Existing comment:
At the Cockpit:
On January 29, 1774, Lord Alexander Wedderburn verbally attacked Benjamin Franklin, accusing him of deliberately leaking letters in order to provoke colonial riots against the Crown. This humiliating, hour-long confrontation took place before the members of the British Privy Council at the Cockpit (a room named for its previous use -- cockfighting). While the councilors jeered, Franklin refused to respond, and his silence was more powerful than his words.
The letters in question were written by Thomas Hutchinson, the governor of Massachusetts, advising England on ways to deal with growing colonial unrest. They were passed on, indirectly, to Franklin; he shared them with colleagues in Boston and -- despite his request otherwise -- they were published. As a result, radical colonial patriots were outraged, and their increasing hostility culminated in the Boston Tea Party.
"The Doctor... stood conspicuously erect, with the smallest movement of any part of his body. The muscles of his face had been previously composed as to afford a placid tranquil expression of countenance, and he did not suffer the slightest alteration of it to appear.
-- Edward Bancroft, who observed the confrontation in the Cockpit |