Free Franklin by Davidson Butler Page A

and with an armed force. Of this money they ought to make restitution. They might first have taken out payment for the tea, &c., and returned the rest. But you, who are a thorough courtier, see everything with government eyes.”
    Franklin exhorted his countrymen to resist. “By its continuance, you will undoubtedly carry all your points: by giving way you will lose every thing. Strong chains will be forged for you, and you will be made to pay for both the iron and the workmanship . . . If you should ever tamely submit to the yoke prepared for you, you cannot conceive how much you will be despised here, even by those who are endeavouring to impose it on you.”
    Not every British official wanted war with America. When they saw most Americans were determined to resist parliament, several members of the government, including First Minister Lord North, approached Franklin through private messengers. Two Quaker friends, David Barclay and Dr. John Fothergill, asked Franklin if he would negotiate a settlement, stating the principal American demands in ways that might persuade the British to yield.
    In the midst of these negotiations, Franklin received news that Deborah had died. He regretted not returning home sooner and prepared to leave. It was nearly three years before Franklin made mention of her death in his writings. “I have lately lost my old and faithful companion,” he wrote, “and I every day become more sensible of the greatness of that loss, which cannot now be repaired.”
    Negotiations to prevent the war evaporated as parliament rejected several proposals to make peace with America. Finally, Franklin’s Quaker friends told him he was wasting his time negotiating. Whatever pretenses the government offered, “they are all hollow . . . To get a larger field on which to fatten a herd of worthless parasites is all that is regarded.”
    War was close, and Franklin dreaded it. He sensed that William disagreed with him on the question of America’s independence. On his last day in London, he spent time with an English friend, reading newspapers recently arrived from America. Franklin pointed out articles that might do America some good, if they were reprinted in English papers. “He was frequently not able to proceed for the tears literally running down his cheeks,” the friend said.

 
    Aboard the Pennsylvania ship, bound for Philadelphia, Franklin took with him William Temple Franklin, William’s illegitimate son. Through his years in England, Franklin remained close to the boy, bringing him to Craven Street for visits and paying for his education. Now fifteen, he was handsome and intelligent, with skills in drawing and languages. Not expecting to return to England, Franklin was taking Temple home.
    The sea was calm, the voyage slow. Franklin spent his time writing the longest letter of his life. It began, “Dear Son,” and it continued for ninety-seven pages, detailing Franklin’s secret negotiations with the British government - proof of Franklin’s desire to prove to William that America was right and Britain wrong.
    When he was not writing, Franklin investigated the Gulf Stream, the large current he had noticed on his first voyage back from England. Now he studied it more carefully, dropping thermometers over the ship and gathering samples of the water, which was bright with phosphorescence. He decided a ship sailing from America to Europe could boost its speed by using the Gulf Stream, since the current ran swiftly in that direction. Going from Europe to America, a ship could save days, perhaps weeks, by avoiding the stream. Franklin decided not to share this for the moment, because if war broke out, it would be useful to the English, who would be sending warships to America.
    When Franklin arrived in Philadelphia on May 5, 1775, Americans swarmed the ship to inform him war had begun. Sixteen days earlier, the British had sent a military expedition