#11/17/11: I found the final pages of Franklin’s autobiography slightly, legally puzzling. Once in London on behalf of the Pennsylvania assembly, Franklin struggles to complete the political lobbying efforts he originally intended to achieve. However, I was slightly confused by Franklin’s description of the petition in general and didn’t really understand what was happening. I ended up spending a while reading about proprietary estates and taxation rates in early America.
What I took away from my research in The Quit-rent System in the American Colonies by Beverly Waugh Bond was that colonial proprietors were Englishmen who owned huge tracts of land in the various colonies, but for the most part lived in England. These proprietaries would sell pieces of their land and then continue to tax an annual quit-rent (kind of like a property tax). In Pennsylvania, the governor served as the proprietarys’ liaison to the General Assembly. One of the main issues Franklin deals with in London is the question of whether proprietary instructions, though signed by the king, should be counted as law. He also lobbies the proprietaries to agree to taxation on their land equal to that of Pennsylvania’s citizens—their lands had previously gone untaxed.
While Franklin is in London dealing with these issues, the Assembly continued to lobby the governor for his consent to the taxation petition, as they could not finance the ongoing war against the French without it. Finally, Pennsylvania’s soldiers refused to continue marching without receiving compensation (they hadn’t been paid in 6 months) and the Governor was pressured into accepting the taxation on proprietary estates and issuing 100,000 pounds of paper money. When this news reaches England, Franklin is still in London and his mission transforms into convincing the now-furious proprietaries to uphold the Act.
Once I understood this history more clearly, Franklin’s accomplishments in London seemed more remarkable. Taxing everyone equally and refusing to exempt those associated with the crown serves as an unconcealed indicator of America’s impending revolution. I was also interested to learn that once a law had been passed in the colonies, it could be repealed or “disallowed” in London. Franklin’s efforts in upholding the act were critical to Pennsylvania, because if the act were disallowed, the paper money would immediately become worthless, causing a financial crisis.
Though the placement of this story at the end of Franklin’s autobiography was clearly unintentional (he died mid-writing), I find it hugely appropriate. The fact that Franklin’s last pages have to do with rallying against injustice, fighting for colonial independence, and ensuring the distribution of paper money in the colonies fit all too well with our discussion of Franklin’s personal evolution.
