postmaster by Colonel Spotswood, formerly governor of Virginia and now postmaster general, succeeding his competitor in business, Andrew Bradford, who had been postmaster since 1725 and who was now removed for reasons affecting his lack of care and exactness in framing and rendering his accounts. He tells us, I accepted it readily, and found it of great advantage; for, though the salary was small, it facilitated the correspondence that improv'd my newspaper, increas'd the number demanded, as well as the advertisements to be inserted, so that it came to afford me a considerable income. But, [he adds,] my old competitor's newspaper declined proportionably, and I was satisfy'd without retaliating his refusal, while postmaster, to permit my papers being carried by the riders. This appointment was unwelcome to Bradford and his friends and warmed into life animosities which bore fruit in later years. With these two public offices in hand, Franklin tells us,3 "I began now to turn my thoughts a little to public affairs, beginning however with small matters." The city watch was reformed by the suggestions he made and the measures he succeeded in consummating aided by the influence of his friends of the Junto. Fire prevention as well exercised his thoughts, and he wrote a paper, first read in the junto and afterwards published, on the different accidents and carelessnesses by which houses were set on fire. This gave rise to a project, which soon followed it, of forming a company for the more ready extinguishing of fires, and mutual assistance in removing and securing of goods when in danger. Associates in this scheme were presently found, amounting to thirty. Such was the origin of the Union Fire Company, established 7 December, 1736, the first fire company in Philadelphia.* The utility of this institution soon appeared, and many more desiring to be admitted than we thought convenient for one company, they were advised to form another, which was accordingly done; and this went on, one new company being formed after another, till they became so numerous as to include most of the inhabitants who were men of property. The author of these practical reforms had not passed beyond his thirty-first year, yet he exhibited the skill and experience, and exerted the influence on his fellow citizens, of a man of three VI At the close of the year 1739 there arrived in Philadelphia, on his way to his Parish and Orphanage at Savannah, the Rev. George Whitefield, a presbyter of the Church of England, the fame of whose extraordinary pulpit powers had preceded him, though he was a young man but twenty-four years of age.1 Two days after his arrival, on Sunday 4th November he preached in Christ Church, and read prayers there and preached daily for a week. Departing for New York on the 12th, where he was not allowed to preach in Trinity Church, though he attended both the Sunday services; he returned to Philadelphia on the 23d and departed thence on the 29th for the South, having preached daily in Christ Church, though on his return in the April following he was inhibited from holding any service or preaching there. Franklin in common with every citizen was attracted by his eloquence, and he formed a friendship for the young divine, who was eight years his junior, which continued until his death, when he wrote to a friend "I knew him intimately upwards of thirty years. His integrity, disinterestedness, and indefatigable zeal in prosecuting every good work, I have never seen equalled, and shall never see excelled." 2 Doubtless Franklin was present at that remarkable scene in Christ Church on Sunday the 25th November when his friend the Rev. Richard Peters stood up and controverted some of Whitefield's new doctrines, which the latter manfully answered, though his Journal records he "had been somewhat alarmed " at the disturbance which this public contradiction threatened. Before the month was out Whitefield gave Franklin copies of his Journals and sermons with leave to print the same. Andrew * * * 1 He was ordained in Gloucester Cathedral 13 June 1736, and first preached on the Sunday following. "A complaint was made to the Bishop that fifteen persons had been driven mad by his sermon. The bishop only replied that he hoped the madness might not be forgotten before another Sunday. * How his one sermon grew till he had preached eighteen thousand times, or ten times a week for four and thirty years, and fed multitudes beyond computation." Gledstone's Life and Travels of George Whitefield, M. A., p 36. London 1871. Life of Rev George Whitefield, Tyerman. ii 628. London 1876. Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin, Parton, i. 626. Bradford printed some sermons and letters, but those undertaken by Franklin were by authority; in his journal of 28 November he records, "One of the printers has told me he has taken above two hundred subscriptions for printing my Sermons and Journals." Franklin says, "we had no religious connection. He us'd, indeed, sometimes to pray for my conversion, but never had the satisfaction of believing that his prayers were heard. Ours was a mere civil friendship, sincere on both sides, and lasted to his death."4 As the extent of Whitefield's audiences forbad their accommodation in any of the churches, and the inhibition by the Rector preventing in 1740 and in his subsequent visits his use of Christ Church, which was then indeed but one half the size as we now know it, measures were taken to procure him a proper building for his preachings; "it being found inconvenient to assemble in the open air," Franklin says 5 subject to its inclemencies, the building of a house to meet in was no sooner proposed, and persons appointed to receive contributions, but sufficient sums were soon receiv'd to procure the ground, and erect the building, which was one hundred feet long and seventy broad, about the size of Westminster Hall, and the work was carried on with such spirit as to be finished in a much shorter time than could have been expected. Both house and ground were vested in trustees expressly for the use of any preacher of any religious persuasion, who might desire to say something to the people at Philadelphia. Franklin was foremost in the work as he was in any matter he undertook and contributed of his means to it, though he was not one of the Trustees until 1749 when the property came into the possession of the new born Academy. On Sunday, 9 November, 1740, Whitefield records in his Journal, "Preached in the morning, to several thousands, in a house built since my last departure from Philadelphia. It was never preached in before. The roof is not yet up; but the people raised a convenient pulpit, and boarded the bottom." The oft told tale can bear repetition in this connection of the influence of White 3 Tyerman, i. 337. Bigelow, i. 209, also letter quoted by Dr Sprague from Rev Jotham Sewell, in Annals of Episcopal Pulpit, 107. 5 Bigelow, i. 206. field's oratory on Franklin himself. He attended in April, 1740, one of Whitefield's meetings where he preached of his Orphanage, the location of which did not meet Franklin's approval, asĜ Georgia was then destitute of materials and workmen, and it was proposed to send them from Philadelphia at a great expense. I thought it would have been better to have built the house here, and brought the children to it. This I advis'd; but he was resolute in his first project, rejected my counsel, and I, therefore, refus'd to contribute. I happened soon after to attend one of his sermons, in the course of which I perceived he intended to finish with a collection, and I silently resolved he should get nothing from me. I had, in my pocket, a handful of copper money, three or four silver dollars, and five pistoles in gold. As he proceeded I began to soften, and concluded to give the coppers. Another stroke of his oratory made me asham'd of that, and determin'd me to give the silver; and he finished so admirably, that I empty'd my pocket wholly into the collectors dish, gold and all. VII Franklin's trusteeship in this property in 1749 rendered the plan effectual then proposed of making the building the first home of his College and Academy; but for this happy instrumentality the young College would probably not for many years have had a home of its own so well adapted for its purposes. Built for the accommodation of the greatest preacher of the day, it became the Academy where the greatest teacher in the province, also a clergyman in like orders, established his fame as a Provost and nurtured into permanence the reputation of his College. In 1764 Whitefield himself wrote of the Academy as "one of the best regulated institutions in the world," after preaching on the opening of a new term of the College in September. He was in Philadelphia the following spring, and Dr. Smith asked him to preach at the Commencement of 1765, but 6 Bigelow, i. 208. 1 Tyerman, ii. 477. he had been obliged to leave town a few days before for New York to embark thence for England. His last visit to Philadelphia was in May, 1770, when he writes in his Journal, 24 May, "to all the Episcopal Churches, as well as to most of the other places of worship, I have free access;" and on 30 September following he died in Newburyport, where lie his remains. 3 The friendship between these two remarkable men was begun by some common attraction the one for the other and continued through life unbroken, though their views on the deepest thoughts of humanity were so diverse. Such affinities are often witnessed, though the link is so subtle as to be undefinable. The one a Deist whose time was given to material things and his thoughts to the development of human knowledge, the other a warm believer in divine revelation and a burning preacher of the message which he claimed to have received; yet there was somewhat between them of sympathy and of a mutual understanding, which bound them to each other in a common respect and appreciation of each other's earnestness and reality. Whitefield's concern for his older friend manifested itself afterwards in many ways. He writes to him 26 November 1740, on his way to Savannah after their first meeting in Philadelphia, about his publications, and could not conclude without saying "I do not despair of your seeing the reasonableness of Christianity. Apply to GOD; be willing to do the divine will, and you shall know it." And on 17 August, 1752, he writes him 5: As I find that you grow more and more famous in the learned world. you have made a pretty considerable progress in the mysteries of electricity, I would now humbly recommend to your diligent unprejudiced pursuit and study the mystery of the new birth. It is a most important, interesting study, and when mastered, will richly answer and repay you for all your pains. One hath solemnly declared, that without it, "we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven." You will excuse this freedom. I must have 2 Penna. Gazette. Tyerman, ii. 484. William White writes from Philadelphia 9 October, 1770, to his friend James Wilson at Carlisle, “P. S. The bells are now ringing muffled for the Death of Mr. Whitefield; he died in New England." MS. letter. 4 Ibid. i. 439. 5 Ibid. ii. 283. |