Page:History of the University of Pennsylvania - Montgomery (1900).djvu/461

The seeds of "an alienation of the affections of a loyal people" were however planted, and had germinated ere the Repeal had been effected. But no one could foresee at this juncture the extent of the growth of this alienation, which could have but one legitimate political outcome, and this was reached in a short decade. The excitement in the colonies was not sufficiently weighed at home. Evil as the Stamp Act was in principle and unjustifiable from every point of view, even Franklin, who was in London and laboring for its repeal, had but little hopes of this latter for a long time, and fully expected the British Government to adhere to its position. After the pas- sage 3 of the Act he wrote on 1 1 July, 1765, to his friend Charles Thomson, his early colaborer in the Academy and College : 4 The tide was too strong against us. * * * We might as well have hindered the sun' s setting. That we could not do. But since it is down, my friend, and it may be long before it rises again, let us make as good a night of it as we can. We may still light candles. Frugality and indus- try will go a great way towards indemnifying us. Idleness and pride tax with a heavier hand than kings and parliaments. If we can get rid of the former, we may easily bear the latter. Absent from his friends, he could not realize the force of the storm arising among them and their neighbors, which could only feebly be portrayed in correspondence ; but he was face to face with the authorities in whom he saw no relenting, and prudent man as he was he for a while accepted the inevitable, and not only made the nomination of his friend John Hughes as the Stamp distributer in Philadelphia, but prepared to supply his partner in Philadelphia with stamped paper at a considerable outlay. Ere, however, the 1st November came, on which date the Act was to go in force, the popular storm came and reached across the Atlantic, and Franklin used its elements with effect. He wrote to Charles Thomson on 27 February, 1766 : I have reprinted everything from America, that I thought might help 8 On 22 March, 1765. 4 Bigelow iii. 400. See Mr. Bigelow's footnote on this interesting passage, p. 401 ; also Bancroft, History v. 306.