1747-1748 GILBERT TENNENT. The Consistancy of Defensive War - Benjamin Franklin and American Revolution.

A very scarce item indeed, not offered at auction since 1946. During the 1740's, Benjamin Franklin sensed the vulnerability of Pennsylvania as a then-frontier state. Native American raids and kidnappings were usual events. With no real centralized military to defend them, Franklin set about to establish a volunteer Philadelphia / Pennsylvania militia called the Defense Association. Many of the Quakers of Pennsylvania, most pacifists theologically, argued against. As a result, George Whitefield co-laborer in the Great Awakening, and friend of Benjamin Franklin, Gilbert Tennent, penned two works in defense of "just war." Both were issued in 1748. One by Franklin himself. The other, more scarce than the Franklin imprint, was issued by William Bradford. Both are very desirable, and both issued by men [Franklin & Bradford] who would play pivotal roles in the upcoming American Revolution [1776].  Tennent writes specifically to aid Benjamin Franklin's "Association for Defense" and rejects