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Benjamin Franklin

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Astronomers and
physicists; Historical figures

   Benjamin Franklin
   Jean-Baptiste Greuze, 1777

       6th President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania

                               Term of office:
                                1785 – 1788

   Predecessor: John Dickinson
   Successor: Thomas Mifflin
   Born: January 17, 1706
   Boston, Massachusetts
   Died: April 17, 1790
   Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
   Political party: None
   Profession: Scientist, writer, politician
   Spouse: Deborah Read
   Religion: Deism

   Benjamin Franklin ( January 17, 1706 [ O.S. January 6] – April 17,
   1790) was one of the best known Founding Fathers of the United States.
   He was a leading author, politician, printer, scientist, philosopher,
   publisher, inventor, civic activist, and diplomat. As a scientist he
   was a major figure in the history of physics for his discoveries and
   theories regarding electricity. As a political writer and activist he,
   more than anyone, invented the idea of an American nation, and as a
   diplomat during the American Revolution, he secured the French alliance
   that made independence possible.

   Franklin was noted for his curiosity, his writings (popular, political
   and scientific), and his diversity of interests. His wise and
   scintillating writings are proverbial to this day. As a leader of the
   Enlightenment, he gained the recognition of scientists and
   intellectuals across Europe. An agent in London before the Revolution,
   and Minister to France during it, he more than anyone defined the new
   nation in the minds of Europe. His success in securing French military
   and financial aid was the turning point for American victory over
   Britain. He invented the lightning rod; he was an early proponent of
   colonial unity; historians hail him as the "First American". The city
   of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania marked Franklin's 300th birthday in
   January 2006 with a wide array of exhibitions, and events citing
   Franklin's extraordinary accomplishments throughout his illustrious
   career.

   Born in Boston, Massachusetts to a devout Anglican tallow-maker, he was
   baptized at Old South Meeting House. Franklin learned printing from his
   older brother and became a newspaper editor, printer, and merchant in
   Philadelphia, becoming very wealthy. He spent many years in England and
   published the famous Poor Richard's Almanac and the Pennsylvania
   Gazette. He formed both the first public lending library and fire
   department in America as well as the Junto, a political discussion
   club.

   He became a national hero in America when he spearheaded the effort to
   have Parliament repeal the unpopular Stamp Act. A diplomatic genius,
   Franklin was almost universally admired among the French as American
   minister to Paris, and was a major figure in the development of
   positive Franco-American relations. From 1775 to 1776, Franklin was
   Postmaster General under the Continental Congress and from 1785 to his
   death in 1790 was President of the Supreme Executive Council of
   Pennsylvania. Towards the end of his life, he became one of the most
   prominent abolitionists.

   Franklin was interested in science and technology, carrying out his
   famous electricity experiments and inventing, in addition to his very
   important lightning rod, the Franklin stove, catheter, swimfins, glass
   harmonica, and bifocals. He also played a major role in establishing
   the University of Pennsylvania and Franklin and Marshall College. He
   was elected the first president of the American Philosophical Society
   Held at Philadelphia for Promoting Useful Knowledge, the oldest learned
   society in the United States, in 1769. In addition, Franklin was a
   noted linguist, fluent in five languages. He is typically recognized as
   a polymath.

Biography

Ancestry

   Franklin's father, Josiah Franklin, was born at Ecton,
   Northamptonshire, England on December 23, 1657, the son of Thomas
   Franklin, a blacksmith and farmer, and Jane White. His mother, Abiah
   Folger, was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts on August 15, 1667, to
   Peter Folger, a miller and schoolteacher and his wife Mary Morrill, a
   former indentured servant. Both of his parents were devout Christians.
   A descendent of the Folgers, J. A. Folger, would go on to found Folgers
   Coffee in the 19th century.

   Around 1677, Josiah married Anne Child at Ecton, and over the next few
   years had three children. These half-siblings of Benjamin Franklin
   included Elizabeth ( March 2, 1678), Samuel ( May 16, 1681), and Hannah
   ( May 25, 1683).

   Sometime during the second half of 1683, the Franklins left England for
   Boston, United States. They had several more children in Boston,
   including Josiah Jr. ( August 23, 1685), Ann ( January 5, 1687), Joseph
   ( February 5, 1688), and Joseph ( June 30, 1689) (the first Joseph
   having died soon after birth).

   Josiah's first wife, Anne, died in Boston on July 9, 1689. He was
   married to Abiah Folger on November 25, 1689 in the Old South Church of
   Boston by Samuel Willard.

   Josiah and Abiah had the following children: John ( December 7, 1690),
   Peter ( November 22, 1692), Mary ( September 26, 1694), James (
   February 4, 1697), Sarah ( July 9, 1699), Ebenezer ( September 20,
   1701), Thomas ( December 7, 1703), Benjamin ( January 17, 1706), Lydia
   ( August 8, 1708), and Jane ( March 27, 1712).

Early life

   Autograph of Benjamin Franklin
   Enlarge
   Autograph of Benjamin Franklin

   Benjamin Franklin was born on Milk Street in Boston on January 17, 1706
   and baptized at Old South Meeting House. His father, Josiah Franklin,
   was a tallow chandler, a maker of candles and soap, whose second wife,
   Abiah Folger, was Benjamin's mother. Josiah's marriages produced 20
   children; Benjamin was the fifteenth child and youngest son. Josiah
   wanted Ben to attend school with the clergy, but only had enough money
   to send him to school for two years. He attended Boston Latin School
   but did not graduate; he continued his education through voracious
   reading. Although "his parents talked of the church as a career" for
   Franklin, his schooling ended when he was ten. He then worked for his
   father for a time and at 12 he became an apprentice to his brother
   James, a printer. When Ben was 15, James created the 'New England
   Courant', the first truly independent newspaper in the colonies. When
   denied the option to write to the paper, Franklin invented the
   pseudonym of 'Mrs. Silence Dogood' who was ostensibly a middle-aged
   widow. The letters were published in the paper and became a subject of
   conversation around town. Neither James nor the Courant's readers were
   aware of the ruse and James was unhappy with Ben when he discovered the
   popular correspondent was his younger brother. Franklin left his
   apprenticeship without permission and in so doing became a fugitive.

   At the age of 17, Franklin ran away to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
   seeking a new start in a new city. When he first arrived he worked in
   several printer shops around town. However, he was not satisfied by the
   immediate prospects. After a few months, while working in a printing
   house, Franklin was induced by Pennsylvania Governor Sir William Keith
   to go to London, ostensibly to acquire the equipment necessary for
   establishing another newspaper in Philadelphia. Finding Keith's
   promises of backing a newspaper to be empty, Franklin worked as a
   compositor in a printer's shop in what is now the Church of St
   Bartholomew-the-Great in the Smithfield area of London. Following this,
   he returned to Philadelphia in 1726 with the help of a merchant named
   Thomas Denham, who gave Franklin a position as clerk, shopkeeper, and
   bookkeeper in Denham's merchant business.

   Upon Denham's death, Franklin returned to his former trade. By 1730,
   Franklin had set up a printing house of his own and had contrived to
   become the publisher of a newspaper called "The Pennsylvania Gazette".
   The Gazette gave Franklin a forum for agitation about a variety of
   local reforms and initiatives through printed essays and observations.
   Over time, his commentary, together 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. Even after Franklin had
   achieved fame as a scientist and statesman, he would habitually sign
   his letters with the unpretentious 'B. Franklin, Printer'.

   Franklin was initiated into the local Freemason lodge in 1731 (new
   style), and became grand master in 1734, indicating his rapid rise to
   prominence in Philadelphia. He edited and published the first Masonic
   book in America, a reprint of James Anderson's The Constitutions of the
   Free-Masons that same year. He remained a Freemason for the rest of his
   life.

Deborah Read

   In 1724, while a boarder in the Read home, Franklin had courted Deborah
   Read before going to London at Governor Keith's request. At that time,
   Miss Read's mother was wary of allowing her daughter to wed a
   seventeen-year old who was on his way to London. Her own husband having
   recently died, Mrs. Read declined Franklin's offer of marriage.

   While Franklin was finding himself in London, Deborah married a man
   named John Rodgers. This proved to be a regrettable decision. Rodgers
   shortly avoided his debts and prosecution by fleeing to Barbados,
   leaving Deborah behind. With Rodgers' fate unknown, and bigamy illegal,
   Deborah was not free to remarry formally.

   Franklin himself had his own actions to ponder. In 1730, Franklin
   acknowledged an illegitimate son named William, who eventually became
   the last Loyalist governor of New Jersey. While the identity of
   William's mother remains unknown, perhaps the responsibility of an
   infant child gave Franklin a reason to take up residence with Deborah
   Read. William was raised in the Franklin household but eventually broke
   with his father over the treatment of the colonies at the hands of the
   crown. However, he was not above using his father's notoriety to
   enhance his own standing.

   Franklin established a common law marriage with Deborah Read on
   September 1, 1730. Benjamin and Deborah Franklin had two children (in
   addition to raising William). The first was Francis Folger Franklin,
   born October 1732; he died of smallpox in 1736. Sarah Franklin,
   nicknamed Sally, was born in 1743. She eventually married Richard
   Bache, had seven children, and cared for her father in his old age.

   Deborah's fear of the sea meant that she never accompanied Franklin on
   any of his extended trips to Europe, despite his repeated requests.

Success as author

   In 1733, Franklin began to issue the famous Poor Richard's Almanac
   (with content both original and borrowed) on which much of his popular
   reputation is based. Adages from this almanac such as "A penny saved is
   twopence clear" (often misquoted as "A penny saved is a penny earned")
   and "Fish and visitors stink in three days" remain common quotations in
   the modern world. He sold about ten thousand copies a year.

   In 1758, the year in which he ceased writing for the Almanac, he
   printed Father Abraham's Sermon, one of the most famous pieces of
   literature produced in Colonial America.

   Franklin was well-known as a humorist and a collection of his humorous
   writings can be found in the book: Fart Proudly: Writings of Benjamin
   Franklin You Never Read in School.

   Franklin's autobiography, published after his death, has become one of
   the classics of the genre.

Inventions and scientific inquiries

   Franklin was a prodigious inventor. Among his many creations were the
   lightning rod, the glass harmonica, the Franklin stove, bifocal
   glasses, and the flexible urinary catheter. Although Franklin never
   patented any of his own inventions, he was a supporter of the rights of
   inventors and authors and was responsible for inserting into the United
   States Constitution the provision for limited-term patents and
   copyrights.

   In 1743, Franklin founded the American Philosophical Society to help
   scientific men discuss their discoveries. He began the electrical
   research that, along with other scientific inquiries, would occupy him
   for the rest of his life (in between bouts of politics and
   moneymaking).
   An illustration from Franklin's paper on "Water-spouts and Whirlwinds."
   Enlarge
   An illustration from Franklin's paper on " Water-spouts and
   Whirlwinds."

   In 1748, he retired from printing and went into other businesses. He
   created a partnership with his foreman, David Hall, which provided
   Franklin with half of the shop's profits for 18 years. This lucrative
   business arrangement provided leisure time for study, and in a few
   years he had made discoveries that gave him a reputation with the
   educated throughout Europe and especially in France.

   These include his investigations of electricity. Franklin proposed that
   "vitreous" and "resinous" electricity were not different types of
   "electrical fluid" (as electricity was called then), but the same
   electrical fluid under different pressures (See electrical charge). He
   was the first to label them as positive and negative respectively, and
   the first to discover the principle of conservation of charge. In 1750,
   he published a proposal for an experiment to prove that lightning is
   electricity by flying a kite in a storm that appeared capable of
   becoming a lightning storm. On May 10, 1752, Thomas-François Dalibard
   of France conducted Franklin's experiment (using a 40-foot-tall iron
   rod instead of a kite) and extracted electrical sparks from a cloud. On
   June 15, Franklin conducted his famous kite experiment in Philadelphia
   and also successfully extracted sparks from a cloud (unaware that
   Dalibard had already done so, 36 days earlier). Franklin's experiment
   was not written up until Joseph Priestley's 1767 History and Present
   Status of Electricity; the evidence shows that Franklin was insulated
   (not in a conducting path, as he would have been in danger of
   electrocution in the event of a lightning strike). (Others, such as
   Prof. Georg Wilhelm Richmann of St. Petersburg, Russia, were
   spectacularly electrocuted during the months following Franklin's
   experiment.) In his writings, Franklin indicates that he was aware of
   the dangers and offered alternative ways to demonstrate that lightning
   was electrical, as shown by his use of the concept of electrical
   ground. If Franklin did perform this experiment, he did not do it in
   the way that is often described, flying the kite and waiting to be
   struck by lightning, (as it would have been dramatic but fatal).
   Instead he used the kite to collect some electric charge from a storm
   cloud, which implied that lightning was electrical.

   Franklin's electrical experiments led to his invention of the lightning
   rod. He noted that conductors with a sharp rather than a smooth point
   were capable of discharging silently, and at a far greater distance. He
   surmised that this knowledge could be of use in protecting buildings
   from lightning, by attaching "upright Rods of Iron, made sharp as a
   Needle and gilt to prevent Rusting, and from the Foot of those Rods a
   Wire down the outside of the Building into the Ground;...Would not
   these pointed Rods probably draw the Electrical Fire silently out of a
   Cloud before it came nigh enough to strike, and thereby secure us from
   that most sudden and terrible Mischief!" Following a series of
   experiments on Franklin's own house, lightning rods were installed on
   the Academy of Philadelphia (later the University of Pennsylvania) and
   the Pennsylvania State House (later Independence Hall) in 1752.

   In recognition of his work with electricity, Franklin received the
   Royal Society's Copley Medal in 1753, and in 1756 he became one of the
   few eighteenth century Americans to be elected as a Fellow of the
   Society. The cgs unit of electric charge has been named after him: one
   franklin (Fr) is equal to one statcoulomb.

   On October 21, 1743, a storm blowing from the north-east denied
   Franklin the opportunity of a witnessing a lunar eclipse. In
   correspondence with his brother, Franklin learned that the same storm
   had not reached Boston until after the eclipse, despite the fact that
   Boston is to the north-east of Philadelphia. He deduced that storms do
   not always travel in the direction of the prevailing wind, a concept
   which would have great influence in meteorology.

   Franklin noted a principle of refrigeration by observing that on a very
   hot day, he stayed cooler in a wet shirt in a breeze than he did in a
   dry one. To understand this phenomenon more clearly Franklin conducted
   experiments. On one warm day in Cambridge, England in 1758, Franklin
   and fellow scientist John Hadley experimented by continually wetting
   the ball of a mercury thermometer with ether and using bellows to
   evaporate the ether. With each subsequent evaporation, the thermometer
   read a lower temperature, eventually reaching 7 °F (-14 °C). Another
   thermometer showed the room temperature to be constant at 65 °F (18
   °C). In his letter “ Cooling by Evaporation,” Franklin noted that “one
   may see the possibility of freezing a man to death on a warm summer’s
   day." Each year the frozen food industry gives a Franklin Award in
   honour of his observing this phenomenon.

Musical endeavors

   Franklin is known to have played the violin, the harp, and the guitar.
   He also composed music, notably a string quartet in early classical
   style, and invented (a much improved version of) the glass armonica
   (not to be confused with the harmonica which wasn't invented until long
   after Franklin) which soon found its way to Europe.

Public life

   Franklin and several other members of a philosophical association
   joined their resources in 1731 and began the first public library in
   Philadelphia. The newly founded Library Company ordered its first books
   in 1732, mostly theological and educational titles, but by 1741 the
   library also included works on history, geography, poetry, exploration,
   and science. The success of this library encouraged the opening of
   libraries in other American cities, and Franklin felt that this device
   contributed to the American colonies' struggle to maintain their
   privileges.

   In 1736 Franklin created the Union Fire Company, the first volunteer
   firefighting company in America. In the same year he printed a new
   currency for New Jersey based on innovative anti- counterfeiting
   techniques which he had devised.

   As he matured, Franklin began to concern himself more with public
   affairs. In 1743, he set forth a scheme for The Academy and College of
   Philadelphia. He was appointed President of the Academy in November 13,
   1749, and it opened on August 13, 1751. At its first commencement, on
   May 17, 1757, seven men graduated; six with a Bachelor of Arts and one
   as Master of Arts. It was later merged with the University of the State
   of Pennsylvania, to become the University of Pennsylvania.

   In 1753, both Harvard and Yale awarded him honorary degrees .

   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.
   This political cartoon by Franklin urged the colonies to join together
   during the French and Indian War (Seven Years' War).
   This political cartoon by Franklin urged the colonies to join together
   during the French and Indian War ( Seven Years' War).

   Franklin became involved in Philadelphia politics, and progressed
   rapidly. In October 1748 he was selected as a councilman, in June 1749
   he became a Justice of the Peace for Philadelphia, and in 1751 he was
   elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly. On August 10, 1753 Franklin was
   appointed joint deputy postmaster-general of North America. His most
   notable service in domestic politics was his reform of the postal
   system, but his fame as a statesman rests chiefly on his subsequent
   diplomatic services in connection with the relations of the colonies
   with Great Britain, and later with France.

   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 and the Constitution.

   In 1757, he was sent to England by the Pennsylvania Assembly as a
   colonial agent to protest against the political influence of the Penn
   family, the proprietors of the colony. For five years he remained
   there, striving to end the proprietors' prerogative to overturn
   legislation from the elected Assembly, and their exemption from paying
   taxes on their land. His lack of influential allies in Whitehall led to
   the failure of this mission. In 1759, the University of St Andrews
   awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree. In 1762, Oxford
   University awarded Franklin an honorary doctorate for his scientific
   accomplishments and from then on he went by "Doctor Franklin." He also
   managed to secure a post for his illegitimate son, William Franklin, as
   Colonial Governor of New Jersey.

   During his stay in London, Franklin became involved in radical
   politics. He was a member of the Club of Honest Whigs, alongside
   thinkers such as Richard Price.

   In 1756, Franklin became a member of the Society for the Encouragement
   of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (now Royal Society of Arts or RSA,
   which had been founded in 1754), whose early meetings took place in
   coffee shops in London's Covent Garden district, close to Franklin's
   main residence in Craven Street (the only one of his residences to
   survive and which opened to the public as the Benjamin Franklin House
   museum on 17th January 2006). After his return to America, Franklin
   became the Society's Corresponding Member and remained closely
   connected with the Society. The RSA instituted a Benjamin Franklin
   Medal in 1956 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Franklin's birth
   and the 200th anniversary of his membership of the RSA.

   During his stays at Craven Street in London between 1757 and 1775,
   Franklin developed a close friendship with his landlady Margaret
   Stevenson and her circle of friends and relations, in particular her
   daughter Mary, who was more often known as Polly.

   In 1759, he was to visit Edinburgh with his son, and he recalled his
   conversations there as "the densest happiness of my life."
   Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Wilson, 1759.
   Enlarge
   Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Wilson, 1759.

Coming of Revolution

   On his return to America (1762), Franklin became involved in the Paxton
   Boys' affair, writing a scathing attack on their massacre of Christian
   American Indians, and eventually persuading them to disperse. . Many of
   the Paxton Boys' supporters were Scotch-Irish Presbyterians and German
   Reformed or Lutherans from the rural west of Pennsylvania, leading to
   claims that Franklin was biased in favour of the urban Quaker elite of
   the East. Because of these accusations, and other attacks on his
   character, Franklin lost his seat in the 1764 Assembly elections. This
   defeat, however, allowed him the opportunity to return to London, where
   he would seal his reputation as a pro-American radical.

   In 1764, Franklin was dispatched to England as an agent for the colony,
   this time to petition the King to resume the government from the hands
   of the proprietors. During this visit he would also become colonial
   agent for Georgia, New Jersey and Massachusetts. In London, he actively
   opposed the proposed Stamp Act, despite accusations by opponents in
   America that he had been complicit in its creation. His principled
   opposition to the Stamp Act, and later to the Townshend Acts of 1767,
   would lead to the end of his dream of a career in the British
   Government, and his alliance with proponents of colonial independence.
   It also led to an irreconcilable break with his son William, who
   remained loyal to the British.
   Franklin, an engraving from a painting by Joseph Duplessis.
   Enlarge
   Franklin, an engraving from a painting by Joseph Duplessis.

   In September 1767, Franklin visited Paris with his usual traveling
   partner, Sir John Pringle. News of his electrical discoveries was
   widespread in France. His reputation meant that he was introduced to
   many influential scientists and politicians, and also to King Louis XV.

   While living in London in 1768, he developed a phonetic alphabet in A
   Scheme for a new Alphabet and a Reformed Mode of Spelling. This
   reformed alphabet discarded six letters Franklin regarded as redundant,
   and substituted six new letters for sounds he felt lacked letters of
   their own; however, his new alphabet never caught on and he eventually
   lost interest.

   In 1771 Franklin traveled extensively around the British Isles staying
   with, among others, Joseph Priestley and David Hume. In Dublin,
   Franklin was invited to sit with the members of the Irish Parliament
   rather than in the gallery. He was the first American to be given this
   honour.

   1773 saw the publication of two of Franklin's most celebrated
   pro-American satirical essays: Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be
   Reduced to a Small One, and An Edict by the King of Prussia. He also
   published an Abridgement of the Book of Common Prayer, anonymously with
   Francis Dashwood. Among the unusual features of this work is a funeral
   service reduced to six minutes in length, "to preserve the health and
   lives of the living".

Hutchinson Letters

   Franklin obtained some private letters from Massachusetts governor
   Thomas Hutchinson and lieutenant governor Andrew Oliver which proved
   they were encouraging London to crack down in the rights of the
   Bostonians. Franklin sent them to America where they escalated the
   tensions. Franklin now appeared to the British as the fomenter of
   serious trouble. Hopes for a peaceful solution ended as he was
   systematically ridiculed and humiliated by the Privy Council. He left
   London in March 1775.

Declaration of Independence

   John Trumbull depicts the five-man drafting committee presenting their
   work to the Congress.
   Enlarge
   John Trumbull depicts the five-man drafting committee presenting their
   work to the Congress.

   By the time Franklin arrived in Philadelphia on May 5, the American
   Revolution had begun with fighting at Lexington and Concord. The New
   England militia had trapped the main British army in Boston. The
   Revolutionary War had begun. The Pennsylvania Assembly unanimously
   chose Franklin as their delegate to the Second Continental Congress. In
   1776 he was a member of the Committee of Five that drafted the
   Declaration of Independence, and made several small changes to Thomas
   Jefferson's draft.

Ambassador to France: 1776-1785

   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 de Chaumont who helped the United
   States. Franklin remained in France until 1785, and was such a favorite
   of French society that it became fashionable for wealthy French
   families to decorate their parlors with a painting of him. He was
   highly flirtatious in the French manner (but did not have any actual
   affairs.) He conducted the affairs of his country towards the French
   nation with great success, which included securing a critical military
   alliance and negotiating the Treaty of Paris (1783). When he finally
   returned home in 1785, he received a place only second to that of
   George Washington as the champion of American independence. Le Ray
   honored him with a commissioned portrait painted by Joseph Duplessis
   that now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian
   Institution in Washington, DC.

   After his return from France, Franklin became an abolitionist, freeing
   both of his slaves. He eventually became president of The Society for
   the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage.

   In 1787 he served as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in
   Philadelphia. He played an honorific role, but seldom engaged in
   debate. He is the only Founding Father who is a signatory of all four
   of the major documents of the founding of the United States: the
   Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Paris, the Treaty of
   Alliance with France, and the United States Constitution.

   In 1787, a group of prominent ministers in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
   proposed the foundation of a new college to be named in Franklin's
   honour. Franklin donated £200 towards the development of Franklin
   College; which is now called Franklin and Marshall College.

   Between 1771 and 1788, he finished his autobiography. While it was at
   first addressed to his son, it was later completed for the benefit of
   mankind at the request of a friend.

   In his later years, as Congress was forced to deal with the issue of
   slavery, Franklin wrote several essays that attempted to convince his
   readers of the importance of the abolition of slavery and of the
   integration of Africans into American society. These writings included:
     * An Address to the Public from the Pennsylvania Society for
       Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, (1789)
     * Plan for Improving the Condition of the Free Blacks (1789), and
     * Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim on the Slave Trade (1790).

   In 1790, Quakers from New York and Pennsylvania presented their
   petition for abolition. Their argument against slavery was backed by
   the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society and its president, Benjamin
   Franklin.

Virtue, religion and personal beliefs

   Although Franklin's parents had intended for him to have a career in
   the church, Franklin said that he became disillusioned with organized
   religion, after learning about Deism. "I soon became a thorough Deist."
   He also attacked Christian principles of free will and morality in a
   1725 pamphlet, A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and
   Pain. He consistently attacked religious dogma, arguing that morality
   was more dependent upon virtue and benevolent actions rather than on
   strict obedience to religious orthodoxy: "I think opinions should be
   judged by their influences and effects; and if a man holds none that
   tend to make him less virtuous or more vicious, it may be concluded
   that he holds none that are dangerous, which I hope is the case with
   me." Franklin later stated that the fundamental arguments he espoused
   in that dissertation were "not so clever a performance as [he] once
   thought."

   Like the other advocates of republicanism, Franklin emphasized that the
   new republic could survive only if the people were virtuous. Indeed all
   his life he had been exploring the role of civic and personal virtue,
   as expressed in Poor Richard's aphorisms.

   Like most Enlightenment intellectuals, Franklin separated virtue,
   morality, and faith from organized religion, although he felt that if
   religion in general grew weaker, morality, virtue, and society in
   general would also decline. Thus he wrote Thomas Paine, "If men are so
   wicked with religion, what would they be if without it." As Morgan
   shows, Franklin was a proponent of all religions. He prayed to
   "Powerful Goodness" and referred to God as the "INFINITE." As John
   Adams noted, Franklin was a mirror in which people saw their own
   religion: "The Catholics thought him almost a Catholic. The Church of
   England claimed him as one of them. The Presbyterians thought him half
   a Presbyterian, and the Friends believed him a wet Quaker." Whatever
   else Benjamin Franklin was, concludes Morgan, "he was a true champion
   of generic religion."

   Soon after his 1725 pamphlet, in 1728, he outlined his personal beliefs
   in " Articles of Belief and Acts of Religion" . Here Franklin explains
   that God is worthy of continual praise since "it is all I can return
   for his many Favours and great Goodness to me."

   On July 4, 1776, Congress appointed a committee that included Benjamin
   Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams to design a the Great Seal
   of the United States. This committee created and approved the first
   proposed design for the seal (which ultimately was not adopted). That
   preliminary design featured the motto: "Rebellion to Tyrants is
   Obedience to God." This design was to portray a scene from the Book of
   Exodus, complete with Moses, the Israelites, the pillar of fire, and
   George III depicted as Pharaoh .

   Franklin's beliefs later came to involve a God more involved in human
   affairs than that found among strict deists. At the Constitutional
   Convention in 1787, the elderly Franklin requested that each day's
   session begin with prayers. Franklin rhetorically asked, "And have we
   now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer
   need his assistance?" Franklin proceeds, "the longer I live, the more
   convincing proof I see of this truth that God Governs in the affairs of
   men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is
   it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?" "I also believe,"
   Franklin continued, "that without his [God's] concurring Aid, we shall
   succeed in this political Building no better than the Builders of
   Babel." . It is noteworthy that although Franklin's motion was
   seconded, the discussion seems to have been minimal, and it centered on
   the facts that (1) a minister would charge a fee for praying and the
   Convention had no funds for that, and (2) it would look bad if the town
   learned that the Convention was having to resort to prayer. In the end,
   the motion did not come to a vote, and Franklin annotated in his
   personal copy that "The Convention, except three or four Persons,
   thought Prayers unnecessary". There is no evidence that group or public
   prayers were said thereafter.

   Although Franklin may have financially supported one particular
   Presbyterian group in Philadelphia , it nevertheless appears that he
   never formally joined any particular Christian denomination or any
   other religion.

Virtue

   Franklin sought to cultivate his character by a plan of thirteen
   virtues, which he developed at age 20 (in 1726) and continued to
   practice in some form for the rest of his life. His autobiography (see
   references below) lists his thirteen virtues as:
    1. "TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation."
    2. "SILENCE. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid
       trifling conversation."
    3. "ORDER. Let all your things have their places; let each part of
       your business have its time."
    4. "RESOLUTION. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without
       fail what you resolve."
    5. "FRUGALITY. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself;
       i.e., waste nothing."
    6. "INDUSTRY. Lose no time; be always employ'd in something useful;
       cut off all unnecessary actions."
    7. "SINCERITY. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly,
       and, if you speak, speak accordingly."
    8. "JUSTICE. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits
       that are your duty."
    9. "MODERATION. Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as
       you think they deserve."
   10. "CLEANLINESS. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or
       habitation."
   11. "TRANQUILLITY. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common
       or unavoidable."
   12. "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."
   13. "HUMILITY. Imitate Jesus and Socrates."

Death and afterwards

   Memorial marble statue of Ben Franklin
   Enlarge
   Memorial marble statue of Ben Franklin

   Benjamin Franklin died on April 17, 1790 at the advanced age of 84. His
   funeral was attended by about 20,000 people. He was interred in Christ
   Church Burial Ground in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Christ Church
   Burial Ground is also the home of Benjamin Rush. One of the houses he
   lived in Craven Street was previously marked with a blue plaque, and
   has since been opened to the public as the Benjamin Franklin House . In
   1728, as a young man, Franklin wrote what he hoped would be his own
   epitaph: "The Body of B. Franklin Printer; Like the Cover of an old
   Book, Its Contents torn out, And stript of its Lettering and Gilding,
   Lies here, Food for Worms. But the Work shall not be wholly lost: For
   it will, as he believ'd, appear once more, In a new & more perfect
   Edition, Corrected and Amended By the Author. He was born on January
   17, 1706. Died 17." Franklin's actual grave, however, as he specified
   in his final will , simply reads "Benjamin and Deborah Franklin."

   In the book The Life of Benjamin Franklin as written by himself, a
   passage (obviously not written by himself) reads thus about Franklin's
   death: "...when his pain and difficulty of breathing entirely left him,
   and his family were flattering themselves wit the hopes of his
   recovery, when an imposthumations, which had formed itself in his
   lungs, suddenly burst, and discharged a great quantity of matter, which
   he continued to throw up while he had strength to do it; but, as that
   failed, the organ of inspiration became gradually oppressed; a calm
   lethargic state succeeded, and on the 17t of April, 1790, abd eleven
   o'clock at night, he quietly expired, closing a long and useful life of
   eighty-four years and three months"

   At his death, Franklin bequeathed £1000 (about $4400 at the time) each
   to the cities of Boston and Philadelphia, in trust for 200 years. The
   origin of the trust began in 1785 when a French mathematician named
   Charles-Joseph Mathon de la Cour wrote a parody of Franklin's Poor
   Richard's Almanack called Fortunate Richard. In it he mocked the
   unbearable spirit of American optimism represented by Franklin. The
   Frenchman wrote a piece about Fortunate Richard leaving a small sum of
   money in his will to be used only after it had collected interest for
   500 years. Franklin, who was 79 years old at the time, wrote back to
   the Frenchman, thanking him for a great idea and telling him that he
   had decided to leave a bequest of 1,000 pounds each to his native
   Boston and his adopted Philadelphia, on the condition that it be placed
   in a fund that would gather interest over a period of 200 years. As of
   1990, over $2,000,000 had accumulated in Franklin's Philadelphia trust
   since his death. 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. Franklin's Boston trust fund accumulated almost $5,000,000
   during that same time, and eventually was used to establish a trade
   school that, over time, became the Franklin Institute of Boston.
   (Excerpt from Philadelphia Inquirer article by Clark De Leon)

   The lasting legacy of Benjamin Franklin has resulted in the appearance
   of his image in various places. Franklin's likeness adorns the American
   $100 bill. As a result, $100 bills are sometimes referred to in slang
   as "Benjamins" or "Franklins." From 1948 to 1964, Franklin's portrait
   was also on the half dollar. He has also appeared on a $50 bill in the
   past, as well as several varieties of the $100 bill from 1914 and 1918,
   and every $100 bill from 1928 to the present. Franklin also appears on
   the $1,000 Series EE Savings bond. As a tribute to Franklin's legacy,
   the city of Philadelphia contains around 5,000 likenesses of Benjamin
   Franklin, about half of which are located on the University of
   Pennsylvania campus. Additionally, Philadelphia's Ben Franklin Parkway
   (a major thoroughfare) and Ben Franklin Bridge (the first major bridge
   to connect Philadelphia with New Jersey) are named in his honour.

   In 1976, as part of a bicentennial celebration, Congress dedicated a
   20-foot high marble statue in Philadelphia's Franklin Institute as the
   Benjamin Franklin National Memorial. Many of Franklin's personal
   possessions are also on display at the Institute. It is one of the few
   National Memorials located on private property.
   The grave of Benjamin Franklin in Christ Church Burial Ground,
   Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
   Enlarge
   The grave of Benjamin Franklin in Christ Church Burial Ground,
   Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

   In 1998, workmen restoring Franklin's London home ( Benjamin Franklin
   House) dug up the remains of six children and four adults hidden below
   the home. The Times reported on February 11, 1998:

   Initial estimates are that the bones are about 200 years old and were
   buried at the time Franklin was living in the house, which was his home
   from 1757 to 1762 and from 1764 to 1775. Most of the bones show signs
   of having been dissected, sawn or cut. One skull has been drilled with
   several holes. Paul Knapman, the Westminster Coroner, said yesterday:
   "I cannot totally discount the possibility of a crime. There is still a
   possibility that I may have to hold an inquest."

   The Friends of Benjamin Franklin House (the organization responsible
   for the restoration of Franklin's house at 36 Craven Street in London)
   note that the bones were likely placed there by William Hewson, who
   lived in the house for 2 years and who had built a small anatomy school
   at the back of the house. They note that while Franklin likely knew
   what Hewson was doing, he probably did not participate in any
   dissections because he was much more of a physicist than a medical man.

Exhibitions

   "The Princess and the Patriot: Ekaterina Dashkova, Benjamin Franklin
   and the Age of Enlightenment" exhibition opened in Philadelphia in
   February 2006 and is scheduled to run through December 2006. Benjamin
   Franklin and Dashkova met only once, in Paris in 1781. Franklin was 75
   and Dashkova was 37. Franklin and Dashkova were both evidently
   impressed with each other. Franklin invited Dashkova to become the
   first woman to join the American Philosophical Society, and the only
   one to be so honored for another 80 years. Later, Dashkova reciprocated
   by making him the first American member of the Russian Academy. The
   correspondence between Franklin and Dashkova is the highlight of the
   exhibition.

Franklin in popular culture

   Franklin portrait in the U.S. hundred dollar bill.
   Enlarge
   Franklin portrait in the U.S. hundred dollar bill.

   Franklin, in his "Poor Richard" persona, helped create popular culture
   in America. In turn he has been included in many different popular
   culture media, of which this is a small, recent sample.
     * Day-light saving time came from his essay "An Economical Project".
     * When Franklin was minister to France in the 1770s, Paris was awash
       in miniatures, painting, statues and representations of Ben,
       usually dressed as a frontiersman.
     * The city of Philadelphia contains around 5,000 likenesses of
       Franklin—half of which are located on the University of
       Pennsylvania campus. Additionally, a local actor portrays Franklin
       in full costume, charging $1,776 for each appearance.
     * A fictionalized but largely accurate version of Franklin appears as
       a main character in the stage musical 1776. The film version of
       1776 features Howard da Silva, who originated the role of Franklin
       on Broadway.
     * The popular television show MythBusters (Discovery channel) tested
       Franklin's famous kite experiment with electricity.
     * A young Franklin appears in Neal Stephenson's novel of 17th century
       science and alchemy, Quicksilver.
     * Walt Disney's cartoon Ben and Me (1953), based on the book by
       Robert Lawson, counterfactually explains to children that
       Franklin's achievements were actually the ideas of a mouse named
       Amos.
     * Franklin surprisingly appears as a character in Tony Hawk's
       Underground 2, a skateboarding video game. Players encounter
       Franklin in his hometown of Boston and are able to play as him
       there after.
     * Proud Destiny by Lion Feuchtwanger, a novel mainly about Pierre
       Beaumarchais and Franklin beginning in 1776's Paris.
     * Franklin appears in the LucasArts Entertainment Company Game Day of
       the Tentacle.
     * Franklin is portrayed in a central role in the PBS cartoon
       Liberty's Kids voiced by Walter Cronkite.
     * The 2004 movie, National Treasure, has the main characters trying
       to collect clues left by Franklin to discover a treasure that he
       supposedly hid. The character played by Nicolas Cage was named
       "Benjamin Franklin Gates", in following with the Gates family
       tradition to name sons after Franklin and his contemporaries.
     * The Franklin Templeton Investments firm (originally Franklin
       Distributors, Inc.) was named in honour of Franklin and uses his
       portrait in their logo.
     * The children's novel, Qwerty Stevens: Stuck in Time with Benjamin
       Franklin, has the main characters using their time machine to bring
       Franklin into modern times and then to travel back with him to
       1776.
     * Franklin is one of the main inventors of Gregory Keyes' The Age of
       Unreason tetralogy.
     * A 1992 Saturday Night Live spoof of Quantum Leap, "Founding
       Fathers", had Franklin traveling through time with George
       Washington and Thomas Jefferson to help modern day Americans with
       deficit reduction, only to find twentieth century reporters are
       only interested in scandal and sensationalism.
     * Franklin appears in several episodes of Histeria, voiced by actor
       Billy West similarly to Jay Leno. He is frequently shown flying his
       kite in a lightning storm and being electrocuted as a running gag.
     * The science-fiction TV show Voyagers! had the main characters
       helping Franklin fly his kite in one episode and save his mother
       from a fictionalized Salem Witch Trial in the next episode.
     * "Julian McGrath," played by Cole Sprouse and Dylan Sprouse, appears
       as Franklin in a school play in the Adam Sandler comedy Big Daddy.
     * The time-travel card game Early American Chrononauts includes a
       card called Franklin's Kite which players can symbolically acquire
       from the year 1752.
     * Stan Freberg's comedic audio recording, Stan Freberg Presents the
       United States of America: The Early Years, depicts all of
       Franklin's accomplishments as having been made by his young
       apprentice, Myron.
     * Beavis and Butthead once got into trouble after attempting to fly a
       kite in a thunderstorm, copying what they saw on an educational
       show about Franklin. The joke of the show was that the adults were
       blaming the evils of TV, not realizing the kids were emulating
       Franklin.
     * Franklin appears in Fred Saberhagen's "The Frankenstein Papers",
       and part of the novel is written as letters to Franklin.
     * In The Adventures of Dr. McNinja, McNinja's mentor in medical
       school was the clone of Franklin. In the story, the clone asks
       McNinja if he will assist him in a project to grant eternal life.
     * In Bewitched season 3 when Aunt Clara accidentally brings him
       forward in time to repair a broken electrical lamp.
     * Benjamin Franklin has been portrayed in several works of fiction,
       such as The Fairly Oddparents and Ask a Ninja, as having
       lightning-and-kite-based superpowers akin to those of Storm from
       X-Men.
     * M*A*S*H protagonist, Hawkeye Pierce is named after Benjamin
       Franklin. His whole name is Benjamin Franklin Pierce.
     * In Giacomo Puccini's Italian opera of 1904, Madam Butterfly, the
       archetypical American who betrays Madam Butterfly is Benjamin
       Franklin Pinkerton, Lieutenant in the United States Navy. The
       libretto was based on a short story by an American author John
       Luther Long, whose sister was a missionary in Japan.
     * In the 1993 movie The Sandlot, actor Mike Vitar's character is
       named Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez.

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