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Letter to Massachusetts Speaker of the Assembly Thomas Cushing

Written on December 2, 1772; excerpted from The Papers of Benjamin Franklin

"As to the Writers …when I find them bartering away the Liberties of their native Country …calling for Troops …; when I see them exciting Jealousies in the Crown, and provoking it to Wrath against a great Part of its faithful Subjects; …I cannot but doubt their Sincerity even in the political Principles they profess….

Benjamin Franklin

While Governor Thomas Hutchinson (1711–1780) was trying, without success, to keep the peace in Boston, Massachusetts, American statesman Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) was serving in London, England, as a colonial agent for Massachusetts. Agents were men appointed by lawmaking bodies in the colonies to live in London, circulate among important people, and report back on what was happening in...