Benjamin Franklin [1760
a nation was ever blessed with; happy, too, in the
wisdom and vigor of every part of the administration,
 we cannot, we ought not to promise ourselves
the uninterrupted continuance of those blessings.
The safety of a considerable part of the state,
and the interest of the whole, are not to be trusted
to the wisdom and vigor of future administrations,
 when a security is to be had more effectual,
more constant, and much less expensive. They who
can be moved by the apprehension of dangers so
remote, as that of the future independence of our
colonies (a point I shall hereafter consider), seem
scarcely consistent with themselves, when they suppose
 we may rely on the wisdom and vigor of an
administration for their safety. I should indeed
think it less material whether Canada were ceded to
us or not, if I had in view only the security of possession
 in our colonies. I entirely agree with the
Remarker, that we are in North America, “a far
greater continental as well as naval power,” and
that only cowardice or ignorance can subject our
colonies there to a French conquest. But, for the
same reason, I disagree with him widely upon another
 point.
3. The Blood and Treasure spent in the American
Wars, not spent in the Cause of the Colonies
alone.
I do not think that our “blood and treasure have
been expended,” as he intimates, “in the cause of
the colonies,” and that we are “making conquests

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