Against that reality of constant threat, the period between 1748 and 1757 was a dramatic time of change for Pennsylvania as a society and for Franklin the man. As Lemay sets the scene:
"At the beginning of 1748, Franklin was known in Pennsylvania as clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly and in the Middle Colonies as the printer and editor of Poor Richard's Almanac and the Pennsylvania Gazette (the best colonial newspaper). By the middle of 1757, however, he had become famous in Pennsylvania as a public-spirited citizen and a soldier; well known throughout America as a writer, politician, and the most important theorist of the American empire; and renowned in the western world as a natural philosopher."
War and the threat of invasion drove many of the challenges that forced Franklin into the public arena at this time. He was in his 40s and had wanted, he said, to retire from business and devote the decade or so left to adult men of that time to pursuing the new science of electricity and to good works for his beloved boomtown of Philadelphia.
But Mother England was at war with either or both France and Spain at this time, and French and Spanish ships routinely raided shipping and even towns along the Atlantic Seaboard. And then, later on, France began to squeeze Pennsylvania's borders to the west, sparking Indian attacks and the building of French military forts along the Great Lakes and up the Ohio River.
Even with these threats, Pennsylvania was unique among the Colonies for refusing to organize a militia to defend itself either from the raiding privateers who threatened the Delaware Bay or the French and Indian raids of the western counties. The pious Quakers who controlled the Pennsylvania Assembly were as resolutely pacifist as they were parsimonious; the German settlers farther inland also were inclined to resist arming themselves. And the greedy sons of founder William Penn feared that a citizen militia with weapons would be a greater threat to their iron rule than any external attack.
It was during this 20-year conflict over the nature of Pennsylvania that Franklin and his allies began to develop the notion of an American nation; first they conceived of America as the heir and successor to Britain's home island, but by the end of this volume, their thoughts had turned to America as a stand-alone nation peopled by a unique egalitarian citizenry. How they did it is a gripping yarn.
The trouble is that as one closes this book, the thought immediately occurs: What happens now?
Unless someone steps up, there will be no more volumes coming out of the decades of document research Lemay compiled during his lifetime. The University of Pennsylvania Press had all it could do to get the first two volumes out the door at the same time and nearly missed the Franklin tercentenary celebrations in 2006; it appears to be beyond the editors' competence to pursue the series further.
As for the University of Delaware, where Lemay taught for years, his extremely valuable Internet Web site of Franklin's daily doings from his birth through his death in 1790 lies dormant and unfinished at 1748. It still can be accessed at www.english.udel.edu/lemay/franklin and is a highly valuable resource for anyone interested in the man or his time. However, there is no sign that anyone has the slightest intention of completing the task despite the high volume of online visits even now.
Late in December, historian Paul M. Zall of the California State University at Los Angeles died at age 87. Zall had been Lemay's partner in annotating the authoritative version of Franklin's "Autobiography" and in other history works. With his passing, these three books of Lemay's "Life of Benjamin Franklin" become all the more valuable for anyone who relishes our history or has concern about our present. Buy them and cherish them.
