sion of time to scouring
Germantown and other neighborhoods, they brought in near five hundred
additional votes upon their side. It was apparently this strange blunder
of the political managers for the "old ticket" party that was fatal to
Franklin, for when the votes were all counted he was found to be beaten
by a balance against him of twenty-five. He had therefore evidently had
a majority at the hour when his friends prevented the closing of the
polls. He "died like a philosopher. But Mr. Galloway _agonized in death_
like a Mortal Deist, who has no Hopes of a Future Existence."[13]

[Note 13: Parton's _Life of Franklin_, i. 451, quoting _Life of
Joseph Reed_, i. 37.]

But the jubilation of the proprietary party over this signal victory was
soon changed into mourning. For within a few days the new Assembly was
in session, and at once took into consideration the appointment of Dr.
Franklin as its agent to present to the king in council another petition
for a royal government. The wrath of the other side blazed forth
savagely. "No measure," their leader, Dickinson, said, was "so likely to
inflame the resentments and embitter the discontents of the people." He
"appealed to the heart of every member for the truth of the assertion
that no man in Pennsylvania is at this time so much the object of
public dislike as he that has been mentioned. To what a surprising
height this dislike is carried among vast numbers" he did "not choose to
repeat." He said that within a few hours of the nomination hundreds of
the most reputable citizens had protested, and if time were given
thousands "would crowd to present the like testimony against [him]. Why
then should a majority of this House single out from the whole world the
man most obnoxious to his country to represent his country, though he
was at the last election turned out of the Assembly, where he had sat
for fourteen years? Why should they exert their power in the most
disgusting manner, and throw pain, terror, and displeasure into the
breasts of their fellow citizens?" The excited orator then threw out a
suggestion to which this vituperation had hardly paved a way of roses;
he actually appealed to Franklin to emulate Aristides, and not be worse
than "the dissolute Otho," and to this end urged that he should
distinguish himself in the eyes of all good men by "voluntarily
declining an office which he could not accept without alarming,
offending, and disturbing his country." "Let hi