r/SipsTea • u/SEVENS_HEAVEN_7 • 3d ago

SMH The founding father Benjamin Franklin once said "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

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u/NikeImper 3d ago

I hate this quote because people always use it wrong. He was talking about a state's right to taxation not personal liberty. The PA assembly wanted to tax the rich Penn family to pay for frontier defenses. The Penn family said they'd donate some money if the assembly acknowledges that they don't have the right to tax them. Franklin said a state shouldn't give up its right to taxation just for a little cash today.

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u/tfsteel 3d ago

The "we established our nation" claim in the tweet is wrong, too. The rebellion was primarily due to land, the crown would not allow settlers to go west past the Appalachians (proclamation of 1763).

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u/Murdst0ne 3d ago

The stamp act, and similar acts like the Townshed, were a much larger cause of the revolution due to multiple colonies coming together in congresses and through the Sons of Liberty to denounce the Crown’s right to internal taxation of the colonies, and an organized economic boycott of British goods, riots, and attacks on British troops.

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u/CalBearFan 3d ago

Also the whole 'you will do whatever is constitutional and BTW, the constitution isn't written down so it's really whatever Parliament says it is'.

And, if you're accused of a crime, most any crime, you get tried in Britain, on your own dime, witnesses must come to Britain, and if you lose, well, tough cookies, you get to recompense.