Summary
In 1762, after an enjoyable and largely successful five
years in England, Franklin returned to Philadelphia. His son William
had just been appointed Governor of New Jersey, extending the Franklin
family's fame and influence. The situation at home was troubled, however.
The problem of the frontier would simply not go away. Settlers
were as restless as ever and now had the support of the proprietors,
who supported the settlers against the assembly as revenge for
the assembly's attempts to make the proprietors pay taxes.
The settlers' anger boiled over in the fall of 1763, when
a gang of young men massacred a group of friendly Christian Indians
near Lancaster. Franklin was outraged. He denounced this group
of murderers, known as the "Paxton Boys," in a newspaper article. The
Paxton Boys were not amused. In the spring they marched on Philadelphia
to frighten the assembly into agreeing to their demands. Franklin
met them at the outskirts of the city and personally urged them
to turn around and go home peacefully. Thanks to his bravery and
cool head, they did.
Though the Paxton Boys went back home, politics in Pennsylvania
got ugly. The proprietors resisted being taxed and resented the growing
power of Philadelphia businessmen. In 1764, fed up with the proprietors,
Franklin and the majority of the Pennsylvania assembly decided
to ask the king to change Pennsylvania's government. The colony
was a proprietorship, meaning that most of the power belonged to
the proprietors–the descendents of William Penn. Franklin and his
supporters wanted to give Pennsylvania a royal government instead.
This meant that the king, rather than the proprietors, would have
the final say in making laws. Franklin's enemies suspected that
Franklin was secretly trying to make himself the governor, and
they mounted a campaign to defeat him. In the election of October
1764, by only eighteen votes, Franklin lost his seat.
Franklin's supporters were not daunted, however. Later
that month, the assembly again appointed Franklin representative,
with instructions to plead with the king for a royal government.
As Franklin was preparing to leave for Britain, however, bigger
political problems overshadowed the debate in Pennsylvania. The
British government was preparing to pass the Stamp Act. Colonists
across America feared and resented the Act, believing it was an
unfair tax, and were determined to fight it. When Franklin reached
London in December, he tried to talk the king's ministers out of
passing the Act, but they would not budge. Against Franklin's pleading,
the Stamp Act was passed on February 27, 1765.
Commentary
Though we now think of Franklin as an inventor, scientist,
man of letters, and American patriot, we sometimes forget how deeply
he was involved in the politics of his own colony. William Penn,
a devout Quaker, founded Pennsylvania in 1681 as an experiment
in religious freedom and representative government. Penn signed
a peace treaty with the Indians and founded a City of Brotherly
Love. The colony had long welcomed pacifist Quakers (mostly English and
Welsh) and German farmers. Around the time of Franklin's youth,
large numbers of Scots and Irish moved into the colony, settling
the frontier. Meanwhile, the descendants of William Penn maintained
power. These groups all had different interests, different values,
and in some cases different languages. Keeping the place together
was a challenge.
Franklin rise to power in Pennsylvania was quiet but complete. By
the 1750s, he was involved in nearly every aspect of running the colony.
Many people, including Governor Thomas Penn (William Penn's descendant),
feared his growing power. Franklin's first adventure with the militia
made him a hero; the second made him a bona fide military leader.
His reputation was magnified by the Paxton Boys affair. Franklin
was frustrated with the Quakers–most of whom were farmers with
a limited perspective–because their pacifist beliefs blocked the
colony from organizing a permanent militia. Though Franklin was
sympathetic toward farmers, he opposed the brutal tactics of frontier
settlers against the Indians.
