dispose of the question whether or not the origin of the American Society is to be traced to the Junto founded by Franklin in 1727; and it is this question which your present Committee has considered. We have carefully reviewed the evidence presented to the Committee of 1840, which is now printed and accompanies this report; we have given due attention to such new evidence as could be found; and we have been guided by the same principle that was in the minds, though perhaps not quite enough in the view, of the older Committee, which has been formulated in the ruling of the Carnegie Foundation for the case of educational institutions, to wit, that "by date of founding is meant the year in which the institution was established, out of which the present college or university has developed."

The American Philosophical Society as at present constituted, was formed in 1769 by the union of the society originally of the same name, founded by Franklin in 1743, with a body known as the American Society for Promoting and Propagating Useful Knowledge, which was the new name formally adopted by the Junto in December 1766. Was this Junto, later known as the American Society, the Junto founded by Franklin in 1727, or, as the older Committee's report contends, was it a society established about 1750 in close imitation of Franklin's Junto, conceivably by sons or friends of the members of the older society, with the result that two societies under the same name of "The Junto" existed for some time side by side?

Of Franklin's Junto little is known beyond what he tells in his autobiography. It seems to have gone through the usual phases of activity, somnolence, or even suspended animation, and revival. Its membership was limited to twelve, its proceedings were secret. It still existed in 1765, when Hugh Roberts writes to Franklin, "I sometimes visit the worthy remains of the ancient Junto."

The minutes of the Junto in the Society's possession, -the organization which your present Committee believe to be Franklin's old club, but which the older Committee claimed to be of separate origin,—begin on September 22, 1758, and extend to October 22, 1762. From October 16, 1761, until September 3, 1762, there had been no meetings. On the date last named the following minute is made: "The members of the Junto desirous of continuing the Society, met this evening, having again agreed with Mr. Caruthers for the room on the same terms on which we had it formerly." Only a few more meetings were held until October 22, 1762, when three members were present and two members were noted as absent. Here ends the first volume of minutes. The next volume of minutes begins April 25, 1766, showing nine members of the Junto, three of whom were members at the supposed suspension four years before. The minutes now continue regularly until the union of the two societies.

In 1760, it is interesting to note, absence and other causes had reduced the membership to six; and on Feb

ruary 6, 1761, there was talk of dissolution. It was finally decided, however, to return to the original plan of organization; and as the original rules could not be found, it was decided to write them anew from the recollection of the members. As set down, these rules do not differ materially from those which Franklin records of his Junto. On December 13, 1766, the name of the Junto was changed to the American Society for Promoting and Propagating Useful Knowledge Held in Philadelphia, and its membership was increased.

The gap from October 22, 1762, to April 25, 1766, seems to be in part explained by the letter of Philip Syng to Dr. Franklin under date of March 1, 1766, in which he says: "The Junto fainted last summer in the hot weather, and has not yet revived; your presence might reanimate it, without which, I apprehend, it will never recover." This statement clearly refers to the same Junto which Dr. Franklin mentions in his letter of July 7, 1765, to Hugh Roberts, in which he says: “I wish you would continue to meet the Junto, notwithstanding that some effects of our public political misunderstanding appear there. It is now perhaps one of the oldest clubs, as I think it was formerly one of the best, in the King's dominions. It wants but about two years of forty since it was established." Franklin's language here is significant, and it is carefully chosen. He speaks of "the Junto" and does not attempt to differentiate it, which he surely would have done had there existed at this time any other Junto in Phila

delphia. He speaks of it as a "club." It was, as we know from its rules, a secret debating club limited to a membership of twelve, and not a society such as the American Philosophical Society, which he had founded in 1743. He probably refers to the lack of interest in the Junto as shown by its periods of somnolence and revival, by speaking of it as "one of the oldest clubs, as I think it was formerly one of the best, in the King's dominions." The "formerly" refers, doubtless, to those flourishing early years when Franklin took an active part in its proceedings. It is therefore reasonable to believe that the club fell into a state of suspended animation in the early forties, and remained so until a revival of its activities took place in 1750. It is also reasonable to believe that Franklin had dropped out of membership; and his election many years later can give no firm ground for the inference that there were two societies, each called the Junto, existing side by side in Philadelphia.

In what year Franklin dropped out of the Junto we do not know. As the membership was limited to twelve, it is easy to believe that when a member became so busy and so absorbed in important affairs as Franklin was in the latter part of the decade succeeding 1730, he would retire from the club; for the Junto was really a young men's debating club, organized for mental and material improvement, which required its members, under penalty of fine, to attend its weekly meetings at six o'clock in winter, and seven in summer, and to pre

pare questions and papers for discussion. It was provided that any member who absented himself three successive nights without apology should be dropped. In 1734 Franklin was Grand Master of the Masons in Pennsylvania; two years later he was Clerk of the Assembly; in the next year he was postmaster at Philadelphia; so busy a man may well have outgrown the Junto. In May, 1743, he issued his proposals for the formation of the American Philosophical Society, which was a Society with plan and aims very different from those of his Junto; but so busy was he at this time, that in the November following he wrote to Cadwalader Colden: "My long absence from home put my business so far behindhand that I had no leisure to forward the scheme of the Society." At this time he was perfecting his Pennsylvania fire-place and making his experiments in electricity. In 1748 he entered the City Councils. In 1749 he became a commissioner of the Peace, and at the same time he issued his "Proposals relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania." He was chosen President of the Board of Trustees of the College which resulted from this effort. In 1750 he was elected to the Assembly of Pennsylvania, and was made a commissioner to arrange a treaty with the Indians. It would seem, then, that for a considerable number of years before this date he was much too absorbed in affairs of great importance, and far too busy in his regular round of duties, to have remained one of the twelve active members of the Junto, or, at its revival in