A History of the American People

to the Privy Council to have the unpopular Governor Hutchinson of Massachusetts removed. He
still believed in a negotiated compromise. But he got no thanks for his pains. His petition
coincided with the Boston Tea Party and the inflaming of English opinion. He was fiercely
attacked by Alexander Wedderburn, North's Attorney-General, a man typical of the British
hardliners who made a deal impossible. Wedderburn, to Franklin's amazement, attacked him as
the leader of disaffection,' a rebel 'possessed with the idea of a great American republic.' The petition was dismissed asgroundless, vexatious and scandalous,' and to add insult to injury
Franklin was peremptorily fired from his job as deputy postmaster-general. He saw Burke, and
agreed with him that the British Empire was an aggregate of many states under a common head;' but he agreed with Burke also that the notion was now out of date-'the fine and noble China Vase, the British Empire,' had been shattered. He saw Chatham, but found the old man degenerated into a windbag, who talked but did not listen, and counted for little now. Sadly, Franklin set sail for Philadelphia on March 20, 1775, convinced there was nothing more he could do in London to make the peace. When Franklin got to Philadelphia on May 5-five days before the Second Continental Congress was due to meet-the first shots had been fired. On April 19, sixteen companies of redcoats were dispatched on what one of their officers calledan ill-planned and ill-executed'
expedition to seize patriot arms-dumps in Lexington and Concord. They failed to get the arms,
and in a series of confused engagements got the worse of it, losing seventy-three dead and over
200 wounded or missing (American casualties were forty-nine dead, thirty-nine wounded, and
five missing). John Adams was profoundly disturbed at the losses. It was the most shocking event New England ever beheld.' He saw it as the microcosm of all the tragedy of civil war-'the fight was between those whose parents but a few generations ago were brothers. I shudder at the thought, and there is no knowing where these calamities will end.' But his cousin Sam, hearing the first gunfire, called out:What a glorious morning this is-I mean, for America.' The patriotic
media machine seized on the skirmishes with delight and presented them as a major victory, and
proof that colonial militias could stand up to veterans.
Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, and Washington met on May 11 in Philadelphia, when the Second
Continental Congress assembled. Franklin had known Washington twenty years before, during
the Seven Years War. But most of the rest were strangers, many of them young men. He noted
that the Unanimity is amazing.' But that was unanimity for resistance. Only a minority yet thought in terms of outright independence. The rich John Dickinson of Maryland (1732-1808) wanted a direct appeal to King George to give Britain a last chance, and drafted an Olive Branch Petition. But even former moderates thought this pointless. John Adams, with characteristic ad hominem bitterness, dismissed it asthe product of a certain great fortune and piddling genius'
giving a silly cast to our doings.' He thoughtPower and artillery are the most efficacious, sure
and infallible conciliatory measures we can adopt. Franklin sadly agreed with him. Knowing
what he did of British political opinion, he was moving to the view that independence was the
only solution, and he busied himself preparing for a long war, seeing to the printing of currency,
the manufacturing of gunpowder, and the designing of an independent postal system. He drew up
Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, which carried his defense union scheme a great
deal further and was an early blueprint for the United States Constitution itself. This was to
include besides the Thirteen Colonies (Georgia had now joined the Congress), Canada, the West
Indies, and even Ireland if it wished. Though sad about the break with Britain, he was confident
that America's huge economic and demographic strength-he was one of the few people on either
side who appreciated its magnitude-would make it a certain victor, though he thought it should