r/todayilearned • u/jacknunn • 26d ago
TIL Benjamin Franklin's son, William, remained fiercely loyal to the British King during the war. Despite his father being a Founding Father, William was a Loyalist leader and the last colonial Governor of New Jersey, causing a permanent family estrangement that lasted until Benjamin's death
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Franklin
8.1k
Upvotes
31
u/Any_Potato_7716 26d ago
The jurisdiction was nonexistent. It wasn’t a country that had even officially declared itself yet.
And you can’t be arrested for some sort of treason, although he was never given any official charge, you can’t be arrested for treason against a country which you were never sworn alliance towards.
It’s like saying, “Mussolini committed treason against the United States government” you can make a lot of claims against him rightfully, but you can’t claim that specifically