A Brief State on the Province of Pennsylvania

A Brief State on the Province of Pennsylvania (Full title: “A brief state of the province of Pennsylvania : in which the conduct of their assemblies for several years past is impartially examined, and the true cause of the continual encroachments of the French displayed, more especially the secret design of their late unwarrantable invasion and settlement upon the River Ohio : to which is annexed, an easy plan for restoring quiet in the public measures of that province, and defeating the ambitious views of the French in time to come in a letter from a gentleman who has resided many years in Pennsylvania to his friend in London.”) is a 1756 pamphlet authored by William Smith. The pamphlet was printed in London and was sold to the public. Smith writes the pamphlet in the form of a letter to an unaddressed recipient in London, and consists of Smith describing and criticizing the policies and actions of the Pennsylvania Assembly during armed conflict with French and Native American forces.

Background

William Smith

[1] was born in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1727. As an adult, he originally was a teacher in Scotland before transitioning to teaching in the American colonies. He tutored in Long Island before publishing an essay on education that was titled “A General Idea of the College of Mirania”, which was read and appreciated by Benjamin Franklin. Separately, he was a clergyman in the Anglican Church and became a Reverend in 1754. Due to Smith’s background in teaching natural philosophy and logic, as well as Franklin’s concurrence with his opinions laid out in his essay, the pair collaborated on the establishment of the Academy of Philadelphia, which soon became the College of Philadelphia, and later, the University of Pennsylvania[2] Franklin and Smith later disagreed over the right of the elected Pennsylvania Assembly to govern over the colony; while Franklin affirmed the power of the Quakers, who were elected to the assembly, Smith held the opinion that William Penn, the proprietor of Pennsylvania, should hold control over the colony. William Smith was publicly critical of the Quaker government, and was especially enraged at their pacifism in the wake of repeated attacks by the French and Native Americans.