Philadelphia's streets are muddy and dusty, and Franklin cannot ignore the mess near the Jersey Market. He hires a poor woman to sweep the pavement twice a week for sixpence a month from each house, writes a short paper on why the small fee helps everyone, and gets the neighbors to sign on quickly. That success helps push the city toward broader paving and better lamps. He draws a paving bill for the Assembly, improves the lamp design so smoke can escape, credits John Clifton for starting the idea, and argues that human happiness comes from small daily comforts, like learning to shave yourself, more than from rare lucky breaks.
While in London he proposes a better way to sweep dusty streets before shops open, after watching a sick woman clean his whole block in three hours for a shilling. He becomes postmaster-general with William Hunter, invests in improvements, and later triples the crown's revenue from the office before ministers later displace him. At Albany in 1754 he draws a plan to unite the colonies for defense with a president-general and elected council, and both colonial assemblies and the British government reject it as too royal or too democratic. He trades sharp messages with Governor Morris while still dining with him over wine, joking that the Assembly keeps wiping off the governor's insults and smearing them back on his face. He says the best public measures are often forced by crisis, not planned in advance.
When Massachusetts needs aid against the French, Franklin helps Mr. Quincy win Assembly support and finds a way to fund provisions through interest-bearing loan-office orders when the governor blocks the tax bill. War with France brings General Braddock, who lands with almost no wagons for his march and declares the expedition impossible. Franklin removes the general's prejudice against Pennsylvania, then takes on the job of hiring one hundred fifty wagons and fifteen hundred horses when Braddock asks him directly after hearing that Pennsylvania farmers own wagons.
Franklin writes a clear Lancaster advertisement listing pay, horses, and wagons wanted, advances his own money, and gives his personal bond when farmers distrust army promises. In two weeks he delivers more than one hundred fifty wagons and many horses, losing only a few to desertion, and Braddock's officers are astonished at the speed. He says he has no personal profit in the job, only the work and the hope of preventing soldiers from seizing wagons by force. He then begins assembling supply parcels for officers, packing food, drink, and small comforts so the march can continue without the army breaking down local farms.
Coming Up in Chapter 9
Franklin has delivered the wagons, put his own finances on the line, and sent supplies to the officers marching into the wilderness. Now comes the reckoning: what happens to the men he helped send into that wilderness, and what it costs Franklin personally when the mission goes wrong.
