hoped through me (as their agent here) my countrymen. Accordingly, he called on me some days after, and produced to me these very letters from lieutenant-governor Hutchinson, secretary Oliver, and others, which have since been the subject of so much discussion. Though astonished, I could not but confess myself convinced, and I was ready, as he desired, to convince my countrymen; for I saw, I felt indeed by its effect upon myself, the tendency it must have towards a reconciliation; which for the common good I earnestly wished; it appeared, moreover, my duty to give my constituents intelligence of such importance to their affairs;-but there was some difficulty, as this gentleman would not permit copies to be taken of the letters; and if that could have been done, the authenticity of those copies might have been doubted and disputed. My simple account of them, as papers I had seen, would have been still less certain, I therefore wished to have the use of the originals or that purpose, which I at length obtained, on these express conditions: that they should not be printed, that no copies should be taken of them, that they should be shown only to a few of the leading people of the government, and that they should be carefully returned. I accepted those conditions, and under the same transmitted the original letters to the committee of correspondence at Boston, without taking or reserving any copy of them for myself. I agreed the more willingly to the restraint, from an apprehension that a publication might, considering the state of irritation in which the minds of the people there had long been kept, occasion some riot of mischievous consequence. I had no other scruple in sending them, for as they had been handed about here to injure that people, why not use them for their advantage? The writers, too, had taken the same liberty with the letters of others, transmitting hither those of Rosne and Auchmuty, in confirmation of their own calumnies against the Americans; copies of some of mine too, had been returned here by officers of government; why then should theirs be exempt from the same treatment? To whom they had been directed here I could only conjecture; for I was not informed, and there was no address upon them when I received them. My letter, in which I inclosed them, expressed more fully the motives abovementioned for sending them, and I shall presently give an extract of so much as related to them. But as it has, on the contrary, been roundly asserted, that I did not, as agent, transmit those letters to the assembly's committee of correspondence; that I sent them to a junto, my peculiar correspondents; that fearing to be known as the person who sent them, I had insisted on the keeping that circumstance a secret; that I had "shown the utmost solicitude to have that secret kept;" and as this has been urged as a demonstrative proof, that I was conscious of guilt in the manner of obtaining them, and therefore feared a discovery so much as to have been afraid of putting my name to the letter in which I inclosed them, and which only appeared to be mine by my well-known hand writing; I would here, previous to that extract, observe, that on the same paper was first written the copy of a preceding letter, which had been first signed by me as usual; and, accordingly, the letter now in question began with these words, "The above is a copy of my last ;" and all the first part of it was on business transacted by me relating to the affairs of the province, and particularly to two petitions sent to me as agent by the assembly, to be presented to the king. These circumstances must to every person there have as clearly shown me to be the writer of that letter, as my well-known hand must have done to those peculiar correspondents of my own, to whom it is said I sent it. If then I hoped to be concealed by not signing my name to such a letter, I must have been as silly as that bird, which is supposed to think itself unseen when it has hid only its head. And if I could depend on my correspondents keeping secret, a letter and a transaction which they must needs know were mine, I might as well have trusted them with ny name, and could have had. no motive for omitting it. In truth, all I insisted on was, (in pursuance of my engagement,) that the letters should not be printed or copied; but I had not at the time the least thought or desire of keeping my part in that transaction a secret; and, therefore, so far from requesting it, I did not so much as give the smallest intimation, even that it would be agreeable to me not to be mentioned on the occasion. And if I had had that inclination, I must have been very weak indeed to fancy, that the person I wrote to, all the rest of the committee of correspondence, five other persons named, and "such others as the committee might think fit to show them to," with three gentlemen here to whom I had communicated the matter, should all keep as a secret on my account what I did not state as a secret, or request should be concealed. So much of the letter as relates to the governor's letter, is as follows: "On this occasion I think it fit to acquaint you, that there has lately fallen into my hands part of a correspondence that I have reason to believe laid the foundation of most, if not all our present grievances. I am not at liberty to tell through what channel I receiv ed it; and I have engaged that it shall not be printed, nor any copies taken of the whole, or any part of it; but I am allowed to let it be seen by some men of worth in the province, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. "With the greatest esteem and respect, I have the honour to be, sir, your and the com"B. FRANKLIN." mittee's most obedient humble servant, for their satisfaction only. In confidence of time-servers, seeking their own private emoyour preserving inviolably my engagement, lument, through any quantity of public misI send you inclosed the original letters, to chief; betrayers of the interest, not of their obviate every pretence of unfairness in copy-native country only, but of the government The hands they pretend to serve, and of the whole Enging, interpolation, or omission. of the gentlemen will be well known. Possi- lish empire. bly they may not like such an exposal of their conduct, however tenderly and privately it may be managed. But if they are good men, or pretend to be such, and agree that all good men wish a good understanding and harmony to subsist between the colonies and their mother country, they ought the less to regret, that at the small expense of their reputation for sincerity and public spirit their compatriots, so desirable an event among may in some degree be forwarded. For my own part, I cannot but acknowledge, that my resentment against this country, for its arbitrary measures in governing us, conducted by the late minister, has, since my conviction by these papers, that those measures were projected, advised, and called for, by men of character among ourselves, and whose advice must therefore be attended with all the weight that was proper to mislead, and which could therefore scarce fail of misleading; my own resentment, I say, has by this means been exceedingly abated. I think they must have the same effect with you; but I am not, as I have said, at liberty to make the letters public. I can only allow them to be seen by yourself, by the other gentlemen of the committee of correspondence, by Messrs. Bowdoin and Pitts of the council, and doctors Chauncey, Cooper, and Winthrop, with a few such other gentlemen as you may think fit to show them to. After being some months in your possession, you are requested to return them to me. "As to the writers, I can easily, as well as My next letter is of January 5th, 1773, to the same gentleman, beginning with these words:-"I did myself the honour of writing to you on the 2d of December past, inclosing some original letters from persons at Boston, which I hope got safe to hand."—And then goes on with other business transacted by me as agent, and is signed with my name as usual. In truth, I never sent an anonymous letter to any person in America, since my residence in London, unless where two or more letters happened to be on the same paper, the first a copy of a preceding letter, and the subsequent referring to the preceding; in that case, I may possibly have omitted signing The first letter, acknowledging the receipt more than one of them as unnecessary. of the papers, is dated Boston, March 24, 1773, and begins thus: "I have just received your favour of the 2d December last, with the several papers inclosed, for which I am much obliged to you. I have communicated them to some of the gentlemen you mentioned. They are of opinion, that though it might be inconvenient to publish them, yet it might be expedient to have copies taken and left on sity to make some use of them hereafter: this side the water, as there may be a neceshowever, I read to them what you had wrote to me upon the occasion, and told them I could by no means consent copies of them or any part of them should be taken without your express leave; that I would write to you upon the subject, and should strictly conform to your directions." The next letter, dated April 20th, 1773, begins thus:-"I wrote you in my last, that the gentlemen to whom I had communicated the papers you sent me under cover of yours of the 2d of December last, were of opinion that they ought to be retained on this side the water, to be hereafter employed as the exigency of our affairs may require, or at least, that authenticated copies ought to be taken before they are returned: I shall have, I find, a very difficult task properly to conduct this matter, unless you obtain leave for their be ing retained or copied. I shall wait your directions on this head, and hope they will be such as will be agreeable to all the gentle men, who unanimously are of opinion, that it can by no means answer any valuable purpose to send them here for the inspection of a few persons, barely to satisfy their curiosity." On the 9th of March, I wrote to the same person, not having then received the preceding letters, and mentioned my having written to him on the 2d of December and 5th of January; and knowing what use was made against the people there, of every trifling mob; and fearing lest if the letters should, contrary to my directions, be made public, something more serious of the kind might happen, I concluded that letter thus:-"I must hope that great care will be taken to keep our people quiet, since nothing is more wished for by our enemies, than that by insurrections, we should give a good pretence for increasing the military among us, and putting us under more severe restraints. And it must be evident to all, that by our rapidly | increasing strength, we shall soon become of so much importance, that none of our just claims or privileges will be, as heretofore, unattended to, nor any security we can wish for our rights, be denied us." Mine of May 6th, begins thus:"I have received none of your favours since that of Nov. 28th. I have since written to you of the following dates, Dec. 2d, Jan. 5th, March 9th, and April 3d, which I hope got safe to hand." Thus in two, out of three letters subsequent to that of Dec. 2d, which inclosed the governor's letters, I mentioned my writing that letter, which shows I could have no intention of concealing my having written it: and that therefore the assertion of my sending it anonymously is without probability. In mine of June 24, 1773, I acknowledge the receipt of his letter of March 24th, and not being able to answer immediately, his request of leave to copy the letters, I said nothing of them then, postponing that subject to an opportunity which was expected two days after, viz: June 4th, when my letter of that date concludes thus:-"As to the letters I communicated to you, though I have not been able to obtain leave to take copies or publish them, I have permission to let the originals remain with you, as long as you may think it of any use to have the originals in possession." read to whom and as many as you think proper." The same person wrote to me, June 14th, 1773, in these terms: "I have endeavoured inviolably to keep to your injunctions with respect to the papers you sent me; I have shown them only to such persons as you directed; no one person, except Dr. Cooper, and one of the committee, knows from whom they came, or to whom they were sent. I have constantly avoided mentioning your name upon the occasion, so that it never need be known (if you incline to keep it a secret) who they came from, and to whom they were sent; and I desire, so far as I am concerned, my name may not be mentioned; for it may be a damage to me. I thought it, however, my duty to communicate them as permitted, as they contained matters of importance that very nearly affected the government; and notwithstanding all my care and precaution, it is now publicly known that such letters are here. Considering the number of persons who were to see them, (not less than ten or fifteen) it is astonishing they did not get air before." Then he goes on to relate how the assembly having heard of them, obliged him to produce them, but engaged not to print them; and that they afterwards did nevertheless print them, having got over that engagement by the appearance of copies in the house, produced by a member who it was reported had just received them from England. This letter concludes, "I have done all in my power strictly to conform to your restrictions, but from the circumstances above related, you must be sensible it was impossible to prevent the letters being made public, and therefore hope I shall be free from all blame respecting this matter." This letter accounts for its being unexpectedly to me, made a secret in Boston that I had sent the letters. The gentleman, to whom I sent them, had his reasons for desiring not to be known as the person who received and communicated them; but as this would have been suspected, if it were known that I sent them, that circumstance was to be kept a secret. Accordingly, they were given to another, to be by him produced by the committee.* * When Dr. Franklin put in his answer to the bill in Chancery, which had been filed against him in the name of Mr. Whately, he demurred to two of the interrogatories which it contained, and by which he was he had received the letters in question, and also the required to name the person in England from whom person in America to whom they had by him been transmitted; and declined making any disclosure of and he was ordered to answer these interrogatories: but feeling that his doing so would be a violation of his the letters, and probably injurious to the person to engagement to the person from whom he had received In mine of July 1773, I answer the above of April 20, as follows:-"The letters communicated to you were not merely to satisfy the curiosity of any, but it was thought there might be a use in showing them to some friends of the province, and even to some of the governor's party, for their more certain information concerning his conduct and politics, though the letters were not made quite public. I believe I have since written to you, that there was no occasion to return them speedily; and though I cannot obtain leave as yet to suffer copies to be taken of them, I am allowed to say, that they may be shown and done this conscientiously; and so completely, that the their names. This demurrer was however overruled; whom they had been sent, he thought it incumbent on him to return to America, and thereby avoid the breach of his engagement, and he appears to have My answer to this was of July 25th, 1773, | ed the communication of them so far as I as follows: "I am favoured with yours of could. I was sensible I should make enemies June 14th, containing some copies of the re- there, and perhaps might offend government solves of the committee upon the letters. I here; but these apprehensions I disregarded. see by your account of the transaction, that I did not expect, and hardly still expect, that you could not well prevent what was done. my sending them could be kept a secret. But As to the report of other copies being come since it is such hitherto, I now wish it may from England, I think that could not be. It continue so, because the publication of the was an expedient to disengage the house.* I letters, contrary to my engagement, has hope the possession of the originals, and the changed the circumstances."-His reply to proceedings upon them, will be attended with this of the 10th of November, is, "After all salutary effects to the province, and then I the solicitous inquiries of the governor and shall be well pleased.-I observe what you his friends respecting his letters, it still remention, that no person besides Dr. Cooper, mains a secret from and to whom they were and one of the committee, knew they came sent here. This is known among us, to two from me. I did not accompany them with only besides myself; and will remain undisany request of being myself concealed, for be- covered, unless further intelligence should lieving what I did, to be in the way of my come from your side the water, than I have duty as agent, though I had no doubt of its reason to think has yet been obtained. I cangiving offence, not only to the parties ex- not, however, but admire your honest openposed, but to administration here, I was re- ness in this affair, and noble negligence of gardless of the consequences. However, any inconveniencies that might arise to yoursince the letters themselves are now copied self in this essential service to our injured and printed, contrary to the promise I made, country." I am glad my name has not been heard on the occasion; and as I do not see it could be of any use to the public, I now wish it may continue unknown, though I hardly expect it. As to yours, you may rely on my never mentioning it, except that I may be obliged to show your letter in my own vindication, to the person only who might otherwise think • he had reason to blame ME for breach of engagement." With the abovementioned letter of the 14th of June, I received one from another of the gentlemen to whom the papers had been communicated, which says, "By whom and to whom they were sent, is still a secret, known only to three persons here, and may still remain so if you desire it." My answer to him of July 25th, was, “I accompanied them with no restriction relating to myself; my duty to the province as their agent, I thought requir To another friend I wrote of the same date, July 25th, what will show the apprehensions I was constantly under, of the mischiefs that might attend a breach from the exasperated state of things, and the arguments I used to prevent it, viz. "I am glad to see that you are elected into the council, and are about to take part in our public affairs. Your abilities, integrity, and sober attachment to the liberties of our country, will be of great use at this tempestuous time, in conducting our little bark into a safe harbour. By the Boston newspapers, there seem to be among us some violent spirits who are for an immediate rupture. But I trust the general prudence of our countrymen will see, that by our growing strength we advance fast to a situation in which our claims must be allowed; that by a premature struggle we may be crippled and kept down another age; that as between friends every affront is not worth a duel, and between nations every injury is not worth a ascertained, till declared by Dr. W. himself; nor were war; so between the governed and the goany of the conjectures respecting that person founded verning, every mistake in government, every upon, or suggested by, any infidelity or indiscretion on the part of Dr. Franklin. He was not however under encroachment on rights, is not worth a rebelan equal obligation to secrecy, in regard to the person lion: it is, in my opinion, sufficient for the he therefore confidentially informed a friend of his. (Dr. present, that we hold them forth on all occaBancroft, that they had been sent to Mr. Cushing, sions, not giving up any of them, using at then speaker of the house of representatives of the the same time every means to make them Massachusetts' Bay with whom it was Dr. Franklin's duty, as agent for the assembly of that province, to generally understood and valued by the peocorresponda fact now ascertained in his PRIVATE ple; cultivating a harmony among the coloCORRESPONDENCE, Part II., and which there is no long-nies, that their union in the same sentiments *Men sometimes think it allowable to act improper may give them greater weight; rememberly for what they consider as good purposes. This was done at Boston, in regard to the letters under considering, withal, that this Protestant country (our ation:-a publication of these letters was deemed of mother, though of late an unkind one,) is the highest importance, by the leading members of the worth preserving, and that her weight in the house of representatives; and copies of them were therefore made unwarrantably; and these, the late scale of Europe, her safety in a great degree, Mr. Hancock was induced to bring forward in that may depend on our union with her. Thus house, of which he was a member, and to declare that conducting, I am confident, we may within a few years, obtain every allowance of, and person from whom the letters were received, was never to whom the letters were immediately transmitted; and er any motive for concealing. they had been sent to him from England; a declara. tion which could not have been true. and its friendship of course daily becoming more valuable, and more likely to be cultivated by an attention to its rights. The newspapers have announced, that treason is found in some of my letters. It must then be of some new species. The invention of court lawyers has always been fruitful in the discovery of new treasons: and perhaps it is now become treason to censure the conduct of ministers. None of any other kind, I am sure, can be found in my correspondence. The effect of the governor's letters on the minds of the people in New England, when they came to be read there, was precisely what had been expected, and proposed, by sending them over. It was now seen that the grievances, which had been so deeply resented, as measures of the mother country, were, in fact, the measures of two or three of their own people; of course all that resentment was withdrawn from her, and fell where it was proper it should fall, on the heads of those caitiffs, who were the authors of the mischief. Both houses took up the matter in this light. The council resolved that [This piece is wanting.] and the house of representatives agreed to the following resolves, reported by the committee appointed to consider the letters, viz :— "The Committee appointed to consider certain Letters, laid before the House of Representatives, reported the following Resolves. every security for, our inestimable privileges, that we can wish or desire."-His answer of December 31st, is, "I concur perfectly with you in the sentiments expressed in your last. No considerate person, I should think, can approve of desperate remedies, except in desperate cases. The people of America are extremely agitated by the repeated efforts of administration to subject them to absolute power. They have been amused with accounts of the pacific disposition of the ministry, and flattered with assurances that upon their humble petitions all their grievances would be redressed. They have petitioned from time to time; but their petitions have had no other effect than to make them feel more sensibly their own slavery. Instead of redress, every year has produced some new manœuvre, which could have no tendency but to irritate them more and more. The last measure of the East India company's sending their tea here, subject to a duty, seems to have given the finishing stroke to their patience. You will have heard of the steps taken at Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, to prevent the payment of this duty, by sending the tea back to its owners; but as this was found impossible at Boston, the destruction of the tea was the consequence. What the event of these commotions will be, God only knows. The people through the colonies appear immovably fixed in their resolution, that the tea duty shall never be paid; and if the ministry are determined to enforce these measures, I dread the consequences. Ison, and Andrew Oliver, now under the consideration of verily fear they will turn America into a field of blood. But I will hope for the best." I am told that administration is possessed of most of my letters sent or received on public affairs for some years past. Copies of them having been obtained from the files of the several assemblies, or as they passed through the post office. I do not condemn their ministerial industry, or complain of it. The foregoing extracts may be compared with those copies; and I can appeal to them with confidence, that upon such comparison these extracts will be found faithfully made. And that the whole tenor of my letters has been, to persuade patience and a careful guarding against all violence, under the grievances complained of, and this from various considerations, such as that the welfare of the empire depended upon the union of its parts, that the sovereign was well disposed towards us, and the body of this nation, our friends and well-wishers; that it was the ministry only who were prejudiced against us; that the sentiments of ministers might in time be changed, or the ministers themselves be changed; or that if those chances failed, at least time would infallibly bring redress, since the strength, weight, and importance of America was continually and rapidly increasing, 46 Tuesday, June 15th, 1773. "Resolved, That the letters signed Thomas Hutchinthis house, appear to be the genuine letters of the present governor and lieutenant-governor of this province, whose hand-writing and signatures are well known to many of the members of this house: and that they contain aggravated accounts of facts, and misrepresentations: and that one manifest design of them was to represent the matters they treat of in a light highly injurious to this province, and the persous against whom they were written. Resolved, That though the letters aforesaid, signed Thomas Hutchinson, are said by the governor in his message to this house of June 9th, to be, private letters written to a gentleman in London, since deceased,' and that all except the last were written many months before he came to the chair; yet that they were writ vernor and chief justice of this province; who has been represented abroad, as eminent for his abilities, as for his exalted station; and was under no official obligation to transmit private intelligence: and that they therefore must be considered by the person to whom they were sent, as documents of solid intelligence: and that this gentleman in London to whom they were written, was then a member of the British parliament, and one who was very active in American affairs; and must naturally be supposed to have, and really had, a public operation. ten by the present governor, when he was lieutenant-go therefore that these letters, however secretly written, Resolved. That these 'private letters' being writ ten with express confidence of secrecy,' was only to prevent the contents of them being known here, as ap pears by said letters; and this rendered them the more injurious in their tendency, and really insidious. "Resolved, That the letters signed Thomas Hutchinson, considering the person by whom they were writ ten, the matters they expressly contain, the express reference in some of them for full intelligence' to Mr Hallowell, a person deeply interested in the measures so much complained of, and recommendatory notices of divers other persons, whose emoluments arising from our public burdens must excite them to unfavourable |