, Benjamin Franklin [1775
since proof of having acted under force would invalidate
 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 arbitrary
 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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