Lawrence, who was a prominent
and influential citizen.
The lottery scheme succeeded, also, and eighteen cannon were borrowed
of the Governor of New York until the authorities could import the
requisite number from England. Not a few Quakers approved of these
measures for the public defense.
In the midst of the excitement Franklin intensified the feeling, by
inducing the Governor to appoint a day of fasting and prayer. Such a
day had never been observed in Pennsylvania, and so the Governor and
his associates were too ignorant of the measure to undertake it alone.
Hence, Franklin, who was familiar with Fast Days in Massachusetts,
wrote the proclamation for the Governor, and secured the co-operation
of ministers in the observance of the day.
It is claimed that Quakers often lent their influence to defensive
warfare in an indirect manner. As, for example, when the Assembly made
appropriations for the army, "for the purchase of bread, flour, wheat
and _other grain_," the latter phrase covered _gunpowder_. Perhaps
this suggested to Franklin, when trying to get an appropriation
through the Assembly, the following remark: "If we fail, let us move
the purchase of a fire-engine with the money; the Quakers can have no
objection to that; and then, if you nominate me, and I you, as a
committee for that purpose, we will buy a great gun, which is
certainly a _fire-engine_.
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