e of the shrewdness of General Franklin.

The chaplain complained that the men were remiss in attending prayers.
Franklin suggested that though it might not be exactly consistent with
the dignity of the chaplain to become himself the steward of the rum,
still, if he would order it to be distributed immediately after
prayers, he would probably have all the men gathering around him.

"He liked the thought," Franklin wrote, "under took the task, and
with the help of a few hands to measure out the liquor, executed
it to satisfaction. Never were prayers more generally and more
punctually attended. So that I think this method preferable to the
punishment inflicted by some military laws for non-attendance on
divine worship."

Bitter quarrels were renewed in the Assembly. The presence of Franklin
was indispensable to allay the strife. Governor Morris wrote
entreating him immediately to return to Philadelphia. It so happened
at this time, that Col. Clapham, a New England soldier of experience
and high repute, visited the camp at Guadenhutton. Franklin placed him
in command, and warmly commending him to the confidence of the troops,
hurried home. He reached Philadelphia on the 10th of February, 1756,
after two months' service in the field. Universal applause greeted
him. Several military companies, in Philadelphia, united in a regiment
of about twelve hundred men. Franklin was promptly elected their
colonel, which office he accepted.

In tracing the disasters of war, it is interesting to observe how many
of those disasters are owing to unpardonable folly. Some months after
Franklin's departure, on a cold, bleak day in November, a large part
of the garrison, unmindful of danger, were skating, like school-boys
on the Lehigh river. The vigilant Indians saw their opportunity. Like
howling wolves they made a rush upon the fort, entered its open
gates, and killed or captured all its inmates. The skaters fled into
the woods. They were pursued. Some were killed or captured. Some
perished miserably of cold and starvation. Probably a few escaped. The
triumphant savages, having plundered the fort and the dwellings of all
their contents, applied the torch, and again Guadenhutton was reduced
to a pile of ashes.

The controversy which arose between the Governor and the Assembly
became acrimonious in the extreme. The principles there contended for,
involved the very existence of anything like American liberty. For
fifteen years the pen an