The Story of Our Country / Every Child Can Read

by Unknown

There was nothing going on that Franklin did not take part in. In his shop he bound books, he made ink, he sold rags, soap, and coffee. He was not ashamed of honest work, and would take off his coat and wheel his papers along the street in a wheelbarrow. He started many institutions in Philadelphia which are now very important. Among these there are a great university, a large hospital, and a fine library. No doubt you have read how he brought down the lightning from the clouds along the string of a kite, and proved that lightning is the same thing as electricity. And he took an active part in all the political movements of the time. That is why he came to be sent to Albany in 1754, as a member of the Albany Convention.

Franklin always did things in ways that set people to thinking. When he went to Albany he took with him copies of a queer picture which he had printed in his newspaper. This was a snake cut into thirteen pieces. Under each piece was the first letter of the name of a colony, such as "P" for Pennsylvania. Beneath the whole were the words "Unite or die."

That was like Franklin; he was always doing something odd. The cut-up snake stood for the thirteen divided colonies. What Franklin meant was that they could not exist alone. A snake is not of much account when it is chopped up into bits, but it is a dangerous creature when it is whole. He proposed that there should be a grand council of all the colonies, a sort of Congress, meeting every year in Philadelphia, which was the most central large city. Over them all was to be a governor-general appointed by the king. This council could make laws, lay taxes, and perform other important duties.

That is enough to say about Franklin's plan, for it was not accepted. It was passed by the convention, it is true, but the king would not have it and the colonies did not want it; so the snake still lay stretched out along the Atlantic in thirteen pieces. Then came the great war with the French of which I have told you. After that was over, things came to pass which in the end forced the colonies to combine. Thus Franklin's plan, or something like it, was in time carried out, but for many years the country was in a terrible state. This is what I am now going to tell you about.

You should know that the war with the French cost the king and the colonies a great deal of money. The king of England at that time was named George. He was an obstinate man, but not a very wise one, as you will think when you have learned more about him. One thing he wanted to do was to send soldiers to America to keep the French from getting back what they had lost, and he asked the people to pay these soldiers. He also asked them to send him money to pay the governors and judges whom he had chosen to rule over them. But the people thought they could take care of themselves, and did not want British soldiers. And they preferred to pay the governors and judges themselves as they had always done, and did not want King George to do it for them. So they would not send him the money he asked for.

Some of you may think this was very mean in the Americans, after all the British had done to help them in their war with the French. But they knew very well what they were about. They thought that if they gave the king a dollar to-day he might want five dollars to-morrow, and ten dollars the next day. They judged it best not to begin with the dollar. Kings, you should know, do not always make the best use of money that is given them by their people.

And that was not all. The people in the colonies did not like the way they had been treated by the English. They had mountains full of iron, but the king would not let them make this iron into tools. They had plenty of wool, but he would not let them weave it into cloth. They must buy these and other things in England, and must keep at farming; but they were not allowed to send their grain to England, but had to eat it all at home. They could not even send goods from one colony to another. Thus they were to be kept poor that the rich English merchants and manufacturers might grow rich.

These were some of the things the American people had to complain of. There were still other things, and a good many of the Americans had very little love for the English king and people. They felt that they were in a sort of slavery, and almost as if they had ropes on their hands and chains on their feet.

When King George was told that the Americans would not send him money he was very angry. I am afraid he called them bad names. They were a low, ignorant, ungrateful set, he said, and he would show them who was their master. He would tax them and get money from them in that way. So the English Parliament, which is a body of lawmakers like our Congress, came together and passed laws to tax the Americans.

The first tax they laid is what is called a stamp tax. I fancy you know very well what that is, for we have had a stamp tax in this country more than once, when the government was in need of money. Everybody who wrote a bank check, or made any legal paper, or sent away an express package, had to buy a stamp from the government and put it on the paper; and stamps had to be used on many other things.