would most freely have given the whole
to the demands and disposal of her ministers, in preference
to a separation. But the rights of posterity were involved
in the question. I happened to stand as one of their
representatives, and dared not betray their trust."

Washington, Adams, Jay, would have made almost any conceivable
sacrifice of their personal interest, if they could have averted the
calamity of a separation from the home of their ancestors. But the
conduct of the British Cabinet was not only despotic, in the highest
degree, but it was insolent and contemptuous beyond all endurance. It
seemed to be generally assumed that a man, if born on the majestic
continent of North America, instead of being born on their little
island, must be an inferior being. They regarded Americans as
slave-holders were accustomed to regard the negro. Almost every
interview resolved itself into an insult. Courteous intercourse was
impossible. Affection gave place to detestation.

On the 13th of September, 1775, Congress assembled in Philadelphia.
Lexington, Bunker Hill, and other hostile acts of our implacable foes,
had thrown the whole country into the most intense agitation. Military
companies were every where being organized. Musket manufactories and
powder mills were reared. Ladies were busy scraping lint, and
preparing bandages. And what was the cause of all this commotion,
which converted America, for seven years, into an Aceldama of blood
and woe?

It was that haughty, insolent men in England, claimed the right to
impose taxes, to whatever amount they pleased, upon their brother men
in America. They did not blush to say, "It is the prerogative of us
Englishmen to demand of you Americans such sums of money as we want.
Unless, like obsequious slaves, you pay the money, without murmuring,
we will burn your cities and deluge your whole land in blood."

Washington was assembling quite an army of American troops around
Boston, holding the foe in close siege there. Franklin was sent, by
Congress, as one of a committee of three, to confer with Washington
upon raising and supplying the American army. Amidst all these
terrific excitements and perils this wonderful man could not refrain
from giving expression to his sense of the ludicrous. The day before
leaving Philadelphia, he wrote to Dr. Priestly the following humorous
summary of the result of the British operations thus far.

"Britain at the expense of t