One of the most striking instances of a change of sides was the case of a Philadelphia Quaker, John Dickinson, a lawyer of large practice, a man of wealth and position, and of not a little colonial magnificence when he drove in his coach and four.It was he who later wrote the famous "Farmer's Letters" during the Revolution.He was a member of the Assembly and had been in politics for some years.But on this question of a change to royal government, he left the Quaker majority and opposed the change with all his influence and ability.He and his father-in-law, Isaac Norris, Speaker of the Assembly, became the leaders against the change, and Franklin and Joseph Galloway, the latter afterwards a prominent loyalist in the Revolution, were the leading advocates of the change.
The whole subject was thoroughly thrashed out in debates in the Assembly and in pamphlets of very great ability and of much interest to students of colonial history and the growth of American ideas of liberty.It must be remembered that this was the year 1764, on the eve of the Revolution.British statesmen were planning a system of more rigorous control of the colonies;and the advisability of a stamp tax was under consideration.
Information of all these possible changes had reached the colonies.Dickinson foresaw the end and warned the people.
Franklin and the Quaker party thought there was no danger and that the mother country could be implicitly trusted.
Dickinson warned the people that the British Ministry were starting special regulations for new colonies and "designing the strictest reformations in the old." It would be a great relief, he admitted, to be rid of the pettiness of the proprietors, and it might be accomplished some time in the future; but not now.
The proprietary system might be bad, but a royal government might be worse and might wreck all the liberties of the province, religious freedom, the Assembly's control of its own adjournments, and its power of raising and disposing of the public money.The ministry of the day in England were well known not to be favorably inclined towards Pennsylvania because of the frequently reported willfulness of the Assembly, on which the recent disturbances had also been blamed.If the King, Ministry, and Parliament started upon a change, they might decide to reconstitute the Assembly entirely, abolish its ancient privileges, and disfranchise both Quakers and Presbyterians.
The arguments of Franklin and Galloway consisted principally of assertions of the good intentions of the mother country and the absurdity of any fear on the part of the colonists for their privileges.But the King in whom they had so much confidence was George III, and the Parliament which they thought would do no harm was the same one which a few months afterwards passed the Stamp Act which brought on the Revolution.Franklin and Galloway also asserted that the colonies like Massachusetts, the Jerseys, and the Carolinas, which had been changed to royal governments, had profited by the change.But that was hardly the prevailing opinion in those colonies themselves.Royal governors could be as petty and annoying as the Penns and far more tyrannical.
Pennsylvania had always defeated any attempts at despotism on the part of the Penn family and had built up a splendid body of liberal laws and legislative privileges.But governors with the authority and power of the British Crown behind them could not be so easily resisted as the deputy governors of the Penns.
The Assembly, however, voted--twenty-seven to three--with Franklin and Galloway.In the general election of the autumn, the question was debated anew among the people and, though Franklin and Galloway were defeated for seats in the Assembly, yet the popular verdict was strongly in favor of a change, and the majority in the Assembly was for practical purposes unaltered.
They voted to appeal to England for the change, and appointed Franklin to be their agent before the Crown and Ministry.He sailed again for England and soon was involved in the opening scenes of the Revolution.He was made agent for all the colonies and he spent many delightful years there pursuing his studies in science, dining with distinguished men, staying at country seats, and learning all the arts of diplomacy for which he afterwards became so distinguished.
As for the Assembly's petition for a change to royal government, Franklin presented it, but never pressed it.He, too, was finally convinced that the time was inopportune.In fact, the Assembly itself before long began to have doubts and fears and sent him word to let the subject drop; and amid much greater events it was soon entirely forgotten.
