to the pitiful cries for aid which came from the
frontier. But even greater than their objection to war, was their
passion of resistance to the representative of royalty, the governor.

Petition after petition came from the border for arms and ammunition,
and for a militia law to enable the people to organize and defend
themselves; but the Quakers resisted, declaring that Braddock's defeat
was a just judgment upon him and his soldiers for molesting the French
in their settlement in Ohio. They passed, indeed, a bill for raising
fifty thousand pounds for the king's use, but affixed to it a
condition, to which they knew well the governor could not assent; viz,
that the proprietary lands were to pay their share of the tax.

To this condition the governor was unable to assent, for, according to
the constitution of the colony, to which he was bound, the lands of
William Penn and his descendants were free of all taxation. For weeks
the deadlock continued. Every day brought news of massacres of tens,
fifties, and even hundreds of persons, but the assembly remained
obstinate; until the mayor, aldermen, and principal citizens clamoured
against them, and four thousand frontiersmen started on their march to
Philadelphia, to compel them to take measures for defence.

Bodies of massacred men were brought from the frontier villages and
paraded through the town, and so threatening became the aspect of the
population, that the Assembly of Quakers were at last obliged to pass a
militia law. It was, however, an absolutely useless one. It specially
excepted the Quakers from service, and constrained nobody, but declared
it lawful for such as chose to form themselves into companies, and to
elect officers by ballot. The company officers might, if they saw fit,
elect, also by ballot, colonels, lieutenant colonels, and majors. These
last might then, in conjunction with the governor, frame articles of
war, to which, however, no officer or man was to be subjected, unless,
after three days' consideration, he subscribed them in presence of a
justice of the peace, and declared his willingness to be bound by them.

This mockery of a bill, drawn by Benjamin Franklin while the savages
were raging in the colony and the smoke of a hundred villages was
ascending to the skies, was received with indignation by the people,
and this rose to such a height that the Assembly must have yielded
unconditionally, had not a circumstance occurred which gave them a