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Franklin's Attempt For Unity

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Franklin's Attempt For Unity
Mr. Franklin, who lived form 1706 to 1790, was one of the best known as well as the oldest Founding Father of the United States. Other than being a politician, he was also a leading author, printer, scientist, philosopher, publisher, inventor, civic activist, and diplomat.
During the mid-eighteenth century, tensions between England and France were increasing. When the French and Indian War broke out in 1754, Franklin was one of the delegates who called the Albany Plan of Union to unite the colonies together for defense. Hence, in June of 1754, delegates from most of the northern colonies and representatives from the Six Iroquois Nations met in Albany, New York. There, they adopted a "plan of union" drafted by Franklin. Under this Albany Plan of Union, each colonial legislature would elect delegates to an American continental assembly presided over by a royal governor. This plan would have also created an inter-colonial union with authority to levy taxes and finance an army for colonial defense. Although individual colonies shunned the plan, Franklin's attempt for unity was an accomplishment in many aspects.
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The cartoon, named "Join, or Die" illustrated a snake cut into eight segments with each segment of its body labeled as one of the colonies. Since the beginning of the French and Indian war, many of the colonies were divided at the prospect of war. However, Franklin's cartoon urged them to unite against the Indian and French pressure and fight against them. Franklin's "Join, or Die" cartoon was a significant achievement because it had a profound effect on people's views of the French-Indian War and a, even larger effect later in the American Revolutionary War. No doubt Franklin's political cartoon was possibly one of the most influential cartoons in American

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