Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/291

281 runs expreſsly in theſe words: "As every freeman, to preſerve his independence (if he has not a ſufficient eſtate), ought to have ſome profeſſion, calling, trade, or farm, whereby he may honeſtly ſubſiſt, there can be no neceſſity for, nor uſe in, eſtabliſhing offices of profit; the uſual effects of which are dependence and ſervility, unbecoming freemen, in the poſſeſſors and expectants; faction, contention, corruption and diſorder among the people. Wherefore, whenever an office, through increaſe of fees or otherwiſe, becomes ſo profitable as to occaſion many to apply for it, the profits ought to be leſſened by the legiſlature." Theſe ideas prevailing more or leſs in all the United States, it cannot be worth any man's while, who has a means of living at home, to expatriate himſelf in hopes of obtaining a profitable civil office in America; and as to military offices, they are at an end with the war, the armies being diſbanded. Much leſs is it adviſeable for a perſon to go thither, who has no other quality to recommend him but his birth. In Europe it has indeed its value; but it is a commodity that cannot be carried to a worſe market than to that of America, where people do not enquire concerning a ſtranger, What is be? but What can he do? If he has any uſeful art he is welcome; and if he exerciſes it, and behaves well, he will be reſpected by all that know him; but a mere man of quality, who on that account wants to live upon the public by ſome office or ſalary, will be deſpiſed and diſregarded. The huſbandman is in honour there, and even the mechanic, becauſe their employments are uſeful. The people have a ſaying, that God Almighty is himſelf a mechanic, the greateſt in the univerſe; and he is reſpected and admired more for the