If it were communicable by descent, it must also be divisible among the descendants, and the more ancient the family the less would be found existing in any one branch of it; to say nothing of the greater chance of unlucky interruptions.
Benjamin Franklin: “If it were communicable by descent, it must also be divisible among the descendants, and the more ancient the family the…”
Editor's note · Context
Franklin discusses the implications of hereditary honors and their divisibility among descendants.
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The Indian trade would be better regulated by the union of the whole than by partial unions.
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That it would be treating them as a conquered people, and not as true British subjects.





