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FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN (1706-1790)
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See also:FRANKLIN, See also:BENJAMIN (1706-1790) , See also:American diplomat, statesman and scientist, was See also:born on the 17th of See also:January 1706 in a See also:house in See also:Milk See also:Street, opposite the Old See also:South See also: When, after various journalistic indiscretions, James Franklin in 1722 was forbidden to publish the Courant, it appeared with Benjamin's name as that of the publisher and was received with much favour, chiefly because of the cleverness of his articles signed " Dr See also:Janus," which, like those previously signed " See also:Mistress Silence Dogood," gave promise of " Poor See also:Richard." But Benjamin's management of the paper, and particularly his See also:free-thinking, displeased the authorities; the relations of the two See also:brothers gradually See also:grew unfriendly, possibly, as Benjamin thought, because of his brother's See also:jealousy of his See also:superior ability; and Benjamin determined to quit his brother's employ and to leave New England. He made his way first to New See also:York See also:City, and then (See also:October 1723) to See also:Philadelphia, where he got employment with a printer named See also:Samuel Keimer.'
A rapid composer and a workman full of resource, Franklin was soon recognized as the See also:master spirit of the shop. See also:Sir See also: In 1728 Franklin and See also:Hugh See also:Meredith, a See also:fellow-worker at Keimer's, set up in business for themselves; the See also:capital being furnished by Meredith's father. In 1730 the See also:partnership was dissolved, and Franklin, through the See also:financial assistance of two See also:friends, secured the See also:sole management of the printing house. In See also:September 1729 he bought at a merely nominal See also:price The See also:Pennsylvania Gazette, a weekly newspaper which Keimer had started nine months before to defeat a similar project of Franklin's, and which Franklin conducted until 1765. Franklin's superior management of the paper, his new type, " some spirited remarks " on the controversy between the Massachusetts See also:assembly and Governor See also:Burnet, brought his paper into immediate See also:notice, and his success both as a printer and as a journalist was assured and See also:complete. In 1731 he established in Philadelphia one of the earliest circulating See also:libraries in America (often said to have been the earliest), and in 1732 he published the first of his Almanacks, under the See also:pseudonym of Richard Saunders. These " Poor Richard's Almanacks" were issued for the next twenty-five years with remarkable success, the See also:annual See also:sale averaging 1o,000 copies, and far exceeding the sale of any other publication in the colonies. Beginning in 1733 Franklin taught himself' enough French, See also:Italian, See also:Spanish and Latin to read these See also:languages with some ease. In 1736 he was chosen clerk of the See also:General Assembly, and served in this capacity until 1751. In 1737 he had been appointed postmaster at Philadelphia, and about the same See also:time he organized the first See also:police force and See also:fire See also:company in the colonies; in 1749, after he had written Proposals See also:Relating to the See also:Education of Youth in Pensilvania, he and twenty-three other citizens of Philadelphia formed themselves into an association for the purpose of establishing an See also:academy, which was opened in 1751, was chartered in 1753, and eventually became the University of Pennsylvania; in 1727 he organized a debating See also:club, the " Junto," in Philadelphia, and later he was one of the founders of the American Philosophical Society (1743; incorporated 1780); be took the See also:lead in the organization of a See also:militia force, and in the paving of the city streets, improved the method of street See also:lighting, and assisted in the founding of a city See also:hospital (1751); in brief, he gave the impulse to nearly every measure or project for the welfare and prosperity of Philadelphia undertaken in his day. In 1751 he became a member of the General Assembly of Pennsylvania, in which he served for thirteen years. In 1753 he and William See also:Hunter were put in See also:charge of the See also:post service of the colonies, which he brought in the next ten . years to a high See also:state of efficiency and made a financial success; this position he held until 1774. He visited nearly every post office in the colonies and increased the See also:mail service between New York and Philadelphia from once to three times a See also:week in summer, and from twice a See also:month to once a week in See also:winter. When See also:war with See also:France appeared imminent in 1754, Franklin was sent to the See also:Albany See also:Convention, where he submitted his See also:plan for colonial See also:union (see ALBANY, N.Y.). When the See also:home government sent over General See also:Edward See also:Braddock' with two regiments of See also:British troops, Franklin undertook to secure the requisite number of horses and waggons for the See also: In 1759, for his See also:literary and more particularly his scientific attainments, he received the freedom of the city of See also:Edinburgh and the degree of See also:doctor of laws from the university of St See also:Andrews. He had been made a Master of Arts at Harvard and at Yale in 1753, and at the See also:college of William and See also:Mary in 1756; and in 1762 he received the degree of D.C.L. at See also:Oxford. While in England he had made active use of his remarkable See also:talent for pamphleteering. In the clamour for See also:peace following the See also:death of See also:George II. (25th of October 176o), he was for a vigorous See also:prosecution of the war with France; he had written what purported to be a chapter from an old book written by a Spanish Jesuit, On the Meanes of Disposing the Enemie to Peace, which had a great effect; and in the See also:spring of 176o there had been published a more elaborate paper written by Franklin with the assistance of Richard See also:Jackson, agent of Massachusetts and See also:Connecticut in London, entitled The See also:Interest of Great See also:Britain Considered with Regard to Her Colonies, and the Acquisitions of See also:Canada and See also:Guadeloupe (1760). This pamphlet answered the See also:argument that it would be unsafe to keep Canada because of the added strength that would thus be given to any possible See also:movement for See also:independence in the See also:English colonies, by urging that so long as Canada remained French there could be no safety for the English colonies in North America, nor any permanent peace in See also:Europe. Tradition reports that this pamphlet had considerable See also:weight in determining the See also:ministry to retain Canada. Franklin sailed again for America in See also:August 1762, hoping to be able to See also:settle down in quiet and devote the See also:remainder of his See also:life to experiments in physics. This quiet was interrupted, however, by the " See also:Paxton See also:Massacre " (Dec. 14, 1763)—the slaughter of a See also:score of Indians (children, See also:women and old men) at See also:Lancaster, Pennsylvania, by some young rowdies from the See also:town of Paxton, who then marched upon Philadelphia to kill a few See also:Christian Indians there. Franklin, appealed to by the governor, raised a See also:troop sufficient to frighten away the " Paxton boys," and for the moment there seemed a possibility: of an understanding between Franklin and the proprietors. But. the question of taxing the estates of the proprietors came up in a new See also:form, and a petition from the assembly was See also:drawn by Franklin, requesting the king " to resume the government " of Pennsylvania. In the autumn See also:election of 1764 the See also:influence of the proprietors was exerted against Franklin, and by an adverse See also:majority of 25 votes in 4000 he failed to be re-elected to the assembly. The new assembly sent Franklin again to England as its See also:special agent to take charge of another petition for a See also:change
of government, which, however, came to nothing.. Matters of much greater consequence soon demanded Franklin's attention.
Early in 1764 See also:Lord See also:Grenville had informed the London agents of the American colonies that he proposed to See also:lay a portion of the See also:burden See also:left by the war with France upon the shoulders of the colonists by means of a See also:stamp See also:duty, unless some other tax equally productive and less inconvenient were proposed. The natural objection of the colonies, as voiced, for example, by the assembly of Pennsylvania, was that it was a cruel thing to tax colonies already taxed beyond their strength, and surrounded by enemies and exposed to See also:constant expenditures for defence, and that it was an indignity that they should be taxed by a See also:parliament in which they were not represented; at the same time the Pennsylvania assembly recognized it as " their duty to See also: The See also:imposition of these taxes was bitterly resented in the colonies, where it quickly crystallized public See also:opinion See also:round the principle of " No taxation without See also:representation." In spite of the opposition in the colonies to the Declaratory Act, the Townshend Acts and the tea tax, Franklin continued to assure the British ministry and the British public of the See also:loyalty of the colonists. He tried to find some See also:middle ground of reconciliation, and kept up his quiet See also:work of informing England as to the opinions and conditions of the colonies, and of moderating the attitude of the colonies toward the home government; so that, as he said, he was accused in America of being too much an Englishman, and in England of being too much an American. He was agent now, not only of Pennsylvania, but also of New See also:Jersey, of See also:Georgia and of Massachusetts. Hillsborough, who became secretary of state for the colonies in 1768, refused to recognize Franklin as agent of Massachusetts, because the governor of Massachusetts had not approved the See also:appointment, which was by See also:resolution of the assembly. Franklin contended that the governor, as a See also:mere agent of the king, could have nothing to do with the assembly's appointment of its agent to the king; that " the King, and not the King, Lords, and See also:Commons collectively, is their See also:sovereign; and that the King, with their respective Parliaments, is their only legislator." Franklin's influence helped to oust Hillsborough, and See also:Dartmouth, whose name Franklin suggested, was made
1 Many questions (about 20 of the first 25) were put by his friends to draw out what he wished to be known.secretary in 1772 and promptly recognized Franklin as the agent of Massachusetts.
In 1773 there appeared in the Public Advertiser one of Franklin's cleverest hoaxes, " An See also:Edict of the King of See also:Prussia," proclaiming that the See also:island of Britain was a See also:colony of Prussia, having been settled by Angles and See also:Saxons, having been protected by Prussia, having been defended by Prussia against France in the war just past, and never having been definitely freed from Prussia's See also:rule; and that, therefore, Great Britain should now submit to certain taxes laid by Prussia—the taxes being identical with those laid upon the American colonies by Great Britain. In the same year occurred the famous See also:episode of the See also:Hutchinson Letters. These were written by See also: During the last years of his stay in England there had been repeated attempts to win him (probably with an under-secretaryship) to the British service, and in these same years he had done a great work for the colonies by gaining friends for them among the opposition, and by impressing France with his ability and the excellence of his case. Upon reaching America, he heard of the fighting at See also:Lexington and See also:Concord, and with the news of an actual outbreak of hostilities his feeling toward England seems to have changed completely. He was no longer a peacemaker, but an ardent war-maker. On the 6th of May, the day after his arrival in Philadelphia, he was elected by the assembly of Pennsylvania a delegate to the See also:Continental See also:Congress in Philadelphia. In October he was elected a member of the Pennsylvania assembly, but, as members of this See also:body were still required to take an See also:oath of See also:allegiance to the crown, he refused to serve. In the Congress he served on as many as ten committees, and upon the organization of a continental postal See also:system, he was made postmaster-general, a position he held for one year, when (in 1776) he was succeeded by his son-in-law, Richard See also:Bache, who had been his See also:deputy. With Benjamin See also:Harrison, John See also:Dickinson, Thomas See also: He found quarters at Passy,'- then a suburb of Paris,'in a house belonging to Le See also:Ray de Chaumont, an active friend of the American cause, who had influential relations with the court, and through whom he was enabled to be in the fullest communication with the French government without compromising it in the eyes of Great Britain. At the time of Franklin's arrival in Paris he was already one of the most talked about men in the world. He was a member of every important learned society in Europe; he was a member, and one of the managers, of the Royal Society, and was one of eight foreign members of .the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris. Three See also:editions of his scientific See also:works had already appeared in Paris, and a new edition had recently appeared in London. To all- these advantages he added a political purpose—the dismemberment of the British empire—which was entirely congenial to every See also:citizen of France. " Franklin's reputation," wrote John Adams with characteristic extravagance, " was more universal than that of See also:Leibnitz or See also:Newton, See also:Frederick or See also:Voltaire; and his See also:character more esteemed and beloved than all of them. . . . If a collection could be made of all the gazettes of Europe, for the latter half of the 18th See also:century, a greater number of panegyrical paragraphs upon le See also:grand Franklin would appear, it is believed, than upon any other See also:man that ever lived." " Franklin's See also:appearance in the French salons, even before he began to negotiate," says See also:Friedrich Christoph See also:Schlosser, " was an event of great importance to the whole of Europe... . His See also:dress, the simplicity of his See also:external appearance, the friendly meekness of the old man, and the apparent humility of the Quaker, procured for Freedom a See also:mass of votaries among the court circles who used to be alarmed at its coarseness and unsophisticated truths. Such was the number of portraits,2 busts and medallions of him in circulation before he left Paris that he would have been recognized from them by any adult citizen in any part of the civilized world." Franklin's position in France was a difficult one from the start, because of the delicacy of the task of getting French aid at a time when France was unready openly to take sides against Great Britain. But on the 6th of February 1778, after the news of the defeat and surrender of See also:Burgoyne had reached Europe, a treaty of See also:alliance and a treaty of amity and See also:commerce between France and the See also:United States were signed at Paris by Franklin, Deane and Lee. On the 28th of October this commission was discharged and Franklin was appointed sole plenipotentiary to the French court. Lee, from the beginning of the mission to Paris, seems to have been possessed of a See also:mania of jealousy toward Franklin, or of misunderstanding of his acts, and he tried to undermine his influence with the Continental Congress. John Adams, when he succeeded Deane (recalled from Paris through Lee's machinations) joined in the See also:chorus of See also:fault-finding against Franklin, dilated upon his social habits, his See also:personal slothfulness and his complete lack of business-like system; but Adams soon came to see that, although careless of details, Franklin was doing what no other man could have
The house is familiar from the See also:drawing of it by See also:Victor See also:Hugo.
2 Many of these portraits See also:bore See also:inscriptions, the most famous of which was See also:Turgot's See also:line, " Eripuit fulmen coelo sceptrumque tyrannis."done, and he ceased his harsher See also:criticism. Even greater than his See also:diplomatic difficulties were Franklin's financial straits. Drafts were being drawn on him by all the American agents in Europe, and by the Continental Congress at home. Acting as American See also:naval agent for the many successful privateers who harried the English Channel, and for whom he skilfully got every See also:bit of assistance possible, open and covert, from the French government, he was continually called upon for funds in these ventures. Of the vessels to be sent to Paris with American cargoes which were to be sold for the See also:liquidation of French loans to the colonies made through See also:Beaumarchais, few arrived; those that did come did not See also:cover Beaumarchais's advances, and hardly a See also:vessel came from America without word of fresh drafts on Franklin. After bold and repeated overtures for an See also:exchange of prisoners—an important See also:matter, both because the American frigates had no place in which to See also:stow away their prisoners, and because of the maltreatment of American captives in such prisons as Dartmoor—exchanges began at the end of March 1779, although there were annoying delays, and immediately after November 1781 there was a long break in the agreement; and the Americans discharged from English prisons were constantly in need of money. Franklin, besides, was constantly called upon to meet the indebtedness of Lee and of See also:Ralph Izard (1742-1804), and of John Jay, who in See also:Madrid was being drawn on by the American Congress. In spite of the poor See also:condition in Europe of the credit of the struggling colonies, and of the fact that France was almost bankrupt (and in the later years was at war), and although See also:Necker strenuously resisted the making of any loans to the colonies, France, largely because of Franklin's appeals, expended, by See also:loan or See also:gift to the colonies, or in sustenance of the French arms in America, a sum estimated at $6o,000,000.
In 1781 Franklin, with John Adams, John Jay, Jefferson, who remained in America, and See also: When the formal negotiations began Franklin held closely to the instructions of Congress to .its commissioners, that they should maintain confidential relations with the French ministers and that they were " to undertake nothing in the negotiations for peace or truce without their knowledge and concurrence," and were ultimately to be governed by " their advice and opinion." Jay and Adams disagreed with him on this point, believing that France intended to curtail the territorial aspirations of the Americans for her own benefit and for that of her ally, See also:Spain. At last, after the British government had authorized its agents to treat with the commissioners as representatives of an See also:independent power, thus recognizing American independence before the treaty was made, Franklin. acquiesced in the policy of Jay. The preliminary, treaty was signed by the commissioners on the 3oth of Novmber 1782, the final treaty on the 3rd of September 1783. Franklin had repeatedly petitioned Congress for his recall, but his -letters were unanswered or his appeals refused until the 7th of March 1785, when Congress resolved that he be allowed to return to America; on the loth of March Thomas Jefferson, who had joined him in August of the year before, was appointed to his place. Jefferson, when asked . if he replaced Franklin, replied, " No one can replace him, sir; I am only his successor." Before Franklin left Paris on the 12th of July 1785 he had made commercial See also:treaties with See also:Sweden (1783) and Prussia (1785; signed after Franklin's departure by Jefferson and John Adams). Franklin arrived in Philadelphia on the 13th of September, disembarking at the same See also:wharf as when he had first entered the city. He was immediately elected a member of the municipal council of Philadelphia, becoming its chairman; and was chosen president of the Supreme Executive Council (the See also:chief executive officer) of Pennsylvania, and was re-elected- in 1786 and 1787, serving from October 1785 to October r788. In May 1787 he was elected a delegate to the Convention which See also:drew up the Federal Constitution, this body thus having a member upon whom all could agree as chairman, should See also:Washington be absent. He opposed over-centralization of government and favoured the Connecticut See also:Compromise, and after the work of the Convention was done used his influence to secure the See also:adoption of the Constitution.' As president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of See also:Slavery, Franklin signed a petition to Congress (I2th February 1790) for immediate abolition of slavery, and six See also:weeks later in his most brilliant manner parodied the attack on the petition made by James Jackson (1757-1806) of Georgia, taking off Jackson's quotations of Scripture with pretended texts from the See also:Koran cited by a member of the See also:Divan of See also:Algiers in opposition to a petition asking for the See also:prohibition of holding Christians in slavery. These were his last public acts. His last days were marked by a See also:fine serenity and See also:calm; he died in his own house in Philadelphia on the 17th of April 1790, the immediate cause being an See also:abscess in the lungs. He was buried with his wife in the graveyard (Fifth and See also:Arch Streets) of See also:Christ Church, Philadelphia. Physically Franklin was large, about 5 ft. Io in. tall, with a well-rounded, powerful figure; he inherited an excellent constitution from his parents—" I never knew," says he, " either my father or mother to have any sickness but that of which they dy'd, he at 89, and she at 85 years of age "—but injured it somewhat by excesses; in early life he had severe attacks of See also:pleurisy, from one of which, in 1727, it was not expected that he would recover, and in his later years he was the victim of See also: BENJAMIN her dread of an ocean voyage kept her in Philadelphia during Franklin's See also:missions to England, and she died in 1774i while Franklin was in London. She bore him two children, one a son, See also:Francis Folger, " whom I have seldom since seen equal'd in everything, and whom to this day [See also:thirty-six years after the child's death] I cannot think of without a sigh," who died (1736) when four years old of small-pox, not having been inoculated; the other was Sarah (1744-1808), who married Richard Bache (1737-181I), Franklin's successor in 1776-1782 as postmaster-general. Franklin's gallant relations with women after his wife's death were probably See also:innocent enough. Best known of his French amies were Mme Helvetius, widow of the philosopher, and the young Mme Brillon, who corrected her " Papa's " French and tried to bring him safely into the See also:Roman See also:Catholic Church. With him in France were his grandsons, William See also:Temple Franklin, William Franklin's natural son, who acted as private secretary to his grandfather, and Benjamin Franklin Bache (1769-1798), Sarah's son, whom he sent to See also:Geneva to be educated, for whom he later asked public office of Washington, and who became editor of the See also:Aurora, one of the leading See also:journals in the Republican attacks on Washington. Franklin early rebelled against New England See also:Puritanism and spent his Sundays in See also:reading and in study instead of attending church. His free-thinking ran its extreme course at the time of his publication in London of A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain (1725),.which he recognized as one of the great errata of his life. He later called himself a deist, or theist, not discriminating between the terms. To his favourite sister he wrote: " There are some things in your New England See also:doctrine and See also:worship which I do not agree with; but I do not therefore condemn them, or See also:desire to shake your belief or practice of them." Such was his general attitude. He did not believe in the divinity of Christ, but thought " his system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw, or is like to see." His intense See also:practical-mindedness drew him away from religion, but drove him to a morality of his own (the " See also:art of virtue," he called it), based on thirteen virtues each accompanied by a See also:short See also:precept; the virtues were See also:Temperance, Silence, See also:Order, Resolution, Frugality, Industry, Sincerity, See also:Justice, Moderation, Cleanliness, Tranquility, Chastity and Humility, the precept accompanying the last-named virtue being " Imitate Jesus and See also:Socrates." He made a business-like little notebook, ruled off spaces for the thirteen virtues and the seven days of the week, " determined to give a week's strict attention to each of the virtues successively . . . [going] thro' a course compleate in thirteen weeks and four courses in a year," marking for each day a See also:record of his adherence to each of the precepts. " And conceiving See also:God to be the See also:fountain of See also:wisdom," he " thought it right and necessary to solicit His assistance for obtaining it," and drew up the following See also:prayer for daily use: " O powerful Goodness! bountiful Father ! merciful See also:Guide ! Increase in me that wisdom which discovers my truest interest. Strengthen my resolution to perform what that wisdom dictates. Accept my See also:kind offices to Thy other children, as the only return in my power for Thy continual favours to me." He was by no means prone to overmuch See also:introspection, his great interest in the conduct of others being shown in the See also:wise See also:maxims of Poor Richard, which were possibly too utilitarian but were wonderfully successful in instructing American morals. His Art of Virtue on which he worked for years was never completed or published in any form. " Benjamin Franklin, Printer," was Franklin's own favourite description of himself. He was an excellent compositor and pressman; his workmanship, clear impressions, See also:black See also:ink and See also:comparative freedom from errata did much to get him the public printing in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and the printing of the paper money3 and other public matters in See also:Delaware. The first book with his imprint is The See also:Psalms of See also:David Imitated in 3 For the prevention of See also:counterfeiting continental paper money Franklin long afterwards suggested the use on the different de-nominations of different leaves, having noted the See also:infinite variety of See also:leaf venation. the See also:Language of the New Testament and apply'd to the Christian State and Worship. By I. Watts . . ., Philadelphia: Printed by B. F. and H. M. for Thomas See also:Godfrey, and Sold at his Shop, 17.29. The first novel printed in America was Franklin's reprint in 1744 of Pamela; and the first American See also:translation from the See also:classics which was printed in America was a version by James See also:Logan (1674–1751) of See also:Cato's Moral Distichs (1735). In 1744 he published another translation of Logan's, See also:Cicero On Old Age, which Franklin thought typographically the finest book he had ever printed. In 1733 he had established a See also:press in See also:Charleston, South Carolina, and soon after did the same in Lancaster, Pa., in New Haven, See also:Conn., in New York, in See also:Antigua, in See also:Kingston, See also:Jamaica, and in other places. Personally he had little connexion with the Philadelphia printing office after 1748, when David See also: . . for I have made arrangements for a grand Italian See also:opera, and I do not wish to be obliged to give it up." 3 Closely related to Franklin's political See also:pamphlets are his writings on See also:economics, which, though undertaken with a political ' " Seventy-five editions of it have been printed in English, fifty-six in French, eleven in See also:German and nine in Italian. It has been translated into Spanish, Danish, See also:Swedish, Welsh, See also:Polish, Gaelic, See also:Russian, Bohemian, Dutch, Catalan, See also:Chinese, See also:modern See also:Greek and phonetic writing. It has been printed at least four See also:hundred times, and is to-day as popular as ever."—P. L. See also:Ford, in The Many-Sided Franklin (1899). 1 Both Swift and Franklin made See also:sport of the typical astrologer almanack-maker. ' Another hoax was Franklin's See also:parable against religious persecution thrown into Scriptural form and quoted by him as the fifty-first chapter of See also:Genesis. In a paper on a Proposed New Version of the See also:Bible " he paraphrased a few verses of the first chapter of See also:Job, making them a satiric attack on royal government; but the version may well See also:rank with these hoaxes, and even modern writers have been taken in by it, regarding it as a serious proposal for a " modernized " version and decrying it as poor See also:taste. See also:Matthew Arnold, for example, declared this an instance in which Franklin was lacking in his " imperturbable common sense "; and J. B. McMaster, though devoting several pages to its discussion, very ingenuously declares it " beneath criticism."or practical purpose and not in a purely scientific spirit, rank him as the first American economist. He wrote in 1729 A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency, which argued that a plentiful currency will make rates of interest See also:low and will promote See also:immigration and home manufactures, and which did much to secure the further issue of paper money in Pennsylvania. After the British Act of 1750 forbidding the erection or the operating of See also:iron or See also:steel See also:mills in the colonies, Franklin wrote Observations concerning the Increase of Mankind and the Peopling of Countries (1751); its thesis was that manufactures come to be common only with a high degree of social development and with great See also:density of See also:population, and that Great Britain need not, therefore, fear the See also:industrial competition of the colonies, but it is better known for the estimate (adopted by Adam Smith) that the population of the colonies would See also:double every See also:quarter-century; and for the likeness to See also:Malthus's 4 " preventive check " of its statement: " The greater the common fashionable expense of any rank of people the more cautious they are of marriage." His Positions to be examined concerning See also:National Wealth (1769) shows that he was greatly influenced by the French physiocrats after his visit to France in 1767. His Wail of a Protected Manufacturer voices a protest against See also:protection as raising the cost of living; and he held that free trade was based on a natural right. He knew See also:Kames, Hume and Adam Smith, and corresponded with See also:Mirabeau, " the friend of Man." Some of the more important of his economic theses, as summarized by W. A. Wetzel, are: that money as See also:coin may have more than its See also:bullion value; that natural interest is determined by the See also:rent of See also:land valued at the sum of money loaned—an anticipation of Turgot; that high wages are not inconsistent with a large foreign trade; that the value of an article is determined by the amount of labour necessary to produce the See also:food consumed in making the article; that manufactures are advantageous but See also:agriculture only is truly productive; and that when practicable (as he did not think it practicable at the end of the War of Independence) state See also:revenue should be raised by See also:direct tax. Franklin as a scientist .5 and as an inventor has been decried by experts as an See also:amateur and. a dabbler; but it should be remembered that it was always his See also:hope to retire from public life and devote himself to science. In the American Philosophical Society (founded 1743) scientific subjects were much discussed. Franklin wrote a paper on the causes of earthquakes for his Gazette of the 15th of December 1737; and he eagerly collected material to uphold his theory that waterspouts and whirlwinds resulted from the same causes. In 1743, from the circumstance that an See also:eclipse not visible in Philadelphia because of a See also:storm had been observed in Boston, where the storm although north-easterly did not occur until an hour after the eclipse, he surmised that storms move against the See also:wind along the See also:Atlantic See also:coast. In the year before (1742) he had planned the " Pennsylvania fire-place," better known as the " Franklin See also:stove," which saved See also:fuel, heated all the See also:room, and had the same principle as the hot-air See also:furnace; the stove was never patented by Franklin, but was described in his pamphlet dated 1744. He was much engaged at the same time in remedying smoking chimneys, and as late as 1785 wrote to See also:Jan Ingenhousz, physician to the See also:emperor of See also:Austria, on chimneys and See also:draughts; smoking street lamps he remedied by a See also:simple contrivance. The study of See also:electricity he took up in 1746 when he first saw a See also:Leyden See also:jar, in the manipulation of which he became See also:expert and which he improved by the use of granulated lead in the place of See also:water for the interior armatures; he recognized that condensation is due to the See also:dielectric and not to the See also:metal coatings. A See also:note in his See also:diary, dated the 7th of November 1749, shows that he had then 4 Malthus quoted Franklin in his first edition, but it was not until the second that he introduced the theory of the " preventive check." Franklin noted the phenomenon with disapproval in his advocacy of increased population; Malthus with approval in his See also:search for means to decrease population. 5 The See also:title of philosopher as used in Franklin's lifetime referred neither in England nor in France to him as author of moral maxims, but to him as a scientist—a " natural philosopher." conjectured that See also:thunder and lightning were See also:electrical manifestations; in the same year he planned the lightning-rod (long known as " Franklin's rod "), which he described and recommended to the public in 1753, when the See also:Copley See also:medal of the Royal Society was awarded him for his discoveries. The famous experiment with the See also:kite, proving lightning an electrical phenomenon, was performed by Franklin in June 1752. He overthrew entirely the " See also:friction " theory of electricity and conceived the See also:idea of plus and minus charges (1753); he thought the sea the source of electricity. On See also:light Franklin wrote to David See also:Rittenhouse in June 1784; the sum of his own conjectures was that the corpuscular theory of Newton was wrong, and that light was due to the vibration of an elastic See also:aether. He studied with some care the temperature of the Gulf Stream. In See also:navigation he suggested many new contrivances, such as water-tight compartments, floating anchors to lay a ship to in a storm, and dishes that would not upset during a See also:gale; and beginning in 1757 made repeated experiments with oil on stormy See also:waters. As a mathematician he devised various elaborate magic squares and novel magic circles, of which he speaks apologetically, because they are of no practical use. Always much interested in agriculture, he made an especial effort (like See also:Robert R. See also:Livingston) to promote the use of See also:plaster of Paris as a fertiliser. He took a prominent part in aeronautic experiments during his stay in France. He made an excellent See also:clock, which because of a slight improvement introduced by James See also:Ferguson in 1757 was long known as Ferguson's clock. In See also:medicine Franklin was considered important enough to be elected to the Royal Medical Society of Paris in-1777, and an honorary member of the Medical Society of London in 1787. In 1784 he was on the committee which investigated See also:Mesmer, and the See also:report is a document of lasting scientific value. Franklin's advocacy of See also:vegetarianism, of sparing and simple See also:diet, and of temperance in the use of liquors, and of proper ventilation has already been referred to. His most direct contribution to medicine was the invention for his own use of bifocal eyeglasses.
A summary of so versatile a See also:genius is impossible. His services to America in England and France rank him as one of the heroes of the American War of Independence and as the greatest of American diplomats. Almost the only American scientist of his day, he displayed remarkably deep as well as remarkably varied abilities in science and deserved the honours enthusiastically given him by the savants of Europe.
B1iLlooRarxv.--Franklin's works were not collected in his own lifetime, and he made no effort to publish his writings. Experiments and Observations on Electricity (London, 1769) was translated into French by Barbeu Dubourg (Paris, 1773); See also:Vaughan attempted a more complete edition, Political, See also:Miscellaneous and Philosophical Pieces (London, 1779) ; an edition in three volumes appeared after Franklin's death (London, 1806); what seemed the See also:authentic Works, as it was under the care of Temple Franklin, was published at London (6 vols., 1817—1819; 3 vols., 1818) and with some additional matter at Philadelphia (6 vols., 1818). See also:Sparks's edition (10 vols., Boston, 1836—1842; revised, Philadelphia, 1858) also contained fresh matter; and there are further additions in the edition of John See also:Bigelow (Philadelphia, 1887—1888; 5th ed., 1905) and in that by See also:Albert Henry See also:Smyth (so vols., New York, 1905-1907). There are important Frankliniana, about 13,000 papers, in the See also:possession of the American Philosophical Society, to which they were conveyed by the son of Temple Franklin's executor, George See also:Fox. Other papers which had been left to Fox lay for years in barrels in a See also:stable See also:garret; they were finally cleared out, their owner, Mary Fox, intending to send them to a paper See also: One See also:barrel went to the mill. The others, it was found, contained papers belonging to Franklin, and this important collection was bought and presented to the university of Pennsylvania. The valuable Frankliniana collected by Henry See also:Stevens were See also:purchased by Congress in 1885. These MS. collections were first carefully gone over for the edition of the Works by A. H. Smyth. Franklin's Autobiography was begun in 1771 as a private chronicle for his son, Governor William Franklin ; the papers, bringing the See also:story of his father's life down to 173o, were lost by the governor during the War of Independence, and in 1783 came into the possession of See also:Abel James, who restored them to Franklin and urged him to complete the See also:sketch. He wrote a little in 1784, more in 1788, when he furnished a copy to his friend le Veillard, and a little more in 1790. The See also:original See also:manuscript was long in the possession of Temple Franklin, who spent years rearranging the matter in it and making over into politer English his grandfather's See also:plain-spokenness. So long was the publication delayed that it was generally believedthat Temple Franklin had sold all the papers to the British governs ment; a French version, Memoires de la See also:vie privee (Paris, 1791), was retranslated into English twice in 1793 (London), and from one of these versions (by See also:Robinson) still another French version was made (Paris, 1798). Temple Franklin, deciding to See also:print, got from le Veillard the copy sent to him in 1788 (sending in return the original with autograph alterations and the final addition), and from the copy published (London, 1817) an edition supposed to be authentic and complete. The complete autograph of the See also:biography, acquired by John Bigelow in 1867 from its French owners, upon See also:collation with Temple Franklin's edition showed that the latter contained 1200 emasculations and that it omitted entirely what had been written in 1790. Bigelow published the complete Autobiography with additions from Franklin's correspondence and other writings in 1868; a second edition (3 vols., Philadelphia, 1888) was published under the title, The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Written by Himself. In addition to the Autobiography see James See also:Parton, Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin (2 vols., New York, 1864) ; John T. See also:Morse, f ., Benjamin Franklin (Boston, 1889, in the American Statesmen See also:series) ; J. B. McMaster, Benjamin Franklin as a Man of Letters (Boston, 1887, in American Men of Letters series) ; See also:Paul L. Ford, The Many-Sided Franklin (New York, 1899) and Franklin Bibliography (See also:Brooklyn, 1889) ; E. E. See also:Hale and E. E. Hale, Jr., Franklin in France (2 vols., Boston, 1888) ; J. H A. Doniol, Histoire de la participation de la France a l'eiablissement See also:des Etats - Unis d'Amerigue (Paris, 6 vols., 1886—1900) ; S. G. See also:Fisher, The True Benjamin Franklin (Philadelphia, 1899) ; E. See also:Robins, Benjamin Franklin (New York, 1898, in the American Men of See also:Energy series) ; W. A. Wetzel, " Benjamin Franklin as an Economist," No. 9, in series 13 of Johns See also:Hopkins Studies in See also:Historical and Political Science; and the prefaces and See also:biographical matter in A. H. Smyth's edition of the Works (New York, 10 vols., 1905-1907). (R. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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