several years at war against Great
Britain, and being at length joined by France, our situation became one
of great danger; our colony was defenceless, and our Assembly was
composed principally of Quakers. I therefore formed an association of
citizens, numbering ten thousand, into a militia; these all furnished
themselves with arms and met every week for drill, while the women
provided silk colours painted with devices and mottoes which I supplied.
With the proceeds of a lottery we built a battery below the town, and
borrowed eighteen cannon of the governor of New York.

Peace being concluded, and the association business therefore at an end,
I turned my thoughts to the establishment of an academy. I published a
pamphlet; set on foot a subscription, not as an act of mine, but of some
"public-spirited gentleman," and the schools were opened in 1749. They
were soon moved to our largest hall; the trustees were incorporated by a
charter from the governor, and thus was established the University of
Pennsylvania. The building of a hospital for the sick, and the paving,
lighting, and sweeping of the streets of the city, were among the
reforms in which I had a hand at this time. In 1753 I was appointed,
jointly with another, postmaster-general of America, and the following
year I drew up a plan for the union of all the colonies under one
government for defence and other important general purposes. Its fate
was singular; the assemblies did not adopt it, as they thought there was
too much prerogative in it, and in England it was judged to be too
democratic. The Board of Trade therefore did not approve of it, but
substituted another scheme for the same end. I believe that my plan was
really the true medium, and that it would have been happy for both sides
of the water if it had been adopted.

When war was in a manner commenced with France, the British Government,
not choosing to trust the union of the colonies with their defence, lest
they should feel their own strength, sent over General Braddock in 1755
with two regiments of regular English troops for that purpose. He landed
at Alexandria and marched to Frederictown in Maryland, where he halted
for carriages. I was sent to him by the Assembly, stayed with him for
several days, and had full opportunity of removing all his prejudices
against the colonies by informing him of what the essemblies had done
and would still do to facilitate his operations.

This general was a brave ma