Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 - April 17, 1790) was an American journalist, publisher, author, philanthropist, public servant[?], scientist, diplomat, and inventor who was also one of the leaders of the American Revolution, known also for his many quotations and his experiments with electricity. In 1775, Franklin became the first US Postmaster General.

He was born in Milk Street, Boston, on January 6, 1706. His father, Josiah Franklin, was a tallow chandler who married twice. Benjamin was the youngest son of the seventeen children these two marriages produced. His schooling ended at ten, and at twelve he was bound as an apprentice to his brother James, a printer who published the New England Courant.

He eventually became a contributor to this publication and for a time was its nominal editor. The brothers quarreled, and Benjamin ran away, going first to New York, and thence to Philadelphia, where he arrived in October, 1723.

He soon obtained work as a printer, but after a few months he was induced by Governor Keith to go to London, where, finding Keith's promises empty, he again worked as a compositor[?] in a printer's shop until he was brought back to Philadelphia by a merchant named Denman, who gave him a position in his business. On Denman's death Franklin returned to his former trade, and soon set up a printing house of his own from which he published The Pennsylvania Gazette, to which he contributed many essays and which he made a medium for agitating for a variety of local reforms. His intelligence combined with a great deal of savvy about cultivating a positive image of an industrious and intellectual young man earned him a great deal of social respect.

In 1732 he began to issue the famous Poor Richard's Almanac[?] on the basis of whose quips (both original and borrowed), such as "A penny saved is a penny earned", his popular reputation is based. In 1758, the year in which he ceased writing for the Almanac, he printed in it "Father Abraham's Sermon," now regarded as the most famous piece of literature produced in Colonial America.

Meanwhile, Franklin was concerning himself more and more with public affairs. He set forth a scheme for an Academy, which was taken up later and finally developed into the University of Pennsylvania, and he founded an American Philosophical Society for the purpose of enabling scientific men to communicate their discoveries to one another. He had already begun the electrical research, which, along with other scientific inquiries, would occupy him for the rest of his life (in between bouts of politics and money-making).

In 1748 he sold his business in order to get leisure for study, having now acquired comparative wealth; and in a few years he had made discoveries that gave him a reputation with the learned throughout Europe. These include his investigations of electricity. He identified positive and negative electrical charges and also demonstrated that lighting was electrical. This he did through the famous, though extremely dangerous, experiment of flying a kite during a lightning storm. His inventions include the lightning rod, Franklin stove[?] and bifocals. He was one of the best-known scientists of the 18th century.

In 1751 Franklin and Dr. Thomas Bond[?] obtained a charter from the Pennsylvania legislature to establish a hospital. Pennsylvania Hospital[?] was the first hospital in what was to become the United States of America.

In politics he proved very able both as an administrator and as a controversialist; but his record as an office-holder is stained by the use he made of his position to advance his relatives. His most notable service in domestic politics was his reform of the postal system, but his fame as a statesman rests chiefly on his diplomatic services in connection with the relations of the colonies with Great Britain, and later with France. He was also involved in the creation of the first volunteer fire department, free public library, and many other civic enterprises.

In 1754 he headed the Pennsylvania delegation to the Albany Congress. This meeting of several colonies had been requested by the Board of Trade in England to improve relations with the Indians and defense against the French. Franklin proposed a broad Plan of Union for the colonies. While the plan was not adopted, elements of it found their way into the Articles of Confederation an the Constitution.

In 1757 he was sent to England to protest against the influence of the Penn family[?] in the government of Pennsylvania, and for five years he remained there, striving to enlighten the people and the ministry of the United Kingdom as to colonial conditions. He also managed to secure a post for his son as Govenor of New Jersey. On his return to America, he played an honorable part in the Paxton affair, through which he lost his seat in the Assembly, but in 1764 he was again dispatched to England as agent for the colony, this time to petition the King to resume the government from the hands of the proprietors. In London he actively opposed the proposed Stamp Act, but lost the credit for this and much of his popularity because he secured for a friend the office of stamp agent in America. Even his effective work in helping to obtain the repeal of the act did not regain his popularity, but he continued his efforts to present the case for the Colonies as the troubles thickened toward the crisis of the Revolution. This also led to an irreconcilable conflict with his son, who remained ardently loyal to the British Government.

In 1767 he crossed to France, where he was received with honor; but before his return home in 1775 he lost his position as postmaster through his share in divulging to Massachusetts the famous letter of Hutchinson and Oliver. On his arrival in Philadelphia he was chosen as a member of the Continental Congress and assisted in editing The Declaration of Independence.

In December of 1776 he was dispatched to France as commissioner for the United States. He lived in a home in the Parisian suburb of Passy[?] donated by Jacques-Donatien Le Ray who would become a friend and the most important foreigner to help the United States win the war of independence. Ben Franklin remained in France until till 1785, a favorite of French society. Franklin was so popular that it became fashionable for wealthy French families to decorate their parlors with a painting of him. He conducted the affairs of his country towards that nation with such success, which included securing a critical military alliance and neogtiating the Treaty of Paris (1783), that when he finally returned, he received a place only second to that of George Washington as the champion of American independence.

When Franklin was recalled to America in 1785, Le Ray honored him with a commissioned portrait painted by Joseph Siffred Duplessis[?] that now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. A photo of that painting is show here.

In addition, after his return from France in 1785, he became an slavery abolitionist who eventually became president of The Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief of Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage.

While in retirement by 1787, he agreed to attend as a delegate at the meetings that would produce the United States Constitution to replace the Articles of Confederation. He is the only Founding Father who is a signatory of all three of the major documents of the founding of the United States, The Declaration of Independence, The Treaty of Paris and the United States Constitution.

Later, his finished his autobiography (http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/autobiography/index.htm) between 1771 and 1788, at first addressed to his son, then later completed for the benefit of mankind at the request of a friend.

He died on April 17, 1790 and was interred in the Christ Church burial grounds in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

At his death Franklin bequeathed £1000 (about $4400 at the time) to each of the cities of Boston and Philadelphia, in trust for 200 years. During the lifetime of the trust, Philadelphia used it for a variety of loan programs to local residents; from 1940 to 1990, the money was used mostly for mortgage loans. When the trust came due, Philadelphia decided to spend it on scholarships for local high school students. Boston used the gift to establish a trade school that, over time, became the Franklin Institute of Boston.

In recent years Franklin's image has been tarnished by anti-Semites who attempt to use his name to further their goals. Many anti-Semitic Arab and Neo-Nazi books, journals and websites offer forged "quotes" supposedly by America's founding fathers, especially George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. These supposed quotes have been debunked as forgeries by historians.

• Example of an Anti-Semitic website pushing fraudulent quotes from America's founding fathers (http://abbc.com/islam/english/toread/frnklin.htm)
• Egyptian government sponsored press spreads Anti-Semitic forgeries about Washington and Franklin (http://christianactionforisrael.org/antiholo/personality)
• Documenting the forgery of Ben Franklin's beliefs about Jews (http://www.adl.org/special_reports/franklin_prophecy/franklin_documenting_fraud.asp)
• Acceptance of the Anti-Semitic Franklin hoax in the Arab world today (http://www.adl.org/Anti_semitism/arab/anti_sem_myth.asp)

Franklin's likeness adorns the American $100 bill. As a result, $100 bills are sometimes referred to in slang as "Benjamins" or "Franklins".

Portrait (PD) (http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist/thumbnail15) -- large version (http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist/fi/0000000f.htm)

Places named for Benjamin Franklin include:

• Franklin County, Alabama
• Franklin County, Arkansas
• Franklin County, Florida
• Franklin County, Georgia
• Franklin County, Illinois
• Franklin County, Indiana
• Franklin County, Kentucky
• Franklin County, New York
• Franklin County, North Carolina
• Franklin County, Ohio
• Franklin County, Pennsylvania
• Franklin County, Vermont
• Franklin County, Virginia
• Franklin County, Washington

External Link

• the e-text of The Autobiography Of Benjamin Franklin (http://www.abacci.com/books/book.asp?bookID=206)