BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, PRESIDENT OF THE SUPREME EXECUTIVE COUNCIL, ENJAMIN FRANKLIN, fifth President of the Supreme Council, was born at Boston on the 17th of January, 1706. He was the youngest son of a family of seventeen children, by two marriages-seven by the first and ten by the last-and "was the youngest son of the youngest son for five generations back." For three hundred years the family had lived on a freehold of about thirty acres in Ecton, Northamptonshire, England, the eldest son during that whole time having been bred to the business of a smith, which was prosecuted in connection with that of the farm. Josias, the father of Benjamin, with his wife and three children, emigrated to America about the year 1682. He was induced to abandon the land, where for so long a period the family had dwelt, by religious persecution. "Conventicles being at that time prohibited," says Dr. Franklin, in that enchanting piece of autobiography which he has left, "and frequently disturbed, some considerable persons of his acquaintance determined to go to America, where they hoped to enjoy the free exercise of their religion, and my father was prevailed on to accompany them." The devise which the family adopted to read unmolested the Scriptures was ingenious. "They had an English Bible, and to conceal it the more securely they conceived the project of fastening it, open, with packthreads across the leaves, on the inside of the lid of the close-stool. When my great-grandfather wished to read to his family, he reversed the lid of the close-stool upon his knees, and passed the leaves from one side to the other, which were held down on each by the packthread. One of the children was stationed at the door to give notice if he saw the proctor (an officer of the spiritual court) make his appearance. In that case the lid was restored to its place, with the Bible concealed under it as before." The mother was Abiah Folger, daughter of Peter Folger, one of the first colonists of New England, of whom Cotton Mather, in his Ecclesiastical History, speaks as "a pious and learned Englishman." Benjamin was put to a grammarschool at the age of eight, being destined by his father for the Church; but at the end of a year of wonderful progress, the father, overburdened with the support of a large family, was obliged to change his purpose, and removed the son to a school for writing and arithmetic, preparatory to a business life. At the age of ten he was called home to assist his father, who was a soap-boiler and tallow-chandler, and the education obtained during this brief interval of less than two years was all the school instruction he ever received. Not satisfied with this occupation, he felt, he says, a strong inclination for a sea life; but his father set his face against it. After suggesting a variety of occupations, that of a printer was settled upon, and he passed forever from the paternal roof. Of the excellent qualities of his parents he everywhere speaks in the most unqualified terms. "My father had an excellent constitution, was of a middle size, but well made and strong. . . . His greatest excellence was a sound understanding and solid judgment in matters of prudence, both in public and private life. . . . My mother was likewise possessed of an excellent constitution. She suckled all her ten children, and I never heard either her or my father complain of any other disorder than that of which they died my father at the age of eighty-seven, and my mother at eighty-five." Naturally given to books, by great industry during the intervals of the hours of labor, often protracted till late at night, he soon acquired a great fund of information, which he turned to account by composing anonymous articles for a newspaper published by his brother, to whom he was apprenticed. By chance, some of his writing fell into the hands of his father, who commended the sentiment, the spelling, and pointing, but sharply criticised its style. The lesson was not lost, for he was induced to give greater heed to the structure and finish of his compositions, using with great advantage as a model some of the essays of Addison, which he chanced to find in an odd volume of the Spectator. Dissatisfied with the treatment of his brother, who seems to have manifested little fraternal affection, at the age of seventeen, without giving any intimation of his purpose to his friends, he left Boston, and proceeded to New York, where he sought employment of William Bradford. Having no place for him, Bradford recommended him to his son in Philadelphia, and thither he proceeded. He has himself given a most graphic account of his first entrance into that city; of his arrival weary and hungry; of the purchase of the three rolls, and his wandering through the streets with one under each arm, eating the third; of being seen and noticed, as he passed along, by Miss Read, whom he afterwards married; of his entering the Quaker meeting-house, and, overcome by fatigue, of sleeping till all had departed; and of his employment by Keimer as a journeyman printer. Of the character of Keimer, he furnishes a very good incident. Knowing him to be a great glutton, he induced him, by skilful arguments, to adopt a purely vegetable diet. For three months they together adhered to it. "I," he says, "continued it cheerfully; but poor Keimer suf fered terribly. Tired of the project, he sighed for the flesh-pots of Egypt. At length he ordered a roast pig, and invited me and two of our female acquaintances to dine with him; but the pig being ready a little too soon, he could not resist the temptation, and ate it all up before we arrived." It was in the year 1723, during the administration of Sir William Keith, that he first arrived in Philadelphia. Through a letter written to a brother-in-law, Holmes, at New Castle, the Governor, to whom it was shown, at once conceived a high opinion of the writer, and, upon returning to Philadel phia, sought him out, showed him many civilities, and concluded by urging him to set up in business for himself, offering to give him all the Government printing, and to furnish him with letters of credit in London for the purchase of the necessary outfit. Keith had no credit there for himself, much less for others. But this, Franklin did not know, and, relying upon his sincerity, was induced to make a voyage to England. Finding upon his arrival that he had been deceived, and that the Governor was noted for making promises which he never meant to fulfil, he sought employment as a printer, and for a year and a half worked diligently at his trade, writing and publishing, in the mean time, a pamphlet on "Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain,” in answer to certain passages in "Woolaston's Religion of Nature." At the end of that time he returned to Philadelphia, and, after working awhile with his old employer, Keimer, commenced business on his own account. He was industrious, frugal, temperate, careful of his credit, and prosperity soon marked his every step. Of his moral convictions at this period he says: "I was at last convinced that truth, probity, and sincerity in transactions between man and man were of the utmost importance to the happiness of life; and I resolved from that moment, and wrote the resolution in my journal, to practise them as long as I lived." And of his business habits he says: "Thus, before I entered on my own new career, I had imbibed solid principles and a character of probity. I knew their value, and I made a solemn engagement with myself never to depart from them." At about this time Franklin was the moving spirit in establishing a lyceum or debating society, called the Junto, in which each member was obliged to propose in turn some question in morality, politics, or philosophy, for discussion, and once in three months read an essay of his own compo |