To Benjamin Franklin from Richard Price, 12 July 1784
From Richard Price
ALS: American Philosophical Society
Newington Green July 12th: 1784
Dear Sir
I request your acceptance of the pamphlet which accompanies this letter.8 It is intended entirely for America, and you are one of the first persons to whom it has been communicated. Most of the few copies which I have printed will be convey’d to America; and I hope the united States will forgive my presumption in Supposing myself qualified to advise them. Indeed I almost feel myself ashamed of what I have done but the consciousness wch I have that it is well-intended, and that my address to them is the effusion of a heart that wishes to Serve the best interests of Society, helps to reconcile me to myself in this instance, and it will, I hope, engage the candour of others.
The letter from M. Turgot which you will receive with this Stands at present in the Press, and will Stand there till I Shall be made acquainted with your opinion concerning the propriety of making it public by conveying it to the united States with my own Pamphlet.9 The reason of my doubts about this is the charge of Secrecy with which it concludes, and which you will find written in the margin.1 In compliance with this charge I have hitherto kept this letter private; but lately I have consider’d that probably it was only Some apprehension of personal inconvenience that led him to give this charge, and that consequently the obligation to comply with it ceased with his life. Dreading, however, every thing that might be reckon’d a breach of confidence, my Scruples are continually returning upon me; and I feel them the more, when I think that possibly he may have left a family which may Suffer in France when it appears there that he was so much a friend to liberty as this letter will Shew him to be. In this State of mind I cannot make myself easy in any other way than by determining to request the favour of your judgment and to abide by it. Should you think that no ill consequences can result from publishing this letter to any family that M. Turgot may have left, and that his death has free’d me from any obligation to keep it Secret, I will order it to be printed off and Send it to America with my pamphlet. Should you think the contrary, it Shall be Suppress’d and I Shall depend on your being so good as to destroy the copy now Sent you. You will add much to the obligation I am under to you for all your friendship by giving me a few lines on this Subject as soon as may be convenient to you. Should you think it improper to write by the post, a letter or any parcel you may wish to convey to London, may be Sent by Miss Wilkes who is on a visit with the Dutchess de la Valliere at Paris and will return the 2d: of August.2
I writ to you by the Post about three months ago,3 and hope you received my letter. I have heard lately with pleasure that you are pretty well. May your health and life and usefulness be continued as long as the course of nature will admit. Are we never to have the Satisfaction of Seeing you again in London? I have lately been at Birmingham to visit Dr Priestley. He is very happy there and going on Successfully with his experimts:.
Mrs Price desires to be respectfully remember’d to you. She is in a very weak and low State, but not worse than She has been for Some time. We are thinking of Spending the next month at Brighthelmston. Wishing you every blessing I am, my Dear Friend, with the greatest regard ever Yours
Richd: Price
Perhaps Some passages may occur to you in M. Turgot’s letter wch: might be best omitted, Should you approve of publishing it. I have marked one in P. 91 and another in P. 102.
Addressed: To / Benjamin Franklin Esq: / a / Passy / Near Paris
Notation: Richd. Price 12 July 1784.—
8. Richard Price, Observations on the Importance of the American Revolution, and The Means of making it a Benefit to the World (London, 1784). The pamphlet was dedicated to “The Free and United States of America … as a last testimony of the good-will of The Author.” As that dedication was dated July 6, the sheets must have just been printed. The pamphlet would not be issued until the following October, by which time it had been expanded to include the letter from Turgot that is the subject of Price’s query in the second paragraph.
Observations offered wide-ranging and emphatic advice. Tackling the public debt should be the nation’s first priority; peace between states could be secured by giving a strengthened Congress the power to form a militia; freedom of religion and of speech must be guaranteed; modes of education must be reformed; foreign trade—which inevitably led to urban luxury— should be avoided; and the slave trade had to be abolished and the slaves emancipated at once.
9. In early 1778 Price asked BF to give Turgot a copy of his newly published Two Tracts on Civil Liberty. Turgot responded with a long and candid letter dated March 22, 1778, which he begged Price to keep secret. Highly critical of Great Britain for its treatment of the colonies, Turgot was certain that the United States would win independence, but he wondered whether the states would be able to cohere and form a viable union. He described various obstacles the states faced and proposed solutions. At the end, he observed that England and France were causing each other great harm, to no advantage; neither would gain by the war. The letter is published with a 1785 English translation in Peach and Thomas, Price Correspondence, II, 3–19. Turgot’s first sentence acknowledges having received the pamphlet from BF, at Price’s request; no other evidence of this transaction has been found.
1. Price had all of Turgot’s letter set in type except the final sentences, which he handwrote. In this passage, Turgot asked that Price not only keep the letter confidential but also exercise great caution when answering by post—he begged that Price not allude to any specifics—since the letter would be opened and read by the French post office. The former minister feared that he would be judged too much of an “ami de la liberté pour un ministre, même pour un ministre disgracié!” BF’s Aug. 2 letter, below, gave Price the approval he was seeking to publish Turgot’s letter, including the handwritten ending, which appears in the pamphlet on pp. 108–9.
2. Mary (Polly) Wilkes (1750–1802) was John Wilkes’s daughter. The duchess with whom she was staying, widow of the duc de la Vallière, was born Anne-Julie-Françoise de Crussol (1713–1793): Peach and Thomas, Price Correspondence, II, 219n; Lewis, Walpole Correspondence, III, 17n.
3. April 6, above.