Main currents in American thought

Footnotes

[1] “You know,” wrote Franklin to his wife on the eve of his departure, “that I have many enemies ... and very bitter ones; and you must expect their enmity will extend in some degree to you.” He was forced to slip away and get secretly on board the vessel. His activities were reproved thus by a certain Tory lady:

Oh! had he been wise to pursue

The track for his talents designed,

What a tribute of praise had been due

To the teacher and friend of mankind.

But to covet political fame

Was in him a degrading ambition,

The spark that from Lucifer came,

And kindled the blaze of sedition.

(In Works, Vol. VII, p. 267.)

In Sargent’s Loyal Verses of Joseph Stansbury and Doctor Jonathan Odell, these verses are attributed to a less likely source.

[2]Works, Vol. VII, p. 398.

[3]Ibid., Vol. V, p. 81.

[4]Ibid., Vol. II, p. 428. A good deal of light is thrown upon the ways of the ministry in Franklin’s account, Negotiations in London. See in particular pp. 37, 68, 76 of Vol. V, where Lord Hyde and Lord Howe exhibit special solicitude for his advancement. His letters tell of successive attempts to approach him, and among his works is a little skit in which he speaks of himself thus: “Your correspondent Brittannicus inveighs violently against Dr. Franklin, for his ingratitude to the ministry of this nation, who have conferred upon him so many favors. They gave him the post-office of America: they made his son a governor; and they offered him a post of five hundred a year in the salt-office, if he would relinquish the interests of his country; but he has had the wickedness to continue true to it, and is as much an American as ever. As it is a settled point in government here, that every man has his price, it is plain they are bunglers in their business, and have not given him enough.” (Works, Vol. IV, pp. 534–535.)

[5]Ibid., Vol. VIII, p. 146.

[6]Ibid., Vol. VIII, pp. 215, 505.

[7]Ibid., Vol. VIII, p. 177.

[8]Works, Vol. II, p. 254.

[9] P. 64.

[10] See Economic Writings of Sir W. Petty, Cambridge Press, Vol. I, pp. 43–51.

[11]Works, Vol. IV, p. 19.

[12]Ibid., Vol. II, p. 376.

[13]Ibid., Vol. II, p. 438.

[14]Ibid., Vol. II, p. 401.

[15]Ibid., Vol. II, p. 323.

[16] See “Reflections on the Augmentation of Wages, etc.,” in Ibid., Vol. II, p. 436.

[17] “On Luxury, Idleness, and Industry,” in Ibid., Vol. II, pp. 448–451.

[18]Works, Vol. IV, p. 282. For Franklin’s views on American representation in Parliament, see Vol. VII, pp. 315, 329.

[19] See the pamphlet indorsed Some Good Whig Principles, of the probable date of 1768–69, in Works, Vol. II.

[20]Works of Thomas Paine, edited by Moncure D. Conway, Vol. IV, p. 465.

[21] In “Queries and Remarks Respecting Alterations in the Constitution of Pennsylvania,” in Works, Vol. V, p. 167.