One to destroy, is Murder by the Law,
And Gibbets keep the lifted Hand in Awe.
To murder Thousands, takes a specious Name,
War’s glorious Art, and gives immortal Fame.
O great Alliance! O divine Renown!
With Death and Pestilence to share the Crown!
When Men extol a wild Destroyer’s Name,
Earth’s Builder and Preserver they blaspheme.

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist

Poor Richard (1747 ed.)
    (Source)

This lengthy poem is not original to Franklin, but was penned by English poet Edward Young (1683-1765) in 1728, as the 7th Satire in his collection of poems, Love of Fame, the Universal Passion, l. 53ff, dedicated to Robert Walpole. Interestingly, Franklin reordered the passage; in Young's original the two quatrains are reversed. Franklin also changed the passage "dearth and pestilence" to "death and pestilence."