Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790 to Jane Mecom

GLC01721

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GLC#
GLC01721
Type
Letters
Date
November 4, 1787
Author/Creator
Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790
Title
to Jane Mecom
Place Written
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Pagination
2 p. : address ; Height: 23 cm, Width: 19 cm
Language
English
Primary time period
The New Nation, 1783-1815
Sub-Era
Creating a New Government

Franklin writes to his sister in Boston about his feelings on his life of public service. Tells her that she should be direct in letting him know what she needs as he is willing to help her in any way. States that he planned to decline serving another year as President (possibly of the Executive Council of Pennsylvania) but that the country demanded him. Informs that he has been in public office for 50 years now. Writes that upon being sent to France, he observed to a friend that " ... the Publick having as it were eaten my Flesh, seem'd now resolv'd to pick my Bones ..." He gently complains of being unanimously elected a third time to state office but remarks, "This universal and unbounded Confidence of a whole People, flatters my Vanity much more than a Peerage would do." Marked no. 2 at the top of the first page. With some cross-outs on second page.

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