Benjamin Franklin: “Pleasant surely it is to hear the proprietary partizans, of all men, bawling for the constitution, and affecting a…”

Each union would separately be weaker than when joined by the whole, obliged to exert more force, be oppressed by the expence, and the enemy less deterred from attacking it.

But above all this, the state and circumstances of our settlements render such a measure not only proper and eligible, but absolutely necessary.

We are obliged to carry a great part of our produce directly to Britain; and where the duties laid upon it lessen its price to the planter, or it sells for less than it would in foreign markets, the difference is a tax paid to Britain.

The gaining of the back Indian trade from the French, by the navigation of the lakes, &c. would of itself greatly weaken our enemies:--it being now their principal support, it seems highly probable, that in time they must be subjected to…