Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (76 page)

8
. BF to John Fothergill, Mar. 14, 1764; BF to Richard Jackson, Feb. 11, 1764; Hawke 208.

9
. BF to Lord Kames, June 2, 1765; John Penn to Thomas Penn, May 5, 1764; BF to John Fothergill, Mar. 14, 1764; Hawke 211; Brands 356; Van Doren 311.

10
. Assembly reply to the governor, Mar. 24, 1764.

11
. Van Doren 314; Buxbaum 192; Cecil Currey,
Road to Revolution
(Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor, 1968), 58.

12
. Resolutions of the Pennsylvania Assembly, Mar. 24, 1764; “Cool Thoughts on the Present Situation of Our Public Affairs,” Apr. 12, 1764; BF to Richard Jackson, Mar. 14, 29, Sept. 1, 1764; BF to William Strahan, Mar. 30, 1764; J. Philip Gleason, “A Scurrilous Election and Franklin’s Reputation,”
William and Mary Quarterly
(Oct. 1961); Brands 357; Van Doren 313; Morgan
Devious,
80–83. The anti-Franklin pamphlets are in Papers 11:381.

13
. Hawke 225; Brands 358; Van Doren 316; Buxbaum 12; “Remarks on a Late Protest,” Nov. 5, 1764.

14
. BF to Richard Jackson, May 1, 1764; BF to SF, Nov. 8, 1764; Hawke 222–26.

1
. BF to PS, Dec. 12, 1764.

2
. BF to DF, Dec. 27, 1764, Feb. 9, 14, 1765. For good overviews on Franklin’s mission, see Middlekauff; Morgan
Devious;
Cecil Currey,
Road to Revolution
(Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor, 1968); Theodore Draper,
The Struggle for Power
(New York: Times Books, 1996); Edmund Morgan and Helen Morgan,
The Stamp Act Crisis
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1953).

3
. BF to PS, July 20, 1768; PS to BF, Sept. 26, 1768; Noah Webster to BF, May 24, 1786; BF to Webster, June 18, 1786; Van Doren 426; Noah Webster,
Dissertations on the English Language: With Notes, Historical and Critical, to Which Is Added, by Way of Appendix, an Essay on a Reformed Mode of Spelling, with Dr. Franklin’s Arguments on That Subject
(Boston: Isaiah Thomas, 1789), edweb.sdsu.edu/people/ DKitchen/new_655/webster_language.htm.

4
. Lopez
Private,
152; WF to BF, Jan. 2, 1769; PS to Barbara Hewson, Oct. 4, 1774; PS to BF, Sept. 5, 1776.

5
. Cadwalader Evans to BF, Mar. 15, 1765; John Penn to Thomas Penn, Mar. 16, 1765; Morgan
Devious,
94.

6
. BF to Joseph Galloway, Oct. 11, 1766; Morgan
Devious,
102. Morgan and Morgan,
The Stamp Act Crisis,
89–91; Brands 360–63; Van Doren 320.

7
. BF to John Hughes, Aug. 9, 1765; Morgan
Devious,
106; Thomas Penn to William Allen, July 13, 1765.

8
. BF to Charles Thomson, July 11, 1765; Morgan
Devious,
105; Charles Thomson to BF, Sept. 24, 1765; John Hughes to BF, Sept. 17, 1765.

9
. David Hall to BF, Sept. 6, 1765; Morgan
Devious,
106; Wright 188.

10
. Samuel Wharton to BF, Oct. 13, 1765; John Hughes to BF, Sept. 12, 1765; DF to BF, Sept. 22, 1765; Morgan
Devious,
107; BF to DF, Nov. 9, 1765; Brands 368.

11
. Patrick Henry to the Virginia House of Delegates, May 30, 1765; BF to John Hughes, Aug. 9, 1765;Thomas Hutchinson to BF, Nov. 18, 1765; Brands 368.

12
. BF to Pennsylvania Assembly committee, Apr. 12, 1766; Thomas Penn to John Penn, Nov. 30, 1765.

13
. BF to David Hall, Nov. 9, 1765; BF to Joseph Galloway, Oct. 11, 1766; John Fothergill to James Pemberton, Feb. 27, 1766; “Defense of Indian Corn and a Reply,”
The Gazetteer,
Jan. 2, 15, 1766.

14
.
Public Advertiser,
May 22, 1765, Jan. 2, 1766.

15
. William Warner, “Enlightened Anonymity,” University of California Santa Barbara, lecture, Mar. 8, 2002, dc-mrg.english.ucsb.edu/conference/ 2002/documents/william_warner_anon.html.

16
. BF to JM, Mar. 1, 1766; BF to WF, Nov. 9, 1765; Brands 373; Hawke 235–37.

17
. BF to unknown recipient, Jan. 6, 1766; see also BF to Cadwalader Evans, May 1766; Wright 187; Van Doren 333.

18
. Testimony to the House of Commons, Feb. 13, 1766, Papers 13:129–62; Brands 374–76; Van Doren 336–52.

19
. William Strahan to David Hall, May 10, 1766; Joseph Galloway to BF, May 23, June 7, 1766; Charles Thomson to BF, May 20, 1766; Van Doren 353; Clark 195; Hawke 242.

20
. BF to DF, Apr. 6, 1766.

21
. DF to BF, Feb. 10, Oct. 8, 13, 1765; BF to DF, June 4, 1765; Lopez
Private,
126.

22
. David Hall to BF, Jan. 27, 1767; BF to Hall, Apr. 14, 1767.

23
. BF to DF, June 22, 1767.

24
. Lopez
Private,
134, citing E. D. Gillespie,
A Book of Remembrance
(Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1901), 25.

25
. DF to BF, Apr. 25, 1767; BF to DF, May 23, June 22, 1767; Brands 390; Hawke 255.

26
. WF to BF, May 1767; RB to BF, May 21, 1767; Brands 391.

27
. BF to RB, Aug. 5, 1767; BF to DF, Aug. 5, 1767.

28
. MS to DF, Sept. 18, 1767; Lopez
Private,
139.

29
. BF to DF, Aug. 28, 1767; BF to PS, Sept. 14, 1767.

30
. BF to PS, Aug. 28, 1767; Van Doren 367–69.

31
. BF to DF, Nov. 2, 17, 1767; BF to PS, Oct. 9, 1767; Brands 395–96; Van Doren 368; Hawke 258.

32
. JM to BF, Dec. 1, 1767; BF to JM, Feb. 21, 1768.

33
. BF to RB, Aug. 13, 1768; BF to DF, Aug. 9, 1768; Lopez
Private,
141.

34
. BF to DF, Jan. 26, 1769; Thomas Bond to BF, June 7, 1769; DF to BF, Nov. 27, 1769; Van Doren 404; Lopez
Private,
143; Brands 456.

35
. PS to BF, Sept. 1, 1769; BF to PS, Sept. 2, 1769, May 31, 1770; Lopez
Private,
154.

36
. “Craven Street Gazette,” Sept. 22–25, 1770, in Papers 17:220–26.

37
. BF to Barbeu Dubourg, July 28, 1768; Lopez
Private,
27.

38
. BF to MS, Nov. 3, 1772, misdated 1767 in Papers.

39
. “A Friend to Both Countries,” London
Chronicle,
Apr. 9, 1767; “Benevolues,” London
Chronicle,
Apr. 11, 1767; Brands 386; Hawke 252; Cecil Currey,
Road to Revolution,
222.

40
. “Causes of the American Discontents before 1768,” London
Chronicle,
Jan. 7, 1768. Although it was anonymous, Franklin indicated his authorship by using as an epigram a line he had used in his 1760 piece on “The Interest of Great Britain Considered”: “The waves never rise but when the winds blow.” With his interest in waves, both scientific and political, he enjoyed this metaphor.

41
. “Preface to Letters from a Farmer,” by N.N. (BF), May 8, 1768, Papers 15:110; BF to WF, Mar. 13, 1768.

42
. BF to Joseph Galloway, Jan. 9, 1768; BF to WF, Jan. 9, 1768; BF to unknown recipient, Nov. 28, 1768; Lib. of Am. 839; Clark 211.

43
. BF to Joseph Galloway, July 2, Dec. 13, 1768; BF to WF, July 2, 1768; Hawke 263, 268; Brands 408.

44
. To Thomas Crowley, by “Francis Lynn” (BF),
Public Advertiser,
Oct. 21, 1768; “On Civil War,” signed N.N. (BF),
Public Advertiser,
Aug. 25, 1768; “Queries,” by “NMCNPCH” (BF), London
Chronicle,
Aug. 18, 1768; “On Absentee Governors,” by Twilight (BF),
Public Advertiser,
Aug. 27, 1768.

45
. “An American” (BF) to the
Gazetteer,
Jan. 17, 1769; “A Lion’s Whelp,”
Public Advertiser,
Jan. 2, 1770.

46
. BF to William Strahan, Nov. 29, 1769.

47
. BF to Charles Thomson, Mar. 18, 1770; BF to Samuel Cooper, June 8, 1770.

48
. Franklin’s account of audience with Hillsborough, Jan. 16, 1771, Papers 18:9; Hawke 290; Brands 431–34.

49
. BF to Samuel Cooper, Feb. 5, June 10, 1771; Strahan to WF, Apr. 3, 1771; BF to Massachusetts Committee of Correspondence, May 15, 1771; Hawke 294–95; Van Doren 387–88.

50
. BF to Thomas Cushing, June 10, 1771; Arthur Lee to Sam Adams, June 10, 1771, in Richard Henry Lee,
The Life of Arthur Lee
(Boston: Wells and Lilly, 1829); Samuel Cooper to BF, Aug. 25, 1771; Brands 437–38.

1
. BF to William Brownrigg, Nov. 7, 1773; Charles Tanford,
Ben Franklin Stilled the Waves
(Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1989), 29; Van Doren 419.

2
. Jonathan Williams (BF’s nephew), “Journal of a Tour Through Northern England,” May 28, 1771, Papers 18:113; BF to Thomas Cushing, June 10, 1771; BF to DF, June 5, 1771; Hawke 295; Brands 438.

3
. BF to Jonathan Shipley, June 24, 1771.

4
. BF to JM, July 17, 1771; BF to Samuel Franklin, July 19, 1771.

5
. John Updike, “Many Bens,”
New Yorker,
Feb. 22, 1988, 112; Charles Angoff,
A Literary History of the American People
(New York: Knopf, 1931); Van Doren 415.

Lemay/Zall Autobiography provides a complete look at the original manuscriptand all of its revisions. The edition produced by Leonard Labaree and the other editors of the Franklin Papers at Yale (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964) is authoritative, filled with useful annotations, and has an introduction that gives a good history of the manuscript. Carl Van Doren,
Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiographical Writings
(1945; New York: Viking, 2002), 208–11, and Van Doren’s biography of Franklin, 414–15, describe Franklin’s process of writing. Also valuable are various articles by J. A. Leo Lemay: “The Theme of Vanity in Franklin’s Autobiography,” in Lemay
Reappraising,
372, and “Franklin and the Autobiography,”
Eighteenth Century Studies
(1968): 200. For good analyses of the manuscript, which is available at the Huntington Library, see P. M. Zall, “The Manuscript of Franklin’s Autobiography,”
Huntington Library Quarterly
39 (1976); P. M. Zall, “A Portrait of the Autobiographer as an Old Artificer,” in
The Oldest Revolutionary,
ed. J.A.Leo Lemay (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1976), 53. The Norton Critical edition (New York: Norton, 1968), which was edited by Lemay and Zall, contains a bibliography of scholarly articles as well as excerpts of criticism. See also Ormond Seavey,
Becoming Benjamin Franklin: The Autobiography and the Life
(University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1988); Henry Steele Commager, introduction to the Modern Library edition (New York: Random House, 1944); Daniel Aaron, introduction to the Library of America edition (New York: Vintage, 1990).

The memoir written by Lord Herbert of Cherbury (1583–1648) had been published by Franklin’s friend Horace Walpole in 1764, seven years before Franklin began his own work. Gilbert Burnet was a great English clergyman and historian who described the revolution of 1688 in his
History of My Own Time,
a copy of which was owned by Franklin’s Library Company.

6
. BF to Anna Shipley, Aug. 13, 1771; BF to Georgiana Shipley, Sept. 26, 1772; BF to DF, Aug. 14, 1771; Van Doren 416–17.

7
. BF to Thomas Cushing, Jan. 13, 1772; BF to Joshua Babcock, Jan. 13, 1772; Brands 440.

8
. BF to Thomas Cushing, Jan. 13, 1772; BF to WF, Jan. 30, 1772.

9
. J. Bennett Nolan,
Benjamin Franklin in Scotland and Ireland
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1956). This small book is a detailed and well-researched account of Franklin’s activities on these trips. There is some disagreement about whether Adam Smith showed Franklin chapters of the
Wealth of Nations,
published in 1776, but one of Smith’s relatives said this was the case.

10
. PS to BF, Oct. 31, 1771; SF to RB, Dec. 2, 1771; RB to DF, Dec. 3, 1771; Mary Bache to BF, Dec. 3, 1771, Feb. 5, 1772; Lopez
Private,
143–44.

11
. BF to DF, Jan. 28, 1772; BF to SF, Jan. 29, 1772; Lopez
Private,
146; RB to BF, Apr. 6, 1773; Van Doren 392; Brands 455.

12
. BF to DF, Oct. 3, 1770; BF to PS, Nov. 25, 1771; BF to DF, Feb. 2, 1773; Brands 456; Van Doren 404, 411.

13
. BF to William Brownrigg, Nov. 7, 1773; Stanford 78–80; C. H. Giles, “Franklin’s Teaspoon of Oil,”
Chemistry & Industry
(1961): 1616–34; Stephen Thompson, “How Small Is a Molecule?”
SHiPS News,
Jan. 1994, www1.umn.edu/ ships/words/avogadro.htm ; “Measuring Molecules: The Pond on Clapham Common,” www.rosepetruck.chem.brown.edu/Chem10-01/Lab3/Chem10_lab3.htm.