Benjamin Franklin 11/17/1747: "’Tis computed that we have at least (exclusive of the Quakers) 60,000 Fighting Men, acquainted with Fire-Arms"

Plain Truth by Benjamin Franklin, “If this now flourishing City, and greatly improving Colony, is destroy’d and ruin’d, it will not be for want of Numbers of Inhabitants able to bear Arms in its Defence. ’Tis computed that we have at least (exclusive of the Quakers) 60,000 Fighting Men, acquainted with Fire-Arms, many of them Hunters and Marksmen, hardy and bold.”, Nov. 17, 1747