A History of the American People

new iron forges in the colonies which drew him into the great argument. His Observations
Concerning the Increase in Mankind, People of Countries etc (published 1754) noted the much
higher population increase in America and he predicted that within a century' America would have more people,a glorious market wholly in the power of Britain.' So it was wrong to restrain
colonial manufactures: A wise and good mother will not do it.' He added, setting out for the first time the theory of the dynamic frontier:So vast is the territory of north America that it will
require many ages to settle it fully; and till it is settled, labor will never bi cheap here, where no
man continues long a laborer for others but gets plantation of his own, no man continues long a
journeyman to a trade but goes among those new settlers and sets up for himself.’
It was this line of thought, and further experience as a commissioned negotiating with the
Indians on the Ohio, and during the war, which led Franklin to propose a general government of
the mainland colonies except for Georgia and Nova Scotia. He thought such a federated
government should deal with defense, frontier expansion, and Indian affairs. A Grand Council,
elected by delegates from all the colonial assemblies in proportion to tax paid, would have the
power to legislate, make peace and war, and pay a president-general. London was not hostile to
the idea, but not one of the assemblies showed an interest, so the British government proceeded
no further. Franklin later noted, sadly, in his Autobiography: I am still of the opinion it would have been happy for both sides of the water if it had been adopted. The colonies, so united, would have been sufficiently strong to have defended themselves [against the French]; there would have been no need of troops from England; of course, the subsequent pretence for taxing America, and the bloody contest it occasioned, would have been avoided.' Alas,the assemblies
did not adopt it, as they all thought there was too much prerogative in it, and in England it was
judged to have too much of the democratic.’
Franklin never abandoned this idea. He was still at this stage (like young Washington) an
imperialist, advocating a huge, self-contained Anglo-American empire, pushing to the Pacific by
land and sea-a Manifest Destiny man, though under the crown. It was only in the lat, 175os, after
much wartime experience, when he went to London a representative of the Pennsylvania
Assembly (which was at loggerhead with the Penn family, still proprietors) that he began to
realize the enormous intellectual and constitutional gap, as wide as the Atlantic itself which
separated Americans from the English ruling class. He had a talk with Earl Granville, Lord
President of the Council, who told him, to his astonishment, that The King in Council is legislator for the Colonies, and when His Majesty's instructions come there, they are the law of the land.' Franklin continued:I told him this was new doctrine to me. I had always understood
from our charters that our laws were to be made by our assemblies, to be presented indeed to the
King for his royal assent, but that being once given the King could not repeal or alter them. And
as the assemblies could not make permanent laws without his assent, [so] neither could he make
a law for them without theirs. He assured me I was totally mistaken.' This is a very revealing
exchange. There is no doubt that all Americans took exactly the same view of the position as
Franklin, and that this view reflected the practice of over a century. There is equally no doubt
that ministerial and parliamentary opinion in England, judges, bureaucrats-the lot-took
Granville's view. What was to be done?
The constitutional impasse was aggravated by a gradual breakdown in order in some of the
colonies, caused by a variety of factors some of which had nothing to do with disagreements
between America and London but which nonetheless made them more serious. In 1763 a
powerful Indian chief called Pontiac, a former ally of the French who had been exasperated
beyond endurance by the consequences of the British conquest, formed a grand confederacy of