Kashmir Dispute: A Neglected Issue Without US support, likelihood of Kashmir conflict dissolving into open warfare again. Benjamin Franklin, a signer of the US Declaration of Independence from Britain and the man responsible for negotiating a treaty between the colonies and France, asked: "When will mankind be convinced and agree to settle their difficulties by arbitration?" Perhaps the simple answer is that it will come about when power is distributed among men in such a way that it cannot be abused by any individual or nation, and that both personal and national sovereignty is once and for all respected. Franklin was a very wise man. He wrote, in respect to the American Revolution: "We shall be divided by our little partial, local interests, our projects will be confounded and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword down to future ages. And, what is worse, mankind may hereafter, from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing government by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war, or conquest."