2. Benjamin Franklin [1785 
we are broken, and the parts must now do as well as 
they can for themselves. We may still do well, 
though separated. I have great hopes of our side, 
and good wishes for yours. The anarchy and con- 
fusion you mention, as supposed to prevail among 
us, exist only in your newspapers. I have authentic 
accounts, which assure me that no people were ever 
better governed, or more content with their respec- 
tive constitutions and governments, than the present 
Thirteen States of America. 
A little reflection may convince any reasonable 
man that a government wherein the administrators 
are chosen annually by the free voice of the governed, 
and may also be recalled at any time if their conduct 
displeases their constituents, cannot be a tyrannical 
one, as your loyalists represent it; who at the same 
time inconsistently desire to return and live under it. 
And, among an intelligent, enlightened people, as 
ours 1s, there must always be too numerous and too 
strong a party for supporting good government and 
the laws, to sufier what is called anarchy. This bet- 
ter account of our situation must be pleasing to your 
humanity, and therefore I give it you. 
But we differ a little in our sentiments respecting 
the loyalists (as they call themselves), and the con- 
duct of America towards them, which, you think, 
‘‘seems actuated by a spirit of revenge; and that it 
would have been more agreeable to policy, as well as 
justice, to have restored their estates upon their tak- 
ing the oaths of allegiance to the new governments.’ 
That there should still be some resentment against 
them in the breasts of those, who have had their 
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