Note 1345 — Chapter VIII · (continued 2)

Cf. Parton’s Franklin, i. 357; and Franklin’s Autobiography, Bigelow’s ed., p. 319. Franklin drafted the militia act of Pennsylvania, which was passed Nov. 25, 1755. (Gentleman’s Mag., 1756, vol. xxvi.) In Nov., 1755, Gov. Belcher informs Sir Thomas Robinson of expected forays along the western borders of Virginia and Pennsylvania. (New Jersey Archives, viii., Part 2d, 149.) Even New Jersey was threatened (Ibid., pp. 156, 157, 158, 160, where the Moravians are called “snakes in the grass”), and Belcher addressed the assembly (Ibid., p. 162), and, Nov. 26, ordered the province’s troops to march to the Delaware (Ibid., p. 174). On Dec. 16 he again addressed the assembly on the danger (p. 193).