[TheRealThing]

“There was no such thing as 'the' colonial assembly.”

“ There were individual state assemblies that taken collectively, could be referred to as the colonial assemblies.”

Ummm....I said in an earlier post that I misread, but did you just say I was right?

I believe...
Our Governor was right to take action. I asked you what you thought he should do, but you dodged.

The Ben Franklin quote supports actions by govts to protect their citizens not individuals dodging responsibility. I do appreciate the historical context.

Wow. Let me come at that from a different angle. Over the course of about 130 years the 13 colonies were founded one by one, by England. In the days of Ben Franklin the assemblies of the colonies were still very much answerable to King George. There was no colonial government per se. But there were colonial assemblies under English oversight. Colonial times, is in the sense of the years roughly from 1600 to 1776 when America was under English rule. The only cohesiveness which existed between the 13 colonies in the federal sense, was in the fact that they were overseen by the English Crown. But when using the term colonial, one is speaking of that specific time frame of 1600 to 1776. Colonial means England's colonization of the New World. America. But those states assemblies were also jammed with legislators who were loyal to the Crown.

The assemblies of said colonies were akin to England's House of Commons, a reflection of the English government. Like England each colony also had a council, thus those councils were akin to the House of Lords. Each state also had a governor who reported to the King of England. In 1776 the 13 colonies declared themselves to be states, United States to be exact according to the Declaration of Independence.

I'm just not going to re-explain to you about the matter of Pennsylvania's defense and funding Franklin was discussing. If you understood federalism you'd understand his argument and his quote. Franklin was supporting a government comprised OF individuals not over those individuals. Free individuals who would one day self govern.