Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed, Volume 1 (of 2): A Biographical and Critical Study Based Mainly on his own WritingsBruce, Wiliam Cabell
History
Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed, Volume 1 (of 2): A Biographical and Critical Study Based Mainly on his own Writings
Bruce, Wiliam Cabell
Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790
These were honest, fearless words, but, so far as we know, the Erynnes did
not plant any stings of conscience in the breasts of the men from Paxton
District whom Franklin elsewhere in this Narrative described as the
Christian white savages of Paxton and Donegal. On the contrary, several
hundred men from the same region, armed with rifles and hatchets, and clad
in hunting shirts, marched towards Philadelphia with the avowed purpose of
killing the Moravian Indians who had found refuge in its vicinity. The city
was reduced to a state of terror, and Governor Penn, like his predecessors,
could think of nothing more expedient to do than to invoke the advice and
assistance of Franklin. He accordingly made Franklin's house his
headquarters, and freely consulted with him touching every defensive
measure required by the crisis. Again Franklin formed an association for
the protection of Philadelphia; and, under his auspices, the citizens of
Philadelphia were enrolled into nine companies, six of infantry, two of
horse, and one of artillery. "Governor Penn," he afterwards declared in a
letter to Lord Kames, "made my house for some time his headquarters, and
did everything by my advice; so that, for about forty-eight hours, I was a
very great man; as I had been once some years before, in a time of public
danger." On came the insurgents until they reached Germantown, seven miles
from the city. Here they were met by four citizens, of whom Franklin was
one, who had been requested by the Governor and his Council to confer with
them. While the conference was pending, Franklin's regiment, supported by a
detachment of King's troops, remained in the city under arms, and even
young Quakers labored incessantly to complete the intrenchments around the
barracks, in which the menaced Indians with their Moravian shepherd had
been placed. Indeed, now that the waves of the Presbyterian invasion were
lapping his own doorsill, the Quaker of every age in Philadelphia appears
to have entirely lost sight of the duty of non-resistance. The conference
satisfied the insurgents that graver work was ahead of them than that of
slaying and scalping old men, women and children, and they retraced their
steps. "The fighting face we put on," said Franklin, in his letter to Lord
Kames, "and the reasonings we used with the insurgents,... having turned
them back and restored quiet to the city, I became a less man than ever;
for I had, by these transactions, made myself many enemies among the
populace." He had, indeed, but not one whose enmity was not more honorable
to him than the friendship of even all his host of friends.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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