ericans. He pronounced the idea
of their successfully resisting the power of Great Britain, as utterly
absurd. His measures became so atrocious, as to excite the indignation
of the people of New Jersey. The Assembly finally arrested him and
sent him, under guard, to Burlington. As he continued contumacious and
menacing, Congress ordered him to be removed to Connecticut. The
Constitutional Gazette of July 13th, 1776, contains the following
allusion to this affair:

"Day before yesterday Governor Franklin, of New Jersey,
passed through Hartford, on his way to Governor Trumbull.
Mr. Franklin is a noted Tory and ministerial tool, and has
been exceedingly busy in perplexing the cause of liberty,
and in serving the designs of the British king and his
ministers.

"He is son to Dr. Benjamin Franklin, the genius of the day,
and the great patron of American liberty. If his excellency
escapes the vengeance of the people, due to the enormity of
his crimes, his redemption will flow, not from his personal
merit, but from the high esteem and veneration which the
country entertains for his honored father."

His family was left in deep affliction. Franklin sent them both
sympathy and money. The captive governor resided at Middletown on
parole. Here the infatuated man gathered around him a band of Tories,
many of whom were rich, and held convivial meetings exceedingly
exasperating, when British armies were threatening the people with
conflagration and carnage.

Inflamed with wine, these bacchanals sang treasonable songs, the whole
company joining in chorus, with uproar which drew large groups around
the house. The Tories professed utterly to despise the patriots, and
doubted not that their leaders would all soon be hung. One midnight
the governor, with his boon companions, having indulged in the wildest
of their orgies, sallied into the streets, with such uproar as to make
night hideous. The watch found it needful to interfere. The drunken
governor called one of them a damned villain and threatened to flog
him. A report of these proceedings was sent to Congress.

Soon after it was ascertained that he was an active agent for the
British ministry. He was then confined in Litchfield jail, and
deprived of pen, ink and paper. For two years he suffered this
well-merited imprisonment. Mrs. governor Franklin never saw her
husband again. Grief-stricken, she fell sick, and died in