ts_ followed, the rather as there was one painted on the
board. So his inscription was reduced ultimately to _John Thompson_,
with the figure of a hat subjoined."

It will be remembered the readiness with which Dr. Franklin, on the
spur of the moment, threw off the admirable fable of the Eagle and the
Hare. It is altogether probable that, in the inexhaustible resources
of his genius, he improvised this anecdote to meet the exigencies of
the occasion.

When the Hessian troops, whom England had hired of a German prince,
arrived, intelligent men in this country pitied rather than blamed
those simple hearted peasants, who had no animosity whatever, against
the Americans. They had been compelled, by their feudal lord, who was
really their slave master, to leave their lowly homes on the Rhine, to
unite with English regulars and painted savages, in burning the homes
and butchering the people struggling for existence in the wilderness
of the New World.

Again the all availing pen of Franklin was called into requisition. By
direction of Congress he drew up a friendly address to these
unfortunate men, offering every German, who would abandon the
ignominious service to which his prince had sold him, a tract of rich
land sufficient for an ample farm. The address was translated into
German. Various were the devices adopted, to give the document
circulation in the Hessian camp. It doubtless exerted a powerful
influence, in disarming these highly disciplined troops of all
animosity. The effect was perhaps seen in the spectacle witnessed a
few weeks afterwards, when nine hundred of these soldiers were led
through the streets of Philadelphia, prisoners of war. It is not
improbable that many of them were more than willing to throw down
their arms.

On the 20th of July, 1776, Franklin was chosen by the Convention,
one of nine delegates to represent Pennsylvania in the national
Congress. One of the great difficulties to be surmounted, in a
union of the States, was to give the great States, like New York and
Pennsylvania, their own preponderance in the confederacy, while the
minor states, like New Jersey and Delaware, should not be shorn of
their influence. The difficulty was finally obviated by the present
admirable arrangement, by which each State, great or small, has two
representatives in the Senate, while their representation in the
House depends upon the number of the population.

Franklin excelled in the art of "putting things