Franklin’s Maritime Suggestions[188]
These figures accompanied Franklin’s letter to Alphonsus Le Roy on maritime improvements.
Franklin’s Letter to Strahan[267]
William Strahan was Franklin’s intimate friend, although they differed on the subject of the Revolution. The letter was half jest, half earnest, and in this tone Franklin always wrote to him on political subjects. In 1784 he wrote him an affectionate, but teasing and sarcastic letter on the success of the Revolution.
Franklin cannot die[275]
From an old French engraving in the collection of Mr. Clarence S. Bement, of Philadelphia. Death has seized Franklin and is dragging him to the lower world. The figure half kneeling is America, with her bow and arrows and the skin of a wild beast, imploring Death to spare her deliverer. Fame is flying in the air, with a crape on her arm and a trumpet, announcing that le grand Franklin has saved his country and given her liberty in spite of tyrants. The spirit of Philosophy and a warrior are weeping at the foot of the monument, on which is a lightning-rod; while France, a fair, soft woman, seizes Franklin in her arms to bear him to the sky.
America set free by Franklin[309]
From an old French engraving in the collection of Mr. Clarence S. Bement, of Philadelphia. Like the preceding one, from the same collection, it represents America as a savage, in accordance with the French ideas of that time.
Franklin tears the Lightning from the Sky and the Sceptre from the Tyrants[312]