[i-312] _Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography_, XXV, 311 (1901). See also _ibid._, 307-22, and XXVI, 81-90, 255-64 (1902). See _Writings_, VI, 144.
[i-314] _Ibid._, VI, 319. His unpublished letters of 1775 in the Original Correspondence of Benjamin Franklin with the Bishop of St. Asaph (in the W. S. Mason Collection) emphasize his progressive apathy toward a reconciliation. Especially see letters of May 15 and July 7.
[i-316] Cited in Davidson, _op. cit._, 442.
[i-317] Hugh Williamson claimed that he actually gave Franklin the letters. Apparently another person went to the office where the letters were archived and posing as an authorized person secured the desired correspondence (D. Hosack, _Biographical Memoir of Hugh Williamson_, New York, 1820, 37 ff.).
[i-318] For an interesting account of this episode see Parton, _op. cit._, 1, chap. IX.
[i-319] _Writings_, V, 134. Franklin and Burke were friendly; see their correspondence. The best exposition of Burke's doctrines is that by John MacCunn, _The Political Philosophy of Edmund Burke_ (London, 1913).
[i-321] London, April 20, 1771; unpublished MS letter in W. S. Mason Collection. Compare with Abbé Raynal's opinion that "society is essentially good; government, as is well known, may be, and is but too often evil" (_The Revolution of America_, Dublin, 1781, 45).
[i-322] M. Eiselen (_Franklin's Political Theories_, Garden City, N. Y., 1928) observes that Franklin as presiding officer had actually little to do with casting the instrument. From his later paper on the Constitution it is possible, however, to see that he accepted most of its major ideas (pp. 57-8). See S. B. Harding, "Party Struggles over the First Pennsylvania Constitution," _Annual Report of the American Historical Association for 1894_, 371-402.
[i-323] That Franklin "had more to do with the phraseology of the Declaration of Independence than has been recognized up to now" (J. C. Fitzpatrick, _Spirit of the Revolution_, Boston, 1924, 11) has been shown by Becker, _op. cit._
[i-324] See text in S. E. Morison, _Sources and Documents Illustrating the American Revolution, 1764-1788, and the Formation of the Federal Constitution_ (Oxford, 1923, 162-76).