2401To Benjamin Franklin from William Alexander, 12 November 1755 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : New York Public Library Genl. Shirley being informed by Mr. Scott one of [the] Waggon-Masters, that he has brot with him to this place all your Original Contracts for Waggons and Horses for the Late Genl. Braddock’s Army, with the receipts of the Money advanced in part payment of them, has directed them to be sent to you, to enable you to settle that account. I now send them to Mr. P V B...
2402Pennsylvania Assembly Committee: Report on Three Petitions, 14 November 1755 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives , 1755–1756 (Philadelphia, 1756), p. 54. The crucial Assembly session of November 1755 began under a deluge of petitions, mostly from frontier counties pleading for measures of defense against Indian attacks. Other representations, however, presumed to tell the Assembly how to fulfill its obligations, sometimes backing up...
2403Pennsylvania Assembly: Reply to the Governor, 18 November 1755 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives , 1755–1756 (Philadelphia, 1756), pp. 26–8. Replying to the Assembly’s message of November 11 six days later, Governor Morris agreed that the dispute over exemption of proprietary lands from taxation “must in the end be determined by His Majesty.” His message dealt entirely with the manner of presenting the question to the King...
2404Pennsylvania Assembly: Reply to the Governor, 18 November 1755 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives , 1755–1756 (Philadelphia, 1756), p. 29. After Braddock’s defeat, deteriorating relations with the Indians became one of the most troublesome and pressing concerns of the Pennsylvania authorities and an added source of conflict between the governor and the Assembly. William Penn had established the policy of fair play toward the...
2405Pennsylvania Assembly: Reply to the Governor, 19 November 1755 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives , 1755–1756 (Philadelphia, 1756), p. 30. While the Assembly was considering his amendments to the £60,000 tax and defense bill, Governor Morris asked for emergency funds for protecting the frontier in the interval which would pass before the still-contested appropriation bill could take effect. He also pressed for a bill...
2406Pennsylvania Assembly Committee: Report on the Governor’s Message, 25 November 1755 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives , 1755–1756 (Philadelphia, 1756), pp. 42–44. A sharp message from Governor Morris on November 22, answering one from the Assembly of four days earlier, dealt principally with precedents for the amendment of money bills. Probably both weary of the dispute and sensing no advantage to be gained by further responses, the Assembly...
2407Pennsylvania Assembly: Proposed Reply to the Governor, 25 November 1755 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives , 1755–1756 (Philadelphia, 1756), appendix pp. i–iii between pp. 54 and 55. After agreeing to the Committee Report immediately above in lieu of making a direct answer to Governor Morris’ message of November 22, the Assembly resolved that the reply which the same committee had drafted “be at present laid aside.” Thus, the reply...
2408Militia Act, [25 November 1755] (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Anno Regni Georgii II. Regis, Magnae Britanniae, Franciae & Hiberniae, Vigesimo Nono. At a General Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania, begun and holden at Philadelphia, the Fourteenth Day of October, Anno Domini , 1755, … (Philadelphia, 1755), pp. 243–7. Beginning in December 1754 Governor Morris had repeatedly asked the Assembly to pass a bill providing for the establishment...
2409From Benjamin Franklin to Richard Partridge, 27 November 1755 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Boston Public Library By the Votes and Copies of Papers herewith sent to you and Mr. Charles, you will see the Difficulties this Province has been under by Proprietary Restraints, so that we could not obtain a Bill for raising Money for the King’s Use, till it had been sent home to England, and the Proprietary’s Leave obtain’d for Passing it; and in the meantime the King’s Service was...
2410From Benjamin Franklin to Josiah Quincy, 27 November 1755 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Massachusetts Historical Society I condole with you sincerely on your late heavy Losses, particularly that of your most valuable and dear Companion of Life. I have been so excessively hurried since I saw you, and Mr. Allen generally in the Country, that we have not yet finish’d your Affair, which I am however asham’d of, as it might be done in half an hour. I shall no longer postpone it,...
2411From Benjamin Franklin to William Shipley, 27 November 1755 (Franklin Papers)
Duplicate: Royal Society of Arts; Copy: Royal Society of Arts I have just received your very obliging Favour of the 13th. September last; and as this Ship sails immediately, have little more time than to thank you cordially for communicating to me the Papers relating to your most laudable Undertaking, and to assure you, that I should esteem the being admitted into such a Society as a...
2412From Benjamin Franklin to William Strahan, 27 November 1755 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : New York Public Library I have yours of Oct. 3. Bolitho being just arriv’d, the Things not yet come on shore. By the Account sent, I find I was then £59 4 s . ½ d . in your Debt. I hope you have since received the Bills I sent you per Joy and Budden for £109 8 s . 4 d . Sterling which will leave a Ballance in my Favour. I do not at all approve of B. Mecom’s being so much in your Debt,...
2413Robert Hunter Morris to Thomas Penn, 28 November 1755 (Franklin Papers)
Extract: Public Record Office, London Throughout the protracted controversy between the governor and the Assembly, Morris was as active as the representatives in building a case and defending a position, as his many letters to the Proprietors and to other governors show. Immediately after the passage of the Militia Act, November 25, and the £60,000 Appropriation Act, November 27, he wrote a...
2414Robert Hunter Morris to the Provincial Commissioners, 1 December 1755 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission Upon considering the state of our friendly Indians on the River Sasquehanna, I think it necessary that Messengers should be immediately sent to convene them to come down to Harris’s Ferry in order to concert measures with this Government upon the present Circumstances of affairs when it may be proper to communicate to them such parts of the...
2415To Benjamin Franklin from Elizabeth Hubbart, 1 December 1755 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I imagine you now Consulting the safty, of the Poor unhappy People on your Fronteres; with all the Wisdom and Greavity, of the most Noble Romane. I almost envey you the Power of doing so much good, and what is worse, I quite dispare of being admited to the Heaven prepared for you, if as we are taught (and I think it is one of the most reasonable Doctrines...
2416Pennsylvania Assembly: Reply to the Governor, 3 December 1755 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives, 1755–1756 (Philadelphia, 1756), p. 52. The Assembly had requested information about an alleged Shawnee complaint, made at the Carlisle conference of 1753, of being cheated in land purchases; and Governor Morris, on November 19, had asked Council members Robert Strettell, Joseph Turner, and Thomas Cadwalader to investigate. Their...
2417Pennsylvania Assembly: Reply to the Governor, 3 December 1755 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives , 1755–1756 (Philadelphia, 1756), pp. 52–3. Upon receipt of a renewed, urgent appeal from Gen. William Shirley to attend a forthcoming council in New York, Governor Morris asked the Assembly on December 2 whether it thought he should respond to the appeal, or stay in Pennsylvania to aid in the defense of the province. The next...
2418From Benjamin Franklin to William Parsons, 5 December 1755 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I receiv’d your Favour of Nov. 25. and take this first Opportunity of acquainting you, that an Act is past granting £60,000 chiefly for the Defence of the Province, and is to be dispos’d of for that purpose by 7 Persons, viz. I. Norris, Ja. Hamilton, J. Mifflin, Jos. Fox, Evan Morgan, Jno. Hughes, and your old Friend. We meet every Day, Sundays not...
2419From Benjamin Franklin to [William Parsons], 12 December 1755 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Library of Congress Your Favours of Dec. 6. and 9. I have received and laid before the Commissioners. I expect that Mr. Hamilton or myself, or both, maybe with you in a few Days, to establish Ranging or Watching Parties, Blockhouses, &c. for the Defence of your Frontier; in the mean time, we send up by this Waggon, 56 small Arms, ½ Cwt. Gunpowder, 2 Cwt. Lead, 50 Blankets and a Hogshead...
2420From Benjamin Franklin to William Parsons, 15 December 1755 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society We receiv’d yours of the 13th. You will before this time have receiv’d the Arms and Ammunition, Blankets, &c. sent up for an intended Ranging Party; They may be made Use of for the Defence of your Town till we arrive. Capt. Trump, from Upper-Dublin, marches the Day after to-morrow with 50 Men to your Assistance. The Provisions for their Use go with them; so...
2421William Parsons to James Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin, 15 December 1755 (Franklin Papers)
Copy: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission I make bold to trouble you once more, and it is not unlikely that it may be the last time. The Settlers on this side of the Mountain all along the River side are actually removed and we are now the Frontier of this part of the Country. Our poor people of this Town have quite expended their little substance and are quite wearied out with...
2422Provincial Commissioners to George Croghan, [17 December 1755] (Franklin Papers)
MS not found; reprinted from Pennsylvania Archives , 1st series, II (Philadelphia, 1852), 536. You are desired to proceed to Cumberland County and fix on proper Places for erecting three Stockadoes, vizt., One back of Patterson’s, One upon Kishecoquillas, and one Near Sideling Hill; Each of them Fifty feet Square, with a Block-house on two of the Corners, and a Barrack within, capable of...
2423A Dialogue between X, Y, and Z, 18 December 1755 (Franklin Papers)
Printed in The Pennsylvania Gazette , December 18, 1755. The scorn heaped on Franklin’s Militia Act by the proprietary interest made necessary a sympathetic explanation of its unique features to help secure the wide popular support required for its implementation. Franklin explained his connection with the dialogue printed below in the autobiography: “To promote the Association necessary to...
2424[Benjamin Franklin?] to ——, 25 December 1755 (Franklin Papers)
Extract printed in The Pennsylvania Gazette , January 1, 1756. Governor Morris and the commissioners appointed in the £60,000 money act worked diligently to organize more effective measures against the continuing Indian attacks. By December 4 they had decided to rely chiefly upon a fort to be erected at Shamokin (at the forks of the Susquehanna; now Sunbury) from which ranging parties would be...
2425From Benjamin Franklin to Deborah Franklin, 27 December 1755 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : American Philosophical Society I receiv’d yours of the 24th with Pleasure [since it?] acquainted me of your and the Family’s Welfare. [I] am glad to hear that the Companies are forming in Town and chusing their Officers, and hope the Example will be followed throughout the Country. We all continue well, but much harrass’d with Business; after many Difficulties and Disappointments we...
2426Provincial Commissioners: Instructions to William Parsons, 29 December 1755 (Franklin Papers)
Draft: New York Public Library Instructions to Major Parsons You are immediately to raise and take into Pay for one Month a Company of Foot consisting of 24 Men, to be employ’d as a Garrison, Guard and Watch for the Town of Easton, who shall be allow’d at the Rate of 6 Dollars per Month, with Arms and Ammunition, and 15 lb. of Bread and Meat per Week and a Gill of Rum per Day for each Man. You...
2427From Benjamin Franklin to Conrad Weiser, Jonas Seely, and James Read, 30 December 1755 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Grand Lodge F. and A.M. of Pennsylvania We are just on the Point of setting out for Bethlehem, in our Way to Reading, where we propose to be (God willing) on Thursday Evening. The Commissioners are all well, and thank you for the Concern you express for their Welfare. We hope to have the Pleasure of finding you well. No News this Way, except that Aaron Depui’s Barn was burnt last Week,...
2428Poor Richard Improved, 1756 (Franklin Papers)
Poor Richard improved: Being an Almanack and Ephemeris … for the Year of our Lord 1756 . … By Richard Saunders, Philom. Philadelphia: Printed and Sold by B. Franklin and D. Hall. (Yale University Library) I suppose my Almanack may be worth the Money thou hast paid for it, hadst thou no other Advantage from it, than to find the Day of the Month , the remarkable Days , the Changes of the Moon ,...
2429From Benjamin Franklin to Deborah Franklin, 1 January 1756 (Franklin Papers)
ALS : Yale University Library A happy New Year to you, and all Friends. We arrived here, all well, about two Hours ago. Capt. Coultas tells me he purposes to start early in the Morning, so as to be at Philadelphia to morrow Evening. I have only time to write this Line, just to acknowledge the Receipt of your agreable Letters, Sally’s, Dr. Bond’s, Mr. Hughes’s, &c. and to promise particular...
2430William Hays to Robert Hunter Morris and the Provincial Commissioners, 3 January 1756 (Franklin Papers)
Extract printed in The Pennsylvania Gazette , January 8, 1756. I am sorry to inform you, by these Lines, of the bad News of our Defeat at Gnadenhutten. The Day you left Bethlehem, December 31, I set out as soon as possible, and marched with the Waggons about ten Miles, and I continued my March early next Morning, and proceeded with Safety, till I came within about two Miles of Gnadenhutten,...