affairs, I should offend the Quakers, and thereby lose my interest in the Assembly of the province, where they formed a great majority. * * * However, I was chosen again unanimously as clerk at the next election. Possibly, as they dislik'd my late intimacy with the members of Council, who had joined the governors in all the disputes about military preparations, with which the House had long been harassed, they might have been pleas'd if I would voluntarily have left them; but they did not care to displace me on account merely of my zeal for the Association, and they could not well give another reason. Indeed, I had some cause to believe, that the defense of the country was not disagreeable to any of them, provided they were not required to assist in it.[1]
Thus far have been briefly stated the more notable actions in the first half of the life of the man who conceived the plan and laid the foundation of the institution of learning whose history is here attempted; and to all those who claim it as their alma mater, it must be a matter of reasonable pride that its Father was a man whose rare genius, and strong mind, and whose diligent employment and nurture of the various faculties his Creator had endowed him with, have made the name of Benjamin Franklin of world wide note. Other institutions of like character have an earlier origin, some may have a wider reputation; but none in our country can claim such paternity. It is well to review here in the outset his wonderful success in all practical matters; his untiring occupation of every waking hour either in self improvement, or in seeking the improvement of others; in advancing the welfare of his city, his province, and his country at large; in probing the secrets of nature in wind or current, or in that more subtle force which we name electricity whose present great development into practical uses brings afresh to mind the man who was among the first to make his fellows familiar with its wonders; in promoting learning; in disseminating useful knowledge in all the communities to which his influence reached; in laboring for better municipal government; in securing local betterments in street ways and lighting; in arousing his fellow citizens to practical measures to secure
- ↑ Richard Peters approvingly narrates this Association and names Franklin as the author of it in his letter to the Proprietaries, 29 November, 1747. Sparks, vii. 20. The plan had not at first commended itself to them, as savoring too much of independence in military matters.
