![]() ![]() In 1729, the question arose whether or not Pennsylvania should print another large issue of paper money. The first and most important was his securing of the vital public printing business… The second coup centered on paper money. ![]() Hardly had Franklin launched his business when he was able to snag several highly profitable plums of government privilege. As we shall soon see, however, this proved impossible, and a good part of the responsibility for the collapse of Quaker peace principles belongs to Benjamin Franklin… Franklin was able to develop a lucrative printing business at so young an age largely by keeping an eye to the main chance – that is, through an ability to win a favored place at the public trough by gaining the patronage of older and influential men. The Quakers emerged from the war more honored and entrenched than ever they needed to retain only their unity and principle to continue the peace policy. As Franklin himself boasted in his autobiography: “Calling in the aid of religion, I proposed to them (the Governor and Council) the proclaiming a fast to…implore the blessing of heaven on our undertaking…This gave the clergy of the different sects an opportunity of influencing their congregation to join in the association, and it will probably have been general among all but Quakers if the peace had not soon intervened.” Indeed, peace “intervened,” and disproved all the nonsensical claims and fears perpetrated by Franklin and the ruling war party. Peters wrote to Thomas Penn that the association movement was in the interests of the proprietary and would be a means of escaping from Quaker control of the province… Franklin displayed his cunning in the affair by having a fast day proclaimed in honor of the association, in order to bring the clergy and God in on the side of the scheme. While voluntarily financed, Franklin’s association was not truly private, for Franklin worked hand in hand with the delighted proprietary administration. Franklin then used a lottery to finance his private army, and used the funds to purchase cannons. The men formed themselves into companies and regiments and elected their own officers. In the midst of this fervid atmosphere, Franklin launched a voluntary militia “association,” which quickly gained over 10,000 adherents in the colony. Alarmist rumors were spread of a supposed enemy attack in the spring of 1748. He painted the menace and horrors of armed invasion in lurid colors, and demagogically appealed to the supposed fighting qualities of each ethic group in the colony. He began his campaign by publishing a pamphlet, Plain Truth (1747), which proved highly influential in whipping up war hysteria. Franklin, a printer from Philadelphia, a writer, inventor, and clerk of the Assembly, decided to circumvent the Assembly’s refusal to establish a militia by creating one himself. 562-570).” As you will no doubt gather, Rothbard is no fan of Franklin and does not hold back in either his critique of Franklin generally or Franklin’s role in bringing about the withdrawal of Friends from active political life in Pennsylvania:Īt this point there entered the scene a man whose historical reputation is perhaps the most inflated of the entire colonial period in America: Benjamin Franklin. ![]() The excerpt below is from the chapter entitled, “ The Emergence of Benjamin Franklin (pp. ![]() As Murray Rothbard demonstrates in his large historical volume Conceived in Liberty, however, Franklin himself played a key role in this behavior. In the journal Pennsylvania History Jacquelyn Miller concludes her review of Franklin’s perspective on Quakers with the observation that “ When Quakers acted according to Franklin's own principles, he could.” Part of this unkindness had to do with Franklin’s feeling that Quakers had a tendency to be hypocritical about their peace testimony. History is always a matter of interpretation, and some historians view Franklin as basically a pragmatist in this regard, trying to accommodate both the radical pacifism of the Quakers and the radical war supporters in the colony. The confusion can be explained in part not only by his geographical location but by his frequent support of some Quaker ideas and principles. The Franklin Institute, for example, includes the question, “Was Benjamin Franklin a Quaker?” among its FAQs. Benjamin Franklin is often held up as a hero of American colonial era, and often conflated with Quakers because of his presence in largely-Quaker Philadelphia. ![]()
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