The Age of Invention | Page 8

England
in America. On the eve of the conflict, in 1754, commissioners from
the several colonies were ordered to convene at Albany for a
conference with the Six Nations of the Iroquois, and Franklin was one
of the deputies from Pennsylvania. On his way to Albany he "projected
and drew a plan for the union of all the colonies under one government

so far as might be necessary for defense and other important general
purposes." This statesmanlike "Albany Plan of Union," however, came
to nothing. "Its fate was singular," says Franklin; "the assemblies did
not adopt it, as they all thought there was too much PREROGATIVE in
it and in England it was judg'd to have too much of the
DEMOCRATIC."
How to raise funds for defense was always a grave problem in the
colonies, for the assemblies controlled the purse-strings and released
them with a grudging hand. In face of the French menace, this was
Governor Shirley's problem in Massachusetts, Governor Dinwiddie's in
Virginia, and Franklin's in the Quaker and proprietary province of
Pennsylvania. Franklin opposed Shirley's suggestion of a general tax to
be levied on the colonies by Parliament, on the ground of no taxation
without representation, but used all his arts to bring the Quaker
Assembly to vote money for defense, and succeeded. When General
Braddock arrived in Virginia Franklin was sent by the Assembly to
confer with him in the hope of allaying any prejudice against Quakers
that the general might have conceived. If that blustering and dull-witted
soldier had any such prejudice, it melted away when the envoy of the
Quakers promised to procure wagons for the army. The story of
Braddock's disaster does not belong here, but Franklin formed a shrewd
estimate of the man which proved accurate. His account of Braddock's
opinion of the colonial militia is given in a sentence: "He smil'd at my
ignorance, and reply'd, 'These savages may, indeed, be a formidable
enemy to your raw American militia, but upon the King's regular and
disciplin'd troops, sir, it is impossible they should make any
impression.'" After Braddock's defeat the Pennsylvania Assembly voted
more money for defense, and the unmilitary Franklin was placed in
command of the frontier with full power. He built forts, as he had
planned, and incidentally learned much of the beliefs of a group of
settlers in the back country, the "Unitas Fratrum," better known as the
Moravians.
The death struggle between English and French in America served only
to intensify a lesser conflict that was being waged between the
Assembly and the proprietors of Pennsylvania; and the Assembly
determined to send Franklin to London to seek judgment against the
proprietors and to request the King to take away from them the

government of Pennsylvania. Franklin, accompanied by his son
William, reached London in July, 1757, and from this time on his life
was to be closely linked with Europe. He returned to America six years
later and made a trip of sixteen hundred miles inspecting postal affairs,
but in 1764 he was again sent to England to renew the petition for a
royal government for Pennsylvania, which had not yet been granted.
Presently that petition was made obsolete by the Stamp Act, and
Franklin became the representative of the American colonies against
King and Parliament.
Franklin did his best to avert the Revolution. He made many friends in
England, wrote pamphlets and articles, told comical stories and fables
where they might do some good, and constantly strove to enlighten the
ruling class of England upon conditions and sentiment in the colonies.
His examination before the House of Commons in February, 1766,
marks perhaps the zenith of his intellectual powers. His wide
knowledge, his wonderful poise, his ready wit, his marvelous gift for
clear and epigrammatic statement, were never exhibited to better
advantage and no doubt hastened the repeal of the Stamp Act. Franklin
remained in England nine years longer, but his efforts to reconcile the
conflicting claims of Parliament and the colonies were of no avail, and
early in 1775 he sailed for home.
Franklin's stay in America lasted only eighteen months, yet during that
time he sat in the Continental Congress and as a member of the most
important committees; submitted a plan for a union of the colonies;
served as Postmaster General and as chairman of the Pennsylvania
Committee of Safety; visited Washington at Cambridge; went to
Montreal to do what he could for the cause of independence in Canada;
presided over the convention which framed a constitution for
Pennsylvania; was a member of the committee appointed to draft the
Declaration of Independence and of the committee sent on the futile
mission to New York to discuss terms of peace with Lord Howe.
In September, 1776, Franklin was appointed envoy to France and sailed
soon afterwards.