Free Franklin by Davidson Butler

America. Franklin seemed oblivious to this struggle within William and naïve about which side his son would choose.
    A letter questioning William’s dedication to the king arrived in New Jersey. Never one to let accusations go unanswered, he fired back his defense – a thirty-page letter in which he asserted he had never questioned the authority of Parliament either “openly” or “privately.” But he acknowledged the predicament he was in: “Men’s minds are soured, a sullen discontent prevails, and, in my opinion, no force on earth is sufficient to make the Assemblies acknowledge by any act of theirs, that the Parliament has a right to impose taxes on America. As long as this temper continues [America’s legislators] will do all in their power, in their private capabilities, to prevent the consumption of British manufactures in the colonies, that the mother country may thereby lose more in her commerce than she can possibly gain by way of revenue.”
    It became apparent the British were planning to injure other Americans before William Franklin. To punish Boston for the Tea Party, parliament passed bills the Americans called the Intolerable Acts . One closed the port of Boston to shipping until the tea was paid for. Another provided any royal official accused of murder or a similar crime would be tried outside Massachusetts or in England. A third bill annulled the colony’s charter, giving the governor dictatorial powers and making him answer only to England.
    Then came a law aimed at Franklin. The Quebec Act set up a government for the French in Canada and extended the borders of Canada south to the Ohio River, swallowing Franklin’s proposed colony. The Americans saw the British were attempting to pin them between the mountains and the sea. Alexander Wedderburn admitted as much, when members of the opposition accused the government of this in debates in parliament over the bills to punish Boston. For Franklin, these Intolerable Acts were more proof the British were planning to oppress America as they had done in Ireland.
    In America, the Intolerable Acts had an immediate effect on public opinion. People realized if the British could change one colony’s charter, they could change every colony’s charter. From Connecticut to Georgia, Americans rallied to support Massachusetts. Food and money poured into Boston to sustain the thousands left jobless by the port’s closing. At the same time, leaders of the colonies convened a Continental Congress in Philadelphia to discuss the crisis and unite in opposition to the British.
    The surge of American support for Massachusetts stunned the British government. Franklin kept American friends informed. “The coolness, temper & firmness of the American proceedings; the unanimity of all the colonies . . . have a good deal surprized and disappointed our enemies,” he wrote.
    Franklin was as concerned about his son. Governor Franklin, an appointee of the king, opposed the Continental Congress. Instead, he suggested a congress of Royal Governors to mediate the quarrel. He urged his father to come home to tell Americans they should make peace with England.
    Franklin could barely contain himself. “You say my presence is wish’d for at the Congress,” he wrote, “but no person . . . in America has given me the least intimation of such a desire; and it is thought by the great friends of the colonies here, that I ought to stay till the result of the Congress arrives, when my presence here may be of use.” He told William, “I hear nothing of the proposal you have made for a congress of Governors, &c.” Franklin did not like William’s remark that citizens of Massachusetts ought to think of “doing justice before they ask it” and pay for the ruined tea. Franklin disagreed. “They have extorted many thousand pounds from America unconstitutionally, under colour of acts of parliament,