the strongest and the noblest, will do in similar circumstances, i. e., he sympathized with the power which had given and could take away his place. This, too, is a law of nature for seven-tenths of the family of man. All that an average man hath will he give for his life; and most men, in critical circumstances, appear to be of Shylock's opinion, that he takes a man's life who takes away his means of living. Let us allow, also, that the law of nature is beneficent which impels a man to cling most tenaciously to the nest which warms and shelters those whom he should love better than himself. And this does but enhance the merit of those superior men, who know when a truer regard for the nestlings requires the brave abandonment of the nest and the familiar sources that supplied it with food. During this visit of Dr. Franklin to his son, the last visit he ever made him, father and son discussed the controversy between the mother country and the colonies. Tradition reports that their conversations on this exciting topic were frequent and very warm; each trying his utmost, and each failing utterly, to convince the other. No man in the colonies, not John or Samuel Adams, nor Jefferson, nor Patrick Henry, was more perfectly resolved upon resistance than Dr. Franklin. All his familiar letters of this year show it. Probably, to his son, he said in substance, what he had written: "The eyes of all Christendom are now upon us, and our honor as a people is become a matter of the utmost consequence to be taken care of. If we tamely give up our rights in this contest, a century to come will not restore us in the opinion of the world; we shall be stamped with the character of dastards, poltroons, and fools; and be despised and trampled upon, not by this haughty, insolent nation only, but by all mankind.” On one point only, father and son appear to have agreed: both blamed General Gage for precipitating hostilities. But, widely as they differed on the grounds of the dispute, they separated amicably on this occasion. At least, Dr. Franklin wrote his son a friendly letter six weeks after, telling him with what willingness the people submitted to the losses and hardships of the war, and how unfaltering was the resolution even of those whom the burning of Charlestown and the siege of Boston had driven homeless and beggared upon the world. "I am not terrified," said he, "by the expense of this war, should it continue ever so long. A little more frugality or a little more industry in individuals will with ease defray it. Suppose it a £100,000 a month, or £1,200,000 a year. If 500,000 families will each spend a shilling a week less or earn a shilling a week more; or if they will spend sixpence a week less, and earn sixpence a week more, they may pay the whole sum without otherwise feeling it. Forbearing to drink tea saves threefourths of the money; and 500,000 women doing each threepence worth of spinning or knitting in a week, will pay the rest. I wish, nevertheless, most earnestly for peace, this war being a truly unnatural and mischievous one; but we have nothing to expect from submission but slavery and contempt."* When Dr. Franklin wrote at the end of this letter, "Your af fectionate father," he was not yet aware that his son had ceased to be a passive opponent of the popular movement. In less than a month after his father left him, Governor Franklin performed an act which placed him in clear opposition to the people and the Assembly of New Jersey, and reduced him to isolated impotence. Lord Stirling, a member of the Council of New Jersey, a friend and correspondent of Dr. Franklin, having accepted a military commission from the Congress, Governor Franklin declared him suspended from his seat in the council. The province, keenly resenting the act, became totally estranged from the governor, and only hostile communication took place between them. The province was, in effect, without a government, and so remained for some months, neither party seeing a way to escape the imbroglio. Governor Franklin explained his position in a dispatch to Lord Dartmouth, and explained it in language natural to a royal governor. He told the Secretary of State, that his situation was embarrassing in the extreme, as there were but one or two among the principal officers of government to whom he could even speak confidentially on public affairs. He renewed his declarations of unalterable attachment to the throne, and expressed the most decided opposition to the patriotic measures of the colonists. This dispatch was intercepted by Lord Stirling, who promptly laid it before the Assembly. A guard of soldiers was stationed about the governor's house, to prevent his escape. He remonstrated against the indignity as needless, since he had already given the Assembly a solemn assurance that he would not leave the province, unless ordered away by * N. Y. Historical Magazine for October, 1861. the king, or taken away by violence. His parole was at length accepted, the guard was removed, and he remained at his house, harmless and unmolested, for five months. In June, 1776, he received dispatches from England, directing him how to proceed; and, in obedience to these, he summoned the Assembly of his province. By that time, however, Congress had abolished all the royal governments, and forbidden the exercise of any authority not derived from the people or their representatives. The Congress forthwith pronounced the proclamation of Governor Franklin to be in contempt of their order, declared that no obedience was due to it, and recommended that no further payments be made to Mr. Franklin on account of salary. Before these resolves of Congress were known at Perth Amboy, the Assembly ordered the arrest of their late governor, "with all the delicacy and tenderness the service can possibly admit of." A company of militia executed the order, and the governor again found himself a prisoner in his own house, guarded by sixty men. The Assembly continued to behave towards him with "all the delicacy and tenderness" which the circumstances admitted. They offered to withdraw the guard on the simple condition of his engaging his honor as a gentleman to leave Perth Amboy within two days, and go directly to Princeton, Bordertown, or his own farm at Rancocus, there remain to the end of the war, and perform no act calculated to help the royal, or harm the patriotic canse. Governor Franklin indignantly refused to sign the reasonable parole presented to him, and addressed a very vigorous remonstrance to the legislature. A few days after, he was taken from his home and from his distracted wife, and conveyed, under guard, to Burlington, whence he again sent an indignant remonstrance against the "independent republican tyranny" which held him captive. He said he could account for the treatment he had received only by supposing that "by tearing one in my station from his wife and family," the party in power meant “to intimidate every man in the province from giving any opposition to their iniquitous course." He declared that he had spirit enough to face the danger that threatened him. "For King and Country was the motto I assumed when I first commenced my political life, and I am resolved to retain it till death shall put an end to my mortal existence." He was contumacious to the last. Congress having ordered him into confinement, he was removed to Connecticut,* to the sore distress of his wife. In this sad extremity, Dr. Franklin, who could do nothing to save his son from the just consequences of his own illtimed obduracy, sent his grandson to Perth Amboy to aid and console his afflicted daughter-in-law. He also sent her a little money-sixty dollars-of which, it appears, she was in pressing need. She wrote him (Aug. 6th, 1776), an affecting letter of thanks and entreaty: "My troubles do, indeed, lie heavy on my mind, and though many people may suffer still more than I do, yet that does not lessen the weight of mine, which are really more than so weak a frame is able to support. I will not distress you by enumerating all my afflictions, but allow me, dear sir, to mention that it is greatly in your power to relieve them. Suppose that Mr. Franklin would sign a parole not dishonorable to himself and satisfactory to Governor Trumbull, of Connecticut, why may he not be permitted to return into this province and to his family? Many of the officers that have been taken during the war, have had that indulgence shown them, and why should it be denied to him? His private affairs are unsettled, his family distressed, and he is living very uncomfortably and at a great expense, which he can very ill afford at present. Consider, my dear and honored sir, that I am now pleading the cause of your son and my beloved husband. If I have said or done any thing wrong, I beg to be forgiven. I am with great respect, honored sir, your dutiful and affectionate daughter, ELIZA FRANKLIN." It is not known what answer Franklin made to this letter, nor whether he interceded with Congress on his son's behalf. This we know, that Congress was disposed to treat Governor Franklin with the utmost consideration and leniency. They permitted him to reside at Middletown, in Connecticut, on parole, and in November, 1776, ordered General Washington to offer him in exchange One of the newspaper notices of this event is as follows: "Day before yesterday, Governor Franklin, of New Jersey, passed through Hartford, in Connecticut, on his way to Governor Trumbull at Lebanon. Mr. Franklin is a noted tory and ministerial tool, and has been exceedingly busy in perplexing the cause of liberty, and in serving the designs of the British king and his ministers. The people of the Jerseys, on account of his abilities, connections, principles and address, viewed him as a mischievous and dangerous enemy in that province, and consequently thought it expedient to remove him, under a strong guard, to Connecticut. He is safely arrived, and will probably have leisure to reconnoiter his past life. He is son to Dr. Benjamin Franklin, the genius of the day, and the great patron of American liberty. If his Excellency escapes the vengeance of the people, due to the enormity of his crimes, his redemption will flow, not from his personal merit, but from the high esteem and veneration which the country entertains for his honored father.-Constitutional Gazette, July 13, 1776. for General Thomson. Before General Washington had executed this order, the deposed governor and his royalist friends in Middletown were guilty of a gross and stupid indiscretion, which compelled Congress to countermand their order. The royalists met for an evening's entertainment; in the course of which they sang songs in honor of King George and General Howe, the whole company joining in the chorus. As the wine flowed in, the wit ran out, and the choruses became, at length, so wild and loud, that the military watch gathered about the house and heard the royalists chanting treason. About midnight, the company sallied forth, roaring drunk, and made night hideous to the patriotic citizens of Middletown. The watch respectfully remonstrated. The royalists retorted with riotous abuse, and Governor Franklin called one of them a damned villain, and threatened him with vengeance. The next day the gentlemen composing the watch drew up a statement of these proceedings, and Congress promptly resolved that it was inexpedient to exchange Governor Franklin. But this was not the end of his contumacy. It was discovered, that he had been very busy in circulating Lord Howe's offer of pardon; that he was, in fact, and meant to continue, an active agent for the British ministry in the heart of a patriotic province. He was then confined in Litchfield jail; denied, for a while, the use of pen, ink, and paper; and his tory allies were not permitted to converse with him, except in the hearing of an officer. He remained in confinement for the greater part of two years. Mrs. Franklin could not join her husband in his prison, and she never saw him again. She died in the city of New York in July, 1778, before Governor Franklin had been exchanged. Her remains were placed within the chancel of St. Paul's Church, on a wall of which edifice may still be seen the tablet which her husband, after the close of the war, caused to be erected to her memory. It bears the following inscription: "Beneath the altar of this Church are deposited the remains of Mrs. ELIZABETH FRANKLIN, wife of His Excellency, WILLIAM FRANKLIN, Esq., late Governor under |