[ 547 ] U.S. History GED ® TEST SOCIAL STUDIES FLASH REVIEW _____________ • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Use the illustration and text to answer the following two questions. In 1754, representatives of the American colonies met to discuss their common defense and strategies for improving relations with American Indian tribes. At the meeting, Benjamin Franklin proposed closer relations among the colonies. His proposal called for a single executive and a colonial legislature to handle such matters of mutual interest as taxes, defense against the French, and American Indian relations. To promote his plan, Franklin printed the illustration in his newspaper, The Pennsylvania Gazette. In an accompanying editorial, he complained about “the present disunited State of the British Colonies, and the extreme Difficulty of bringing so many different Governments and Assemblies to agree in any speedy and effectual Measures for our common Defence and Security; while our Enemies have the very great Advantage of being under one Direction, with one Council, and one Purse. Hence, and from the great Distance of Britain, they presume that they may with Impunity violate the most solemn Treaties subsisting between the two Crowns . . . murder and scalp our Farmers, with their Wives and Children . . . which if they are permitted to do, must end in the Destruction of the British Interest, Trade and Plantations in America.” Franklin’s plan was rejected by both the King and the American colonies. In Franklin’s cartoon, the pieces of the snake represent a. the French army. b. various American Indian tribes. c. the English King and Parliament. d. the British colonies.