Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow DXXIX: TO SAMUEL DANFORTH - The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. VI Letters and Misc. Writings 1772-1775

Return to Title Page for The Works of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. VI Letters and Misc. Writings 1772-1775

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Political Theory

DXXIX: TO SAMUEL DANFORTH - 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).

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


DXXIX

TO SAMUEL DANFORTH

London, 25 July, 1773.

Dear Sir:—

It gave me great pleasure to receive so cheerful an epistle from a friend of half a century’s standing, and to see him commencing life anew in so valuable a son. I hope the young gentleman’s patent will be as beneficial to him, as his invention must be to the public.

I see by the papers that you continue to afford her your services, which makes me almost ashamed of my resolutions for retirement. But this exile, though an honorable one, is become grievous to me, in so long a separation from my family, friends, and country, all which you happily enjoy; and long may you continue to enjoy them. I hope for the great pleasure of once more seeing and conversing with you; and, though living on in one’s children, as we both may do, is a good thing, I cannot but fancy it might be better to continue living ourselves at the same time. I rejoice, therefore, in your kind intentions of including me in the benefits of that inestimable stone, which, curing all diseases (even old age itself), will enable us to see the future glorious state of our America, enjoying in full security her own liberties, and offering in her bosom a participation of them to all the oppressed of other nations. I anticipate the jolly conversation we and twenty more of our friends may have a hundred years hence on this subject, over that well-replenished bowl at Cambridge Commencement. I am, dear sir, for an age to come, and for ever, with sincere esteem and respect, your most obedient, humble servant,

B. Franklin.