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CCCXL: TO DUPONT DE NEMOURS 1 - Benjamin Franklin, The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. V Letters and Misc. Writings 1768-1772 [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. V (Letters and Misc. Writings 1768-1772).

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CCCXL

TO DUPONT DE NEMOURS1

London, 28 July, 1768.

I received your obliging letter of the 10th May, with the most acceptable present of your Physiocratie, which I have read with great pleasure, and received from it a great deal of instruction. There is such a freedom from local and national prejudices and partialities, so much benevolence to mankind in general, so much goodness mixt with the wisdom, in the principles of your new philosophy, that I am perfectly charmed with them, and wish I could have stayed in France for some time, to have studied in your school, that I might by conversing with its founders have made myself quite a master of that philosophy. . . . I had, before I went into your country, seen some letters of yours to Dr. Templeman, that gave me a high opinion of the doctrines you are engaged in cultivating and of your personal talents and abilities, which made me greatly desirous of seeing you. Since I had not that good fortune, the next best thing is the advantage you are so good to offer me of your correspondence, which I shall ever highly value, and endeavor to cultivate with all the diligence I am capable of.

I am sorry to find that that wisdom which sees the welfare of the parts in the prosperity of the whole, seems yet not to be known in this country. . . . . We are so far from conceiving that what is best for mankind, or even for Europe in general, may be best for us, that we are even studying to establish and extend a separate interest of Britain, to the prejudice of even Ireland and our own colonies. . . . It is from your philosophy only that the maxims of a contrary and more happy conduct are to be drawn, which I therefore sincerely wish may grow and increase till it becomes the governing philosophy of the human species, as it must be that of superior beings in better worlds. I take the liberty of sending you a little fragment that has some tincture of it, which, on that account, I hope may be acceptable.

Be so good as to present my sincere respect to that venerable apostle, Dr. Quesnay, and to the illustrious Ami des Hommes (of whose civilities to me at Paris I retain a grateful remembrance), and believe me to be, with real and very great esteem, Sir,

Your obliged and most obedient humble servant,

B. Franklin.

[1 ]Among the cherished friendships which grew out of Franklin’s visit to Paris in 1767-8, was that with Dupont de Nemours, one of the chief apostles of the school of French Economistes, of whom Doctor Quesnay and the Marquis de Mirabeau were the high priests. Dupont studied for the medical profession, but his attention was early turned aside to economical and agricultural inquiries about which he became a voluminous writer. He enjoyed the confidence of Turgot, under whom he took office. He afterward wrote the Mémoires sur la Vie de Turgot. He assisted Vergennes in negotiating the treaty for the recognition of the Independence of the United States in 1782, and the treaty of commerce with Great Britain of 1786. During the French Revolution he found it convenient to emigrate to the United States. On his return he assisted in negotiating the purchase of Louisiana by the United States, and, at the request of Jefferson, prepared a scheme of national education for the young republic, which was published in 1812 and entitled Sur l’Education Nationale dans les États Unis. On the downfall of Napoleon in 1814, Dupont became Secretary to the Provisional government, and on the restoration was made Counsellor of State. The return of the Emperor in 1815 determined him to leave France and join his two sons, who had settled on the banks of the Delaware, where they had established a powder manufactory, which is still one of the flourishing industries of the country. He died there in 1817. Dupont failed to see Franklin on his first visit to Paris, but soon after his return sent him his treatise entitled Physiocratie and with it a letter, to which, the letter in the text is a reply.