The Complete Works of Benjamin Franklin - Volume X

THE COMPLETE WORKS BENJAMIN FRANKLIN EDITORS NOTE. WHEN the Editor undertook this publication he had good reasons for believing that he was in possession of all the important correspondence and writings of Franklin which had survived him, but, as the work progressed, he has realized more fully than ever before that the task of the Danaides was scarcely more difficult or discouraging than that of making a complete collection of the correspondelice and writings of a man who stood in so man. different and important relations to his contemporaries as Franklin did. The harvest, instead of diminishing with the lapse of time, seems to increase by cultivation. Over two hundred documents upon which the stamp of Franklins genius bad been impressed, and which are entitled to a place in any collection of his works, have been placed in the editors hands since the publication of the first two volumes. The larger number of these unfortunately reached liim after the documents of corresponding date had gone to press. It thus became necessary to provide for them in a supplement, which will be found at thc end of this volume. For the opportunity of enriching his work with these papers he desires to recognize his special obligations to Mr. B. F. Stevens, who kindly placed the whole of his important collection of Frankliniana at the Editors disposal to blr. S. G. If. Henjamin, to whom he is indebted for most of the letters from Franklin to Strahan that appear in this work, and which constitute a very important contribution to our knowledge of Franldin as a man of business. He has also to confess his great obligations to Mr. L C. Ford, of the State Department, Washington, of whose precise and extensiveacquaintance with the resources of the government archives he has been permitted freely to avail himself and to his brother. Mr. Paul L. Ford, and their father, whose collections of autographs and other memorials of our early history no student of our early annals can afford to neglect.....