1. Prologue: Join, or Die

Benjamin Franklin, The Albany Congress, 1754

[Part of: “Let Those Flatter Who Fear”: American Independence in Verse.]

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One government uniting us
Is surely worth  all the fuss,
And pulling us together would
Advance our interests and our good.  

In council meetings, reps would learn
Respect, and how to take their turn,
And forge through their deliberation
The people of a single nation. 

If separate, all our enemies
Will violate our liberties
And conquer one while twelve stand by.
We thirteen states must Join, or Die.

But I well know that well-laid plans
Are seldom fetched from wisdom’s hands.
Instead they wait on that event
They were intended to prevent.

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