Ben Franklin Summarizes the Colonial Complaints
Political Satire Proves Ineffective in Generating Support in England
Jul 23, 2009
From 1757 to 1775, Benjamin Franklin served in England as a general ambassador for several of the American colonies. His job: convince the king and Parliament to change their policies towards America. Despite his attempts for most of those eighteen years, Franklin was not having success
How a Great Empire May be Reduced to a Small One
So Franklin turned to political satire to make his point. He wrote “Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One”, which was published in the London Public Advisor in 1773. Using irony and reverse logic, Franklin laid out the American case in twenty points.
He began by comparing the British Empire to a great cake: “most easily diminished from the edges.” He continued the analogy by saying England was acting like a gingerbread maker. To facilitate a division, the baker cuts through the dough before baking, creating a perforation of sorts, the cooked gingerbread then breaking at the designated place. If you could develop a lost of things to drive a wedge between the two, England had done all that would be on the list.
A Summary of the Arguments of the Colonies
Franklin’s twenty points show where the Colonies felt they stood in England’s mind. They can be summarized as follows.
- Americans were not being afforded the same rights as Englishmen in the Mother Country.
- Distance and time had made the Colonies more of a separate nation rather than a part of England.
- England acted as if they resented the success the Colonies were having and enacted laws and followed policies seemed to suppress that success.
- England had forgotten that it was through the labor and wealth of the original colonists and their descendants that the Colonies were built. The king and Parliament only became interested after the venture was proved successful.
- Taxes were levied on American commerce that were not levied on the entire empire.
- The king sent “prodigals, gamesters, stockjobbers” and the like to be governors and judges (replacing those duly elected by the colonists), gave them exorbitant salaries and expense accounts, and rewarded their incompetence with generous pensions.
- The taxes levied seemed to not consider that the colonists had the sole expense of continuing to construct public improvements: roads, bridges, fortifications, public buildings, etc. These were already built in England, so the Mother Country did not have this expense. Thus the colonists saw them as being double-hit on taxes and internal expenses.
- Due process of law, guaranteed by the unwritten British Constitution, had been denied the colonists. This included: free exercise of religion, habeas corpus, trial by jury. Too often colonists charged with a crime were taken to England for trial.
- The legislatures of the various colonies were dissolved at will by the king, or ordered to convene in an inconvenient place to reduce attendance.
- British troops were stationed in America, not to defend the wild borders but to control the colonists.
- The king and Parliament had continuously refused to redress grievances peacefully brought to their attention by colonial delegations and letters.
The Result of Franklin’s Satire
Even though English policy seemed to be set against any American interests, there was a small pro-American party in England. These people saw that the Colonies brought immense wealth to England, and keeping the Colonies happy and working were the right thing to do. Unfortunately, Franklin’s satire antagonized these supporters. No doubt comparing the mighty British Empire to a cake did not sit well. While Franklin’s eloquence helps us today to understand the colonial position, it did not bring the results he hoped for.
In this satire by Benjamin Franklin are many of the ideas that eventually were incorporated into the Declaration of Independence, three years later.
Source:
The Annals of America, Vol. 2, pages 221-226; Enclyclopedia Britannica, 1968. The Annals quote from The Works of Benjamin Franklin ed. by Jared Sparks, 1836-1840.
 |
