transactions, was able to give an explanation of the articles, that might seem to require explaining, if any such there were. He returned without effecting the settlement, being told, that it could not be made till the arrival of some documents expected from France. What those documents were, I have not been informed, nor can I readily conceive, as all the vouchers existing there had been examined by Mr. Barclay. And I, having been immediately after my arrival engaged in the public business of this State, waited in expectation of hearing from Congress, in case any part of my accounts had been objected to.

It is now more than three years that those accounts have been before that honorable body, and, to this day, no notice of any such objection has been communicated to me. But reports have, for some time past, been circulated here, and propagated in the newspapers, that I am greatly indebted to the United States for large sums, that had been put into my hands, and that I avoid a settlement. This, together with the little time one of my age may expect to live, makes it necessary for me to request earnestly, which I hereby do, that the Congress would be pleased, without further delay, to examine those accounts, and if they find therein any article or articles, which they do not understand or approve, that they would cause me to be acquainted with the same, that I may have an opportunity of offering such explanations or reasons in support of them as may be in my power, and then that the accounts may be finally closed.

I hope the Congress will soon be able to attend to this business for the satisfaction of the public, as well as in condescension to my request. In the mean time, if there be no impropriety in it, I would desire that this letter, together

with another relating to the same subject, the copy of which is hereto annexed, may be put upon their minutes. With every sentiment of respect and duty to Congress, I am, Sir, &c.†

* See the letter to Mr. Barclay, dated Paris, 19 June, 1785.—ED. †The requests contained in this letter were never complied with. Some months afterwards Charles Thomson, the Secretary of Congress, wrote to him as follows.

"Dear Sir; I am sorry to inform you, that the apprehensions suggested in my last are realized. The delegates, whom the States appointed to conduct the business of the Union in Congress till the meeting of the new government, have not assembled in sufficient number to form a House. Consequently there was no opportunity of laying your letter before them, and getting it inserted on their minutes. I now wish to be informed what is to be done with it; whether you would desire it to remain among the other papers of the late Congress, or have it returned to you. I shall wait your orders. In the mean while accept a fresh assurance of the sincere esteem and regard with which I am, &c."-New York, March 7th, 1789.

There is no evidence that any farther efforts were made by Dr. Franklin to obtain justice from Congress. On the 1st of April, 1789, a sufficient number of members had assembled to organize the Congress under the new Constitution; but there is no record in the Journals which shows that the above letter to the President of the old Congress was ever laid before that body, or that the subject was in any manner brought into consideration. Dr. Franklin's accounts, therefore, remained unsettled till his death, notwithstanding his repeated solicitations to have them examined, adjusted, and closed. No allowance was ever granted for the "equitable demands for extra services," to which he thought himself entitled, nor were the grounds of them even made a subject of inquiry; no vote of thanks or approbation was passed for his long, steady, and most successful labors in the cause of his country. These evidences of ingratitude and neglect are humiliating, but history should speak with an impartial voice. When time has cooled the heat of passion, and the feuds of party are forgotten, men will be judged by their acts. As affording some explanation of the tardiness of Congress in attending to Dr. Franklin's accounts, it is enough to say, that Mr. Arthur Lee was one of the Commissioners of the Treasury by whom those accounts were first to be examined.-S.

CHAPTER XIII.

Retirement from Public Life-Remedy for Deafness-Death. of the Good Bishop-Penalties of Old Age-Farewell to Washington-The Perils of too Good Credit-The Slave Trade-Noah Webster-Franklin's Religious Views-Last Illness-And Death.

1789-1790.

To Alexander I HAVE just received your kind letter of Small, dated November 29th, and am much obliged by your Philadelphia, 17 Feb., 1789. friendly attention in sending me the receipt, which on occasion I may make trial of; but the stone I have being a large one, as I find by the weight it falls with when I turn in bed, I have no hope of its being dissoluble by any medicine; and having been for some time past pretty free from pain, I am afraid of tampering. I congratulate you on the escape you had by avoiding the one you mention, that was as big as a kidney bean; had it been retained, it might soon have become too large to pass, and proved the cause of much pain at times, as mine has been

to me.

Having served my time of three years as president, I have now renounced all public business, and enjoy the otium cum dignitate. My friends indulge me with their frequent visits, which I have now leisure to receive and

431

enjoy. The Philosophical Society, and the Society for Political Inquiries, meet at my house, which I have enlarged by additional building, that affords me a large room for those meetings, another over it for my library now very considerable, and over all some lodging rooms. I have seven promising grandchildren by my daughter, who play with and amuse me, and she is a kind attentive nurse to me when I am at any time indisposed; so that I pass my time as agreeably as at my age a man may well expect, and have little to wish for, except a more easy exit than my malady seems to threaten.

The deafness you complain of gives me concern, as if great it must diminish considerably your pleasure in conversation. If moderate, you may remedy it easily and readily, by putting your thumb and fingers behind your ear, pressing it outwards, and enlarging it, as it were, with the hollow of your hand. By an exact experiment I found, that I could hear the tick of a watch at forty-five feet distance by this means, which was barely audible at twenty feet without it. The experiment was made at midnight when the house was still.

I am glad you have sent those directions respecting ventilation to the Edinburgh Society. I hope you have added an account of the experience you had of it at Minorca. If they do not print your paper, send it to me, and it shall be in the third volume, which we are about to publish, of our Transactions.

Mrs. Hewson joins with us in best wishes for your health and happiness. Her eldest son has gone through his studies at our college, and taken his degree. The youngest is still there, and will be graduated this summer.

To Mrs. Catherine

Greene,

da

phia, 2 March, 1789.

I am, as you suppose in the abovementioned old letter, much pleased to hear, that my young

ted Philadel- friend Ray is "smart in the farming way," and makes such substantial fences. I think agriculture the most honorable of all employments, being the most independent. The farmer has no need of popular favor, nor the favor of the great; the success of his crops depending only on the blessing of God upon his honest industry. I congratulate your good spouse, that he, as well as myself, is now free from public cares, and that he can bend his whole attention to his farming, which will afford him both profit and pleasure; a business which nobody knows better how to manage with advantage.

I am too old to follow printing again myself, but loving the business, I have brought up my grandson Benjamin to it, and have built and furnished a printing-house for him, which he now manages under my eye.* I have great pleasure in the rest of my grandchildren, who are now in number eight, and all promising, the youngest only six months old, but shows signs of great good nature. My friends here are numerous, and I enjoy as much of their conversation as I can reasonably wish; and I have as much health and cheerfulness, as can well be expected at my age, now eighty-three. Hitherto this long life has been tolerably happy; so that, if I were allowed to live it over again, I should make no objection, only wishing for leave to do, what authors do in a second edition of their works, correct some of my errata. Among the felicities of my life I

*This printing establishment was left by his will to his grandson, who afterwards became a journalist of some note, but died young.-ED.