Benjamin Franklin is primarily remembered for his contribution to the formation of the United

States. He was the only man whose signature appeared on the Declaration of Independence, the
American Constitution, the Treaty of Alliance with France and the 1783 peace treaty with England.
However, as well as being one of the most important political thinkers of all time, Franklin was also a
notable businessman, scientist, economist, artist, justice of the peace and inventor. He popularised
the use of electricity as an energy source; he wrote learnedly about hot air balloons, magnetism, sleep
and astronomy; he invented the Franklin stove, bifocals, the glass harmonica and a tool for retrieving
books from high shelves. As such, he was a Renaissance man who also became the embodiment of
the American Dream. Starting life as one of seventeen children of a Boston candle-maker, he became
one of the most admired men of his age, an intuitive and innovative liberal philosopher whose views
on society and culture inspired revolutionaries both in America and across Europe. Many of his sayings
have passed into the language: 'Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God', 'There never was a
good war or a bad peace', 'Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will
deserve neither and lose both', 'In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes', 'Guests, like fish,
begin to smell after three days', 'Never leave till tomorrow that which you can do today', 'Time is
money', 'A place for everything and everything in its place'.

BACKGROUND

Benjamin Franklin was born in 1706 in Boston. His ancestors had all lived in the same town in
Northamptonshire (Ecton) for three hundred years. Then in about 1682 his father Josiah decided to
emigrate to New England for religious reasons. As a Nonconformist, he felt that his religious freedom
was being compromised in Protestant England. When he arrived in America, Josiah Franklin already
had four children: in Boston he had three more children with his first wife, then ten more children by a
second wife. Benjamin Franklin was his youngest son and fifteenth child. Josiah Franklin decided that
Benjamin should become a priest and sent him to grammar school. However, by the time Benjamin
was ten, school was proving too expensive and he was withdrawn. Instead he began to help his father
in his candle-making business. He did not enjoy 'cutting Wick for the Candles, filling the Dipping Mold',
as he put it in his autobiography, so he was made an apprentice to his brother, a printer. The printing
trade was far more congenial to Franklin: he loved writing and reading, and was fascinated by the
process of making books. He said in his autobiography: 'In a little time I made great Proficiency in the
Business, and became a useful Hand to my Brother.'

Franklin's brother James founded his own newspaper, The New England Courant, in 1721, after a
contract to print the Boston Gazette was withdrawn. Benjamin was trusted with the task of setting the
type, printing the pages and circulating the paper. James was often imprisoned for publishing anti-
Puritan satires, and on these occasions, Benjamin would run the paper single-handedly. At the same
time, he tried his hand at authorship, writing stories and essays under the pseudonym 'Silence
Dogood' and submitting them anonymously to his brother. When his brother responded positively to
these articles, Benjamin revealed his identity. This changed the atmosphere markedly between the
brothers: they began to quarrel, they frequently came to blows, and by 1723 Benjamin decided to quit
and move to Philadelphia.

EARLY CAREER

Philadelphia was a tolerant and ethnically diverse city, and Franklin was glad to be free of the
Puritanical atmosphere of Boston. He quickly secured work at Samuel Keimer's printers, and
immediately impressed his employers with his professional knowledge. Then his brother-in-law, Robert
Holmes, wrote to him, begging him to return to his family in Boston. Franklin replied, explaining his
reasons for leaving and informing Holmes about his plans for life in Philadelphia. Holmes happened to
know the Governor of Pennsylvania, William Keith, and he showed him Franklin's letter. Keith was so
startled by the intelligence and erudition of the eighteen-year-old Franklin that he sought him out at
Keimer's printing press. Keith told Franklin that he should set up his own print works, and offered him
the contract for all government documents and papers. Franklin returned to Boston to try to raise
capital for his new venture from his family, but Josiah Franklin felt that his son was still too young to
be put in charge of a business. In consequence, Keith said that he would personally subsidise Franklin
and told him to travel to London where he could buy printing materials and establish business
connections.

However, when he arrived in London, Franklin discovered that Keith had provided him with no money
and no letters of recommendation. He found work at a printer's (Samuel Palmer's) and explored
London with his companion, James Ralph. However he soon fell out with Ralph and began to long for
home. A London Quaker, Mr Denham, offered him work as a clerk in Philadelphia and in July 1726,
Franklin headed back to America. Back home, he discovered that his fiancée, Deborah Read, had
married another man, because Franklin had only written to her once in eighteen months, and she had
assumed that he had forgotten her. (Franklin commented in his autobiography: 'This was another of
the great Errata of my life'.) Fortunately for Franklin, Deborah discovered that her new husband, John
Rogers, was a bigamist; she renounced him and re-established her engagement with Franklin. The two
were married in 1730 and had two children.

Over the next few years, Franklin moved from one printer's to another. After Denham died, he worked
for Keimer again and designed a copper-plate press to print new bank notes. After a disagreement
with Keimer, he set up a lucrative partnership with Hugh Meredith and became Philadelphia's most
successful printer. At this stage, he also formed the Junto, an informal gathering of like-minded
friends who met on Friday evenings. This provided Franklin with a lifelong collection of political allies
and business contacts, and the group continued to meet for almost four decades.
In 1729, Franklin took over the running of a Philadelphia newspaper, The Universal Instructor in All
Arts and Sciences, from his old employer, Samuel Keimer. He renamed it The Philadelphia Gazette.
The same year, he bought out Hugh Meredith and became sole owner of his print business. In 1732,
he published his first almanac, a best-selling series of epigrams and predictions. At the same time, he
paid a visit to Boston to make peace with his dying brother, James, promising to bring up James's son
after his death.

In 1737, Franklin was appointed postmaster of Pennsylvania. His political career developed rapidly
over the next decade. He set up a volunteer fire department in Philadelphia and established a city
orphanage and a university. In 1748 he decided to retire from printing: he had made enough money
not to have to work again. Instead, he devoted himself to the study of electricity, developing lightning
rods and a famous 'kite experiment'. This involved flying a kite during a thunderstorm, and conducting
electricity through the kite string to which a key was fastened. One Christmas, he decided to kill the
annual turkey by electrocution; instead he came into contact with the current himself and suffered a
series of life-threatening convulsions. Undeterred, he continued his research, coining new words like
'positive' and 'negative' charge and 'battery'. He received honorary degrees from Yale and Harvard,
and the London Royal Society presented him with a gold medal in 1753.

In 1754, Franklin was the Pennsylvania delegate to the Albany Congress, a meeting organised by
Britain to discuss frontier raids by the French and Native Americans on western regions. Franklin
suggested a plan of union for the colonies, arguing that America should organise and fund its own
army. The British government and the provincial colonies rejected this plan. Instead, the British sent
troops to the western border and the French and Indian War entered a new phase. Franklin assisted
the British by hiring supply wagons from Pennsylvania farmers; he also offered advice about Indian
tactics (which was ignored) at the disastrous British defeat at Fort Duquesne. Franklin was briefly put
in charge of guarding the north-western frontier with the aid of his son, William; he was then asked by
the legislature to go to London to sort out a dispute with the Penn family, owners of Pennsylvania. On
returning, Franklin found out that he had been elected to the Pennsylvania Legislature while his son,
William, had been appointed governor of New Jersey. In 1763, Britain and France signed a treaty,
temporarily suspending the war, but the Native Americans continued to attack Pennsylvania's north-
western frontier. Many colonists retaliated by killing innocent Indians, but Franklin was opposed to any
kind of persecution:

If an Indian injures me, does it follow that I may revenge that injury on all Indians [. . .]? If it
be right to kill men for such a reason, then, should any man with a freckled face and red hair
kill a wife or child of mine, it would be right for me to revenge it by killing all the freckled red-
haired men, women and children I could afterwards anywhere meet with.
At the same time, Franklin continued to oppose the way in which the Penn family was running
Pennsylvania. He argued that it would be better to be ruled directly by George III. The Penn family
were outraged by this, and ensured that Franklin was thrown out of the Pennsylvania Legislature.
Franklin went to Britain to present the petition to King George directly: the situation in the colonies
meant that he was obliged to stay in England for the next decade. From Britain, he watched the
effects of the Stamp Act (1765), which placed more levies on American goods (like newspapers and
playing cards) without giving the colonies any seats in Parliament. 'No taxation without representation'
became the popular cry. Franklin wrote numerous articles in British newspapers about the injustice of
the act and in 1766 it was revoked. However, tension in the colonies increased over the next five
years, culminating with the Boston Tea Party of 1773.

LATER LIFE

In 1775, Franklin returned to America, after being accused by the British of circulating incendiary
letters from Thomas Hutchison, Governor of Massachusetts. The same year, the American War of
Independence broke out. Although he was a seventy-year-old man, Franklin came to play a vital role
in the ensuing struggle for national self-determination. At the Second Continental Congress, Franklin
represented Philadelphia and argued for the autonomy of the colonies. He faced considerable
opposition: for example, his own son, William Franklin, Governor of New Jersey, stayed fiercely loyal
to King George. Franklin became postmaster of the colonies and also chair of the Committee of Safety,
responsible for defending the colonies against the British. He drew up a proposal to unify the thirteen
colonies and, although it was rejected by the Second Continental Congress, it would form the basis of
the later American Constitution. He also formed a secret committee, designed to solicit help and
resources from foreign powers. In 1776, Franklin travelled to French Canada to try to persuade the
Canadians to support the breakaway colonies.

By Summer 1776, the mood in America had changed. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of
Independence, and John Adams and Benjamin Franklin suggested small alterations. The Continental
Congress espoused this document and seemed to accept that war with England was inevitable. As the
British sent more troops to America, Franklin went to Paris to try to get money and weapons for the
colonies. He enlisted the Marquis de Lafayette and Friedrich Wilhelm, Baron von Steuben, both of
whom provided invaluable help to the Revolutionary Army. After the Americans beat the British at the
Battle of Saratoga (1777), both France and Spain agreed to send resources and troops to the rebels.
Franklin signed the Treaty of Alliance with France in 1778.

By 1781, the British had capitulated and by 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed. At the peace
conference, Franklin was instrumental in setting up the American confederation of states. He was
disappointed that the bald eagle was chosen as the national symbol (he had wanted a turkey).
Franklin's son, William, who had supported the British, was reunited with his father. In 1785, Franklin
left Paris and returned home, where he was duly elected President of Pennsylvania. In 1787, at the
age of 81, Franklin attended a Constitutional Convention, designed to establish a stable form of
government for the new confederation, and played a vital role in drawing up and ratifying the
American Constitution. In the last years of his life, he made important interventions in the French
Revolution and abolitionist debates. He argued that the French people had the right to challenge the
ancien régime and wrote an article attacking the slave trade. In April 1790, Franklin died.

MAJOR WORKS

Autobiography (1791): Franklin's chief contribution to literature is his Autobiography. It was written
in the last two decades of his life, between 1771 and 1788, in the form of a letter to his son William. It
has stood the test of time, largely because Franklin took pains with his writing style, using literary
models to shape his narrative. In particular, he admired Bunyan and Defoe, writing at the beginning of
the autobiography: 'Honest John [Bunyan] was the first that I know of who mix'd Narration &
Dialogue, a Method of Writing very engaging to the Reader [. . .]. Defoe in his Crusoe, his Moll
Flanders, Religious Courtship, Family Instructor & other Pieces, has imitated it with success.' Like The
Pilgrim's Progress, Franklin's book would be an epic of spiritual growth; like Moll Flanders, it would be
a picaresque narrative of endurance and struggle. Perhaps Franklin also inherited a certain
earnestness from Bunyan and Defoe: a wish to foreground reason and common sense and a
concomitant desire to dispense with bawdy humour and colourful language.

Certainly the autobiography is a masterpiece of subtle and earnest self-justification. It lacks any
genuine self-criticism: Franklin tends to be rational and cordial, while his enemies are unreasonable
and judgemental. Friendships are formed, then dismissed as 'errata': his childhood friend Collins
becomes a drunk, his companion in England, James Ralph, is irresponsible and dissolute, his business
partner, Hugh Meredith, also succumbs to alcoholism. Meanwhile, his own extreme temperance is
underlined: 'Our supper was only half an Anchovy each, on a very little strip of Bread & Butter', 'I
drank only Water; the other Workmen, near 50 in Number were great Guzzlers of Beer.' He constantly
puts himself forward as a moral exemplar and the embodiment of virtue. He begins his day by asking,
'What good shall I do this day?' and ends each day asking himself, 'What good have I done this day?'
Nevertheless, notable among Franklin's own 'good deeds' were fathering an illegitimate child (William,
in 1730) and putting a rival out of business.

The Autobiography has also survived because it seems to be the apotheosis of the American success
story, the first national myth. Franklin has faults, but he also has an abundance of virtues. His
Autobiography was, in effect, the first self-help book, a genre that has come to dominate and define
the modern American psyche. The new start, the self-made man, the journey of self-discovery: these
were all concepts that were successfully 'Americanised' by Franklin. His book essentially states: 'You
too can be like me' and offers his readers a host of injunctions, warnings and guidelines about how to
be a success. He mentions his hard work and adds: 'I mention this Industry the most particularly and
the more freely, tho' it seems to be talking in my own Praise, that those of my Posterity, who shall
read it, may know the Use of that Virtue.' Time and time again, he stresses that anybody can succeed,
if they imitate his working methods, his temperance and his self-control. Religion plays a considerable
role in this, although Franklin's breed of Christianity stressed good works above faith. He wrote to
Joseph Huey in 1753:

The Faith you mention has doubtless its use in the World; I do not desire to see it diminished,
nor would I endeavour to lessen it in any Man. But I wish it were more productive of Good
Works than I have generally seen it: I mean real good Works, Works of Kindness, Charity,
Mercy, and Publick Spirit; not Holiday-keeping, Sermon-Reading or Hearing, performing
Church Ceremonies, or making long Prayers, fill'd with Flatteries and Compliments, despis'd
even by wise Men, and much less capable of pleasing the Deity.

As such, Franklin was responsible for modifying religious precepts for use in the New World, blending
religious ideas of charity and good deeds with secular notions of success and business acumen.

CRITICAL RECEPTION

There are a number of excellent academic studies of Benjamin Franklin. Perhaps the best biography is
Ronald W. Clark's Benjamin Franklin (1983); Francis Jennings' Benjamin Franklin, Politician is a
valuable guide to his political career; Brian Barbour edited a useful collection of critical essays
(Benjamin Franklin) in 1979. Franklin continues to be admired all over the world as a philosopher and
statesman, and in his native America there are schools, hospitals and streets named after him. He is
especially revered for his role in the struggle against the British and, above all, for his contribution to
Jefferson's seminal text:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the
pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of
Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to
abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and
Happiness.

Proquest.com
Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston on January 17, 1706. He was the tenth son of soap maker, Josiah
Franklin. Benjamin's mother was Abiah Folger, the second wife of Josiah. In all, Josiah would father 17
children.

Josiah intended for Benjamin to enter into the clergy. However, Josiah could only afford to send his son to
school for one year and clergymen needed years of schooling. But, as young Benjamin loved to read he
had him apprenticed to his brother James, who was a printer. After helping James compose pamphlets
and set type which was grueling work, 12-year-old Benjamin would sell their products in the streets.

Learn More: Franklin Timeline

Apprentice Printer

When Benjamin was 15 his brother started The New England Courant the first "newspaper" in Boston.
Though there were two papers in the city before James's Courant, they only reprinted news from abroad.
James's paper carried articles, opinion pieces written by James's friends, advertisements, and news of
ship schedules.

Benjamin wanted to write for the paper too, but he knew that James would never let him. After all,
Benjamin was just a lowly apprentice. So Ben began writing letters at night and signing them with the
name of a fictional widow, Silence Dogood. Dogood was filled with advice and very critical of the world
around her, particularly concerning the issue of how women were treated. Ben would sneak the letters
under the print shop door at night so no one knew who was writing the pieces. They were a smash hit,
and everyone wanted to know who was the real "Silence Dogood."

After 16 letters, Ben confessed that he had been writing the letters all along. While James's friends
thought Ben was quite precocious and funny, James scolded his brother and was very jealous of the
attention paid to him.

Before long the Franklins found themselves at odds with Boston's powerful Puritan preachers, the
Mathers. Smallpox was a deadly disease in those times, and the Mathers supported inoculation; the
Franklins' believed inoculation only made people sicker. And while most Bostonians agreed with the
Franklins, they did not like the way James made fun of the clergy, during the debate. Ultimately, James
was thrown in jail for his views, and Benjamin was left to run the paper for several issues.

Upon release from jail, James was not grateful to Ben for keeping the paper going. Instead he kept
harassing his younger brother and administering beatings from time to time. Ben could not take it and
decided to run away in 1723.

Learn More: New England Courant

Escape to Philadelphia
Running away was illegal. In early America, people all had to have a place in society and runaways did
not fit in anywhere. Regardless Ben took a boat to New York where he hoped to find work as a printer. He
didn't, and walked across New Jersey, finally arriving in Philadelphia via a boat ride. After debarking, he
used the last of his money to buy some rolls. He was wet, disheveled, and messy when his future wife,
Deborah Read, saw him on that day, October, 6, 1723. She thought him odd-looking, never dreaming that
seven years later they would be married.

Franklin found work as an apprentice printer. He did so well that the governor of Pennsylvania promised
to set him up in business for himself if young Franklin would just go to London to buy fonts and printing
equipment. Franklin did go to London, but the governor reneged on his promise and Benjamin was forced
to spend several months in England doing print work.

Benjamin had been living with the Read family before he left for London. Deborah Read, the very same
girl who had seen young Benjamin arrive in Philadelphia, started talking marriage, with the young printer.
But Ben did not think he was ready. While he was gone, she married another man.

Upon returning to Philadelphia, Franklin tried his hand at helping to run a shop, but soon went back to
being a printer's helper. Franklin was a better printer than the man he was working for, so he borrowed
some money and set himself up in the printing business. Franklin seemed to work all the time, and the
citizens of Philadelphia began to notice the diligent young businessman. Soon he began getting the
contract to do government jobs and started thriving in business.

In 1728, Benjamin fathered a child named William. The mother of William is not known. However, in 1730
Benjamin married his childhood sweetheart, Deborah Read. Deborah's husband had run off, and now she
was able to marry.

In addition to running a print shop, the Franklins also ran their own store at this time, with Deborah selling
everything from soap to fabric. Ben also ran a book store. They were quite enterprising.

Learn More: Franklin's Arrival In Philadelphia

The Pennsylvania Gazette

In 1729, Benjamin Franklin bought a newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette. Franklin not only printed the
paper, but often contributed pieces to the paper under aliases. His newspaper soon became the most
successful in the colonies. This newspaper, among other firsts, would print the first political cartoon,
authored by Ben himself.

During the 1720s and 1730s, the side of Franklin devoted to public good started to show itself. He
organized the Junto, a young working-man's group dedicated to self- and-civic improvement. He joined
the Masons. He was a very busy man socially.

Learn More: American Philosophical Society

Poor Richard's Almanack

But Franklin thrived on work. In 1733 he started publishing Poor Richard's Almanack. Almanacs of the era
were printed annually, and contained things like weather reports, recipes, predictions and homilies.
Franklin published his almanac under the guise of a man named Richard Saunders, a poor man who
needed money to take care of his carping wife. What distinguished Franklin's almanac were his witty
aphorisms and lively writing. Many of the famous phrases associated with Franklin, such as, "A penny
saved is a penny earned" come from Poor Richard.

Learn More: The Quotable Franklin

Fire Prevention

Franklin continued his civic contributions during the 1730s and 1740s. He helped launch projects to pave,
clean and light Philadelphia's streets. He started agitating for environmental clean up. Among the chief
accomplishments of Franklin in this era was helping to launch the Library Company in 1731. During this
time books were scarce and expensive. Franklin recognized that by pooling together resources, members
could afford to buy books from England. Thus was born the nation's first subscription library. In 1743, he
helped to launch the American Philosophical Society, the first learned society in America. Recognizing
that the city needed better help in treating the sick, Franklin brought together a group who formed the
Pennsylvania Hospital in 1751. The Library Company, Philosophical Society, and Pennsylvania Hospital
are all in existence today.

Fires were very dangerous threat to Philadelphians, so Franklin set about trying to remedy the situation.
In 1736, he organized Philadelphia's Union Fire Company, the first in the city. His famous saying, "An
ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," was actually fire-fighting advice.

Those who suffered fire damage to their homes often suffered irreversible economic loss. So, in 1752,
Franklin helped to found the Philadelphia Contribution for Insurance Against Loss by Fire. Those with
insurance policies were not wiped out financially. The Contributionship is still in business today.

Learn More: Fire Department

Electricity

Franklin's printing business was thriving in this 1730s and 1740s. He also started setting up franchise
printing partnerships in other cities. By 1749 he retired from business and started concentrating on
science, experiments, and inventions. This was nothing new to Franklin. In 1743, he had already invented
a heat-efficient stove — called the Franklin stove — to help warm houses efficiently. As the stove was
invented to help improve society, he refused to take out a patent.
Among Franklin's other inventions are swim fins, the glass armonica (a musical instrument) and bifocals.

In the early 1750's he turned to the study of electricity. His observations, including his kite experiment
which verified the nature of electricity and lightning brought Franklin international fame.

Learn More: Franklin and his kite experiment

The Political Scene

Politics became more of an active interest for Franklin in the 1750s. In 1757, he went to England to
represent Pennsylvania in its fight with the descendants of the Penn family over who should represent the
Colony. He remained in England to 1775, as a Colonial representative not only of Pennsylvania, but of
Georgia, New Jersey and Massachusetts as well.

Early in his time abroad, Franklin considered himself a loyal Englishman. England had many of the
amenities that America lacked. The country also had fine thinkers, theater, witty conversation — things in
short supply in America. He kept asking Deborah to come visit him in England. He had thoughts of
staying there permanently, but she was afraid of traveling by ship.

In 1765, Franklin was caught by surprise by America's overwhelming opposition to the Stamp Act. His
testimony before Parliament helped persuade the members to repeal the law. He started wondering if
America should break free of England. Franklin, though he had many friends in England, was growing
sick of the corruption he saw all around him in politics and royal circles. Franklin, who had proposed a
plan for united colonies in 1754, now would earnestly start working toward that goal.

Franklin's big break with England occurred in the "Hutchinson Affair." Thomas Hutchinson was an
English-appointed governor of Massachusetts. Although he pretended to take the side of the people of
Massachusetts in their complaints against England, he was actually still working for the King. Franklin got
a hold of some letters in which Hutchinson called for "an abridgment of what are called English Liberties"
in America. He sent the letters to America where much of the population was outraged. After leaking the
letters Franklin was called to Whitehall, the English Foreign Ministry, where he was condemned in public.

A New Nation

Franklin came home.

He started working actively for Independence. He naturally thought his son William, now the Royal
governor of New Jersey, would agree with his views. William did not. William remained a Loyal
Englishman. This caused a rift between father and son which was never healed.

Franklin was elected to the Second Continental Congress and worked on a committee of five that helped
to draft the Declaration of Independence. Though much of the writing is Thomas Jefferson's, much of the
contribution is Franklin's. In 1776 Franklin signed the Declaration, and afterward sailed to France as an
ambassador to the Court of Louis XVI.

The French loved Franklin. He was the man who had tamed lightning, the humble American who dressed
like a backwoodsman but was a match for any wit in the world. He spoke French, though stutteringly. He
was a favorite of the ladies. Several years earlier his wife Deborah had died, and Benjamin was now a
notorious flirt.

In part via Franklin's popularity, the government of France signed a Treaty of Alliance with the Americans
in 1778. Franklin also helped secure loans and persuade the French they were doing the right thing.
Franklin was on hand to sign the Treaty of Paris in 1783, after the Americans had won the Revolution.

Now a man in his late seventies, Franklin returned to America. He became President of the Executive
Council of Pennsylvania. He served as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and signed the
Constitution. One of his last public acts was writing an anti-slavery treatise in 1789.

Franklin died on April 17, 1790 at the age of 84. 20,000 people attended the funeral of the man who was
called, "the harmonious human multitude."

His electric personality, however, still lights the world.

http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/info/index.htm