RICHARD PRICE.
FOOTNOTE:
[203] Congress ordered a general mourning throughout the United States for a month: the national assembly of France decreed, that the assembly do wear mourning for three days, that a funeral oration be delivered by M. Mirabeau, the elder, and that the president write a letter of condolence to congress: and the common-council of Paris paid the extraordinary tribute, of attending in a body at a funeral oration, delivered by the Abbe Fauchet, in the Rotunda of the market-place, which was hung with black, illuminated with chandeliers and rows of lamps, and decorated with suitable devices. Editor.
[Letter from Mr. Thomas Jefferson to the late Dr. William Smith, of Philadelphia.][204]
I feel both the wish and the duty to communicate, in compliance with your request, whatever, within my knowledge, might render justice to the memory of our great countryman, Dr. Franklin, in whom philosophy has to deplore one of its principal luminaries extinguished. But my opportunities of knowing the interesting facts of his life have not been equal to my desire of making them known.
I can only, therefore, testify in general, that there appeared to me more respect and veneration attached to the character of Dr. Franklin in France, than to that of any other person in the same country, foreign or native. I had opportunities of knowing particularly, how far these sentiments were felt by the foreign ambassadors and ministers at the court of Versailles. The fable of his capture by the Algerines, propagated by the English newspapers, excited no uneasiness, as it was seen at once to be a dish cooked up to please certain readers; but nothing could exceed the anxiety of his diplomatic brethren on a subsequent report of his death, which, although premature, bore some marks of authenticity.
I found the ministers of France equally impressed with his talents and integrity. The count de Vergennes, particularly, gave me repeated and unequivocal demonstrations of his entire confidence in him.
When he left Passy, it seemed as if the village had lost its patriarch. On taking leave of the court, which he did by letter, the king ordered him to be handsomely complimented, and furnished him with a litter and mules of his own, the only kind of conveyance the state of his health could bear.
The succession to Dr. Franklin, at the court of France, was an excellent school of humility to me. On being presented to any one, as the minister of America, the common-place question was, "c'est vous Monsieur, qui remplacez le Docteur Franklin?"—is it you, sir, who replace Dr. Franklin? I generally answered—"No one can replace him, sir; I am only his successor."