Temple's Diary
A Tale of Benjamin Franklin's Family
In the Days Leading up to The American Revolution
And so on, and so on. The colonies don't want any English troops to be quartered in their territory without the consent of their legislatures.
Massachusetts doesn't want a certain Fort William, built at great expense to defend their port of Boston, to be used by British troops as a citadel.
The colonists want to have something to say in the affairs of Canada since they helped conquer it from the French.
They don't want their judges appointed by the King while being paid by their own assemblies. No, they want to appoint the judges themselves.
Same story with the governors of the colonies. They want the right both to choose their governors and to pay their salaries. Would my father like that, I wonder?
What I have to do, now that I have figured out the general drift of the American complaints, is to drum up my courage and tell grandfather what I really think. Because what I think is that he is too stubborn, too intransigent. He hardly leaves any space for conciliation or compromise. But how can I tell him that without hurting his feelings?
My own feelings toward him are not easy to explain, even to myself. I have grown very fond of the old gentleman since he told me how much he needed me and cared for me, yet at the same time I am in awe of him. He is so intelligent, so passionate in his convictions that he carries me along somehow, even when I want to remain myself, with my own ideas.
