A History of the University of Pennsylvania from Its Foundation to A. D. 1770/Chapter 7
Franklin's trusteeship in this property in 1749 rendered the plan effectual then proposed of making the building the first home of his College and Academy; but for this happy instrumentality the young College would probably not for many years have had a home of its own so well adapted for its purposes. Built for the accommodation of the greatest preacher of the day, it became the Academy where the greatest teacher in the province, also a clergyman in like orders, established his fame as a Provost and nurtured into permanence the reputation of his College. In 1764 Whitefield himself wrote of the Academy as "one of the best regulated institutions in the world," after preaching on the opening of a new term of the College in September.[1] He was in Philadelphia the following spring, and Dr. Smith asked him to preach at the Commencement of 1765, but he had been obliged to leave town a few days before for New York to embark thence for England.[2] His last visit to Philadelphia was in May, 1770, when he writes in his Journal, 24 May, "to all the Episcopal Churches, as well as to most of the other places of worship, I have free access;" and on 30 September following he died in Newburyport, where lie his remains.[3]
The friendship between these two remarkable men was begun by some common attraction the one for the other and continued through life unbroken, though their views on the deepest thoughts of humanity were so diverse. Such affinities are often witnessed, though the link is so subtle as to be undefinable. The one a Deist whose time was given to material things and his thoughts to the development of human knowledge, the other a warm believer in divine revelation and a burning preacher of the message which he claimed to have received; yet there was somewhat between them of sympathy and of a mutual understanding, which bound them to each other in a common respect and appreciation of each other's earnestness and reality. Whitefield's concern for his older friend manifested itself afterwards in many ways. He writes to him 26 November 1740, on his way to Savannah after their first meeting in Philadelphia, about his publications, and could not conclude without saying "I do not despair of your seeing the reasonableness of Christianity. Apply to GOD; be willing to do the divine will, and you shall know it."[4] And on 17 August, 1752, he writes him[5]:
I find that you grow more and more famous in the learned world. As you have made a pretty considerable progress in the mysteries of electricity, I would now humbly recommend to your diligent unprejudiced pursuit and study the mystery of the new birth. It is a most important, interesting study, and when mastered, will richly answer and repay you for all your pains. One hath solemnly declared, that without it, "we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven." You will excuse this freedom. I must have aliquid Christi in all my letters.[6] I am a yet willing pilgrim for his great name sake, and I trust a blessing attends my poor feeble labours.
He had already, more than two years before, written a letter to be referred to later on, upon the new Academy in which he held the same anxious language on behalf of his friend's plans for the education of youth.
It was about nine years before his meeting with Whitefield that Franklin "put down from time to time such thoughts as occurred" to him on the subject of religion.[7]
That there is one God, who made all things.
That he governs the world by his providence.
That he ought to be worshipped by adoration, prayer and thanksgiving.
But that the most acceptable service of God is doing good to man.
That the soul is immortal.
And that God will certainly reward virtue and punish vice, either here or hereafter.
That portion of his Autobiography in which we find these lines recorded was written, he tells us, in 1788. It was but a twelvemonth before he thus took up his pen to renew his interesting personal narrative, that occurred that memorable appeal by him in the Convention for framing the Constitution for the use of daily prayers in the deliberations of an assembly upon whom rested the perpetuation of a solid government for the United States. "He seldom spoke in a deliberative assembly except for some special object, and then briefly and with great simplicity of manner and language." Sparks[8] tells us, on the occasion now referred to, he rose and said:
In the beginning of the contest with Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers in this room for the divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard; and they were graciously answered. All of us, who were engaged in the struggle, must have observed frequent instances of a superintending Providence in our favor. To that kind Providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful Friend? or do we imagine we no longer need his assistance? I have lived, Sir, a long time; and, the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men. And, if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that "except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it." I firmly believe this; and I also believe, that, without his concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel; we shall be divided by our little, partial, local interests, our projects will be unfounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a by-word down to future ages. And, what is worse, mankind may hereafter, from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing government by human wisdom, and leave it to chance, war, and conquest. I therefore beg leave to move, that henceforth prayers, imploring the assistance of Heaven and its blessing on our deliberations, be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business; and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service.
But his appeal was unavailing, and the motion was lost, "as the Convention, except three or four persons, thought prayers unnecessary." There was that in the man that would win the friendship and respect of even a Whitefield; and one need wonder not at the exercise of this personal influence in all his intercourse with his fellow men.
But domestic concerns led him to other ingenious thoughts, though for once he here halted, not however for lack of faith, but failure at the time of the proper instrument to mature his plans. His son William had reached the age of about twelve years when he "in 1743 drew up a proposal," he tells us,[9] for establishing an academy; and at that time, thinking the Reverend Mr. Peters, who was out of employ, a fit person to superintend such an institution, I communicated the project to him; but he, having more profitable views in the service of the proprietaries which succeeded, declined the undertaking: and, not knowing another at that time suitable for such a trust, I let the scheme lie awhile dormant.
Mr. Peters, of whom much will be said on later pages, was appointed on the 14 February of this year, Secretary of the Province and Clerk to the Council; his intimate concern and interest in many of Franklin's enterprises, and his activities in furtherance of the College and Academy as finally framed and launched six years later, made him a conspicuous figure in the circle of which Franklin was the centre.
This same year witnessed the suggestion by Franklin, in his paper dated 14 May, 1743, entitled A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge among the British Plantations in America, of the American Philosophical Society, which seems to have very soon thereafter come into existence; "Benjamin Franklin, the writer of this proposal, offers himself to serve the Society as their secretary, till they shall be provided with one more capable." On 5 April, 1744, he writes to Cadwalader Colden, "that the society, so far as it relates to Philadelphia, is actually formed, and has had several meetings to mutual satisfaction."[10] The vicissitudes of this society, whose vigour lessened during Franklin's long absences abroad, need only to be referred to here in connection with its reorganization in January, 1769, when Dr. Franklin was chosen President, although then absent in London, to which office he was annually elected until his death. In writing about his first proposal for an academy in 1743, he said,[11]
I had on the whole, abundant reason to be satisfied with my being established in Pennsylvania. There were, however, two things that I regretted, there being no provision for defence, nor for a compleat education of youth; no militia, nor any college.
His plans for education had been laid aside for the present, we have seen; his plans for defence of his city against foreign invasion did not culminate for four years. Of them he writes,[12]
With respect to defense, Spain having been several years at war against Great Britain, and being at length join'd by France, which brought us into great danger; and laboured and long continued endeavour of our governor, Thomas, to prevail with our Quaker Assembly to pass a militia law, and make other provisions for the security of the province, having proved abortive, I determined to try what might be done by a voluntary association of the people. To promote this, I first wrote and published a pamphlet, entitled, Plain Truth. * * * The pamphlet had a sudden and surprising effect. I was call'd upon for the instrument of association, and having settled the draft of it with a few friends, I appointed a meeting of the citizens in the large building before mentioned, [afterwards the first home of the University], The house was pretty full; I had prepared a number of printed copies, and provided pens and ink dispers'd all over the room. I harangued them a little on the subject, read the paper and explained it, and then distributed the copies, which were eagerly signed, not the least objection being made. When the company separated, and the papers were collected, we found above twelve hundred hands; and other copies being dispersed in the country, the subscribers amounted at length to upwards of ten thousand.
Thus was formed in November, 1747, the new militia, or Associators as they were called. The officers of the companies composing the Philadelphia regiment chose Franklin as their lieutenant colonel,[13] "but, conceiving myself unfit, I declined that station," he writes, "and recommended Mr. Lawrence."
By April following nearly one thousand associations were under arms, and batteries were erected on the river front, the grand battery near the Swedes Church, on ground afterwards occupied by the United States Navy Yard, being named the Association Battery. But the news of the peace concluded at Aix la Chapelle in April reached Philadelphia on 24 August, 1748, and their zeal and resolution had no trial of contest with the dreaded enemy. Franklin adds[14]
It was thought by some of my friends, that, by my activity in these affairs, I should offend the Quakers, and thereby lose my interest in the Assembly of the province, where they formed a great majority. * * * However, I was chosen again unanimously as clerk at the next election. Possibly, as they dislik'd my late intimacy with the members of Council, who had joined the governors in all the disputes about military preparations, with which the House had long been harassed, they might have been pleas'd if I would voluntarily have left them; but they did not care to displace me on account merely of my zeal for the Association, and they could not well give another reason. Indeed, I had some cause to believe, that the defense of the country was not disagreeable to any of them, provided they were not required to assist in it.[15]
Thus far have been briefly stated the more notable actions in the first half of the life of the man who conceived the plan and laid the foundation of the institution of learning whose history is here attempted; and to all those who claim it as their alma mater, it must be a matter of reasonable pride that its Father was a man whose rare genius, and strong mind, and whose diligent employment and nurture of the various faculties his Creator had endowed him with, have made the name of Benjamin Franklin of world wide note. Other institutions of like character have an earlier origin, some may have a wider reputation; but none in our country can claim such paternity. It is well to review here in the outset his wonderful success in all practical matters; his untiring occupation of every waking hour either in self improvement, or in seeking the improvement of others; in advancing the welfare of his city, his province, and his country at large; in probing the secrets of nature in wind or current, or in that more subtle force which we name electricity whose present great development into practical uses brings afresh to mind the man who was among the first to make his fellows familiar with its wonders; in promoting learning; in disseminating useful knowledge in all the communities to which his influence reached; in laboring for better municipal government; in securing local betterments in street ways and lighting; in arousing his fellow citizens to practical measures to secure their defence against the foreign foe; in striving with the outstretched olive branch to prevent the mother country forcing a rupture with her transatlantic children, and when disappointed in that, holding with his masterly diplomatic skill foreign nations to their pledged alliance with us; and under all circumstances, in adversity as well as in prosperity, under bodily ailments as well as with full physical health, pursuing with calmness and an even tenor almost superhuman the paths of usefulness and duty which he made, or which were laid upon him by a constituency not always grateful, in private and public life equally faithful to the ends in view and the interests confided to him. Such a man it is well to hold up to the view of those who may in the coming years seek their learning on his foundations as an example of a manly and rightful ambition, of rare diligence and thrift, and of a true catholic spirit and abounding industry. He fulfilled the unconscious prediction of his worthy father, who commended to him the saying of the Wise Man, "Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before mean men."
- ↑ Tyerman, ii. 477.
- ↑ Penna. Gazette. Tyerman, ii. 484.
- ↑ Tyerman, ii. 589. William White writes from Philadelphia 9 October, 1770, to his friend James Wilson at Carlisle, "P. S. The bells are now ringing muffled for the Death of Mr. Whitefield; he died in New England." MS. letter.
- ↑ Ibid. i. 439.
- ↑ Ibid. ii. 283.
- ↑ Two years previously Whitefield made the same allusion regarding the proposals for the new Academy, in writing to Franklin 26 February, 1750: "but, I think there wants aliquid Christi in it, to make it as useful as I would desire it might be." Tyerman, ii. 251.
- ↑ Bigelow, ii. 190.
- ↑ Sparks, i. 514.
- ↑ Bigelow, i. 213.
- ↑ Bigelow, ii. 1.Duyckinck, i. 575.
He continues: "the members are
Dr Thomas Bond, as Physician
Mr John Bartram, as Botanist
Mr Thomas Godfrey, as Mathematician
Mr Samuel Rhoads, as Mechanician
Mr William Parsons, as Geographer
Dr Phineas Bond, as General Nat. Philosopher
Mr Thomas Hopkinson, President
Mr William Coleman, Treasurer
B. F——, Secretary, To whom the following members have since been added, viz: Mr Alexander, of New York; Mr Morris, Chief Justice of the Jerseys; Mr Home, Secretary of do; Mr John Coxe of Trenton; and Mr Martyn, of the same place. Mr Nicholls tells me of several other gentlemen of this city that incline to encourage the thing; and there are a number of others, in Virginia, Maryland, and the New England colonies, we expect to join us as soon as they are acquainted that the Society has begun to form itself." - ↑ Bigelow, i. 212.
- ↑ Bigelow, i. 213.
- ↑ Ibid, i. 214.
- ↑ Ibid, i. 216.
- ↑ Richard Peters approvingly narrates this Association and names Franklin as the author of it in his letter to the Proprietaries, 29 November, 1747. Sparks, vii. 20. The plan had not at first commended itself to them, as savoring too much of independence in military matters.