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Pennsylvania Pros And Cons

Decent Essays

In 1747, Franklin organized Pennsylvania’s first militia: the Association. Militias were common in the colonies at the time, but they were, for the most part, structured like traditional European armies, emphasizing hierarchy and discipline and relying on compulsory enrollment and government funding. Franklin, however, organized the Association as though it were any other civil mutual benefit society. Houston writes that, “Men did not ‘enlist’ in the Association. They were ‘subscribers,’ just as the members of the Library Company and the Fire Company were ‘subscribers.’ This was the language of a joint-stock company.” Moreover, Franklin allowed the militia men to elect their own officers and barred corporal and financial punishments for misbehavior

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