Franklin’s political philosophy may all be summed up in seven words—­“first freedom, then public happiness and comfort.”  The spirit of liberty was born in him.  He resented his brother’s blows when he was an apprentice, and escaped from them.  As a mere boy he refused to attend church on Sundays in accordance with the custom of his family and his town, and devoted his Sundays to reading and study.  In practising his trade he claimed and diligently sought complete freedom.  In public and private business alike he tried to induce people to take any action desired of them by presenting to them a motive they could understand and feel—­a motive which acted on their own wills and excited their hopes.  This is the only method possible under a regime of liberty.  A perfect illustration of his practice in this respect is found in his successful provision of one hundred and fifty four-horse wagons for Braddock’s force, when it was detained on its march from Annapolis to western Pennsylvania by the lack of wagons.  The military method would have been to seize horses, wagons, and drivers wherever found.  Franklin persuaded Braddock, instead of using force, to allow him (Franklin) to offer a good hire for horses, wagons, and drivers, and proper compensation for the equipment in case of loss.  By this appeal to the frontier farmers of Pennsylvania he secured in two weeks all the transportation required.  To defend public order Franklin was perfectly ready to use public force, as, for instance, when he raised and commanded a regiment of militia to defend the northwestern frontier from the Indians after Braddock’s defeat, and again, when it became necessary to defend Philadelphia from a large body of frontiersmen who had lynched a considerable number of friendly Indians, and were bent on revolutionizing the Quaker government.  But his abhorrence of all war was based on the facts, first, that during war the law must be silent, and, secondly, that military discipline, which is essential for effective fighting, annihilates individual liberty.  “Those,” he said, “who would give up essential liberty for the sake of a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”  The foundation of his firm resistance on behalf of the colonies to the English Parliament was his impregnable conviction that the love of liberty was the ruling passion of the people of the colonies.  In 1766 he said of the American people:  “Every act of oppression will sour their tempers, lessen greatly, if not annihilate, the profits of your commerce with them, and hasten their final revolt; for the seeds of liberty are universally found there, and nothing can eradicate them.”  Because they loved liberty, they would not be taxed without representation; they would not have soldiers quartered on them, or their governors made independent of the people in regard to their salaries; or their ports closed, or their commerce regulated by Parliament.  It is interesting to observe how Franklin’s experiments and speculations