Benjamin Franklin

Born January 17, 1706 (Boston, Massachusetts)

Died April 17, 1790 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Statesman, diplomat, writer, publisher, scientist

Benjamin Franklin, though much older than other leading revolutionaries, profoundly influenced younger Founding Fathers in the 1780s. Franklin was earlier the chief spokesman for the American colonies through the 1750s and 1760s, helped in writing the 1776 Declaration of Independence, gained foreign support during the war against Britain through a treaty with France, negotiated the 1783 Treaty of Paris with Britain to end the war, and then signed the 1787 U.S. Constitution and presented a stirring speech encouraging other delegates at the Constitutional Convention to sign as well. Franklin was the only American to sign all three of the major documents that brought about the birth of the United States: the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Paris, and the U.S. Constitution. By the 1780s, he was looked upon as a living sage. Though a great thinker, writer, inventor, and statesman, he was always able to relate to the common person and had little need for wealth.

"I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered."

Aside from politics, Franklin was a scientist, inventor, publisher, and promoter. Though coming from a Puritan upbringing, he was open to the new ideas of the Enlightenment, a new philosophy in the eighteenth century that recognized humans' ability to understand the world and influence it for their benefit. He enjoyed scientific thought and exchanging ideas on a wide range of topics. His numerous inventions added great comfort to daily life, such as bifocal eyeglasses, iron stoves, and the lightning rod. He also established numerous civic institutions including the American Philosophical Society, the first American library to loan books, a volunteer firefighting company, a fire insurance company, an educational academy that later became the University of Pennsylvania, and the first hospital in America.

Printer apprentice

Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1706, the tenth son of seventeen children. His father, Josiah Franklin, a soap- and candlemaker, had emigrated from England in 1683 so he could practice his Puritan faith without fear of religious persecution. Benjamin's mother was Abiah Folger. Because of his family's poverty, Franklin had little formal education, but he learned to read very early. In 1718, at the age of twelve, he became an apprentice to his older brother James in a printing shop. Young Benjamin was drawn to the written word; he read endlessly and practiced writing. He was particularly drawn to poetry at first. In 1721, James started a weekly newspaper, the New England Courant. Besides setting type, Benjamin wrote a series of fourteen essays under a different name for the newspaper. However, later that year James got into trouble with authorities for some critical articles he published. Benjamin took over the paper for a short while but decided to get a fresh start and left home at age seventeen to find work elsewhere.

Finding no work in Boston, Franklin traveled to Philadelphia, where he found a job as a printer. He found a room to rent next to the print shop. There he met his future wife, Deborah Read, whose family owned the house. He soon became a master printer and desired to start his own printing company. Believing he had found financial support, Franklin sailed to England in November 1724 to purchase equipment and establish connections with London stationers and booksellers. Upon arrival in London, Franklin found his support did not exist, so he found employment at a print shop and enjoyed his first stay overseas.

Two years later, in 1726, Franklin returned to Philadelphia. By 1729, he finally had his own printing business. Meanwhile, Deborah had married someone else, and Franklin had a son, William, around 1729 with another woman whom he did not marry. Deborah's husband soon abandoned her, and in September 1730, Franklin and Deborah became united. They could not formally get married since her husband might still be alive. But they had a marriage that was considered common-law, recognized in some jurisdictions because the two of them considered themselves married. They had a son who died at four years of age and a daughter, Sarah. They also raised William, who became a close companion to Franklin until the two became estranged around the time of the American Revolution.

Franklin's new business prospered. In January 1730, he became Pennsylvania's official printer; his work included printing paper currency for the colony. Soon, he was also printing for New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. He also began printing his own material. He bought a failing newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette, in 1729 and made it into one of the top colonial newspapers of the time. In 1732, Franklin started the annual publication Poor Richard's Almanac, which he continued until 1757 under the fictional name Richard Saunders. The almanac was highly popular, selling almost ten thousand copies a year. In it, Franklin offered advice on how to get ahead in the world, astronomical information, medicinal remedies, and moral advice. Through his printing business, Franklin became wealthy. He invested in real estate and formed partnerships with other printers in New York, the Carolinas, and the West Indies.

In 1748, Franklin retired from actively working in a print office. He became a silent partner (a partner not directly involved in the business) in the printing firm Franklin and Hall, which brought in good profits for another eighteen years. At the time of his retirement, Franklin was the best-known publisher in the colonies, but he was ready to devote his time to science and civic matters. Franklin was not interested in accumulating wealth for himself.

Civic interests

Just after returning from London in 1726, Franklin became interested in promoting organizations for the benefit of society. He firmly believed everyone should work for the common good of society. In the fall of 1727, Franklin formed Junto, a society of upcoming tradesmen who would share business information as well as debate philosophies on a wide range of topics including morals and politics.

Through Junto, Franklin started a number of organizations for civic improvement. He created the first library in 1731 to loan out books, called the Library Company of Philadelphia. Franklin was president and took an active role in the library's daily operations, including contributing books. He proposed the first paid police force in 1735 and organized Philadelphia's first volunteer fire company in 1736. In 1743, he formed the American Philosophical Society to aid in sharing scientific information. In 1751, Franklin started the Academy of Philadelphia, which later grew into the University of Pennsylvania; he organized several fire companies into an insurance company; and he began raising funds for a hospital from public donations and the colonial legislature. The resulting Pennsylvania Hospital, the first hospital in America, opened in February 1752. During this period, the winter of 1740–41, he designed a more efficient fireplace called the Franklin stove.

Public service

In addition to his printing business and many civic activities, Franklin also entered public service. He was first appointed clerk of the Pennsylvania legislature in October 1736 and served in that role until 1751. He was note taker, record keeper, and historian. That position established many contacts, which contributed to his growing printing business. In October 1737, Franklin was appointed postmaster of Philadelphia, further expanding his role in the community.

In late 1747, French and Spanish privateers were harassing the colonists along the Delaware River, which passed by Philadelphia. Privateers are private vessels licensed by the government to harass and attack enemy ships. The Pennsylvania colony was largely governed by Quakers, a religious sect that preached against violence, including the government's maintenance of defensive forces. Alarmed by the lack of defense in the colony and in Philadelphia, Franklin organized a militia. A militia is an organized military force, made up of citizens, that serves in times of emergency. Franklin printed Plain Truth in November 1747, urging the citizens to action. It was one of his most popular colonial publications. Franklin became a local hero. By 1749, the foreign threat had declined, and the militia slowly disbanded.

The year after retiring from his active role in the printing business, in June 1749, Franklin was named justice of peace for Philadelphia. Two years later, Franklin was elected to the Pennsylvania legislature. Because he had worked as a clerk for the legislature for many years and had extensive familiarity with legislative matters, Franklin was given important assignments such as writing responses to the colonial governor. That same year he wrote an essay in reaction to some British policies. The essay caught the attention of prominent colonists, who were interested in his ideas about achieving greater independence from British rule.

Scientist

In 1745, Franklin's Library Company received a publication from England regarding recent experiments in electricity in Germany. In late 1746, Franklin began experimenting with electricity, too. Many people came to his home to witness the experiments. In May 1747, Franklin began sending letters to England describing the experiments and his theories about electricity. Proving that only one kind of electricity existed but with two types of charges, he introduced the terms positive and negative charges as well as battery and conductor. The series of letters were combined in a small book by the Royal Society of London and distributed in 1751 throughout Europe.

In April 1749, Franklin proposed that static electricity and lightning were the same. Lightning at the time was a mysterious and terrifying phenomenon. In March 1750, Franklin introduced lightning rods (pointed iron rods) on the roofs of buildings to protect them from lightning strikes and resulting fires. In May 1752, a Frenchman carried out an experiment proposed by Franklin and showed that lightning was indeed electricity. The following month, Franklin added further proof by flying a kite in an electrical storm and noting the transfer of the storm's electrical charge through the kite and into a specially designed jar.

The findings of Franklin's experiments were truly revolutionary. They showed that a much feared natural occurrence, lightning, could be simply explained as electricity, and that electricity was a basic element of nature. Franklin became a major international celebrity in both science and literature. Awards for Franklin accumulated: He received a master of arts degree from Harvard in June 1753, Yale in September 1753, and the College of William and Mary in Virginia in April 1756. The prestigious Royal Society of London presented him with a scientific achievement award in November 1753 and unanimously elected Franklin as a member in April 1756.

A national role

In 1753, Franklin's public service roles expanded. In August, Franklin was appointed postmaster general for all the Northern colonies. Through this position, he began thinking in terms of a more unified political organization of the colonies. He used his position to spread around his ideas.

In 1754, the French threat grew again on the western frontier in the Ohio River valley, renewing Franklin's concerns over defense of the colony. In May, he wrote an editorial urging the colonies to unify. He drew a cartoon of a snake cut into pieces with the caption "JOIN OR DIE." It became one of the first symbols of unifying the colonies. Serving as a Pennsylvania delegate to a meeting among colonies in Albany, New York, Franklin proposed a plan for a union of the colonies. The delegates at the conference accepted his plan, but the colonies later rejected it, fearful of losing some of their independence.

The French and Indian War (1754–63) erupted in 1754 and was the last major struggle between Britain and France over control of North American land claims. When France won a major victory over a British force under the command of General Edward Braddock (1695–1755) in early 1755, Franklin hastily pulled together a new militia to defend Pennsylvania. In January 1756, the Pennsylvania governor appointed Franklin commander. Franklin personally led the force westward and built a fort before he was summoned back to a special legislative session.

Taxation

Franklin endlessly fought for the right of colonies to tax themselves through their elected representatives rather than being taxed by the British parliament across the Atlantic. He claimed it was the natural right of any Englishman to be taxed only by their own consent. This was a new and bold viewpoint among the colonists.

Franklin also vigorously campaigned to limit the power of the colony's proprietors, the Penn family. Pennsylvania was originally chartered to William Penn (1644–1718) in 1681, and proprietorship of the colony passed through the Penn family until the colony became a state in the 1770s. Franklin proposed that the proprietor's land be taxed like everyone else's. The Penn family objected, and the Pennsylvania legislature sent Franklin to England in 1757 to resolve the issue. Franklin remained in England until August 1762. During that time, he reached a compromise with the Penn family over the taxation issue.

While in Britain, Franklin recognized that many British citizens did not really know the American colonists. Franklin published an article in May 1759 titled A Defense of the Americans. It was the most complete description yet written of Americans prior to the American Revolution (1775–83). Franklin published many other articles about America for the British public. While in Britain, Franklin regularly attended science and political society meetings. He also visited with such scholars as Scottish philosophers David Hume (1711–1776) and Adam Smith (1723–1790). He also received an honorary doctorate degree from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland in February 1759 and from Oxford in April 1762. He became regularly referred to as "Dr. Franklin."

While Franklin was on his way back to America in late 1762, his son William was appointed the colonial governor of New Jersey. During the next two years, Franklin toured the colonies as postmaster, greatly improving the postal service and making it profitable. However, Franklin was sent back to Britain in October 1764. Conflict with the Penn family had continued, and the colonists wanted a new, more direct charter from the British Crown.

The Stamp Act

Following the conclusion of the French and Indian War in 1763, the British parliament was looking for new tax measures that might pay the expenses of defending the colonies. Franklin arrived in Britain in December 1764 just as Parliament was considering passage of the Stamp Act. The act required colonists to pay a tax on newspapers, legal documents, diplomas, playing cards—in short, on almost all types of written documents except private letters. Franklin argued strongly against the act, offering other proposals. However, Parliament passed the Stamp Act in March 1765, and it took effect in November. Franklin assumed the colonists would begrudgingly accept the new tax. He quickly discovered he was wrong. The colonies strongly protested the tax and passed a series of resolves against it. Franklin was even charged with giving in too easily to the British officials.

Franklin immediately sprang into action to recover his prestige. He made a dramatic speech before the British House of Commons. He bluntly described the colonies' desire for self-government, arguing that only the colonial governments had the right to tax colonists. He wrote dozens of articles in opposition to the tax. In February 1766, Parliament repealed the act. Franklin had become the leading spokesman for the colonies. As an example of the increasing respect he was receiving, the following year he met with the king of France. He also began writing his Autobiography in 1767, which expressed his political ideas and discussed many other subjects.

Leading American spokesman

So popular was Franklin now that other states joined in keeping him in London as their foreign agent. Besides Pennsylvania, there was Georgia in 1768, New Jersey in 1769, and Massachusetts in 1770. Between 1765 and 1775, Franklin published 126 newspaper articles expressing the American viewpoints to British and other European readers. While Franklin was in Britain serving the American colonies, his wife suffered a stroke and died in December 1774.

More honors came Franklin's way for his scientific achievements. He was elected to the Academy of Sciences in 1766. He was also elected president of the American Philosophical Society in January 1769, a position he held for the next twenty-one years until his death.

In December 1773, colonists boarded British merchant ships in Boston Harbor and dumped 342 chests of tea into the water in protest of the new tea tax. News of the rebellion, known as the Boston Tea Party, reached Britain in January 1774. Franklin, the Massachusetts agent, was called before the enraged British officials and berated for an hour. Franklin stood silent. British officials also removed Franklin from his deputy postmaster role in America two days later. Britain soon passed the Intolerable Acts, punishing the colonies for their actions, and closed Boston Harbor. Franklin responded again with a series of articles criticizing the measures but still trying to resolve the differences.

Second Continental Congress delegate

Aware that war might break out, Franklin set sail for America in March 1775, still thinking that the colonies would remain part of the British empire but as self-governing nations. While Franklin was at sea, fighting between the colonists and British troops erupted in April at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts. When he arrived, he realized there was no turning back now from armed revolt. Much to his dismay, his son William, governor of New Jersey, remained loyal to Britain. They would never communicate again.

Immediately upon his return to America, Franklin was elected as a Pennsylvania delegate to the Second Continental Congress. He was one of the oldest but more radical delegates drafting articles of confederation for uniting the colonies and creating a strong central government. The document creating an independent government was considered too extreme at the time. The following year, in 1776, Franklin was assigned to a committee to draft the Declaration of Independence and organize a new postal system. Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826; see entry in volume 1) of Virginia wrote the first draft of the Declaration, and Franklin and Massachusetts delegate John Adams (1735–1826; see entry in volume 1) made minor changes before sending it to the full Congress for approval. After two days of much debate and further revision, the Declaration was signed by Franklin and other delegates on July 4, 1776. Serving as an elder statesman at seventy years of age, Franklin was by far the oldest of the signers. Later that year, Franklin was elected president of Pennsylvania's constitutional convention, where he guided the creation of a new state constitution. He asserted that concentration of wealth in the hands of a few was not in the public's interest.

Diplomat to France

In October 1776, the Congress sent Franklin, Adams, and Revolutionary War officer Henry Lee (1756–1818), as commissioners to France to seek desperately needed economic and military aid. The French welcomed the much-celebrated Franklin as a hero and main representative of America. His portrait showed up on all kinds of items. Franklin soaked up the adulation, while Adams grew bitter about all the attention Franklin was receiving.

Progress was slow in France, with only secret promises of funding support at first, no public commitments. Then in October 1777, a large British force of five thousand troops surrendered to the colonial forces at Saratoga, New York. When this news reached Paris in December 1777, France was finally convinced that the colonists had a real chance of victory. In February 1778, Franklin concluded a Treaty of Alliance for mutual defense and trade. The treaty also stated that the United States could not negotiate a treaty with Britain without consulting with France. It was a major shock to the British, who now realized they had to fight not only the colonies but another European power as well. Franklin relished the treaty-signing ceremony. He was wearing the same brown velvet suit he had worn when the British berated him over the Boston Tea Party.

Over the next three years, France supplied America some twelve thousand soldiers and thirty-two thousand sailors. Franklin was responsible for obtaining all the foreign aid the United States was to receive during the war.

Franklin continued as the U.S. representative in France throughout the remainder of the war. The surrender of General Charles Cornwallis (1738–1805) to General George Washington (1732–1799; see entry in volume 2) at Yorktown in October 1781 indicated that Britain was not going to be able to win the American Revolution. Franklin soon began trying to negotiate an end to the war. Finally, by the summer of 1782, serious negotiations were under way. After the arrival of Adams and New York delegate John Jay (1745–1829; see entry in volume 1), the Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783 (see box).

Franklin was eager to return to his home in Philadelphia; however, Congress kept him in Paris for two more years to negotiate new trade treaties. During this time, Franklin invented bifocal eyeglasses to help himself read more easily.

The strains caused by the lack of respect paid by Britain greatly influenced American policies in the 1780s and 1790s and eventually led to the "second revolution" between the United States and Britain known as the War of 1812 (1812–15).

Constitutional Convention

In September 1785, at age seventy-nine, Franklin arrived back in Philadelphia. He was elected governor of Pennsylvania the following month and would serve in that position for the next three years. He suffered from a large kidney stone and was in much discomfort. Nonetheless, Franklin was sent as a Pennsylvania delegate to the Constitutional Convention held in Philadelphia in 1787. He unsuccessfully argued that the country should be led by an executive committee rather than a single president.

Treaty of Paris

Benjamin Franklin was the senior statesman for the new nation during the 1770s and 1780s. Much of his contributions to the new nation came as a foreign diplomat stationed in Paris, France. In 1783, fellow U.S. diplomats John Jay and John Adams joined Franklin in Paris to negotiate an end to the American Revolution. The British parliament was represented by David Hartley (1731–1813). Signed on September 3, 1783, the treaty not only ended the war, it created issues that would shape U.S. foreign and domestic policy for the next thirty years.

Besides recognizing the independence of the American colonies and fishing rights for U.S. fishermen along the east coast of Canada, the treaty also set the western boundary of the United States at the Mississippi River, called for the withdrawal of British troops from American soil, and directed that debts between citizens and companies of the two nations be repaid. It also required the United States to return land and property seized from colonists who had remained loyal to Britain, protect property of those who supported Britain during the war in future years, exchange prisoners of war, and return all property the British army left behind in America. Another major issue involved slaves that had joined the British army and left for Britain at the end of the war. The Southern colonies wanted compensation for their loss of slaves.

Many of the terms of the treaty were never fulfilled. For example, Britain kept soldiers at forts in the region west of the Appalachian Mountains, land that was transferred to the United States in the treaty. The British realized the new nation had little military capability to enforce the treaty's terms. Britain also believed their former colonies would come back under British control within a few years after financial collapse.

Franklin's greatest contributions to the convention were the great confidence he gave it and on numerous occasions calming heated tempers. On September 17, the final day of the convention, Franklin delivered a stirring endorsement of the Constitution, asking all delegates to sign it. Too ill to deliver the speech himself, fellow Pennsylvania delegate James Wilson (1742–1798) read his message to the convention. As published in Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787, part of Franklin's message read, "I doubt . . . whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution. For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system [Convention] approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies." Thirty-nine of the forty-two delegates signed the historic document.

In October 1788, Franklin resigned as governor, completing forty years of public service. By 1789, Franklin was largely bedridden and taking pain-killing medicine. On March 23, 1790, Franklin wrote a major essay against slavery. He died the following month at eighty-four years of age. The city of Philadelphia gave him an elaborate funeral. His death was equally acknowledged in France, where Franklin remained a symbol of liberty. The French government observed three days of mourning. Along with George Washington, Franklin was the best-known American in the late eighteenth century. Europeans held Franklin in high regard due to his electrical experiments and theories. Franklin's Autobiography, first published in 1868, was the most popular autobiography in U.S. history.

For More Information

Books

Franklin, Benjamin. Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1868. Multiple reprints.

Isaacson, Walter. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003.

Koch, Adrienne, ed. Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1984.

Morgan, Edmund S. Benjamin Franklin. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002.

Schiff, Stacy. A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America. New York: Holt, 2005.

Wright, Esmond. Franklin of Philadelphia. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1986.

Web Sites

"Benjamin Franklin: An Extraordinary Life, an Electric Mind." Public Broadcasting Service.http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/ (accessed on August 12, 2005).