English Colonies Quotes
Coping with the French and their Indian allies was a problem for all the American colonies and Franklin was the strongest voice for some kind of union or federation for not only mutual defense, but to facilitate commerce by having some uniform currency and basic laws of trade to promote the mutual economy. The 6 Iroquois tribes had years ago formed the Iroquois nation complete with a formal constitution that maintained tribal identity but also enabled unified action if any were attacked and provided mutual assistance on a number of economic areas. They became the strongest, wealthiest, healthiest and most sophisticated nation of North America before European colonization and unlike many other Indians with a few exceptions–see {21747} for an example–got along very well with the English colonists. Franklin was a great admirer and wanted to use some of their Constitutional provisions in the American Constitution 36 years later, but at the time tried to embarrass many American's into forming a union with language like this quote. Actually, he did not think of them as savages at all, but most Americans who knew little about them did, and Franklin was never above using people's prejudices to get them to buy into one of his political ideas.
The American Colonies had the strength of local control, but that also had weaknesses whereby it was difficult to mobilize communities to work together for any purpose including mutual defense. Ironically, the very thing that provided a common weal was the British Government itself and 80 years later, Americans would unite in revolution.
He was a rice planter but could only export his rice to English Merchants and not sell to other foreign markets. This was the same with tobacco and other commodities. See {636867}.
