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Photographer: Engraving by Robert Whitechurch after a painting by Christian Schlussele, courtesy of the LOC
Taken: Circa 1859
Caption: Franklin before the lord's council, Whitehall Chapel, London, 1774
Additional Description: In June 1773 Franklin obtained private letters of Thomas Hutchinson and Andrew Oliver, governor and lieutenant governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, that proved they were encouraging the Crown to crack down on Bostonians. Franklin sent them to America, where they escalated the tensions. The letters were finally leaked to the public in the Boston Gazette in mid-June 1773. causing a political firestorm in Massachusetts and raising significant questions in England. The British began to regard him as the fomenter of serious trouble. Hopes for a peaceful solution ended as he was systematically ridiculed and humiliated by Solicitor-General Alexander Wedderburn, before the Privy Council on January 29, 1774. He returned to Philadelphia in March 1775, and abandoned his accommodationist stance. - Wikipedia
Submitted: November 2, 2017, by Andrew Ruppenstein of Lamorinda, California.
Database Locator Identification Number: p402344
File Size: 0.243 Megabytes

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