[281] Works of Franklin, ed. Sparks, Vol. VIII. p. 539, note.
[282] Œuvres de Turgot, Tom. IX. p. 140.
[283] Works of Franklin, ed. Sparks, Vol. VIII. p. 539, note.
[284] Ibid.
[285] Mémoires de l’Abbé Morellet, Ch. XV. Tom. I. pp. 286 seqq. This chapter was translated some years ago for a Philadelphia periodical, “The Bizarre,” by William Duane, great-grandson of Franklin, and is preserved by Parton, in his “Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin,” Vol. II. pp. 422-429.
[286] Julius, Nordamerikas Sittliche Zustände, Band I. p. 98.
[287] Mr. Slidell never returned to the United States. On his death, in Europe, July, 1871, the London “Daily Telegraph” of August 2d recognized the parallel with Franklin. After remarking that “during the whole of 1862, and the first six months of 1863, it was the general belief of the most far-seeing statesmen in Europe—among them Lord Palmerston and the ex-Emperor of the French—that the Confederate States would succeed in establishing their independence,” this journal proceeds to say: “Mr. Mason and Mr. Slidell were therefore invested, during these brief and halcyon days of Secession’s prosperity, with something of the diplomatic influence which between 1776 and 1783 attached to Benjamin Franklin, when accredited by our insurgent North American Colonies to the French Court.”
[288] Afterwards modified according to the text in the Introduction to these Remarks. Ante, p. 42.
[289] Statutes at Large, Vol. XII. p. 502.
[290] Only a few days before, Mr. Davis, of Kentucky, had touched the same key. After alluding to the aid supplied by the President in enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act, he said: “It matters not who did the deed. It was a noble one, and I only wish the Senator from Massachusetts could even approximate to the true loyalty of such deeds.” Mr. Sumner. “I hope I never shall.” Mr. Davis. “Yes, Sir; and yet you advance to that seat [the seat of the President of the Senate], and, with that treason in your heart and upon your lips, you take the oath to support the Constitution of the United States.”—Congressional Globe, 38th Cong. 1st Sess., p. 179, January 13, 1864.