Benjamin West’s 1816 portrait of Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) is misleading in one significant way beyond the fact that we can assume that Ben’s experiments were not guided by cherubim. He was a much younger man when he flew that kite, in his 40s. West depicts him as he was at the end of his life, a wizened old lion, a revered elder. This was clearly not an error, but a choice. Franklin was a monument, not just to himself, but to America, and without exaggeration, to the world.
Among America’s Founders, Franklin was the senior statesman. It would not be too much to claim that it was the gleam in his eye that brought this country into being. By the time the U.S. was born he was at the end of his life, thus he never held the nation’s most exalted office, leading to the somewhat outsized popular worship of our first three Presidents in representing what the country is about, leaving Franklin’s memory peculiarly diminished. Indeed there are uncountable ways in which Washington, Adams, and Jefferson may be admired. But to be blunt We the People are not represented by wealthy planters or Harvard educated lawyers. Franklin, by contrast, was self-made. Not just that, his voracious interest in every aspect of nature and human existence resulting in his playing a foundational cultural role in nearly every field of American endeavor. Scientist, philosopher, inventor, politician, diplomat, author, journalist, publisher. He was the seed that led to such diverse American Giants as Mark Twain, Thomas Edison, P.T. Barnum, W.R. Hearst, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Abraham Lincoln, et al. and these of course, lead to everyone since. Vaudeville mogul Benjamin Franklin Keith was named after him, as was the fictional Benjamin Franklin Pierce (i.e., Hawkeye from M*A*S*H).
I’m kind of chagrined that I’ve never paid any kind tribute to him before. The truth is that my reverence for him is so basic to my being that I’ve taken common knowledge about him for granted. I was about eight when I first learned about him, both through a third grade teacher and an abridged version of Franklin’s own autobiography, perhaps the first book intended for adults I ever read (the edition I had is depicted in the photo above). A couple of years later came the American Bicentennial, a time when we schoolkids were inundated with information about the founding of America. This was a seismic period in my life, though you’d have to read between the lines to know it from what you read on this blog. But as the nation’s 250th approaches, BOY will I be making a big noise. Consider this post a shot heard ’round the world!
Like Adams, Franklin was from Boston and descended from early Puritans (on his mother’s side). His father was an immigrant from England, a fact which surely influenced his tolerant philosophy. The father was a tradesman, a candlemaker, though the family knew Cotton Mather, whose book Bonifacius: Essays to Do Good laid the Puritan foundations of Franklin’s beliefs. We’ve come to think of him as a kind of licentious, pleasure-loving reprobate, but that’s really only by contrast with figures like the dour Adams. Franklin, like Jefferson, Thomas Paine, David Hume, and other major figures of the liberal Enlightenment, was drawn to Deism, which later influenced later strains of American thought such as Unitarianism and Transcendentalism.
Do you know his 13 Virtues? They’re just as hard to live up to as most of the 10 Commandments, but there are certain of them that still motivate my behavior to this day.
- Temperance. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
- Silence. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
- Order. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
- Resolution. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
- Frugality. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
- Industry. Lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
- Sincerity. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
- Justice. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
- Moderation. Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
- Cleanliness. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.
- Tranquility. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
- Chastity. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
- Humility. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
Franklin had a couple of years of formal schooling at Boston Latin but was almost entirely an autodidact. His self-education was abetted by the fact that he was apprenticed to his older brother, James Franklin, who published Boston’s third newspaper The New England Courant, as well as the Newport-based Rhode Island Gazette. Benjamin proved a precocious pupil of his brother’s, and was clearly ravenous for the sort of power and influence running a newspaper could bestow upon its publisher. (“I think it would be fun to run a newspaper” — Citizen Kane). He once submitted an editorial under a pseudonym and his brother published it without knowing its true author. And when his brother was jailed for three weeks for criticizing the governor, Franklin had free run of the place.
When he was 17, Franklin violated the terms of his apprenticeship and ran away before finishing out the terms of his contract. He landed in Philadelphia, the city he has been associated with ever since — to the extent that most people have no idea he was actually a New Englander. Philly was America’s most important city at the time; New York wouldn’t surpass it in a meaningful way until the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 boosted the Hudson River’s importance as a waterway. Living in the relatively cosmopolitan Philadelphia meant engagement with (and sometimes contention with) Pennsylvania’s Quaker power structure, as well as its German immigrant community. He would have been forever measuring himself against these groups, noting what he had in common with them, how he differed, and even being influenced by them. (It’s not a coincidence, for example, that the previously slave-owning Franklin eventually became an ardent abolitionist. If his philosophy had held sway at the nation’s founding and not that of the Southern planters, the misery of millions and the nation’s bloodiest war would have been avoided. Philly Quakers were major proponents of Abolitionism).
From 1729 to 1748 Franklin published and personally edited The Pennsylvania Gazette, which he continued to own and control in all the years following. This is what made him wealthy and got him engaged with the world in nearly every field of endeavor. From 1732 to 1758 he also edited, wrote and published Poor Richard’s Almanack, which drew him into such fields as meteorology and astronomy, but also extended his influence as a literary figure. Many of the proverbs and maxims he included in the Almanack were already in common circulation, but his wit forged them into irresistible new formulations. The wide circulation of them going forward made Franklin something like an American Shakespeare into how he shaped the language.
“A friend in need is a friend indeed!”
“Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”
“Lost Time is never found again.”
“Eat to live, and not live to eat.”
“Fish and Visitors stink in 3 days.”
“Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.”
The Almanacks were sold throughout the colonies and contributed further to Franklin’s power and influence despite the fact that the purported author “Richard Saunders” was a pseudonym. Everyone knew it was Franklin.
From these platforms Franklin went on to accomplish so much that it’s challenging to wrap your head around. I’ve done my best to organize it in a way that is digestible.
In 1729 he wrote a treatise on paper money, becoming one of its most important advocates both in America and in Britain. His book The Way to Wealth was published in 1758.
In 1731 he organized America’s first lending library which was also its first cultural institution. It was not a public library, it was subscription based, like a club, but STILL.
In 1736 he created America’s first organized volunteer fire company, the Union Fire Company, which was widely emulated throughout North America. (the first fully paid professional fire company was created in Cincinnati in 1853).
He created the American Philosophical Society in 1743. One of his first inventions was the famous Franklin Stove (1743), which helped take heat out of the fireplace and into a room, insulated by cast iron. The famous experiment with lightning was in 1752. He experimented with kites in many other ways too, including transporting people using the power of wind, an important precursor to the field of aeronautics. He is also credited with inventing bifocals, the lightning rod, the glass harmonica, and identifying and naming the Gulf Stream.
He was instrumental in founding a charity school in 1749, which quickly expanded to include college level instruction, and which became in time The University of Pennsylvania. In 1765, the institution started what became the first medical school in North America. In the 1750s, Franklin was given honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, and William and Mary.
Franklin was named deputy postmaster general of the colonies in 1753, and became the first postmaster general of the United States per se in 1775. This may make your eyes glaze over, until you learn that he made reforms that resulted in regular, dependable weekly delivery of the mail possible. He was thus instrumental in improving the speed and efficiency of communication throughout the country. Added to this his goal (mostly unrealized) of creating an integrated network of printers throughout the country. He was instrumental in supporting and sponsoring printers throughout the country, though, increasing the volume and speed of circulating information. This is the kind of thing that leads to revolutions.
Franklin’s political involvement began around 1744 when he organized a local militia to protect the city during King George’s War, a precursor to the French and Indian War that ended up triggering the revolution. Local elected offices came next: city councilman in 1749, Justice of the Peace the following year, state assemblyman in 1751. As early as 1754, he proposed the Albany Plan of Union, a vision to unite all of the American colonies for mutual defense against aggressors. It was rejected by the colonies but can be seen as an early model for what transpired 20 years later. Meantime, in 1756, he founded the Pennsylvania Militia. Starting the following year he would spend much of the following two decades in London as an agent for various colonies. He associated with liberal Whigs in Parliament, and occasionally spoke before that body on behalf of various American issues. He argued against the Stamp Act in 1765. In 1767, he became one of the backers of The Pennsylvania Chronicle, a crucial instrument of dissent. In 1773 he leaked some very inflammatory correspondence revealing the Crown’s plan to crackdown on Boston, adding fuel to revolutionary sentiments in the colonies.
Franklin served in the Continental Congress in 1775 and was one of the Committee of Five that drafted the U.S. Declaration of Independence. This put him at odds with his illegitimate son William Franklin, who was to become a leader among the Loyalists. The two never reconciled.
From 1776 to 1785, he became America’s first Ambassador to France, thus establishing the special relationship that has existed between the two nations ever since. His diplomacy secured France’s crucial military assistance during the war, without which the colonies might never have secured independence from Britain. At the same time, he was the toast of Paris, America’s first international celebrity. He played the role of embodying American virtues as imagined in the pages of Rousseau. He dressed in Native American gear, buckskin, and fur hats, much as picture Natty Bumpo, Daniel Boone, and Davy Crockett. After the Treaty of Paris was concluded ending hostilities with Britain, Franklin returned home, handing over his post to Thomas Jefferson. Between the two of them, there was much to inspire the events in France of 1789.
From 1785 to 1788, Franklin served as President of Pennsylvania, meaning the head of the state’s executive council. (This function was later replaced by a governor after the passing of the state’s new constitution in 1790). In his role of Pennsylvania’s presiding officer, Franklin hosted the Constitutional Convention of 1787, participated, and signed the document just as he had the Declaration. Old and in ill-health, he didn’t play a major role in the drafting of the document or the debates around it.
He was a very gouty fellow who liked his sauces, in spite of all that Spartan language in the 13 Virtues. He was the ripe old age of 84 at the time of his death — very advanced for the late 18th century. In spite of it being “All About the Benjamins” his face did not grace the C-note until 1862.
Anyway we haven’t listed a tenth of Franklin’s accomplishments, we’re just trying to keep it sane. I mean, he wrote one of the first books about chess. On and on.
And now, we tie him a little more closely to the usual themes of this blog by talking about some depictions of him pop culture:
Lee Beggs portrayed him in the silent film Janice Meredith (1924)
Billy Franey played him in a slapstick comedy short called Benjamin Franklin, directed by Bryan Foy that same year of ’24. Franklin is the only Founding Father anyone would dare do that to a century ago, but I’m sure Franklin would have been more than okay with it.
Benjamin Franklin Jr (1943) — a Little Rascals short made during World War Two.
Orson Welles played him two movies: Royal Affairs in Versailles (1954) and La Fayette (1961). Any excuse to eat rich food!
Charles Coburn played him in John Paul Jones (1959)
Robert Preston played him in the Broadway musical Ben Franklin in Paris (1964)
Howard Da Silva played him in the musical 1776 (film 1969, movie 1972)
Melvyn Douglas played him in the mini-series The Lives of Benjamin Franklin (1974)
Tom Bosley played him in two mini-series: The Bastard (1978) and The Rebels (1979).
Tom Wilkinson played him on the mini-series John Adams (2008)
Mandy Patinkin voiced him the Ken Burns documentary film (2022)
Quite independently of each other Noah Diamond and I both conceived of me playing Benjamin Franklin in a comedy sketch. As we grow closer to the nation’s 250th, I predict that it will come to pass. You only go around once!