Benjamin Franklin - Essential Liberty

The line is older than the country, and it was written about money. In the autumn of 1755, after Braddock's defeat that July, raids were reaching Pennsylvania's frontier. The colonial Assembly, where Franklin sat, wanted to tax the Penn family's vast landholdings to pay for defense. The Penns, who lived in England, had their own governor, and he kept blocking the tax.

The Penns then offered cash for defense, on the condition that the Assembly admit it had no right to tax their land. The Assembly's reply to the governor, dated November 11, 1755, was written by Franklin: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." The liberty in question was the legislature's standing power to tax; the safety was a one-time payment.

The wording on the print, "They who can give up essential Liberty to obtain a little temporary Safety," is Franklin's own later phrasing, from February 1775.

A black silhouette of Franklin in profile, with spectacles, long hair and a high collar, fills the center of the frame. Behind him the field splits like a flag: navy above with three cream stars, rust red below. The quote runs down across his chest in cream capitals with his name beneath it. Two colors, a shadow and some type, and nothing else.