Lady Franklin Letter to Prime Minister Lord Palmerston (1860)
13 Park Place
St. James
March 8/ 60
My Lord
I read with profound emotion the noble tribute paid by you to my late husband & the most kind tho' too flattering words you applied to myself. It will not I hope make me appear in an degree ungrateful if, deeply appreciating as I do, all you so generously said on that occasion, I yet acknowledge that I do not desire from it that mingled satisfaction which assuredly have done had a more distinct recognition been made that my husband was the discoverer of the N.W. Passage this being the chief amongst the reasons to say so, of the signal honor you propose to his memory.
The omission was doubtless accidental & not deliberate on your Lordship's part, but your words will be recorded in history. It may be popularly considered on the standard by which the merits of the dead are henceforth to be measured. However my uneasiness which I hope you will pardon, for it seems to me to be better for my husband's salve & for my own that here sh'd to no grant, & no grounds, a monument that sh'd not record the crowning services in wh he & his companions perished. [sic]
It may be permitted to remind you L.P. that when the H. of C. voted £10,000 to Captn McClure as being the 1st Discoverer of a N.W. Passage in as having passed (partly in ships and partly on foot) from the Pacific to the Atlantic (difft achievements wh were however continually confounded by the Committee) the previous discovery of my husband and his companions was not ascertained, or at least not to the satisfaction of the Committee of the House who deemed that farther researches were required to determine the extent to wh Franklin & his party had caused the discoveries to wh they had sacrificed their lives. I was also informed by the Chairmen that the case of Sir J. Franklin was not before them the orders of the House being to consider the Exns of Capt. McClure alone.
Those required adde researches have since been made by Sir Leopold McCl who has brought home an authentic record and other indisputable evidence proving that the leaders and crews of the Erebus and T. discovered a water way the only one wh will soon be attempted again for ship navigation, 2 years previous to the Discovery of Captn Sir W. McClure in another quarter.
The statements and conclusions of Sir L McClintock wh have satisfied I believe all the Arctic and natives of the day will I am sure be entitled to the respect of the H. of C., yet if any misgivings on the subject still exist, then this my earnest desire & request that a committee of investigation be appointed to set this question at rest before the Committee may be taken the evidence of commander of all the ships wh have been employed in the Arctic Search, together with head of the late & present Hydro of Adl'y & the late & present Presidents of the Rl Geog Socy.
I will not occupy more of your Lds time, but will merely place on another page the extremely short list of effective testimonies of a very small portion of the authorities above alluded to including those of Capt McClintock who has finally brought the truth to light.
Thinking that you will be indulgent to an explanation wh is forced upon me by a deep sense of what is true to truth & justice & to the memory of those whose fame is almost as dear to me as was once their precious lives. I am my Lord,
Your very grateful and obedt servant
Jane Franklin
