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CCCCLXXIII: TO JOSEPH GALLOWAY, ESQ. - Benjamin Franklin, The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. VI Letters and Misc. Writings 1772-1775 [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. VI (Letters and Misc. Writings 1772-1775).

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CCCCLXXIII

TO JOSEPH GALLOWAY, ESQ.

London, 6 January, 1773.

Dear Friend:—

I have received your favors of October 18th and 30th. I am obliged greatly to you and Mr. Rhodes for your friendly interposition in the affair of my salary. As I never made any bargain with the House, I accept thankfully whatever they please to give me, and shall continue to serve them as long as I can afford to stay here. Perhaps it may be thought that my other agencies contribute more than sufficient for that purpose, but the Jersey allowance, though well paid, is a very small one; that from Georgia, £100 only, is some years in arrear, and will not be continued, as their appointment is by a yearly act, which, I am told, the governor will not again pass with my name in it; and from Boston I have never received a farthing, perhaps never shall, as their governor is instructed to pass no salary to an agent whose appointment he has not assented to. In these circumstances, with an almost double expense of living by my family remaining in Philadelphia, the losses I am continually suffering in my affairs there through absence, together with my now advanced age, I feel renewed inclinations to return and spend the remainder of my days in private life, having had rather more than my share of public bustle. I only wish first to improve a little, for the general advantage of our country, the favorable appearances arising from the change of our American minister, and the good light I am told I stand in with the successor. If I be instrumental in [illegible] things in good train, with a prospect of their [illegible] on a better footing than they have had for some years past, I shall think a little additional time well spent, though I were to have no allowance for it at all.

I must, however, beg you will not think of retiring from public business. You are yet a young man, and may still be greatly serviceable to your country. It would be, I think, something criminal to bury in private retirement so early all the usefulness of so much experience and such great abilities. The people do not indeed always see their friends in the same favorable light; they are sometimes mistaken, and sometimes misled; but sooner or later they come right again, and redouble their former affection. This, I am confident, will happen in your case, as it often has in the case of others. Therefore, preserve your spirits and persevere, at least to the age of sixty, a boundary I once fixed for myself, but have gone beyond it.

I am afraid the bill, Wilcocks on Col. Alex. Johnstone, for £166 15 3½ must be returned with a protest. I shall know in a day or two.

I shall consult Mr. Jackson, and do in the island affair what shall be thought best for securing your interest and that of all concerned.

By our spring ships I shall write you more fully. At present I can only add that I am with unalterable esteem and affection,

Yours most sincerely,

B. Franklin.