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Benjamin Franklin: Congress

Despairing of restoring harmony between the colonies and mother country, Doctor Franklin embarked for America, where he arrived in 1776. He was received with every mark of esteem and admiration. He was immediately elected a delegate to the General Congress, and signed the Declaration of Independence. In 1776, he was deputed with others to proceed to Canada, to persuade the people of that province to throw off the British yoke; but the inhabitants of Canada had been so much disgusted with the zeal of the people of New England, who had burnt some of their chapels, that they refused to listen to the proposals made to them by Franklin and his associates. In 1778, he was despatched by Congress, as ambassador to France. The treaty of alliance with the French government, and the treaties of peace, in 1782 and 1783, as well as treaties with Sweden and Prussia, were signed by him. On his reaching Philadelphia, in September, 1785, his arrival was hailed by applauding thousands of his countrymen, who conducted him in triumph to his residence. This was a period of which he always spoke with peculiar pleasure. In 1788, he withdrew from public life, and on the 17th of April, 1790, he expired in the city of Philadelphia, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. Congress directed a general mourning for him throughout the United States; and the National Assembly of France decreed that each member should wear mourning for three days. Doctor Franklin lies buried in the north-west corner of Christ Church yard, in Philadelphia. In his will he directed that no monumental ornaments should mark his grave. A small marble slab points out the spot where he lies. Doctor Franklin had two children, a son and a daughter. The son, under the British government, was appointed governor of New Jersey. On the breaking out of the revolution he took up his residence in England, where he spent the remainder of his days. The daughter was respectably married in Philadelphia, to Mr. William Bache, whose descendants still reside in that city. In stature, Dr. Franklin was above the middle size. He possessed a sound constitution, and his countenance indicated a placid state of mind, great depth of thought, and an inflexible resolution. In youth he took a sceptical turn with regard to religion, but his strength of mind led him to fortify himself against vice by such moral principles as directed him to the most valuable ends, by honorable means. According to the testimony of his most intimate friend, Dr. William Smith, he became, in maturer years, a believer in divine revelation. The following epitaph on himself was written by Doctor Franklin many years previously to his death:-- The body of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, PRINTER, like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out, and stript of its lettering and gilding, lies here, food for worms. Yet the work itself shall not be lost; for it will (as he believed) appear once more in a new and more beautiful edition, corrected and amended by the Author.