, Benjamin Franklin [1775 
since proof of having acted under force would invali- 
date any agreement. And it could be no wonder 
that we should insist on the crown’s having no right 
to bring a standing army among us in time of peace, 
when we saw now before our eyes a striking instance 
of the ill use to be made of it, viz., to distress the 
king’s subjects in different parts of his dominions, 
one part after the other, into a submission to arbi- 
trary power, which was the avowed design of the 
army and fleet now placed at Boston. Finding me 
obstinate the gentlemen consented to let this stand, 
but did not seem quite to approve of it. They 
wished, they said, to have this a paper or plan which 
they might show as containing the sentiments of 
considerate, impartial persons, and such as they 
might as Englishmen support, which they thought 
could not well be the case with this article. 
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