Benjamin Franklin, 7 September 1776

FRANKLIN, Benjamin (1706-1790). Partly-printed document signed ("B. Franklin Presidt.") as President of the Convention of the State of Pennsylvania, [Philadelphia,] 7 September 1776.

One page, 208 x 325mm (partial horizontal fold separation repaired on verso, pinholes at fold intersections).

Benjamin Franklin signs a rare military commission issued by the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention of 1776. Upon his return to America in May 1776, Franklin, the world's most famous American, found himself pulled into a variety of roles. One of the first was an appointment as President of the Pennsylvania Committee of Public Safety, but his duties with the Continental Congress (which included a diplomatic trip to Canada during the winter of 1775-1776) forced him to resign that position in February. In July 1776, his supporters elected him President of a convention to draft a new constitution for the state. And while that was the convention's primary responsibility, it also took the role of day-to-day governance of the state through the Council of Safety (which had replaced the Committee of Safety that Franklin had led until early 1776). It was in this capacity that Franklin applied his signature to the present document: an appointment for James Young to serve as a "first Lieutenant of a Company of Foot from Cumberland County in the Flying Camp for the Middle states of America, for the Protection of the said States against all hostile Enterprizes, and for the Defence and establishing of American Liberty." Little is known about Young, but Heitman notes that a James Young from the 7th Pennsylvania, which was recruited from York and Cumberland Counties, was commissioned a first lieutenant in March 1777 and served until he resigned on 1 September 1777. The Committee concluded its work at the end of September 1776, adopting Franklin's suggestion of a unicameral legislature, and soon afterwards, Franklin departed America again to serve as the United States' first minister to France.