Free Franklin by Davidson Butler Page B

to Concord, Massachusetts, to seize cannon, gunpowder, and other supplies there. On April 19, fighting broke out in Lexington, and before the day had ended, forty-nine Americans were dead, forty-one wounded, and five missing. The British retreated from Concord, pursued by American minutemen, who suffered seventy-three casualties, with 174 wounded and twenty-six missing.
    In New Jersey, William received a letter from his father – the first since he had written to inform him of Deborah’s death. The letter, sent from Philadelphia, was how William learned that Franklin had returned from London. The letter was dated two days after Franklin’s arrival in Philadelphia. Franklin asked if William had resigned. The answer was no. William felt loyal to the British government because he had not been removed him from office despite his father’s activities. Governor Franklin believed the Americans and the British were both to blame. “I don’t understand it as any favour to me or to you, the being continued in an office by which, with all your prudence, you cannot avoid running behindhand, if you live suitably to your station,” Franklin wrote. “While you are in it I know you will execute it with fidelity to your master, but I think independence more honourable than any service, and that in the state of American affairs . . . you will find yourself in no uncomfortable situation, and perhaps wish you had soon disengaged yourself.”
    Franklin urged William to resign and join the revolution. Neither William nor Joseph Galloway, Franklin’s chief political lieutenant in Pennsylvania, agreed. Galloway proposed a plan of union between England and America, and the Continental Congress voted it down. Insulted, he quit Congress and returned home.
    On May 10, when a second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, Franklin was appointed an extra member of the Pennsylvania delegation. He was stunned to discover few agreed with his stance on independence. Among those who did was a young delegate from Virginia, Thomas Jefferson . Almost everyone else agreed with John Dickinson , leader of the Pennsylvania delegation, who was determined to reconcile England and America. Franklin had tried that in London and knew it was futile. But he kept silent and accepted the opinion of the majority.
    The news of Bunker Hill changed that. Americans had seized high ground north of Boston, and the British army had attacked. A battle erupted, leaving more than 1,000 British and 400 Americans dead and wounded. Cannon balls from British warships set Charlestown afire, and some 300 houses were destroyed.
    Despite Franklin’s support for the American cause, some suspected him to be a British spy - due mainly to his son’s refusal to join the revolution, as well as the years he had spent in England and his friendship with powerful men in parliament. William Bradford, nephew of Franklin’s old newspaper competitor, spread this slander. Richard Henry Lee of Virginia, a leading member of the Continental Congress, announced he was launching an investigation to determine whether Franklin was a traitor.
    More dismaying was the decision in Congress to accept Dickinson’s advice and submit another “humble petition” to the king. Dickinson, with help from Thomas Jefferson, wrote the Olive Branch Petition , and it was sent to London despite the news from Bunker Hill.
    Franklin, convinced independence was the only solution, wrote a declaration of independence and articles of confederation, creating a new nation. But when he showed it to delegates, they were, in Jefferson’s words, “revolted at it.” Congress was convinced, in this summer of 1775, that war could be avoided. Politically isolated, Franklin stayed uncharacteristically silent in the Continental Congress.
    Meanwhile, he worried about William his grandson. The boy was spending the summer with his father and stepmother in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.