Benjamin Franklin
A Great Typical American
The men about whom we have been reading were all natives of Europe—Englishmen, Italians, Frenchmen, Dutchmen,—adventurers seeking wealth or power, settlers intent on gaining national or personal power, religious or civil liberty. It is not until the eighteenth century that we come across our first, our great typical American. This is Benjamin Franklin, keen and quick of wit, shrewd and energetic, a man of business and a scholar, a politician and a scientist.
Benjamin Franklin was the son of an English tradesman of plain respectable family, who came to New England in order to enjoy the free exercise of his religion. He made his home in Boston. There Benjamin was born in 1706 and there his childhood was passed. Many incidents of it are familiar to us all. You remember how when he was a child of seven he gave all his pennies for a whistle. But the money was not wasted, for the incident taught him to consider the real value of things and not to spend too much time, thought, or, money for trifles,—in other words, “Don’t give too much for the whistle.”
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
When a little older he led his companions in taking some building-stones to construct a wharf to stand on while fishing; he tried to justify his conduct to his father, saying that his wharf was a public benefit but his father taught him a great truth: “My son, nothing can ever be truly useful, which is not at the same time truly honest.”
Benjamin learned to read almost as soon as he learned to talk, and he was so fond of books that his father wished to have him educated for the ministry. This plan had to be given up for lack of money. Mr. Franklin was a poor man with seventeen children, and when Benjamin was only ten years old he had to leave school and help his father in the shop. Mr. Franklin made and sold soap and candles, and it was Benjamin’s duty to cut candle-wicks and to pour tallow into molds to make candles. He did not like this work, and when he was twelve years old he was apprenticed to his brother James to learn the trade of a printer. He was so fond of books that it was thought he would like this work. He had read with interest his father’s few books, among which were Bunyan’s wonderful “Pilgrim’s Progress” and “Plutarch’s Lives.” With his brother James, Benjamin had access to more books and more opportunity for reading, but the two brothers did not get on well together. Partly this was James’s fault, for he was harsh and overbearing; partly it was Benjamin’s, for he tells us that he was pert and provoking.
Although Benjamin Franklin’s school days had ended so early, his education was just beginning; he appreciated the value of learning and was spending his leisure in study. When he was an old man he wrote for his son the story of his life. In this autobiography he tells how he trained himself. He read carefully one of the papers of the “Spectator,” a model of good English, and afterwards wrote it down in his own words. Sometimes he changed it into verse and then later turned it back into prose. By comparing his version with the original, he discovered and corrected his faults. This is of interest because Franklin became one of our best writers of good English. His command of clear, simple, strong English won attention for what he had to say.
Young Franklin and his brother got on so badly together that he resolved not to remain at home till the end of his apprenticeship. When he was seventeen, he sold some of his books and left home with a few dollars in his pocket. He went on board a vessel bound to New York. Three days after leaving home, he landed in that city where he hoped to find work. New York was then only a small town, and young Franklin found no demand for his services with “the printer in the place.” Therefore he went on to Philadelphia, which was then a much larger and more important place than New York. Part of the way he walked, part he traveled by boat; one Sunday morning in the autumn of 1723, he reached Philadelphia.
In his account of his life he gives us a vivid picture of himself, a friendless, homeless boy, walking hungry up the streets of the strange city. He met a boy with some bread and asked where he could buy food. Being directed to the baker’s, he asked for “three pennyworth” of bread and received “three great puffy rolls.” Then he says, he “having no room in my pockets, walked off with a roll under each arm and eating the other.” Thus he passed the home of a Mr. Read, and at the door stood his daughter Deborah, who laughed at the “awkward, ridiculous appearance” of the strange lad. This Deborah Reed a few years later became Franklin’s wife. Being satisfied with one roll, the youth gave the other two to a woman and child who had come on the boat with him.
He soon got work with a printer in the town, but gave it up because the governor offered to set him up in business for himself. He went to London, to buy the outfit needed for his trade. On arriving there, he found that the governor had failed to send the promised letters of credit,—had, indeed, no credit himself—and the youth, penniless, in a foreign land, was thrown on his own resources. He sought and secured work as a printer, and remained in London about a year. He then returned to Philadelphia, where he worked awhile as salesman in a shop and afterwards at his trade. Soon after his return, he married Deborah Read, who made him a good and helpful wife, managing his home and aiding him in the shop.
Franklin had the “prospering virtues” of economy, industry, and temperance, and he increased in worldly goods and in the esteem of his townspeople. Despite some serious personal failings, he was a good citizen and in public questions people came more and more to respect his judgment.
In the American colonies in the eighteenth century, there were few newspapers and those had a small circulation. Nearly every printer, however, published an almanac which contained weather forecasts, advice, jokes, and miscellaneous information. These almanacs had a large sale and in many homes the only books to be found were an almanac and a Bible. In 1733 Franklin published an almanac which he announced was prepared by one Richard Saunders, called for short “Poor Richard,” a character which Franklin created and represented as overflowing with quaint humor and wise and witty sayings. “Poor Richard’s Almanac” became the most popular of all publications of the kind. Franklin kept up the yearly issue till 1758, when he turned it over to his partner.
Franklin was a man who was never so busy about many things that he did not have time for another. You have been told how he acquired a good English style; to this was added the charm that he always had something to say that was worth hearing. He was fond of different branches of science and was gifted with inventive talent. He studied the laws which govern the movement of hot air, and invented what is called an “open fireplace stove;” under the name of “the Franklin stove” or “Pennsylvania fireplace,” a modified form of it is still in use.
When he was about forty years old, Franklin became interested in the subject of electricity and became convinced that lightning is a manifestation of electricity. He proved this by a famous experiment, drawing the current down the string of a kite in a storm. He invented the lightning rod—for he was always trying to apply the principles of science so as to make them useful. Among his other inventions, was a musical instrument called the “Armonica,” a kind of musical glasses.
Franklin was a progressive and public-spirited citizen. He organized an orderly night-watch for Philadelphia, established the first volunteer fire company, the first hospital, and the first subscription and circulating library, in America. He interested people in the subject of education and established an academy which became the College of Philadelphia, and was the real origin of the University of Pennsylvania. He originated also the American Philosophical Society “to propagate useful knowledge.”
For years he served as postmaster, first of Philadelphia, and afterwards as deputy postmaster-general of the colonies; he introduced many reforms in the postal service and improved the methods of carrying mail to and from the seventy post offices then in the country.
Franklin was now nearly fifty years of age and he was just to begin the career which made him honored and renowned. This was his work as a patriot at home and abroad.
When the French and Indian War broke out, he was commissioned to procure wagons for Braddock’s army. In two weeks by the exercise of private means and wonderful energy, he procured one hundred and fifty wagons and two hundred and fifty pack-horses. After Braddock’s defeat, Franklin, with a band of men whom he had persuaded to enlist, went to protect the settlers on the frontier against the Indians.
It was not as a soldier, however, that he was to serve his country best. Oppressive and burdensome laws were passed for the government of the colonies, and it was resolved to send someone to England to protest against them. Benjamin Franklin was sent to represent first Pennsylvania, later Georgia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. He spent several years in England and succeeded in getting repealed the laws to which the colonies objected. Then he returned home. But soon the English government passed laws more oppressive than ever. One of these was the Stamp Act. Franklin ably and eloquently presented the cause of the colonists, stating that they were willing to bear their fair share of expenses, but that on principle they were opposed to taxation without representation. The king and his ministers were not disposed to grant the reasonable demands of the colonists. Franklin was insulted and abused. In 1775 he returned to a home made desolate during his absence by the death of his wife.
The battle of Lexington had already been fought, and the greatest and wisest of the Americans realized that there was nothing left but to fight for the rights they had failed to gain by respectful petition.
In 1776 there met at Philadelphia the second Continental Congress, composed of delegates from the colonies. It was resolved to form a colonial government and Benjamin Franklin was one of a committee appointed to draw up a declaration of independence. This declaration was drafted by Thomas Jefferson and was adopted so nearly in his words that he is regarded as its author. On the fourth of July, 1776, this declaration was adopted by Congress, and henceforth the colonies were fighting not only for redress of wrongs but for freedom.
The next year Dr. Franklin, then over seventy years of age, was sent to France as one of the commissioners from the United States. It was very important for the struggling colony to gain aid and recognition from France. No more popular or more influential ambassador could have been selected than Franklin; he gained terms more favorable than any other American could have secured.
The three American commissioners did not always agree. Franklin was accused of mismanagement of affairs, or at least of failing to exercise proper oversight. He talked little in his own defence. “A spot of dirt thrown upon my character I suffered while fresh to remain;” he once said shrewdly. “I did not choose to spread by endeavoring to remove them, but relied on the vulgar adage that they would all rub off when dry.”
At first the French were not willing openly to help the rebelling English colonies, but they gave secret aid. The patriots, however, seemed to be losing instead of gaining ground, and the outlook was gloomy at home and abroad. The commissioners in France were distressed by a report that the English general Howe had taken Philadelphia.
“Well, doctor,” said an Englishman to Franklin, “Howe has taken Philadelphia.”
“I beg your pardon, sir,” said Franklin, “Philadelphia has taken Howe.”
But though he endeavored to put a brave face on the matter, his heart was full of apprehension. A messenger came from the colonies and the commissioners rushed out to meet him, asking if Philadelphia were really taken.
“Yes,” answered the messenger.
Franklin clasped his hands and turned to stumble back into the house.
“But, sir, I have greater news than that,” continued the messenger. “General Burgoyne and his whole army are prisoners of war.”
The French government hesitated no longer; in a few weeks it openly recognized the United States, and made a treaty with them.
In 1785 Franklin returned home. He was now nearly eighty, but his public life was not at an end. He was elected President of Pennsylvania and the next year he was sent as a delegate to the Convention which met to form a Constitution for the United States. In April, 1790, he died and was buried in his adopted home in Philadelphia. He had years before written an epitaph for himself.
“The Body
of
Benjamin Franklin, Printer,
(Like the cover of an old book,
Its contents torn out,
And stripped of its lettering and gilding,)
Lies here food for worms.
Yet the work itself shall not be lost,
For it will, (as he believed) appear once more
In a new
And more beautiful Edition
Corrected and Amended
By
The Author.”