Abstract
ON JANUARY 29, 1774, Benjamin Franklin stood silently in thePrivy Council chamber (popularly known as the Cockpit), representing
a Massachusetts petition to oust its current governorand lieutenant governor, Thomas Hutchinson and Andrew Oliver.Spectators quickly filled all available seats in the chamber, leaving minimalstanding room. As Franklin noted, "there never was such an appearance of privy counsellors on any occasion, not less than thirty-five, besides an immense crowd of other auditors." They came, Franklin stated, to see some "entertainment." Alexander Wedderburn, solicitor general and counsel for Hutchinson and Oliver, gave the crowd their show by verbally attacking Franklin for over an hour. Amid a cheering, laughing, and clapping multitude, Wedderburn slammed his fist into a pillow situated on the table in front of him as he called Franklin a thief, an "incendiary," and a man who "moves in a very inferior orbit."