331From Benjamin Franklin to Cadwallader Colden, 27 November 1747 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : New-York Historical Society The violent Party Spirit that appears in all the Votes &c. of your Assembly, seems to me extreamly unseasonable as well as unjust, and to threaten Mischief not only to your selves but to your Neighbours. It begins to be plain, that the French may reap great Advantages from your Divisions: God grant they may be as blind to their own Interest, and as negligent...
332From Benjamin Franklin to William Strahan, 28 November 1747 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I received your Favour of June 11. per Capt. Tiffin, with the Books, &c. all in good Order. Mr. Parks, who drew the Bill on Guidart & Sons, is surpriz’d at their Protesting it, they having, as he says, large Effects of his in their Hands: He will speedily renew that Bill. Enclos’d I send you a Bill on Xr. Kilby Esqr, for £19.7.1½ Sterling, which I hope will...
333Richard Peters to the Proprietaries, 29 November 1747 (Franklin Papers)
Letterbook copy: Historical Society of Pennsylvania Abundance of Stories have been told by Sailors and others who have been taken by French Privateers and carried into Martinico and Guardalupe that the French know our Bay and River as well as we do, that they are sure the Quakers will not consent to the raising Fortifications, that there are no Men of War upon the Coast and that vast Wealth...
334To Benjamin Franklin from James Logan, 3 December 1747 (Franklin Papers)
Reprinted from Sparks, Works , VII , 24–7. I have expected to see thee here for several weeks, according to my son’s information, with Euclid’s title-page printed, and my Mattaire’s Lives of the Stephenses; but it is probable thy thoughts of thy new excellent project have in some measure diverted thee, to which I most heartily wish all possible success; of which, notwithstanding, I have some...
335Scheme of the First Philadelphia Lottery, 5 December 1747 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The Pennsylvania Gazette , December 12, 1747. The most urgent problem for the Association was not armed men, but money. Volunteering for military service, especially when there was no likelihood of being called to duty unless one’s own city was actually threatened, was one thing; it was another to make a free gift of money to buy supplies. Franklin’s solution was a lottery. Managers...
336From Benjamin Franklin to James Logan, 7 December 1747 (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from Sparks, Works , VII , 28. I am heartily glad you approve of our proceedings. We shall have arms for the poor in the spring, and a number of battering cannon. The place for the batteries is not yet fixed; but it is generally thought that near Red Bank will be most suitable, as the enemy must there have natural difficulties to struggle with, besides the channel being...
337Address to the Associators, 7 December 1747 (Franklin Papers)
MS (fragment): American Philosophical Society The Associators—almost 600 in number—assembled with their arms at the court house on December 7 for their first meeting. Secretary Richard Peters, at the order of the President and Council, informed them that their “Proceedings are not disapprov’d by the Government,” and assured them that commissions would be “readily granted” to the officers...
338Proclamation for a General Fast, 9 December 1747 (Franklin Papers)
Broadside: Yale University Library The minutes of the Governor’s Council of December 8, 1747, record that that body, “taking into Consideration the State of the War in general, the Sickness that lately rag’d over this City and the Province, the probability of our Enemies making a Descent on the City, and the Calamitous Situation of our Frontiers,” in order to awaken the inhabitants to “a just...
339The Manner of Drawing a Public Lottery, 22 December 1747 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The Pennsylvania Gazette , December 22, 1747. This explanation is an integral part of the proposals for a lottery (see above, p. 220). Franklin very likely composed it, though there is no proof that he did. An Account of the Manner of Drawing a Publick Lottery . Suppose a Lottery to consist of Ten Thousand Tickets; as the present Philadelphia Lottery does. Before the Tickets are...
340Poor Richard Improved, 1748 (Franklin Papers)
Poor Richard improved: Being an Almanack and Ephemeris of the Motions of the Sun and Moon; the True Places and Aspects of the Planets; the Rising and Setting of the Sun; and the Rising, Setting and Southing of the Moon, for the Bissextile Year, 1748 . … By Richard Saunders, Philom. Philadelphia: Printed and Sold by B. Franklin. (Yale University Library) For fifteen years Franklin had published...