His account of
Braddock's opinion of the colonial militia is given in a
sentence: "He smil'd at my ignorance, and reply'd, 'These savages
may, indeed, be a formidable enemy to your raw American militia,
but upon the King's regular and disciplin'd troops, sir, it is
impossible they should make any impression.'" After Braddock's
defeat the Pennsylvania Assembly voted more money for defense,
and the unmilitary Franklin was placed in command of the frontier
with full power. He built forts, as he had planned, and
incidentally learned much of the beliefs of a group of settlers
in the back country, the "Unitas Fratrum," better known as the
Moravians.
The death struggle between English and French in America served
only to intensify a lesser conflict that was being waged between
the Assembly and the proprietors of Pennsylvania; and the
Assembly determined to send Franklin to London to seek judgment
against the proprietors and to request the King to take away from
them the government of Pennsylvania. Franklin, accompanied by his
son William, reached London in July, 1757, and from this time on
his life was to be closely linked with Europe. He returned to
America six years later and made a trip of sixteen hundred miles
inspecting postal affairs, but in 1764 he was again sent to
England to renew the petition for a royal government for
Pennsylvania, which had not yet been granted.
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