Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/162

152 . I Benjamin Franklin, in the foregoing or annexed laſt will and teſtament, having further conſidered the ſame, do think proper to make and publiſh the following codicil, or addition thereto:

It having long been a fixed political opinion of mine, that in a democratical ſtate there ought to be no offices of profit, for the reaſons I had given in an article of my drawing in our conſtitution, it was my intention, when I accepted the office of preſident, to devote the appointed ſalary to ſome public uſe: Accordingly I had already, before I made my laſt will, in July laſt, given large ſums of it to colleges, ſchools, building of churches, &c.; and in that will I bequeathed two thouſand pounds more to the ſtate, for the purpoſe of making the Skuylkil navigable; but underſtanding ſince, that ſuch a ſum will do but little towards accompliſhing ſuch a work, and that the project is not likely to be undertaken for many years to come and having entertained another idea, which I hope may be more extenſively uſeful, I do hereby revoke and annul the bequeſt, and direct that the certificates I have for what remains due to me of that ſalary, be ſold towards railing the ſum of two thouſand pounds ſterling, to be diſpoſed of as I am now about to order.

It has been an opinion, that he who receives an eſtate from his anceſtors, is under ſome obligation to tranſmit the ſame to poſterity. This obligation lies not on me, who never inherited a ſhilling from any anceſtor or relation. I ſhall, however, if it is not diminiſhed by ſome accident before my death, leave a conſiderable eſtate among my deſcendants and relations. The above obſervation is made merely as ſome apology to my family, for my making bequeſts that do not