NOTE: Transcripts are reproduced by means of electronic transcription. Accuracy is not guaranteed. On this episode the Radio station was experiencing extreme audio issues.
Bill Mick
Dave Bowman joins us throughout the day and in this hour of a Tuesday. It’s always Dave does history on the show, page itdontmake.com we’ve got. Seeking piece is. The headline also have links for you there to all of those work. What the thought that they form and show that Dave does history all there for you on the show page will catch up with those as you can and they we are continuing liberty 250 this week and we’re going to continue in June the 4th of July next year. I’m going this morning, buddy.
Dave Bowman
In the wake of the Boston. Massacre, which we talked about last week. Benjamin Franklin. Is. Easily the most famous. American colonial in the entire world. He is also. Living in London, or at least based in London, he’s been here since the wake of the Stamp Act incidents. His. Position is very simple. He is a loyal Englishman. He is also a colonial American. And he is doing everything he can to reconcile. The two together, he believes that America needs the crown. He he’s very much a King George supporter and while he has some problems with the people in Parliament. As a general rule, he believes that America needs England and England needs America. And he is going to do everything he can. To reach across those. Those issues to try and restore that relationship. He his time in London is remarkable. Not only is he doing all of this negotiation, he’s leading these delegations, but he is also. Most famously conducting a lot of scientific experiments, he is giving scientific lectures and and it it’s it’s really remarkable. He actually continues to. To invent things while he’s in England, he he discovers why ships move slowly through canals. If if you deepen the canals, they’ll go faster. We don’t have time to go through all the physics of that, but he actually discovers this and improves transportation. In England he wires the. The Parliament buildings and the the the government buildings in London for for electric. Light for lightning rods. And in fact. He’s a believer that the lightning rod should. Have a pointed end. And it’s after the American Revolution, in a fit of of anger, that King George the third will actually change all the English lightning rods to balls on tops instead of instead of pointy ends, because he’s mad about Benjamin Franklin. Franklin is really trying to. To reconcile the two and he really, truly and honestly believes. As an Englishman, that the two have to reconcile, that this has to be. A good relationship. This is still the case with Franklin. Even in the wake of the Boston massacre. He thinks that this is just a mistake. This was just as the trial showed. It was just a riot. We’re we’re one people he keeps. Kind of pushing and we’ve got to we’ve got. To work through this. So how does a man who today? Is famous for being literally the first American. How does that happen? How do you go from this guy who truly, honestly and deeply is committed to the idea of being English? To a guy who not only not only helps draft the Declaration of Independence, but will later help draft the Constitution, a man who will become. Not just a advocate for revolution, but really in many ways a radical. What is it that pushes him to that well? The story starts after he arrives in London. And he receives A mysterious package from back Hall.
Bill MIck
So we’re looking at at Ben Franklin and he is the the first Transamerica.
Dave Bowman
Yeah, I would wouldn’t quite put it that way, but. As a complete complete and utter aside, those sorts of things are looked at much differently in 1770 than they are. But today, but we don’t have time to get into that.
Bill MIck
Yet he goes through a transformation and it has to. Do with this package you were talking about.
Dave Bowman
Right. This package arrives. He receives it. In in in the. In the early 1700s, he he actually gets this package. In December of 1772. The package contains 12 letters. Written by governor, then Governor of Massachusetts Thomas Hutchinson, who is the royal governor. And they are between Hutchinson and Andrew Oliver, who’s his assistant. And they are. They are shocking to. To Franklin. The problem with these letters is that they contain phrases like this. There must be an abridgement of what are called English liberties in colonial administration. In other words, Hutchinson is writing to his assistant that we have to we have to suspend liberties, we have to suspend the English rights in order to maintain colonial administration. The the Crown’s government. These people are getting out of hand, and we’ve got to rein them in. Now Franklin sees this differently, I guess. Than we do today. He sees this as an example that Parliament and the King are not the problem. The problem is people like Hutchinson, who are getting too big for their britches back home. And so he takes these letters, he copies them and he sends them back to Massachusetts, to the, to the the leader of the the the house. Are in Massachusetts and he what he’s trying to convince. Him is look the. Problem is, Hutchinson, it’s not Parliament. It’s not. It’s not the king that’s trying to suppress our liberties. It’s Thomas Hutchinson. Well, he he makes it very clear when he sends these to Massachusetts. Look. Don’t publish these. This is just for you and I to know about because we need to work with the Parliament and the king to get rid of Hutchinson, we need to to get rid of the colonial administration and convince the king and Parliament that we can do it ourselves. We don’t need them and this is a good. Example of why. The problem is of course. That in June of 1773. The letters get well leaked.
Bill MIck
And of. You know when you send the e-mail you don’t own it anymore? Same thing.
Dave Bowman
Same same idea. The letters get leaked, they get published in newspapers and of course the newspapers make their way across the Atlantic. Where they are. Splashed all over the the dailies in London and all over England. And of course, as part of this, Franklin’s role will become known. He you can’t. You know, you can’t hide this. He’s he becomes very well known to have been the person who not only obtained the letters and no one is clear on exactly how he did that. But he’s also the person that sent them to Massachusetts, leading to their publication leading to this embarrassment for royal governor, leading to this this scandal. And it is a scandal, and I know it sounds kind of trite to. Us today, but. This is a huge deal. Franklin is being eviscerated in the London papers and more importantly, he’s being. Just he’s no longer welcome at parties. He’s no longer welcomed at at meetings, he’s he’s being basically ostracized by London society because of his involvement in this. How dare you do this and employ the fact? Parliament. Is going to convene what they call a Privy Council for the express purpose of investigating this. And they are going to call Franklin before them and he is going to have to answer for this. But of course, back home. Other events are afoot. Or I guess I should say. A tea.
Bill MIck
And as Franklin was he a specific role for the colonies in London, or was he just there because he’s a citizen? He’s leaving the Congress for a while to to spend time there and come back always his specific role.
Dave Bowman
He’s he’s an unofficial official representative of colonial interests to His Majesty’s Government.
Bill MIck
OK, so his role to talk to those in government, did he have a connection to George?
Dave Bowman
He’s met King George. He likes King George. But he has no official role. He’s not a government employee, as they say he’s not. A. He’s not a he’s not a minister of the. Crowd, although he is. A postmaster, which again sounds strange to. Us he does have. A government appointment. He does have a government salary which is paying for all his. Foibles over there, but but at the same time he’s not really an official, but people respect him because of his relationship in America.
Bill MIck
All right. And we’ll see how the Brits treat. And convert in Franklin into a revolutionary as they’ve does. History continues here on a Tuesday morning on 92.7 FM. MMM. Our weekly dive into history, Jane Bowman joins us on Bill Mick Live. They you said that the government had invoked a a Privy Council to go after Franklin. What happened in that regard? Where is it taking us next?
Dave Bowman
Well, we’ll, we’ll get there in just a moment because we’ve got to go back to Boston. Now this is one of the largest events in the American Revolutionary War history, but we’ve got 8 minutes to talk about it, so we’re going to kind of compress this. And let you. Know some of the basic ideas here because they are going to relate to Benjamin Franklin and his his transformation. By 1773, England had a huge problem. Great, Great Britain had a huge problem. That problem was known as the East India Tea Company. Which was responsible for all the tea coming from India to the rest of the empire. The company was so mismanaged and so. Bloated that it was about to go under. And it was. This is where almost the invention of the phrase comes from. Too big to fail. If it went. Under the government, which was already having problems because of the seven years War was going to have problems as well. And so the the British Government literally bails out the East India Tea Company. With this T act, which on the surface of it makes sense. The idea here is we’re going to cut the price of our tea so. Full. That even with the tax that we have on tea, the colonials will want to buy East India tea because it’s cheaper than the smuggled tea. And that. Will. Help out the east. India Tea Company it will help out the government. It’ll get rid of all this tea that we have. This glut of tea that we have and of course. This results in what we call the. Boston Tea Party. The problem is that even and and you will hear this argument all the time. Well, the the tea was cheaper than the smuggled tea, so the colonials were dumb to to dump the. Tea. The problem is that there there’s really four issues here. Number one. If the colonials allow this tea tax to go into place, and this this this tea from the East India Company to come in and be purchased by Americans at a cheaper rate. It will reinforce Parliaments’s proclaimed right to impose whatever taxes they want. In other words, it’s not the tea, it’s the tax. That’s the problem. If you charge more for the tea and do away with the tax, maybe. We could that talk about.
Speaker
This.
Dave Bowman
#2, and perhaps most importantly, this would have put smuggling merchants if it had worked, it would have put Americans smuggling merchants, tea merchants out of business because it would have undercut their business. So people like John Adams, Sam Adams, and, and a few others could have been financially damaged. More importantly, it would have raised taxes.
Bill MIck
Is.
Dave Bowman
Collections for the government there, that was already saying things like we’ve got to abridge your liberties. We’ve got to continue to raise taxes. We’ve got to to do these things. And most importantly, it would continue to fund those army regiments that they were forcing the Bostonians to quarter.
Speaker
And would have.
Dave Bowman
Would have continued that those troops. Being able to operate. And so, of course, these four factors lead to what is known as on December 16th, 1773, while Franklin is being eviscerated in the newspapers in London. The Boston Tea Party, where the Sons of Liberty and a very structured this is not a chaotic. Riot, by the way. This is a very structured, almost military precision event. Go down to those docks and in in Boston and toss about nine £90,000 worth of tea. Into the harbor. Ben Franklin gets the news over in London and he thinks to himself well. Even in the midst of everything. That’s happening to me. I think this may be. Too far. And we’ll talk about it more in a moment.
Bill MIck
So even in spite of his persecution, Franklin saying this was a bad idea. This is something that my fellow colonialists should not have done.
Dave Bowman
Now he thinks this has gone way too far. He’s. He’s concerned that it’s gonna hurt the overall cause and most importantly, he’s really concerned now. That Parliament is starting to show itself, you know, I mean, when he sent those letters to Massachusetts, he was convinced that the problem was Hutchinson. But the last few months, of course, have convinced him that, well, maybe it is Parliament and he’s concerned now that Parliament is going to use this Boston Tea Party and the others as well. As an excuse to punish the colonial. And of course, that is what’s going to to come to pass. Franklin actually proposes that Massachusetts, the colony of Massachusetts, should actually refund the East India Tea Company, the £90,000 that that their. They’re out with this team. Now this is a. Course this isn’t going to go very far in Massachusetts. Massachusetts is going to say no. And but even stranger, I guess in a way, is it really puts him at odds this this suggestion. It angers. The Crown as well. King George doesn’t like this suggestion. He thinks that that would that will allow them to get away with this and we’re not going to have that. So now he’s he’s caught in the middle. Now he’s mad. The crown is mad at him. Parliament is mad at him. The newspapers are mad at him. And in fact, the Patriots back home are mad at him because he’s daring to propose compromise even in the face of all of this. Stuff that’s going on. And of course, that’s.
Bill MIck
Sounds like you’re getting ready to be a man without a country.
Dave Bowman
It kind of sounds that way, doesn’t it? And of course the problem is that Britain is going to come out with their course of acts. They’re. Going to punish Britain? And. In January, they’re going to get around to this Privy Council. And it’s this 60 minutes in front of the Privy Council where Benjamin Franklin is going to be. Eviscerated. That’s 60 minutes. Is going to change the entire world. Because when that 60 minutes is up, Ben Franklin will no longer be about compromise. He will become an American revolutionary.
Bill MIck
That is going to be interesting, Franklin sounds. Much more. Element. Then. We may have bought them to be. Is that a reasonable assertion based on where we’ve?
Dave Bowman
He starts out.
Bill MIck
Gone so far.
Dave Bowman
That way, I mean he is very much an Englishman, he’s very much a an easygoing guy and and even in the discussions over the Declaration of Independence, we’ll see some of that. We’ll see some of that wisdom in the Constitutional Convention. He’s very much a guy, but he’s he’s very Donald Trump and she likes compromise. He likes the deal. But this 60 minutes in front. Of that Privy Council. Is going to destroy that and he is going to become, like I said, he’s going to become a revolutionary, not a reconciler.
Bill MIck
Date those history, a weekly event here on Bill make live, picked up his podcast, also on the iHeartRadio app. It’s easy to get your ideas and play call Bill at 321-768-1240, Franklin. In front of the Privy Council, David and he’s about to be. Early blood.
Dave Bowman
In so many ways. In early January of 1774, the parliament passes what are known as the Coercive Acts, specifically to punish Massachusetts, where the where the Tea Party has has happened. Oddly enough, they didn’t pass one for North Carolina, where there was another tea party as. Well, but we’ll we’ll. We’ll skip over that for now. The course of acts actually closed the port of. Austin. Revokes their colonial charter. In other words, this is now a direct rule of. The Crown and parliament. And of course it it it. It inserts more troops into Boston with the idea of, you know, again intimidating these people. In the mean time, Governor Hutchinson has had to leave because he’s been humiliated by the publishing of these letters and the realization. By the people that. He’s in favor of doing away with their rights. In January, late January 29th of 1774, the Privy Council is called now. Ostensibly, it is to investigate Governor Hutchinson.
Bill MIck
But.
Dave Bowman
Benjamin Franklin is called to stand before this council. And as he this is, it’s hard to explain because we don’t do things like this here. But the Chief Justice, the Solicitor General of the Privy Council, takes this opportunity to turn this whole thing around instead of investigating Hutchinson and why he would say such an A damning thing instead of, you know, investigating his his leadership of Massachusetts, this all becomes about Benjamin Franklin. And his release of these letters. Now again to us they seem trivial and trite, but in England at that point. It is. It is a huge scam. And in the wake of the Boston Tea Party, with all that that’s going on and the fact that Franklin has tried to mediate this instead of coming down on the clear side of of the Parliament government, everybody’s mad at. And the solicitor general takes 60 minutes. And just absolutely. Blasts, frankly. He calls him a traitor. He calls him a fool. He refers to him as a thief, implying that he stole the letters. And he is just ripping into Franklin. In fact, we’re told by the people who were there that the solicitor general’s attack on Franklin was absolutely, and I hate to use this word, but it was unprecedented. It had never been like that before, certainly not for someone who wasn’t accused of a of a heinous or. Capital crime. They were. There were people who were embarrassed by it. But nobody. None of the none of the other pervy counselors. Nobody in the audience. Nobody put a stop to it. They just let it go on. And the more it goes on and on and on. The more it becomes very personal, very vindictive, very angry, very rude. Franklin becomes more and more stoic. In this time in front of this Privy Council, he never says a single word, not one. He stands stock still. Imagine that. I mean, he’s an. Old guy and. He standing for an hour hurts. I can tell you that myself. He doesn’t move. His fists are clenched. His face is just solid as a mask. And he listens to this go. On and on and on. And when it’s done. He turns on his heels and he walks out. Within weeks, he’s done. He’s going to sail back to America. And within a year, he’s going to be a leading revolutionary. He will be. Helping to draft he will be on the draft committee for the Declaration of Independence and yes, he’s still Ben Franklin, so he still has this. You know, conciliatory. Hey, let’s you know the art of. The deal kind of thing. But he is literally going to become the one of. The chief architects. Of the revolution. And of course, later on he will become one of the leading figures in the Constitutional Convention in in generating our government. This 60 minutes. You have to wonder in some ways. I mean, if the chief, if the solicitor general, had just said, you know, OK, we’re here to talk about Hutchinson and what happened and and left it at that. Maybe things go differently. Maybe Benjamin Franklin continues to be a conciliatory figure. Maybe he continues to be someone who’s trying to work through things. But by literally throwing Franklin under the bus. He changes history.
Bill MIck
And when Franklin?
Dave Bowman
Is, you know, when Franklin puts his minds to things as, as we all already know, from his scientific experiments and the likes of that, when he puts his mind to accomplishing something, nothing gets in his way and he will succeed. And Benjamin Franklin, the first American, as he’s often referred to. Walked out of that Privy Council. No longer. An Englishman, no longer loyal to the king. Understanding now that, hey, maybe it wasn’t Hutchinson, it was Parliament all along. And from henceforth and forevermore. I will be an American and I will do everything I can to make sure. That America. Comes first.
Bill MIck
When they humiliated Franklin. He didn’t speak to defend himself, but I guess he knew at that point he had a right to remain silent. We didn’t figured out the last 6364196364 was there a key moment? Was it just this 60 minutes? And what happened there? Is it a combination? Did Franklin ever speak to why? This was his chain.
Dave Bowman
Why he remained silent.
Bill MIck
No. Why all of a sudden now? I want a revolution.
Dave Bowman
Well, it’s, I mean it’s it is clearly this change it’s it’s, it’s a realization in his mind because again up to this point he’s he’s thinking this is individuals. This is people like Hutchinson and Andrew Oliver who are. Lunatics. I mean, to borrow a phrase from the earlier and hours. They’re they’re the mad mullahs of Massachusetts. I mean, these are the people who are trying to and violate our rights. He doesn’t believe that it’s Parliament. He doesn’t believe that it’s the king. But this incident? Changes his mind. And the fact that neither side is willing. To listen to any kind of compromise. Over the Tea Party. Is, in his mind becomes proof that that these people are, as the king will say, it’s going to come. It has. To come to blows. The Coercive acts have made it clear that the king, the Parliament, is no longer interested in negotiating. Anything they are going to enforce themselves as they are as the the rulers of the American people and your rights as Englishmen are null and void, we. Don’t care about. Them we are, as Hutchinson said, going to abridge. And of course, that’s highly offensive to Franklin, who considered himself an Englishman. And now he sees that. These people are. Lying to him and have misled him.
Bill MIck
And that he’s been being considered a lesser class of citizen.
Dave Bowman
Right. And there’s that. And then being accused of being a thief and a fool and a traitor. OK, you’re gonna accuse me of it? Well, then, I’m gonna go be 1.
Bill MIck
In one piece. Tried to get it, he couldn’t. And.
Dave Bowman
I think there’s some lessons.
Bill MIck
If you have parties unwilling to compromise, you can’t reach an agreement and it’s just. Like Congress.
Dave Bowman
I I I think there’s some. Lessons in that and and the and the idea that. Yes, you should always strive for peace. You should always strive for the deal. But there comes a point of no return, and if you’re not getting anywhere. There. That’s when you have to take action and Franklin, to his credit, didn’t dither about that once he came to that moment, it was no longer a well, maybe should I? What’s the best way? It was full on revolutionary, and he was ready to go.
Bill MIck
Well, the other colonial surprise that has turn. This was this. Wasn’t you, Ben? What are you doing, man?
Dave Bowman
No, I I don’t think they’re surprised by it. They’re. Pleased by it. Because it’s it’s like every other every other revolutionary in the in the American Revolution has to come to that moment. Everybody is not Sam Adams. Everybody is not a member of the Sons of Liberty. Everybody takes that. Even John Adams. I mean, he defended the soldiers from the Boston massacre because he believed that was right. Would he have done that 20 years later? It’s hard to say for sure. I think he would have, but. But everybody has that transformational moment that. Takes them from where they were to where they are going to be, and I think in Franklin’s case. It was just. If if we’re. Talking about Isaac and Ebenezer and and Charles. Maybe it’s not that big of a deal, but when you’re talking about the most fame, arguably the most famous man in the world. Weldon’s wedding. The the solicitor general should have handled that differently. But he didn’t and. In doing so, he changed history.
Bill MIck
I wonder if there were any ramifications for him or was the crown in Parliament all about hey, you did that. You did? It. Well, that’s, that’s what. We needed to have you do.
Dave Bowman
No, for for for the most part, they were. This was planned, it was scripted. It was actually what they wanted. Them thinking that if they humiliated him, he would, he would. Go along with what they wanted. They didn’t realize that if they humiliated him like that, they were going to make him an enemy.
Bill MIck
How interesting is that? As as you look back at this part of history. A key turning point for revolution.
Dave Bowman
Absolutely. Absolutely. Without Ben Franklin. Does it happen? Sure. Does it happen successfully? I don’t know. I think you need Ben. Franklin. You have to have the most famous man.
Bill MIck
Yeah. How different is it? If the crown turns him into a stronger ally as opposed to now an opponent?
Dave Bowman
In the world.
Bill MIck
Yeah.
Dave Bowman
And that’s that’s the real question and and that’s why these kind of moments you know you, you you wonder if you could go back in time if you could get the DeLorean and you. Could go back. To that moment, do you warn? The Solicitor general and say, hey, you know, you really don’t want to do that. Or do you just let him do it? It’s it’s, it’s the final countdown all over again. Do we stop it or do we let it happen? Because for us it worked out the right way.
Bill MIck
You’re not perfect.
Dave Bowman
For England, not so much.
Bill MIck
Yeah, that’s true. Very interesting work this week, Dave and I appreciate you doing all the work it takes to get there while we’re looking at next week.
Dave Bowman
Next week, we start delving into the the intolerant acts. What what Britain actually does, and the first Continental Congress, where we start reacting to what Britain is doing and our unity as a nation is born.
Bill MIck
We continue to build up the Liberty 250 next Tuesday with Dave. Those history of building blocks. Dave, thanks for taking the time in spite of the computer and other difficulties we got through it. I appreciate your time on these Tuesdays. Go enjoy the rest of your week and we’ll be listening for you on those. Links are posted at Bill Mcdot. Com.
Dave Bowman
We’ll see you next week.
DAVE DOES HISTORY 