Part 15 (1/2)
At this time France and England were temporarily at peace. The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748 had resulted in a sort of cessation of hostilities, which France was using to push more actively her advantages on the Ohio River and in the Mississippi Valley. She intended to get behind all the colonies and occupy the continent to the Pacific Ocean.
The efforts of Great Britain to check these designs, including the expeditions of the youthful Was.h.i.+ngton to the Ohio, need not be given here.[21] England broke the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, and what is known as the Seven Years' War began with the memorable defeat of Braddock.
Franklin was sent by the Pennsylvania a.s.sembly to Braddock's head-quarters in Virginia to give any a.s.sistance he could and to prevent Braddock from making a raid into Pennsylvania to procure wagons, as he had threatened. The journey was made on horseback in company with the governors of New York and Ma.s.sachusetts, and on the way Franklin had an opportunity to observe the action of a small whirlwind, which he reported in a pleasant letter to Mr. Collinson. It was while on this visit that Franklin appears in Thackeray's ”Virginians,” in which he is strangely described as a shrewd, bright little man who would drink only water.
He told Braddock that there were plenty of wagons in Pennsylvania, and he was accordingly commissioned to procure them. He returned to Philadelphia, and within two weeks had delivered one hundred and fifty wagons and two hundred and fifty pack-horses. He had received only eight hundred pounds from Braddock, and was obliged to advance two hundred pounds himself and give bond to indemnify the owners of such horses as should be lost in the service. Claims to the amount of twenty thousand pounds were afterwards made against him, and he would have been ruined if the government, after long delay, had not come to his rescue. Such disinterested service was not forgotten, and his popularity was greatly increased.
He had the year before been one of the representatives of Pennsylvania in the convention at Albany, where he had offered a plan for the union of all the colonies, which was generally approved, and I shall consider this plan more fully in another chapter. It was intended, of course, primarily to enable the colonies to make more effective resistance against the French and Indians, and as an additional a.s.sistance he suggested that a new colony be planted on the Ohio River. The establishment of this colony was a favorite scheme with him, and he urged it again many years afterwards while in England.
As a member of the Pennsylvania a.s.sembly he joined the Quaker majority in that body and became one of its leaders. This majority was in continual conflict with the governor appointed by William Penn's sons, who were the proprietors of the province. The government of the colony was divided in a curious way. The proprietors had the right to appoint the governor, judges, and sheriffs, or, in other words, had absolute control of the executive offices, while the colonists controlled the Legislature, or a.s.sembly, as it was called, and in this a.s.sembly the Quakers exercised the strongest influence.
During the seventy years that the colony had been founded the a.s.sembly had built up by slow degrees a body of popular rights. It paid the governor his salary, and this gave it a vast control over him; for if he vetoed any favorite law it could retaliate by cutting off his means of subsistence. This right to withhold the governor's salary const.i.tuted the most important principle of colonial const.i.tutional law, and by it not only Pennsylvania but the other colonies maintained what liberty they possessed and saved themselves from the oppression of royal or proprietary governors.
Another right for which the Pennsylvania a.s.sembly always strenuously contended was that any bill pa.s.sed by it for raising money for the crown must be simply accepted or rejected by the governor. He was not to attempt to force its amendment by threats of rejection, or to interfere in any way with the manner of raising the money, and was to have no control over its disburs.e.m.e.nt. The king had a right to ask for aid, but the colony reserved the right to use its own methods in furnis.h.i.+ng it.
These rights the proprietors were constantly trying to break down by instructing their governors to a.s.sent to money and other bills only on certain conditions, among which was the stipulation that they should not go into effect until the king's pleasure was known. They sent out their governors with secret instructions, and compelled them to give bonds for their faithful performance. When the governors declined to reveal these instructions, the a.s.sembly thought it had another grievance, for it had always refused to be governed in this manner; and was now more determined than ever to maintain this point because several bills had been introduced in Parliament for the purpose of making royal instructions to governors binding on all the colonial a.s.semblies without regard to their charters or const.i.tutions.
These were all very serious designs on liberty, and the proprietors took advantage of the war necessities and Braddock's defeat to carry them out in the most extreme form. The home government was calling on all the colonies for war supplies, and Pennsylvania must comply not only to secure her own safety but under fear of displeasing the Parliament and king. If under such pressure she could be induced to pa.s.s some of the supply bills at the dictation of the governor, or with an admission of the validity of his secret instructions, a precedent would be established and the proprietary hold on the province greatly strengthened.
The Quakers, especially those comprising the majority in the a.s.sembly, were not at heart opposed to war or to granting war supplies. As they expressed it in the preamble to one of their laws, they had no objection to others bearing arms, but were themselves principled against it. If the others wished to fight, or if it was necessary for the province to fight, they, as the governing body, would furnish the means. Franklin relates how, when he was organizing the a.s.sociators, it was proposed in the Union Fire Company that sixty pounds should be expended in buying tickets in a lottery, the object of which was to raise money for the purchase of cannon. There were twenty-two Quakers in the fire company and eight others; but the twenty-two, by purposely absenting themselves, allowed the proposition to be carried.
The Quaker a.s.sembly voted money for war supplies as liberally and as loyally as the a.s.sembly of any other colony; but at every step it was met by the designs of the governor to force upon it those conditions which would be equivalent to a surrender of the liberties of the colony.
Thus, in 1754 it voted a war supply of twenty thousand pounds, which was the same amount as Virginia, the most active of the colonies against the French, had just subscribed, and was much more than other colonies gave.
New York gave only five thousand pounds, Maryland six thousand pounds, and New Jersey nothing. But the governor refused his a.s.sent to the bill unless a clause was inserted suspending it until the approval of the king had been obtained, and this condition the a.s.sembly felt bound to reject.
During the whole seven years of the war these contests with the governor continued; and the members of the a.s.sembly, to show their zeal for the war, were obliged at times to raise the money on their own credit without submitting their bill to the governor for his approval. In these struggles Franklin bore a prominent part, drafting the replies which the a.s.sembly made to the governor's messages, and acquiring a most thorough knowledge of all the principles of colonial liberty. At the same time he continued to enjoy jovial personal relations with the governors whom he resisted so vigorously in the a.s.sembly, and was often invited to dine with them, when they would joke with him about his support of the Quakers.
The disputes were increased about the time of Braddock's defeat by a new subject of controversy. As the a.s.sembly was pa.s.sing bills for war supplies which had to be raised by taxation, it was thought to be no more than right that the proprietary estates should also bear their share of the tax. The proprietors owned vast tracts of land which they had not yet sold to the people, and as the war was being waged for the defence of these as well as all the other property of the country, the a.s.sembly and the people in general were naturally very indignant when the governor refused his consent to any bill which did not expressly exempt these lands from taxation. The amount a.s.sessed on the proprietary land was trifling,--only five hundred pounds; but both parties felt that they were contending for a principle, and when some gentlemen offered to pay the whole amount in order to stop the dispute, it was rejected.
The proprietors, through the governor, offered a sort of indirect bribe in the form of large gifts of land,--a thousand acres to every colonel, five hundred to every captain, and so on down to two hundred to each private,--which seemed very liberal, and was an attempt to put the a.s.sembly in an unpatriotic position if it should refuse to exempt the estates after such a generous offer. But the a.s.sembly was unmoved, and declined to vote any more money for the purposes of the war, if it involved a sacrifice of the liberties of the people or enabled the proprietors to escape taxation. ”Those,” said Franklin, ”who would give up essential liberty for the sake of a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
But the proprietors were determined to carry the point of exemption of their estates, and as a clamor was being raised against them in England for defeating, through their governor, the efforts of the a.s.sembly to raise money for the war, they sent over word that they would subscribe five thousand pounds for the protection of the colony. Such munificence took the a.s.sembly by surprise, and an appropriation bill was pa.s.sed without taxing the proprietary estates. But popular resentment against the proprietors was raised to a high pitch when it was discovered that the five thousand pounds was to be collected out of the arrears of quit-rents due the proprietors. It was merely a clever trick on their part to saddle their bad debts on the province, have their estates exempted from taxation, and at the same time give themselves a reputation for generosity.
The defeat of Braddock in July, 1755, was followed in September and October by a terrible invasion of the Indians, who ma.s.sacred the farmers almost as far east as Philadelphia. Evidently something more was necessary to protect the province than the mere loose organization of the a.s.sociators, and a militia law drafted by Franklin was pa.s.sed by the Quaker a.s.sembly. The law had a long preamble attached, which he had prepared with great ingenuity to satisfy Quaker scruples. It was made up largely of previous Quaker utterances on war, and declared that while it would be persecution, and therefore unlawful in Pennsylvania, to compel Quakers to bear arms against their consciences, so it would be wrong to prohibit from engaging in war those who thought it their duty. The Quaker a.s.sembly, as representing all the people of the province, would accordingly furnish to those who wanted to fight the legal means for carrying out their wish; and the law then went on to show how they should be organized as soldiers.
In his _Gazette_ Franklin published a Dialogue written by himself, which was intended to answer criticisms on the law and especially the objections of those who were disgusted because the new law exempted the Quakers. Why, it was asked, should the combatant portion of the people fight for the lives and property of men who are too cowardly to fight for themselves? These objectors required as delicate handling as the Quakers, and Franklin approached them with his usual skill.
”Z. For my part I am no coward, but hang me if I will fight to save the Quakers.
”X. That is to say, you will not pump s.h.i.+p, because it will save the rats as well as yourself.”
As a consequence of his success in writing in favor of war, the philosopher, electrician, and editor found himself elected colonel of the men he had persuaded, and was compelled to lead about five hundred of them to the Lehigh Valley, where the German village of Gnadenhutten had been burnt and its inhabitants ma.s.sacred. He had no taste for such business, and would have avoided it if he could; for he never used a gun even for amus.e.m.e.nt, and would not keep a weapon of any kind in his house. But the province with its peace-loving Quakers and Germans had never before experienced actual war, nor even difficulties with the Indians, and Franklin was as much a military man as anybody.
So the philosopher of nearly fifty years, famous the world over for his discoveries in electricity and his ”Poor Richard's Almanac,” set forth in December, slept on the ground or in barns, arranged the order of scouting parties, and regulated the serving of grog to his men. He built a line of small forts in the Lehigh Valley, and during the two months that he was there no doubt checked the Indians who were watching him all the time from the hilltops, and who went no farther than to kill ten unfortunate farmers. He had no actual battle with them, and was perhaps fortunate in escaping a surprise; but he was very wily in his movements, and in his shrewd common-sense way understood Indian tactics. He has left us a description in one of his letters how a force like his should, before stopping for the night, make a circuit backward and camp near their trail, setting a guard to watch the trail so that any Indians following it could be seen long before they reached the camp.
He, indeed, conducted his expedition in the most thorough and systematic manner, marching his men in perfect order with a semicircle of scouts in front, an advance-guard, then the main body, with scouts on each flank and spies on every hill, followed by a watchful rear-guard. He observed all the natural objects with his usual keen interest, noting the exact number of minutes required by his men to fell a tree for the palisaded forts he was building. After two months of roughing it he could not sleep in a bed on his return to Bethlehem. ”It was so different,” he says, ”from my hard lodging on the floor of a hut at Gnadenhutten with only a blanket or two.”
Very characteristic of him also was the suggestion he made to his chaplain when the good man found it difficult to get the soldiers to attend prayers. ”It is perhaps beneath the dignity of your profession,”
said Franklin, ”to act as steward of the rum; but if you were only to distribute it after prayers you would have them all about you.” The chaplain thought well of it, and ”never,” Franklin tells us, ”were prayers more generally or more punctually attended.”
On the return of the troops to Philadelphia after their two months'
campaign they had a grand parade and review, saluting the houses of all their officers with discharges of cannon and small-arms; and the salute given before the door of their philosopher colonel broke several of the gla.s.ses of his electrical apparatus.