Dr. Franklin's increaſing infirmities prevented his regular attendance at the council-chamber; and, in 1788, he retired wholly from public life.
His conſtitution had been a remarkably good one. He had been little ſubject to diſeaſe, except an attack of the gout occasionally, until about the year 1781, when he was firſt attacked with ſymptoms of the calculous complaint, which continued during his life. During the intervals of pain from this grievous diſeaſe, he ſpent many cheerful hours, converting in the moſt agreeable and inſtructive manner. His faculties were entirely unimpaired, even to the hour of his death.
His name, as preſident of the Abolition Society, was ſigned to the memorial preſented to the Houſe of Repreſentatives of the United States, on the 12th of February 1789, praying them to exert the full extent of power veiled in them by the conſtitution, in diſcouraging the traffic of the human ſpecies. This was his laſt public act. In the debates to Which this memorial gave riſe, ſeveral attempts were made to juſtify the trade. In the Federal Gazette of Match 25th there appeared an eſſay, ſigned Hiſtoricus, written by Dr. Franklin, in which he communicated a ſpeech, ſaid to have been delivered in the Divan of Algiers in 1687, in opposition to the prayer of the petition of a ſect called Erika, or puriſts, for the abolition of piracy and ſlavery. This pretended African ſpeech was an excellent parody of one delivered by Mr. Jackſon of Georgia. All the arguments urged in favour of negro ſlavery, are applied with equal force to juſtify the plundering, and enſlaving of Europeans. It affords, at the ſame time, a demonſtration of the futility of the arguments in defence of the ſlave trade, and of the ſtrength of mind and ingenuity of the author, at his advanced period of life. It furniſhed too
