. Benjamin Franklin: his autobiography : with a narrative of his public life and services. as an ingredient of war; but they voted an 182 LIFE OF FRANKLIN. aid to New England of three thousand pounds, to beput into the hands of the governor, and appropriatedit for the purchase of bread, flour, wheat, or othergrain. Some of the council, desirous of giving theHouse still further embarrassment, advised the gov-ernor not to accept provision, as not being the thinghe had demanded; but he replied, I shall take themoney, for I understand very well their meaning;other grain is gunpowder, which he acco
. Benjamin Franklin: his autobiography : with a narrative of his public life and services. as an ingredient of war; but they voted an 182 LIFE OF FRANKLIN. aid to New England of three thousand pounds, to beput into the hands of the governor, and appropriatedit for the purchase of bread, flour, wheat, or othergrain. Some of the council, desirous of giving theHouse still further embarrassment, advised the gov-ernor not to accept provision, as not being the thinghe had demanded; but he replied, I shall take themoney, for I understand very well their meaning;other grain is gunpowder, which he accordinglybought, and they never objected to it. It was in allusion to this fact that, when in ourfire company we feared the success of our proposalin favor of the lottery, and I had said to a friend ofmine, one of our members, If we fail, let us movethe purchase of a fire-engine with the money; theQuakers can have no objection to that; and then,if you nominate me and I you as a committee forthat purpose, we will buy a great gun, which is cer-tainlv a fire-engine! I see, said he, you have. r \ I LIFE OF FRANKLIN. 183 improved by being so long in the Assembly; yourequivocal project would be just a match for theirwheat or other grains Those embarrassments that the Quakers sufferedfrom having established and published it as one oftheir principles that no kind of war was lawful, andwhich, being once published, they could not after-ward, however they might change their minds, easilyget rid of, reminds me of what I think a more pru-dent conduct in another sect among us, that of theDunkers. I was acquainted with one of its founders,Michael Weffare, soon after it appeared. He com-plained to me that they were grievously calumniatedby the zealots of other persuasions, and charged withabominable principles and practices, to which theywere utter strangers. I told him this had alwaysbeen the case with new sects, and that, to put a stopto such abuse, I imagined it might be well to publishthe ar
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