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Subject Area: Political Theory
Subject Area: Science

XXVII: TO CADWALLADER COLDEN 1 - Benjamin Franklin, The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. II Letters and Misc. Writings 1735-1753 [1904]

Edition used:

The Works of Benjamin Franklin, including the Private as well as the Official and Scientific Correspondence, together with the Unmutilated and Correct Version of the Autobiography, compiled and edited by John Bigelow (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1904). The Federal Edition in 12 volumes. Vol. II (Letters and Misc. Writings 1735-1753).

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XXVII

TO CADWALLADER COLDEN1

Philadelphia, 4 November, 1743.

Sir:—

I received the favor of yours with the proposal for a new method of printing, which I am much pleased with; and since you express some confidence in my opinion, I shall consider it very attentively and particularly, and in a post or two send you some observations on every article.

My long absence from home in the summer put my business so much behindhand that I have been in a continual hurry ever since my return, and had no leisure to forward the scheme of the Society. But that hurry being now near over, I purpose to proceed in the affair very soon, your approbation being no small encouragement to me.

I cannot but be fond of engaging in a correspondence so advantageous to me as yours must be. I shall always receive your favors as such, and with great pleasure.

I wish I could by any means have made your son’s longer stay here as agreeable to him as it would have been to those who began to be acquainted with him. I am, Sir, with much respect,

Your most humble servant,

B. Franklin.

[1 ]This was in reply to an ingenious suggestion which partially anticipated the more modern systems of stereotyping. The author of it, Mr. Colden, was born in Scotland on the 17th of February, 1688, was educated at the University of Edinburgh, came to Philadelphia in 1708, where he practised medicine until 1715, then travelled in Europe, returned in 1718, and settled in New York. He died at his country home on Long Island on the 27th of September, 1776, in the eighty-ninth year of his age. Soon after taking up his residence in New York he abandoned his profession and entered public life, maintaining, however, meanwhile, an extensive correspondence, especially with the eminent men of science both at home and abroad. He held the offices of surveyor-general of the province, master in chancery, member of the council, and lieutenant-governor, which latter dignity he filled for some fifteen years. He wrote several treatises on medical, mathematical, and philosophical subjects, and a history of the Five Indian Nations, which is still read.

In his letter he solicits a correspondence with Franklin. In his reply Franklin promises to consider his proposal for a new method of printing, very particularly and attentively, and in a post or two to “send some observations on every article,” but no such observations have been found, nor is it likely that any were written.—Editor.