On this day 250 years ago in Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety submitted a report to the Pennsylvania Assembly prompted by a meeting two days earlier of the soldiers who had volunteered for the Pennsylvania Association (Pennsylvania’s militia):

The Military Association entered into by Numbers of the good People of this Province, has received the Approbation of the House, and undoubtedly deserves every Encouragement, as a Body of Freemen, animated by a Love of Liberty, and trained to the Use of Arms, afford the most certain and effectual Defence against the Approaches of Slavery and Oppression. It is wished therefore that this Spirit could have been more universally diffused; but the Associators complain, and, with great Appearance of Reason, that whilst they are subjected to Expences to accoutre themselves as Soldiers, and their Affairs suffer considerably by the Time necessarily employed in acquiring a Knowledge of the military Art, very many of their Countrymen, who have not associated, are entirely free from these Inconveniences; they conceive that where the Liberty of all is at Stake, every Man should assist in its Support, and that where the Cause is common, and the Benefits derived from an Opposition are universal, it is not consonant to Justice or Equity that the Burdens should be partial. The Committee therefore would submit it to the Wisdom of the House, whether, at this Time of general Distress and Danger, some Plan should not be devised to oblige the Assistance of every Member of the Community; but as there are some Persons, who, from their religious Principles, are scrupulous of the Lawfulness of bearing Arms, this Committee, from a tender Regard to the Consciences of such, would venture to propose that their Contributions to the common Cause should be pecuniary, and for that Purpose a Rate or Assessment be laid on their Estates equivalent to the Expence and Loss of Time incurred by the Associators. A Measure of this Kind appears to be founded on the Principles of impartial Justice, calculated to appease the Complaints which have been made, likely to give general Satisfaction, and be of Course beneficial to the great Cause we are engaged in.

In Pennsylvania as in the other colonies, the rank and file were urging their leaders to prepare for War and soon for Independence, not just responding to the call to arms issued by our Founding Fathers.

Source: “The Pennsylvania Committee of Safety: Report to the Pennsylvania Assembly, [29 September 1775],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-22-02-0132. [Original source: The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 22, March 23, 1775, through October 27, 1776, ed. William B. Willcox. New Haven and London:: Yale University Press, 1982, pp. 210–213.]