The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (26 page)

1736 Chosen clerk of the General Assembly; forms the Union Fire
Company of Philadelphia.

1737 Elected to the Assembly; appointed Deputy Postmaster-General;
plans a city police.

1742 Invents the open, or "Franklin," stove.

1743 Proposes a plan for an Academy, which is adopted 1749 and
develops into the University of Pennsylvania.

1744 Establishes the American Philosophical Society.

1746 Publishes a pamphlet, "Plain Truth," on the necessity for
disciplined defense, and forms a military company; begins
electrical experiments.

1748 Sells out his printing business; is appointed on the
Commission of the Peace, chosen to the Common Council,
and to the Assembly.

1749 Appointed a Commissioner to trade with the Indians.

1751 Aids in founding a hospital.

1752 Experiments with a kite and discovers that lightning is an
electrical discharge.

1753 Awarded the Copley medal for this discovery, and elected a
member of the Royal Society; receives the degree of M.A.
from Yale and Harvard. Appointed joint Postmaster-General.

1754 Appointed one of the Commissioners from Pennsylvania to the
Colonial Congress at Albany; proposes a plan for the union
of the colonies.

1755 Pledges his personal property in order that supplies may be
raised for Braddock's army; obtains a grant from the Assembly
in aid of the Crown Point expedition; carries through a bill
establishing a voluntary militia; is appointed Colonel,
and takes the field.

1757 Introduces a bill in the Assembly for paving the streets of
Philadelphia; publishes his famous "Way to Wealth"; goes to
England to plead the cause of the Assembly against the
Proprietaries; remains as agent for Pennsylvania; enjoys the
friendship of the scientific and literary men of the kingdom.

(HERE THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY BREAKS OFF)

1760 Secures from the Privy Council, by a compromise, a decision
obliging the Proprietary estates to contribute to the public
revenue.

1762 Receives the degree of LL.D. from Oxford and Edinburgh; returns
to America.

1763 Makes a five months' tour of the northern colonies for the
Purpose of inspecting the post-offices.

1764 Defeated by the Penn faction for reelection to the Assembly;
sent to England as agent for Pennsylvania.

1765 Endeavors to prevent the passage of the Stamp Act.

1766 Examined before the House of Commons relative to the
passage of the Stamp Act; appointed agent of Massachusetts,
New Jersey, and Georgia; visits Gottingen University.

1767 Travels in France and is presented at court.

1769 Procures a telescope for Harvard College.

1772 Elected Associe Etranger of the French Academy.

1774 Dismissed from the office of Postmaster-General; influences
Thomas Paine to emigrate to America.

1775 Returns to America; chosen a delegate to the Second Continental
Congress; placed on the committee of secret correspondence;
appointed one of the commissioners to secure the cooperation
of Canada.

1776 Placed on the committee to draft a Declaration of Independence;
chosen president of the Constitutional Committee of Pennsylvania;
sent to France as agent of the colonies.

1778 Concludes treaties of defensive alliance, and of amity and
commerce; is received at court.

1779 Appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to France.

1780 Appoints Paul Jones commander of the "Alliance."

1782 Signs the preliminary articles of peace.

1783 Signs the definite treaty of peace.

1785 Returns to America; is chosen President of Pennsylvania;
reelected 1786.

1787 Reelected President; sent as delegate to the convention for
framing a Federal Constitution.

1788 Retires from public life.

1790 April 17, dies. His grave is in the churchyard at Fifth and
Arch streets, Philadelphia. Editor.

[1]
The country-seat of Bishop Shipley, the good bishop,
as Dr. Franklin used to style him.—B.

[2]
After the words "agreeable to" the words "some of" were
interlined and afterward effaced.—B.

[3]
Here follow in the margin the words, in brackets, "here
insert it," but the poetry is not given. Mr. Sparks
informs us (Life of Franklin, p. 6) that these volumes
had been preserved, and were in possession of Mrs. Emmons,
of Boston, great-granddaughter of their author.

[4]
I fancy his harsh and tyrannical treatment of me
might be a means of impressing me with that aversion
to arbitrary power that has stuck to me through my
whole life.

[5]
"A printing-house is always called a chapel by the
workmen, the origin of which appears to have been that
printing was first carried on in England in an ancient
chapel converted into a printing-house, and the title
has been preserved by tradition. The bien venu among
the printers answers to the terms entrance and footing
among mechanics; thus a journeyman, on entering a
printing-house, was accustomed to pay one or more gallons
of beer for the good of the chapel; this custom was
falling into disuse thirty years ago; it is very properly
rejected entirely in the United States."—W. T. F.

[6]
The "Journal" was printed by Sparks, from a copy made
at Reading in 1787. But it does not contain the Plan.
—Ed.

[7]
I got his son once L500.—[Marg. note.]

[8]
Nothing so likely to make a man's fortune as virtue.
—[Marg. note.]

[9]
This is a marginal memorandum.—B.

[10]
In the Middle Ages, Franklin, if such a phenomenon as
Franklin were possible in the Middle Ages, would
probably have been the founder of a monastic order.—B.

[11]
See the votes.—[Marg. note.]

[12]
See the votes to have this more correctly.
—[Marg. note.]

[13]
See votes.

[14]
My acts in Morris's time, military, etc.—[Marg. note.]

[15]
This dialogue and the militia act are in the
"Gentleman's Magazine" for February and March, 1756.
—[Marg. note.]

[16]
The many unanimous resolves of the Assembly—
what date?— [Marg. note.]

[17]
Here terminates the Autobiography, as published by
Wm. Temple Franklin and his successors. What follows
was written in the last year of Dr. Franklin's life,
and was first printed (in English) in Mr. Bigelow's
edition of 1868.—ED.