaction the principles of action of Leyden jars, Franklin, in whom the inven- tive spirit was native and irrepressible, constructed two forms of electric motor driven by means of the energy RESEARCHES IN ELECTRICITY ye thus stored. Simple mechanical devices operated by the Hauksbee machine, such as the electric chimes and the tourniquet, there were already, but Franklin’s motors were no mere modifications of these. The first, called the electric yack, was driven by the attractive and repel- lant forces of two oppositely charged Leyden jars. These were placed diametrically opposite and just out- side the periphery of a wheel having some thirty spokes of glass at the ends of which brass thimbles were mounted. The wheel revolved upon a vertical axis and the thimbles were successively attracted, charged and repelled as they passed each jar. The power developed was considerable, being sufficient to maintain a speed of twelve or fifteen turns a minute even when loaded with one hundred Spanish dollars. Franklin deemed it ca- pable of carrying a large fowl “with a motion fit for roasting’ if set up before a fire.’ The other motor, Franklin’s se/f-moving wheel, was a condenser consisting of a circular glass plate coated on both faces and mounted to revolve upon a vertical shaft. Equidistant around the rim of this disk were leaden bul- lets connected alternately with the coatings. Surround- ing the revolving plate were glass columns supporting insulated brass thimbles and these attracted, were charged by and then repelled each passing bullet as the wheel * Franklin: Electricity. Fourth edition—1769, p. 31. 9 114 NICHOLS: FRANKLIN’S revolved. This motor would make fifty revolutions a minute and run half an hour from a single charge. In these devices we have a close approach to some later forms of electrostatic apparatus, such as the influ- ence machines of Toepler and Holtz. With the exception of the lightning rod, which came later, these two machines represent Franklin’s nearest approach to practical electrical invention. In the con- struction of apparatus to illsutrate the principles of the science, to excite surprise or merely to amaze or amuse, he was exceedingly ingenious and fertile. Such toys failed, however, to satisfy the utilitarian spirit which was always strong in him, and he expressed in an oft- quoted passage his chagrin at being able “to produce nothing in this way of use to mankind.t| What would he say to the gigantic industrial growths from the seed that he helped to sow? No scientific achievement of Franklin’s made so pro- found an impression upon the public of his day as his demonstration that lightning is an electrical phenom- enon and even now nothing is more generally associated with his memory. He was not the first, as we have seen, to compare the noise and spark of the artificial electric discharge with thunder and lightning; but neither Wall nor Grey nor yet Nollet appear to have * Franklin: Electricity, p. 37. RESEARCHES IN ELECTRICITY rE5 considered the possibility of an experimental verification of their suggestion. Franklin, however, was prompt to propose a method of testing the matter and his plan of erecting an iron rod in the open air was successful at Marly in France, and the result confirmed at Paris and in England long before his own famous experiment with the kite had been attempted. Subsequently he made many determi- nations of the sign of the discharge from the clouds which he found to be commonly but not universally negative. The subject of atmospheric electricity appealed to him strongly and from two very different points of view. Being a man of science and given to speculation he developed a theory of the electrification of clouds and of the phenomena of thunder storms; being a practical man he invented the lightning rod. This device was intended to afford a double protection, dissipating the atmospheric charge by the action of points and conduct- ing the current of discharge harmlessly to earth. What- ever we may now think of the adequacy of the means employed, the usefulness of the lightning rod in one respect is undisputed. It gave a sense of security and peace of mind to those who availed themselves of it, and thus robbed the thunder storm of its terrors to the timid if not of its actual dangers. Who does this, if nothing 116 NICHOLS: FRANKLIN’S more, for three or four generations of weak-minded mortals is surely to be regarded as a benefactor! Franklin’s theory of thunder storms, or as he termed it ‘ in his fifth letter, written in 1749, his “‘ new hypothesis for explaining the several phenomena of thunder gusts ” was ingenious and altogether original. He regarded the sea as the source of atmospheric electricity. ‘‘ When,” he says, “there is a friction among the parts near its surface the electrical fire is collected from the parts be- low; it is then clearly visible in the night; it appears at the stern and in the wake of every sailing vessel; every dash of an oar shows it and every surf and spray. In storms the whole sea seems on fire. The detached par- ticles of water then repelled from the electrified surface continually carry off the fire as it is collected; they rise and form clouds and those clouds are highly electrified and retain the fire until they have an opportunity of com- municating it.” Subsequently Franklin convinced himself by experi- ments upon sea water that he was mistaken in supposing the phosphorescence to be of electrical origin. He then considered whether particles of air might not by their friction against objects upon the surface of the earth be- come electrified and impart their charge to the clouds and he attempted to test this assumption by blowing a stream of air by means of bellows against an insulated conductor, but the experiment did not succeed. Ai later RESEARCHES IN ELECTRICITY 107 theory,—or as he modestly termed it, a conjecture—pro- posed in his twelfth letter was based upon the fact, which he had in the meantime established, that the charge of clouds was usually negative. When a body, according to Franklin, contains a certain amount of the electric fluid it is neutral or unelectrified. An excess produces the phenomena of positive electrification and deficiency that of negative electrification. Water in its ordinary condition is neutral but if it be converted into vapor without loss of the electric fluid it is capable of con- taining a greater quantity on account of the increase of volume. Clouds formed by the evaporation of unelec- trified water will therefore show a negative charge. Such a cloud coming within striking distance of the earth will receive additional electricity in the form of a flash and will impart the fluid received to other clouds in the neighborhood until equilibrium is established. To account for the occasional positive charge of thunder clouds Franklin imagined that a cloud having had its deficiency of electricity supplied from the earth might be compressed from the action of the wind, “so that part of what it had absorbed was forced out and formed an electric atmosphere around it in its denser state.” That speculations upon so difficult a subject as the origin of atmospheric electricity should afford no final theory, even at the hands of a Franklin, was inevitable. The necessary experimental basis for such a result did 118 NICHOLS: FRANKLIN’S not yet exist. After a century and a half of further study our electricians are still seeking a solution of the problem. Whether the phenomena are to find their ulti- mate explanation, as we now imagine, in the ionization of the air remains for the future to determine. Of speculation as to the nature of electricity before Franklin’s time and among his contemporaries, there had already been an abundance but it was for the most part vague, with a tendency to the occult. This was partic- | ularly true of the German experimenters of the period of whom Hoppe’ in his “ History of Electricity” says that they did not understand the significance of their own experiments and so mixed their facts with fantasy as to render them unintelligible to others. He compares the bombastic and vaguely phrased work of such writers with the productions of Franklin, of which he says: “ I have read no work of the former century so easy and clear of understanding as those letters which Franklin sent to London and through which in the course of a few months he became world renowned.” There is nothing obscure about Franklin’s presentation: even in his theorizing, there is no misunderstanding him. He thought essentially as we do to-day although compelled to express himself in part at least in the language of his period. How many writers on science in our day can hope to be as easily understood in the year 2060? * Hoppe: Die Elektrizitat, p. 26. RESEARCHES IN ELECTRICITY 119 In any consideration of his theory of electricity it must be remembered that the doctrine of energy did not yet exist, that fire was regarded as a subtile fluid penetrat- ing the pores of bodies, and that Franklin in speaking of “ the electric fire’ had in mind an analogous medium. The mathematical concept of potential was yet to be developed. Although Ellicott in 1746 and also Gralath had attempted to determine electrostatic attractions by means of the balance, and Nollet had used an electro- scope with repelled threads of which he measured the divergence, the science of electrical measurement was to await the advent of Cavendish and Coulomb. Franklin contributed nothing of a quantitative char- acter to the science of electricity, but he was an accurate observer of phenomena. His fondness for speculation was unbounded and he indulged it freely upon every subject. Speculation is an essential feature of theory building, particularly in the beginnings of a science. In Frank- lin’s case it was controlled by practical common sense, sound logic and a rare definiteness of conception. After any speculative flight the strongly utilitarian side of his nature was sure to assert itself as in this characteristic passage, which follows an attempt to explain the action of points. ‘ Nor is it of much importance to us to know the manner in which nature executes her laws; ’tis enough if we know the laws themselves. ‘Tis of real 120 NICHOLS: FRANKLIN’S use to know that china left in the air unsupported will fall and break, but how it comes to fall, and why it breaks are matters of speculation. Tis a pleasure in- deed to know them, but we can preserve our china with- out 1€.”"* Franklin thought of electricity as a fluid penetrating all forms of matter. It consisted, according to his view, of mutually repellant particles each of which was indi- vidually attracted by the particles of matter. Under these attractions the electric fluid would pour into a sub- stance, permeating it until equilibrium between the at- tractions and repulsions occurred. Further additions of the fluid would distribute themselves upon the surface, forming what Franklin termed an electrical atmosphere and the body would be positively charged. This theory, which I shall not attempt to outline further, fulfills the requirements of a scientific hypothesis in that it afforded a definite mechanical concept by means of which all the facts known at that time could be brought into relation with one another and harmon- ized. When it became known to Franklin’s contempor- aries on the other side of the water it provoked a lively discussion. Although totally at variance with the views prevailing in Europe, his new one fluid theory appealed to many. His adherents were known as the Franklinists, and the controversy between them and their opponents * Franklin: Electricity, p. 62. RESEARCHES IN ELECTRICITY 21 was violent and prolonged. It lasted, indeed, until the interest in electricity itself began to wane towards the end of the century. That Benjamin Franklin should be the author of the one theory of electricity which of all the views on this subject comes nearest to our twentieth century concept may seem strange; for with him electricity after all was merely an episode, a form of intellectual diversion into which he was drawn by accident in middle life and which he abandoned after a few years for other, and, as it seemed to him, more practical things. We need not, however, be astonished that he left his imperishable im- press upon the science of his time. A man who in the middle of the eighteenth century rejected the doctrine of action at a distance and insisted upon the necessity of a universal medium pervading all space, and who, at the very zenith of Newton’s fame, repudiated the cor- puscular theory and thought of light as transmitted by a vibratory motion, must be recognized as possessing a native endowment unequaled by any of the intellects of his day. Had the many-sided Franklin been one-sided, and that side turned to science, what might he not have accomplished? But then he would not have been our Benjamin Franklin! he etd at a AD es Oe he wits ‘A bah iy i } yas ay! Y re Oras * via pi Ay”. Ps) irae aia : ¢ Naty a a t 1 i 1 i Peo ; i j a) . af, 14 | Cray yi ' i | iP hie f nn Rh aa a ty fey Aa 5 vi Vs al | i ; Cerra : ind sue U Pi aH at , i) 7 uf < yy ii ry din’ ae i \ ' | i j Ta 5 ) i vi ° ; f 1 Me 4 1 { ny wy aay ne i Arya tates | ASU my re ae nh | ) ‘i oi ; Wel } hp THE MODERN THEORIES OF ELECTRICITY AND THEIR RELATION, TO THE FRANKLINIAN THEORY By PROFESSOR ERNEST RUTHERFORD, F.R.S. [Address delivered in Witherspoon Hall, Wednesday, April 18.] & AM very much honored by the invitation of the American Philosophical Society to take part as a foreign representative in the celebrations in honor of the memory of its distinguished founder, Benjamain Franklin. I feel, however, that it is only in the strictly formal sense that I can be regarded as a foreign repre- sentative. When I recall that Franklin, during the period of his greatest scientific activity, was a citizen of that nation to which I have the honor to belong, it seems to me quite natural that the English people should vie with that of America in generous rivalry in doing honor to the contributions made by Franklin to scientific knowledge. May we not justly regard the scientific achievements of Benjamin Franklin as the joint heritage and pride of the English speaking peoples? In reviewing the life of Franklin, one cannot fail to be impressed by the many-sidedness of the activities dis- played by him during his long career. But there is no (123 ) 124 RUTHERFORD: MODERN province in which we can form a better estimate of his intellectual eminence, clearness of vision, and philosophic insight than in his original contributions to the then infant science of electricity. My colleague, Professor EK. L. Nichols, has given you an interesting review of his scientific work as a whole, and it now devolves on me to point out the significance of his contributions to knowledge in the special domain of electrical theory. This may seem at first sight a relatively simple task, but after emerging from the ordeal of preparing this lecture, I can personally say with some confidence that this is far from being the case. The theory of electricity developed by Franklin, gen- erally known as the “one fluid” theory, must be re- garded as the greatest of his additions to electrical knowledge, for it has exerted a profound influence on the development of electrical ideas, and, even after the lapse of a century and a half of ceaseless activity in elec- trical research, still holds its place, though in a modified form, as the generally accepted explanation of the con- nection between positive and negative electricity. In the course of this lecture I shall first endeavor to outline the fundamental conceptions of Franklin’s theory, and then trace the gradual growth of our ideas on the nature of electricity and the connection of Franklin’s theory with the views of electricity that are held to-day. THEORIES OF ELECTRICITY 125 When Franklin began his electrical experiments in 1746 the knowledge of electricity was of an extremely fragmentary and elementary character. It was known that a number of bodies, when rubbed, became elec- trified and the repulsions and attractions of electrified bodies had been observed. Dufay had shown that two different kinds of electricity were developed by rubbing glass and resin, which he termed “ vitreous” and “ res- inous ” electricity, respectively, or what we should now term positive and negative. His work, however, was very little known at the time, and it is very doubtful whether Franklin in his earlier experiments was ac- quainted with it. The fame of the shock produced by the accumulator of electricity, or Leyden jar, discovered by Cunaeus of Leyden in 1746, had immediately spread throughout the civilized world, and there was an intense and wide- spread interest in the properties of this “‘ electrical fire,” as it was then called. At this period it was not difficult for anyone to become rapidly acquainted with the work already done in electrostatics, and the amateurs of sci- ence were on an equal footing with their more profes- sional brethren in the pursuit of further knowledge. It was at this period that Franklin became interested in electrical experiments, mainly through the instrumen- tality of Peter Collinson of Edinburgh, who had pre- sented an electrical machine to the Library Company 126 RUTHERFORD: MODERN of Philadelphia. Animated at first probably by curios- ity to see for himself the effects produced by this mys- terious new agent, Franklin rapidly contracted the fever of the scientific discoverer. In his first communication, addressed in the form of a letter to Collinson, he starts by giving an admirable and clear statement of the ac- tion of points in “ drawing off” and “ throwing off” the electrical fire. He then proceeds to formulate his views of electrical action in the following words: ‘““We had for some time been of opinion that the elec- trical fire was not created by friction, but collected, being really an element diffused among and attracted by other matter, particularly by water and metals.”. Later follows a description of the experiments which had led him to these conclusions: ‘CA person standing on wax and rubbing the tube, and another person on wax drawing the fire, they will both of them (provided they do not stand so as to touch one another) appear to be electrized to a person standing on the floor; that is, he will perceive a spark on ap- proaching each of them with his knuckle. ‘But if the persons on wax touch one another during the exciting of the tube, neither of them will appear to be electrized. “Tf they touch one another after exciting the tube, and drawing the fire as aforesaid, there will be a stronger THEORIES OF ELECTRICITY 127 spark between them than was between either of them and the person on the floor. “After such strong spark, neither of them discover any electricity. “ These appearances we attempt to account for thus: We suppose, as aforesaid, that electrical fire is a common element, of which every one of the three persons above mentioned has his equal share, before any operation is begun with the tube. 4, who stands on wax and rubs the tube, collects the electrical fire from himself into the glass, and his communication with the common stock being cut off by the wax, his body is not again imme- diately supplied. B (who stands on wax likewise), passing his knuckle along near the tube, receives the fire which was collected by the glass from 4, and his com- munication with the common stock being likewise cut off, he retains the additional quantity received. To C, standing on the floor, both appear to be electrized, for he, having only the middle quantity of electrical fire, receives a spark upon approaching B, who has an over quantity; but gives one to 4, who has an under quantity. If 4 and B approach to touch one another, the spark is stronger because the difference between them is greater. After such touch there is no spark between either of them and GC, because the electrical fire in all of them is reduced to the original equality. If they touch while electrizing the equality is never destroyed, the fire only 128 RUTHERFORD: MODERN circulating. Hence have arisen some new terms among us; we say B (and bodies like circumstanced) is elec- tricized positively; 4 negatively. Or rather B is elec- trized plus; 4 minus. And we daily in our experiments electrize bodies plus or minus, as we think proper. To electrize plus or minus, no more needs to be known than this, that the parts of the tube or sphere that are rubbed do, in the instant of the friction, attract the electrical fire, and therefore take it from the thing rubbing; the same parts immediately, as the friction upon them ceases, are disposed to give the fire they have received to any body that has less. ‘Thus you may circulate it as Mr. Watson has shown; you may also accumulate or subtract it upon or from any body, as you connect that body with the rubber, or with the receiver, the communication with the common stock being cut off.” In this letter we have the first use of the terms positive and negative electricity, which now sound so familiar to our ears. In his next letter, he still further elaborates his views and gives an explanation of the action of the Leyden jar or bottle as an accumulator of electricity. In this we have a remarkably clear statement of his views of the connection between positive and negative electricity. “At the same time that the wire and the top of the bottle is electrized positively or plus, the bottom of the bottle is electrized negatively or minus, in exact propor- THEORIES OF ELECTRICITY 129 tion; that is, whatever quantity of electrical fire is thrown in at the top an equal quantity goes out at the bottom.* To understand this, suppose the common quantity of electricity in each part of the bottle, before the operation begins, is equal to twenty; and at every stroke of the tube, suppose a quantity equal to one is thrown in; then after the first stroke, the quantity contained in the wire and upper part of the bottle will be twenty-one, in the bottom nineteen; after the second, the upper part will have twenty-two, the lower eighteen, and so on, till, after twenty strokes, the upper part will have a quantity of electrical fire equal to forty, the lower part none; and then the operation ends; for no more can be thrown into the upper part, when no more can be driven out of the lower part. If you attempt to throw more in, it 1s spewed back through the wire or flies out in loud cracks through the sides of the bottle. “The equilibrium cannot be restored in the bottle by inward communication or contact of the parts, but it must be done by a communication formed without the bottle, between the top and the bottom by some non- electric,’ touching or approaching both at the same time; in which case it is restored with a violence and quick- “What is said here, and after, of the top and bottom of the bottle is true of the inside and outside surfaces and should have been so expressed.” 2 The term “non-electric” is applied to a metal or other conductor of elec- tricity. An “electric” is an insulator of electricity. fe) 130 RUTHERFORD: MODERN ness inexpressible; or touching each alternately, in which case the equilibrium is restored by degrees. ‘““As no more electrical fire can be thrown into the top of the bottle when all is driven out of the bottom, so in a bot- tle not yet electrized, none can be thrown into the top, when none can get out at the bottom, which happens either when the bottom is too thick, or when the bottle is placed on anelectric per se. Again, when the bottle is electrized, but little of the electrical fire can be drawn out from the top by touching the wire, unless an equal quantity can at the same time get in at the bottom. ‘Thus, place an electrized bottle on clean glass or dry wax, and you will not, by touching the wire, get out the fire from the top. Place it on a non-electric and touch the wire, you will get it in a short time; but soonest when you form a direct communication as above. “So wonderfully are these two states of electricity, the plus and minus, combined and balanced in this mirac- ulous bottle! situated and related to each other in a manner that I can by no means comprehend! If it were possible that a bottle should in one part contain a quan- tity of air strongly compressed and in another part a per- fect vacuum, we know the equilibrium would be in- stantly restored within. But here we have a bottle con- taining at the same time a plenum of electrical fire and a vacuum of the same fire, and yet the equilibrium can- not be restored between them but by a communication THEORIES OF ELECTRICITY 131 without! though the p/enum presses violently to expand, and the hungry vacuum seems to attract as violently in order to be filled.” One cannot but admire the remarkable clearness of this explanation of the then mysterious action of the Leyden jar. In fact, with few alterations it would serve the same purpose to-day. The fundamental conditions to be fulfilled in charging and discharging the jar are brought out with such emphasis and point that it is not difficult to imagine Franklin, in the guise of a modern professor of physics, expounding the action of the Ley- den jar to a class-room of inattentive students—an image that may appeal more forcibly to my colleague, Pro- fessor Nichols, than to my audience. While the theory of Franklin of the action of the Leyden jar was a notable advance in electrical ideas, we can now see clearly the imperfections in his explanation. The idea of electrical induction still remained to be fully developed, and it was not till nearly a century later that Faraday clearly laid down the true action of the glass or dielectric. In a later letter in 1749, Franklin returns again to his views of the nature of this electrical fluid: “The electrical matter consists of particles extremely subtile, since it can permeate common matter, even the densest metals, with such ease and freedom as not to receive any perceptible resistance. 132 RUTHERFORD: MODERN “Tf any one should doubt whether the electrical mat- ter passes through the substance of bodies, or only over and along their surfaces, a shock from an electrified large glass jar, taken through his own body, will prob- ably convince him. “Electrical matter differs from ordinary matter in this, that the parts of the latter mutually attract, those of the former mutually repel each other. Hence the appearing divergency in a stream of electrified effluvia. “But though the particles of electrical matter do repel each other, they are strongly attracted by all other matter. “From these three things the extreme subtilty of the electrical matter, the mutual repulsion of its parts, and the strong attraction between them and other matter, arises this effect, that when a quantity of electrical mat- ter is applied to a mass of common matter, of any bigness or length within our observation (which hath not already got its quantity), it is immediately and equally diffused through the whole. “Thus, common matter is a kind of sponge to the elec- trical fluid. . . . But in common matter there is (gen- erally) as much of the electrical as it will contain within its substance. If more is added, it lies without upon the surface, and forms what we call an electrical atmos- phere; and then the body is said to be electrified. THEORIES OF ELECTRICITY 133 “Tt is supposed that all kinds of common matter do not attract and retain the electrical with equal strength and force for reasons to be given hereafter. And that those called electrics per se, as glass, etc., attract and retain its strongest and contain the greatest quantity. “We know that the electrical fluid is in common matter, because we can pump it out by the globe or tube. We know that common matter has near as much as it can contain, because, when we add a little more to any portion of it, the additional quantity does not enter but forms an electrical atmosphere. And we know that common matter has not (generally) more than it can contain, otherwise all loose portions of it would repel each other, as they constantly do when they have electric atmospheres.” The conception of Franklin that electricity was an indestructible and subtile fluid which permeated all bodies was a not unnatural one to occur to a philosopher of that time, for it was the century in which the notion of material fluids was invented to explain diverse phys- ical phenomena, for example, heat and magnetism. But the great merit of Franklin lies in the explanation of positive and negative electricity by means of a single fluid. Every unelectrified body is supposed to contain its normal quantum of this electrical fluid. A body is positively electrified when it contains an excess of this 134 RUTHERFORD: MODERN fluid and negatively when it has a defect or has lost a part of its normal quantity. In addition, Franklin clearly recognized that the charging of a Leyden jar resulted from a disturbance of its electrical equilibrium, which was restored by discharging the jar. In a later letter he describes his ingenious investiga- tions to show that the electricity in the jar does not reside in the metal coatings but on the surface of the glass itself, but for our purpose we must be content with only a passing reference to this classical experiment. It is hardly necessary to mention here the extraordi- narily wide-spread interest in the work of Franklin that very rapidly followed the publication of his scientific letters. The lucidity of his writings no doubt materially contributed to this result, for in this respect Franklin was in marked contrast to some of his scientific contem- poraries. Without detracting in the least from the merit of these philosophers, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the turbidity of their writings was a fair index of the state of their conceptions of electrical ac- tions. . There has been a tendency in later days among some writers to claim priority for Dufay over Franklin in the conception of the electrical fluid. There appears to be no satisfactory foundation for this belief. Dufay cer- tainly recognized that different kinds of electricity were developed by rubbing glass and resin. ‘This, however, THEORIES OF ELECTRICITY 135 was a purely experimental observation, and he appears never to have put forward any definite electrical theory to account for his results. From the point of view of the philosophers at that time, the main defect of Franklin’s theory lay in the fact that it failed to offer any explanation why two bodies, negatively electrified, should repel each other. To over- come this objection John Symmer, an Englishman, put forward in 1759 a modified form of Franklin’s views, now known as the “ two fluid” theory. On this theory, a neutral body contains an equal amount of two distinct electrical fluids which give rise to positive and negative electricity respectively. Each portion of the one fluid repels itself, but attracts the other. On this view, positive and negative electricity are two distinct entities instead of one as supposed by Franklin. On account of its simplicity the theory of Franklin at first met with general acceptance, for it offered a reason- able explanation of the facts known at that time. As electrical knowledge advanced, it began to be recog- nized that Franklin’s theory must be extended in order to account fully for the observed facts. Aepinus, an ardent advocate of Franklin’s hypothesis, showed that it was necessary to introduce the idea not only that the elec- trical fluid repelled itself and attracted neutral matter, but that the particles of matter repelled each other. 136 RUTHERFORD: MODERN With these modifications, the one fluid theory and its rival were mathematically identical, and it was grad- ually recognized that it was impossible to devise any obvious experimental test to decide between them. Under the weight of these new hypotheses, however, the one fluid theory lost its original simplicity and gave way to some extent to its rival, and Aepinus himself finally be- came an unwilling convert. It is not necessary to dis- cuss further the conflict between the two theories. The victory for the time inclined to the side of the two fluid theory, but there were always adherents to Franklin’s hypothesis, especially in England. The idea that there were two distinct electrical enti- ties was repugnant to the minds of many, and it was seen that the modified Franklin theory served to explain the experimental facts equally as well as the other, while at the same time it possessed the merit of only requiring one electrical fluid. The conflict between these two theories which ap- peared so real and vital at the time has to us lost much of its significance. We recognize that there is much in common between the two theories, and that both are equally successful as an explanation of electrostatics, and it was quite fitting that both theories should take their place, side by side, as alternative explanations of the same phenomena. THEORIES OF ELECTRICITY 137 We must rapidly pass over the period following Franklin, which was devoted to a more complete under- standing of electrical actions and the formulation of the subject of electrostatics on a quantitative and mathemat- ical basis. The idea of electric fluids repelling or at- tracting each other with Newtonian forces varying in- versely as the square of the distance, lent itself readily to a complete and satisfactory mathematical theory of electrostatics. As the subject developed on mathematical lines, the conception of the electric fluids became more and more abstract, and lost all physical significance. The fluids became mere mathematical figments to serve as centers of forces of attraction or repulsion acting at a distance. The general attitude at that time has been well put by J. J. Thomson: “ The physicists and mathematicians who did most to develop the ‘ fluid theories’ confined them- selves to questions of this kind, and defined and ideal- ized the conception of these fluids until any reference to their physical properties was considered almost indel- icate:” While the eighteenth century was mainly devoted to the study of electrostatics, 7. e., to the study of the phe- nomena of electricity at rest, and may be considered to be the age of the electroscope and of the Leyden jar, the nineteenth was chiefly occupied with a considera- tion of the properties