Isaacson, Benjamin Franklin, American Revolution, Declaration of Independence, Constitution of United States

The making of the man:

Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who "seems made of flesh and blood rather than of marble," Walter Isaacson explains in "Benjamin Franklin: An American Life."
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Franklin's image, like that of Washington, has been sustained because it was "rooted in reality."

"Through his self-improvement tips for cultivating personal virtues and his civic-improvement schemes for furthering the common good, he helped to create, and celebrate, a new ruling class of ordinary citizens."

He "winks at us - - - from behind those newfangled spectacles." He is witty and alive. He also played a major role in every aspect of the founding of the nation - yet had several full careers as printer, writer, publisher, businessman, scientist, inventor, philanthropist, and civic leader.
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Franklin was an intensely ambitious man - like all of the primary founding fathers. However, he too found his ambitions increasingly directed towards the service of his country and its people.

Freedom, it seems, in addition to encouraging people to fulfill their personal ambitions, causes many people of ambition to take a proprietary interest in the success of their nation and their communities.

Reputation was a primary concern for Franklin from his earliest years. In this, he is similar to Washington. Both backed up their image-building efforts with a plethora of mighty achievements to become the iconic figures of the American revolutionary period. As Isaacson points out, these images have been sustained because they were "rooted in reality."
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With only a few years of formal education, Franklin made himself one of the most learned and knowledgeable men in America. He rose from tradesman to become a successful businessman and the nation's premier civic leader, scientist and foreign diplomat. He helped draft and gain widespread public acceptance for both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
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From his early years as a printer in Philadelphia, the desired image for Franklin was that of "the good shopkeeper," with the middle class virtues of diligence, frugality and honesty.

"From these attitudes sprang what may be Franklin's most important vision: an American national identity based on the virtues and values of its middle class. Instinctively more comfortable with democracy than were some of his fellow founders, and devoid of the snobbery that later critics would feel toward his own shop keeping values, he had faith in the wisdom of the common man and felt that a new nation would draw its strength from what he called 'the middling people.' Through his self-improvement tips for cultivating personal virtues and his civic-improvement schemes for furthering the common good, he helped to create, and celebrate, a new ruling class of ordinary citizens."

Pseudonymous writings were common at the time.

Benjamin Franklin was of Puritan stock. His relations and ancestors were artisans and freemen. Isaacson finds him a true product of a Puritan ethic that combined spiritual and material aspirations, and the belief "that industriousness is next to godliness and that free thought and free enterprise are integrally related." Carved on his father's tombstone were a few words - "Diligent in his calling" - from a sentence in Proverbs 22:29: "Seest thou a man diligent in his calling, he shall stand before Kings." For Benjamin Franklin, the Proverb became literal truth.
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Frugality and industry were virtues that Franklin learned early. He also was already a formidable tinkerer. His father combined a variety of civic activities with his trade as candle-maker, and Franklin would always take pride in his own ability to form and lead cooperative endeavors of a civic nature.
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The young Benjamin Franklin is described by Isaacson as "skeptical, puckish, curious, irreverent, - - -." "Anecdotes about his youthful intellect and impish nature abound." It was quickly decided that he was not suited for the ministry. Instead, he had a couple of years studying writing - at which he excelled - and math - at which he struggled. In 1716, at age ten, his formal schooling was over, and he went to work in his father's candle and soap shop. It was noxious, mindless work.
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Realizing his son's distaste for the work, Franklin's father took him around Boston to see other craftsmen and tradesmen - in itself a most practical education. However, it was almost "by default" that he ultimately, at age 12, became apprenticed to his brother.
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James was 21 years of age and recently returned from England where he had trained as a printer. James was soon a newspaper publisher as well as a printer, producing The Courant, the first truly independent newspaper in the colonies.
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It was more than suitably antiestablishment and irreverent. James created pseudonymous correspondents like Abigail Afterwit and Jack Dulman to contribute irreverent criticism of establishment figures and practices in Puritan dominated Boston, then a thriving little port and commercial center of about 7,000 people - the largest town in the colonies. Pseudonymous writings were common at the time as a means - not always successful - of avoiding retribution by the authorities or others targeted for criticism.
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The moral unreliability of his deist friends ultimately led him to conclude pragmatically that, though probably true, deist philosophy "was not very useful."

Benjamin Franklin read voraciously - as did most of the primary founding fathers. The books that he would later recognize as most influential were those espousing individual endeavor and civic participation and contribution. He also read Enlightenment deists like John Locke, Lord Shaftesbury and Joseph Addison, as well as the orthodox tracts that attacked them. He found the latter unconvincing.
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Deists rejected divine revelation, believing that "reason and study of nature" tell us all that can be known about our Creator. However, the moral unreliability of his deist friends ultimately led him to conclude pragmatically that, though probably true, deist philosophy "was not very useful."

"So he began to embrace a morally fortified brand of deism that held God was best served by doing good works and helping other people."

Benjamin Franklin worked hard on his writing style. "His self-taught style - - - featured a fun and conversational prose that was lacking in poetic flourish but powerful in its directness." At age 16, under the pseudonym "Silence Dogood," Benjamin anonymously submitted 14 satirical essays to The Courant purportedly from a rural widow. They were "the first examples of what would become a quintessential American genre of humor: The wry homespun mix of folksy tales and pointed observations" later perfected by Mark Twain and Will Rogers. The essays drew repeatedly on material from the books Franklin had read.
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Isaacson sprinkles throughout his book, as appropriate, examples of Benjamin Franklin's pointed humor and homespun wisdom. Soon, he was the most popular writer in America.
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Among other things, Isaacson notes, the essays poked fun at Harvard and "hypocritical pretenders to religion," and proclaimed that "without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech." They emphasized some of the dangers of the links between church and state that were the essence of Puritan Boston at that time. In a later essay, under his own name, his target was hereditary titles such as Viscount and Master.
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His fictitious widow was a good reflection of young Franklin, Isaacson points out. Franklin has her describe herself as follows:

"I am - - - a mortal enemy to arbitrary government and unlimited power. I am naturally very jealous for the rights and liberties of my country; and the least appearance of an encroachment on those invaluable privileges is apt to make my blood boil exceedingly. I have likewise a natural inclination to observe and reprove the faults of others, at which I have an excellent faculty."

These characteristics - even in 1722 - were not just typical of Franklin. They were already typically American.
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Tradesman, civic leader and inventor:

At age 17, Franklin struck out on his own, sailing away from Puritan Boston and his apprenticeship obligations to his brother, bound for New York. He was a journeyman printer, strong, handsome, charming, gregarious and at ease with all classes of people. Like Washington, he was from his earliest adult years determined to create and maintain a positive reputation.
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He would avoid the assertion of positive opinions and direct contradictions. He would often feign modesty and naïveté in disputes.

He quickly moved on to Philadelphia where he was told there might be a job opening. Isaacson provides extensive coverage of his rise as a printer and businessman in the open, tolerant, rapidly growing town - then the second largest town in the colonies with a population of about 2,000. It was thus a time when everyone knew everyone.
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Franklin quickly learned the importance of getting along with people. He adopted a style based on self-deprecating humor, unpretentious demeanor, and unaggressive conversation. When discussing contentious issues, he avoided direct confrontation in favor of a more diplomatic indirectness, often utilizing suggestions and Socratic questions that permitted other people to discover for themselves the weaknesses of their reasoning.
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He soon added to that an appreciation for gentle dialogue and silence that permitted attentive listening. He would avoid the assertion of positive opinions and direct contradictions. He would often feign modesty and naïveté in disputes. At times of extreme provocation, Franklin would write very angry caustic letters or essays venting his displeasure - but never send them or publish them. Isaacson concludes:

"Franklin easily made casual friends, intellectual companions, useful patrons, flirty admirers, and circles of genial acquaintances, but he was less good at nurturing lasting bonds that involved deep personal commitments or emotional relationships, even within his own family."

His progress as a printer and businessman took him to London for about a year and a half. There he earned his keep as a printer and was exposed to the intellectual discourse of the day. His philosophical efforts suffered from his lack of formal education, but his practical understanding progressed steadily. He was already an ardent observer of natural phenomena and human nature. He soon found himself "more attracted to people who were practical and reliable rather than dreamy and romantic," Isaacson notes. One could profitably do business only with the former.
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On the voyage home, now 20 years of age, he wrote out a "Plan for Future Conduct" based on (1) frugality sufficient to pay all debts, (2) industrious application to his business and avoidance of get rich quick schemes, and (3) the establishment of a reputation for truthfulness, sincerity and reliability. He resolved (4) "to speak ill of no man whatever." He would do fine with the first two rules, but was sometimes "better at the show than the practice" of the latter two.
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He was a natural at networking, and soon began forming cooperative groups for various purposes.

Franklin opened his own print shop in 1728 - at age 22 - with a partner whom he soon bought out. Printing led to opportunities as a publisher, writer, newspaper publisher, postman and civic leader, at all of which the industrious Franklin thrived.
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He was a natural at networking, and soon began forming cooperative groups for various purposes. He formed the Junto, a fraternal organization of young workingmen dedicated to mutual self help and intellectual discourse. His mature approach to dealing with people, Isaacson tells us, reads "like an early Dale Carnegie course." His concepts are frequently included in modern management guides and self improvement books.
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Thus well connected, his various endeavors thrived. By the age of 23, Franklin bought a newspaper, The Pennsylvania Gazette. It was soon full of Franklin's wit, droll irony, and wisdom. We thus get to know Franklin's core beliefs and how they evolved in the years before the revolutionary period.
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He was neither a sycophant of authority nor an impassioned heretic. He was an ardent believer in free speech and freedom of the press. Since people will always have differing opinions, the press should allow people to express them. When all sides have access to the media, he believed - "when Truth and Error have fair play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter." While he drew a line that excluded material he felt was "scurrilous and defamatory," or that might do real injury, he refused to worry about not being able to please everybody.
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Many young men learned their trade in his shop. He then gave them financial support and written content, helping them open up their own print shops and newspapers as his partners in other towns. Soon, he had a widespread network of outlets for his writing, as well as income earning investments.
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Franklin's efforts to "marry well" had been a failure. He took Deborah Reed as his common law wife. "In general, she had plain tastes, a willingness to work, and a desire to please her spouse," which could all have been said equally of Franklin at that time. She quickly assumed an active role in his print shop. She was without dowry or family connections, but was "a good and faithful helpmate," who was frugal, practical and without pretensions. These traits, Franklin noted, were far more valuable in the wife of a rising tradesman - especially one who already had an illegitimate son - William - to care for.
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However, Deborah would never agree to travel - not to New York, not even much outside Philadelphia, much less across the Atlantic to Europe. Franklin accepted that, but would never let her tie him down - something she in turn had to accept.
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Religion:

Religious beliefs were bound to be important for any thoughtful person from Puritan Boston. Franklin rejected the Puritan dogma that salvation was possible only through God's grace rather than through good works. However, the amorality of deists repelled him.
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He accepted that God was capable of both creating free will and also of occasionally playing a role - his "particular providence" - in man's affairs. Franklin adopted this view on the pragmatic grounds that it supported both prayer and good works - and was the socially most useful view.

The virtues he deemed desirable "focus on traits that could help him succeed in this world," rather than that would qualify him for the hereafter.

Franklin believed that ascertaining "divine certainties was beyond our mortal ken," and worse, it was of no practical use.

Franklin did not join an established church in Philadelphia. However, since he accepted the usefulness of religion, he paid what was due to support the town's Presbyterian minister. He believed in "the existence of the deity." Good works, he believed, were the route to God. He was tolerant and avoided disputes on religious dogma.
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His was a morally fortified version of deism. He accepted that God was capable of both creating free will and also of occasionally playing a role - his "particular providence" - in man's affairs. Franklin adopted this view on the pragmatic grounds that it supported both prayer and good works - and was the socially most useful view. This view offered "peace and tranquility within our own minds," he wrote, and induced actions that are "benevolent, useful and beneficial to others."
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Franklin determined to live according to his beliefs. Ever pragmatic, he composed a list of eventually 13 virtues basic to his moral code. Isaacson finds this effort at "self improvement through diligent resolve, enchantingly American."
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The virtues included in the list were "characteristically bourgeois." They did not include the spiritual virtues of religion or the heroic virtues of the romantic or aristocrat. They "focus on traits that could help him succeed in this world," rather than that would qualify him for the hereafter. Temperance - avoidance of verbosity - orderliness - resolve - frugality - industry - sincerity - justice - moderation - cleanliness - tranquility - humility - and moderation in sexual activities, were in. Virtues like piety and honor were not included.
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Also not mentioned here was benevolence, yet "doing good to man," Isaacson points out, was "the most fundamental tenet of his morality" and a powerful guiding principle of his life. The list was primarily "a young tradesman's plan for self improvement." It was comprised of "Puritan habits detached from Puritan beliefs."
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Practice quickly exposed many difficulties. Franklin quickly relented on orderliness as inconsistent with industry, and recognized that the appearance of humility was the most that could be expected of a man inevitably proud of his growing accomplishments. The whole youthful exercise provided material for amusing reflections throughout the rest of his life.
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However, Franklin's expressed religious and moral beliefs do actually constitute the foundation of his lifelong creed, Isaacson points out. He was neither spiritual nor emotional nor romantic, but "the first great American exemplar - - - of the Enlightenment and its Age of Reason."

"It was based on pragmatic humanism and a belief in a benevolent but distant deity who was best served by being benevolent to others. Franklin's ideas never ripened into a profound moral or religious philosophy. He focused on understanding virtue rather than God's grace, and he based his creed on rational utility rather than religious faith."

He had nothing but contempt for disputes over religious doctrine, Isaacson emphasizes. Franklin believed that ascertaining "divine certainties was beyond our mortal ken," and worse, it was of no practical use. He freely admitted that his religious and moral views were not based on profound analysis or metaphysical thinking. Metaphysical analysis disgusted him. He was thus widely tolerant.

"The purpose of religion should be to make men better and to improve society, and any sect or creed that did so was fine with him."

Poor Richard's Almanac:

And all this wit and wisdom provided material for Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanac, which he began publishing in 1732, at the age of 26. It ran for a quarter of a century.

"The fictional Poor Richard Saunders and his nagging wife, Bridget -- like their predecessors Silence Dogood, Anthony Afterwit, and Alice Addertongue -- helped to define what would become a dominant tradition in American folk humor: the naïvely wicked wit and homespun wisdom of down-home characters who seem to be charmingly innocent but are sharply pointed about pretensions of the elite and the follies of everyday life."

Isaacson provides modest coverage of the Almanac as well as a bunch of its useful and amusing maxims. It was an immediate hit nationwide. The Way to Wealth, a later compilation of its sayings, was published in seven languages, all of which brought Franklin great wealth and renown.
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The narrow of mind take it all at face value, and thus reveal their own intellectual limitations in their criticism of this as of so much else of Franklin's writings. During the two centuries after his death, intellectual snobbery and periods of left wing dogma would generate criticism of Franklin.
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Civic leader and inventor:

Energetic involvement in collective civic organizations along with self reliant individualism were what Franklin - and the American people - were all about. There is no contradiction between the two - just different aspects of a free people.
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He became prominent in the development of the civil society that would make self-government possible

He was one of the first to view the colonies not as separate settlements but as parts of a potentially unified nation.

The immediate conflict soon ended, and the militia disbanded - but the idea of self reliance had been extended even to the realm of defense.

Franklin emphasized that you must form associations to get things done and enhance your individual prospects. Subscription library - fire brigade - night watchmen - hospital - militia - and a college - were all formed at various times under Franklin's leadership, starting while he was still in his twenties. He thus became prominent in the development of the civil society that would make self-government possible (and that has since kept the whole creaking apparatus thriving). Two of his organizations are especially notable.
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By 1740, Philadelphia, the largest town in the colonies, had a population of about 13,000. Franklin was by that time deeply involved - as both substantial citizen and printer - in the affairs of the town. Indeed, his publications and networks gave him a national reach. Isaacson covers a wide variety of his activities.
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With business connections throughout the colonies, Franklin traveled widely. He was one of the first to view the colonies not as separate settlements but as parts of a potentially unified nation. The American Philosophical Association was formed by Franklin in 1744 as a kind of broad-based version of the Junto to circulate scientific and practical developments throughout the colonies. It continues in existence to this day.
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The failure of the Pennsylvania establishment - heavily influenced by the Quakers - to provide for the defense of Philadelphia and other towns and settlements during the various conflicts between England and France and their Indian allies, inspired Franklin to initiate the formation of militia companies in 1747. He even procured 18 canon from Gov. Clinton of New York - substantial 18 pounders - for port fortifications. More than 10,000 men quickly signed up for more than 100 companies throughout the colony. The immediate conflict soon ended, and the militia disbanded - but the idea of self reliance had been extended even to the realm of defense.
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By 1748, at age 42 and possessed of substantial wealth and income from his many business partnerships, Franklin decided to retire. At a time when people had large families, Franklin had only one surviving legitimate child - Sally Franklin. Isaacson notes that this contributed to his ability to retire early and to increasingly dedicate himself at so early an age to his other interests and service to his community - and eventually, to his country.
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He refused to patent or profit from any of his inventions.

He changed electricity from a curiosity to a science, distinguishing between insulators and conductors, explaining electrical grounding and the concepts of capacitors and batteries. His proof that lightening is a form of electricity that can be tamed is of immense benefit to mankind.

Franklin's scientific exploits and inventions are covered briefly by Isaacson, with some detail provided for his wood-burning stove and his ground-breaking work on electricity. His inquisitive mind ventured into numerous phenomena. Among other things, he also contributed to the understanding of the Gulf Stream, meteorology, the earth's magnetism, and refrigeration. His lightening rod was immediately of immense benefit that continues to this day. He also devised a catheter that would help bedridden men urinate. He refused to patent or profit from any of his inventions.

"[Franklin] was a practical experimenter more than systematic theorist. As with his moral and religious philosophy, Franklin's scientific work was distinguished less for its abstract theoretical sophistication than for its focus on finding out facts and putting them to use."

Nevertheless, he is clearly "one of the foremost scientists of his age" due to his work on electricity, Isaacson points out. He changed electricity from a curiosity to a science, distinguishing between insulators and conductors, explaining electrical grounding and the concepts of capacitors and batteries. His proof that lightening is a form of electricity that can be tamed is of immense benefit to mankind.
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Isaacson correctly agrees with those who view Franklin's work on electricity as the most important scientific groundbreaking development of the 18th century - placing him in the company of 17th century Newton and 20th century Watson and Crick. His most productive years as a scientist came just before and after he retired, roughly between 1740 and 1752. His work was widely celebrated in the colonies and throughout Europe.
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Slavery:

Franklin's attitude towards slavery began to change in the 1750s. Slaves were about 6% of the population of Philadelphia. Slavery was widely accepted - by Franklin as by others - as just a normal part of life in the town.
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For a short while, he owned a slave couple who worked in his shop, but quickly thought better of that on pragmatic grounds.

He took part in organizing a school for black children and, by 1763, was expressing pleasure in their educational achievements.

Advertisements for the sale of slaves were accepted by his newspaper. He held all the usual racial prejudices. For a short while, he owned a couple who worked in his shop, but quickly thought better of that on pragmatic grounds. Slave labor was simply not productive enough to compete with free labor. He also at times had a couple of slaves as personal servants - but that, too, lost its attraction to him.
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By 1751, Franklin was writing about the ill effects of slavery on slave owners and their children. The owners were enfeebled by dependence on slaves, and children were spoiled. Soon thereafter, he began questioning his prejudices about "the black race." He took part in organizing a school for black children and, by 1763, was expressing pleasure in their educational achievements. By 1769, his writing no longer contained any indication of his earlier prejudices and he was stripping prejudicial comments from the reprints of his earlier work.

"In his later life, - - - he became one of America's most active abolitionists, one who denounced slavery on moral grounds and helped advance the rights of blacks."

Public office:

His objective was to be "a great promoter of useful projects."

Franklin energetically increased the efficiency of the postal service at considerable personal expense.

Franklin entered politics in 1751 as a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly. His objective was to be "a great promoter of useful projects." The foremost of these projects was the paving, sweeping and lighting of the Philadelphia streets. The lamps were of his own design. Open at bottom and top, they vented the smoke so that the glass remained clear. They also had individual flat sides - so that if one side broke, it could be replaced without having to replace the whole lamp.
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In 1753, Franklin gained a plum appointment as one of the two Deputy Postmasters of the Colonies. Nepotism was an accepted practice in those days, and Franklin soon found employment in various postmaster positions for his son William, several relatives and in-laws, and a printing partner.
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Franklin energetically increased the efficiency of the postal service at considerable personal expense. He established the first home delivery system and dead letter office and cut to a single day the delivery time between New York and Philadelphia
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Yet again, he did well by doing good. He was soon deriving significant income from his position and used his position to invigorate his American Philosophical Society and more efficiently share content among his newspaper publisher partners. He held the position until 1774, when his rebellious political stance led to his removal.
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The Albany Plan:

Establishing some degree of unity for the colonies was first attempted in 1754 in response to threats of attack from the French and their Indian allies.
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Arrangements for a united defense had been promoted by Franklin for several years. In a 1751 letter, he sketched a scheme for a General Council of delegates from each colony in rough proportion to the taxes paid to a general treasury. It would have a royal governor. Meeting sites would rotate among the colonies and a tax on liquor would provide revenues.
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In 1754, in response to news of the defeats of George Washington in the Ohio Valley, Franklin began to advocate a united defense in his newspaper.

"Next to the article he printed the first and most famous editorial cartoon in American history: a snake cut into pieces, labeled with names of the colonies, with the caption: 'Join or Die.'"

Most of the colonial assemblies were opposed to surrendering any of their authority to a union council even for mutual defense.

Compromise and accommodation, he instinctively understood, were essential in the collective affairs of free men.

Franklin was one of four Pennsylvania delegates chosen fpr a diplomatic conference in Albany, New York. He had drawn up a plan for unity based on his earlier ideas. However, now he hoped for an act of Parliament as a means of implementation. Most of the colonial assemblies were opposed to surrendering any of their authority to a union council even for mutual defense. Even plans by New York governor James DeLancey to build a couple of western forts failed for lack of agreement on cost sharing.
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The primary object of the conference - maintenance of a shaky alliance with the Iroquois tribes - was achieved. Then, a seven member committee was formed "to prepare and receive plans or schemes for the union of the colonies." The committee adopted a plan along the lines Franklin had proposed. It included a national congress of representatives from each colony roughly in proportion to population and wealth, with a royal "President General."

"At its core was a somewhat new concept that became known as federalism. A 'General Government' would handle matters such as national defense and westward expansion, but each colony would keep its own constitution and local governing powers. Though he was sometimes dismissed as more of a practitioner than a visionary, Franklin in Albany had helped to devise a federal concept -- orderly, balanced, and enlightened -- that would eventually form the basis for a unified American nation."

The plan was handily adopted by the Albany conference after a few revisions that Franklin philosophically accepted in the spirit of compromise. He was already exhibiting that talent for conciliation that would prove so essential later at the Constitutional Convention. Compromise and accommodation, he instinctively understood, were essential in the collective affairs of free men.
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Franklin launched a spirited campaign for adoption of the plan. He opposed alternative suggestions based entirely on representatives chosen by the King, putting his finger on a key principle of the coming revolutionary struggle.

"It is supposed an undoubted right of Englishmen not to be taxed but by their own consent given through their representatives."

The campaign failed. It was rejected by the colonial assemblies as an infringement on their authority, and by London as dangerously empowering voters and encouraging colonial unity.
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The French and Indian War:

Pennsylvania was a proprietary colony, governed by the family of William Penn who had been granted a royal charter. Maryland and Delaware along with Pennsylvania would remain proprietary colonies until the Revolution.
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There was thus always friction between the Assembly and the Proprietors and the governor appointed by the Proprietors. The primary point of contention was, of course, over money. The vast landholdings of the Proprietors were on no account to be subject to taxation - even to cover expenses for the protection of the colony - including the proprietary lands.
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These matters came to a head with the onset of the French and Indian War (the Seven Years War in Europe). Gen. Edward Braddock arrived with an army to fight the French and their Indian allies, but threatened to pack up and go back to England if he didn't get enough colonial support. The Proprietors would not provide support, and the Assembly would not provide support if the Proprietors did not contribute. Farmers did not trust the general's promises to pay, and refused to provide the horses and wagons that he needed.
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Franklin and his son William pledged their own funds to back up the general's credit and provide the needed supplies. Within a couple of weeks, 259 horses and 150 wagons were procured.
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Franklin was becoming disgusted with Proprietor Thomas Penn and governor Robert Hunter Morris for expecting the Assembly to bear defense expenses to which the Proprietors refused to contribute. Morris, in turn, was beginning to view Franklin as a threat to the Proprietors' prerogatives.
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Franklin was not impressed with Braddock, who haughtily refused to concern himself with the warnings of difficulties and dangers expressed by the colonials. In the event, Braddock was killed and his army was routed. Colonel Washington had two horses shot out from under him and four bullet holes in his uniform, but acquitted himself well in conducting the retreat. By some act of providence, Washington came through - as he always would - without a scratch.
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But Franklin's finances were a casualty of the debacle - to the ruinous tune of about 20,000£. This would be the equivalent of about $3,200,000 today. Fortunately, governor Shirley of Massachusetts, now the general of the British troops, ordered payment from army funds.
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The disaster spurred the Assembly to action. It offered to raise 50,000£ for defense, but only if the Proprietors contributed. When governor Morris rejected the proposal, Franklin was furious. He wrote to Proprietor Thomas Penn:

"Our Lord would have us defend his estate at our own expense! This is not merely vassalage, it is worse than any vassalage we have heard of; it is something we have no adequate name for; it is even more slavish than slavery itself."

In a subsequent message, he added famously: "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
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Ultimately, the Proprietors relented and made a voluntary contribution of 5,000£. However, Isaacson notes, Franklin had in this case "abandoned his long standing aversion to dispute." With increasing fervor, he became a foe of the Proprietors.
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Foreign diplomat:

In 1757, Franklin was sent to London as an agent of the Assembly to resolve the difficulties with the Proprietors.

"Only much later, after he was indeed looked on coldly by great people in London, would Franklin prove a dangerous enemy to the imperial cause."

Franklin believed in a closer union among the colonies and that the colonists were entitled to the full rights and privileges of Englishmen.

"But he held these views as a proud and loyal Englishman, one who sought to strengthen his majesty's empire rather than seek independence for the American colonies. Only much later, after he was indeed looked on coldly by great people in London, would Franklin prove a dangerous enemy to the imperial cause."

In London, he was received as a visiting celebrity by the intellectual and literary community - but not by the Proprietors, the Tory aristocracy, or the Privy Council. He had been selected the first American member of the Royal Society the previous year. He was accompanied by his son, William, then 26, and two slaves who were household servants. One of them soon left, and Franklin made no attempt to get him back as English law then permitted.
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Lord Granville, president of the Privy Council, set the first alarm bells ringing in Franklin's mind about his status as an English subject from the colonies. In the 17th century, the Parliament had given colonial governors veto power over legislation by colonial assemblies, but had rejected a provision giving power of law to governors' instructions. Now, Granville was informing Franklin that governors' instructions were "the law of the land."
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Initial efforts to negotiate with the Penns went just as badly. Franklin demanded that the Penns grant their governor discretionary authority in dealing with the Assembly, and asserted that the Penns' exemption from the taxes required for defense was "unjust and cruel." In response, the Penns cut off all further direct contact with Franklin, and directed that all further negotiations be through their lawyers. By early 1758, Franklin was in open, venomous dispute with Thomas Penn over the powers granted by Penn's father to the colonial Assembly.
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His mission at an impasse, Franklin spent his time traveling about England and enjoying the intellectual discourse of his many new friends. In the summer of 1759, he traveled to Scotland, where he met Adam Smith, David Hume, and historian Lord Kames. He received an honorary doctorate from St. Andrews University. Later, he would add an honorary doctorate from Oxford.
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William, on the other hand, having been enrolled in the Inns of Court, preferred the company of young earls and dukes. While his father's loyalties to the British Empire were being strained, William's were being cemented.
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Meanwhile, in November, 1758, after a delay of about a year, the Penns responded through their lawyers directly to the Assembly with a copy to Franklin. Their instructions to their governor would remain inviolable, and they insisted that their charter gave them the power to make laws for the colony. With respect to taxation of their estates, however, they held open the possibility of some compromise limited to elements that are "in its nature taxable." They also refused to negotiate with Franklin, and requested that the Assembly send someone else.
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Franklin offered to resign his commission and return home. Isaacson views this offer as half hearted - Franklin was really enjoying life in London. In any event, blinded for once by his own passions, he suggested he might be able to get the Crown to take Pennsylvania away form the Penns and turn it into a Crown colony like most of the other colonies.
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Isaacson views this possibility as not really politically feasible. He attributes this miscalculation not just to Franklin's enmity for the Penns, but also to his continuing loyalist sentiments and his enthusiasm for the empire and its many positive attributes.
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During the next year, Franklin campaigned on several fronts, but was repeatedly rebuffed by the Privy Council on every point except that of taxation. By pragmatically agreeing that the vast unsettled areas of the Penn holdings would be treated no worse than the unsettled lands owned by others, a compromise was gained.
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"As a publishing magnate and then as a postmaster, he was one of the few to view America as a whole. To him, the colonies were not merely disparate entities. They were a new world with common interests and ideals."

Franklin and William returned home separately during 1762 and 1763. William, now 32 years of age, had obtained a new wife from the upper classes of English society and a royal appointment as governor of New Jersey. He also had an illegitimate son, William Temple Franklin, whom he left in England. By 1763, the Seven Years War was over and the immediate cause of friction between the Proprietors and the Pennsylvania Assembly - the need to raise money for defense - had been temporarily removed.
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Home for a couple of years, Franklin, now 57 years of age, traveled widely on postal business and was active in improving the postal system and extending it to Canada and the West Indies.

"Franklin's seven month tour of the colonies, along with the time he had spent in England, put him in a unique position to play a role in the coming storms. As a publishing magnate and then as a postmaster, he was one of the few to view America as a whole. To him, the colonies were not merely disparate entities. They were a new world with common interests and ideals."

He demanded that the governor hold the frontiersmen to account for the slaughter of about 150 Indians.

Pennsylvania had a new governor - John Penn - a cousin of the Proprietor Thomas Penn. The Quakers were no longer in the majority in the colony. The frontier was dominated by Presbyterians, a large number of whom started conducting massacres of peaceful local Indians in reprisal for attacks by the Ottawa chief Pontiac. The frontiersmen were generally supported by the growing working class in town composed mainly of German Lutherans and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians.
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Governor John Penn began to seek support from this group. He offered a bounty for Indian scalps.
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Franklin bravely published a pamphlet that favored tolerance and acceptance of peaceful Indians. He demanded that the governor hold the frontiersmen to account for the slaughter of about 150 Indians. The split between the governor and Franklin widened, and Franklin's correspondence for once began to reflect gloom and pessimism about his fellow men.
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The Assembly and the governor were again in conflict - this time over a lighthouse, taxes, and control of militia appointments. Although Franklin was in effective control over the Assembly, he was now definitely in the minority with respect to public support. He produced another pamphlet attacking the Proprietors and the frontiersmen, but failed to get popular support for a petition to the Crown seeking an end to the Proprietors' charter and the transformation of Pennsylvania into a Crown colony. This time, even the Quakers were against him because of the religious safeguards included in the William Penn charter. John Dickinson, a young Quaker lawyer, became a prominent opponent.
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The 1764 elections turned brutal. Franklin was subjected to ruthless attacks by his opponents on grounds that were sometimes true and often false. William, his illegitimate son, became a focus of some of these attacks. Franklin was badly beaten in the election, but his faction retained control of the Assembly. The Assembly then voted to petition the Crown for an end to the Proprietors' charter, and sent Franklin back to London to present the petition.
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Franklin was only too glad to be leaving a suddenly unfriendly Philadelphia. He still had many friends, and hundreds turned out to cheer him as he boarded ship. He had other concerns in London besides the petition. There was news that taxes might be imposed by Parliament to cover some of the expenses of the recent conflict. He intended to press for colonial representation in Parliament and a more unified colonial system in return for acceptance of any new taxes.
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In London, Franklin quickly reestablished connections with his circle of intellectual and literary friends. He also took in young William Temple Franklin, William's illegitimate son who was still in England.
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The Stamp Act of 1765:

The colonial opposition to the Stamp Act taxes was badly underestimated by Franklin.
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"For the first time since the Albany Conference of 1754, leaders from different parts of America were galvanized into thinking as a collective unit."

This was the first tax on internal commerce ever imposed on the colonies by London. The alternative was for the colonial legislatures to take responsibility for apportioning defense expenses among themselves and raising tax revenues to meet them. When the colonial agents in London could not guarantee that this would happen, Parliament acted to impose the taxes.
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Franklin was personally opposed to the taxes, but not so strenuously as to prevent him from initially publicly accepting them and advising compliance. He still felt a need to be conciliatory so as to retain some effectiveness in negotiating other matters in London. Thomas Penn shrewdly declined to nominate a candidate for stamp tax collector for Pennsylvania, and John Dickinson took the lead in opposing the Stamp Act in the Pennsylvania Assembly. A declaration of grievances passed handily in the Assembly.
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Letters from the colonies soon made Franklin aware of the public reaction to the Stamp Act taxes. His enemies were claiming that he supported the taxes and even that he had helped frame the Act. At one point, a mob marched on his new home intent on burning it, only to be confronted by his determined wife, Deborah, and her armed relatives and Franklin's friends. Boycotts of British goods were initiated in response to the tax, much to the discomfort of commercial interests in London.

"The Stamp Act crisis sparked a radical transformation in American affairs. A new group of colonial leaders, who bristled at being subservient to England, were coming to the fore, especially in Virginia and Massachusetts. Even though most Americans harbored few separatist or nationalist sentiments until 1775, the clash between imperial control and colonial rights was erupting on a variety of fronts."

Suddenly, Patrick Henry in Virginia and Sam Adams and John Hancock in Massachusetts rose into prominence, and groups formed to oppose the tax and threaten the tax collectors.

"For the first time since the Albany Conference of 1754, leaders from different parts of America were galvanized into thinking as a collective unit. A congress of nine colonies, including Pennsylvania, was held in New York in October. Not only did it urge the repeal of the Stamp Act, it denied the right of Parliament to levy internal taxes on the colonies. The motto they adopted was the one Franklin had written as a cartoon caption more than a decade earlier, as he sought to rally unity at Albany. 'Join, or Die.'"

He warned British ministers that the tax was undermining colonial loyalty to the Crown.

Franklin was still maintaining a conciliatory approach, however. He counseled "prudence and moderation." He was still intent on pushing his petition to make Pennsylvania a Crown colony. But, by the end of 1765, his petition was essentially dead.
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He then launched two typical propaganda campaigns. Letters to the colonies from his Quaker friends in London asserting Franklin's opposition to the Stamp Act tax were reprinted in colonial newspapers to shore up his support at home. Pamphlets and pseudonymous, sometimes satiric, essays appeared in London papers attacking the Stamp Act. He supported the boycott of all British goods and avoidance of transactions that required the tax stamps. He warned British ministers that the tax was undermining colonial loyalty to the Crown.

"Still a loyal Briton, Franklin was eager to prevent such a split. His preferred solution was colonial representation in Parliament. In a set of notes he prepared for his meetings with ministers, Franklin jotted down the argument: 'Representation useful in two ways. It brings information and knowledge to the great council. It conveys back to the remote parts of the empire the reasons of public conduct. - - - It will forever preserve the union which otherwise may be various ways broken."

He emphasized the efforts and expenses born by the colonies for their own defense and administration.

Franklin appeared before Parliament to plead the colonial cause. Parliament was fortunately now in the control of Lord Rockingham and a new but unfortunately short lived Whig ministry that was favorable to the colonies and already looking for a way out of the debacle. Franklin masterfully handled the 174 questions put to him by both those favoring and those opposing repeal.
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Franklin emphasized the loyalty of colonial America - its high regard for Parliament and the Empire - and the ease of control prior to the Stamp Act. He emphasized the efforts and expenses born by the colonies for their own defense and administration. He warned that the imposition of internal taxes by Parliament was driving a wedge between the colonies and Great Britain, and might cause the colonies to question even the duties imposed on external trade, as well. This acceptance of a distinction between taxes on internal and external commerce would prove to be a major mistake.
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The transcript of Franklin's testimony was sent back to the colonies where it was widely reprinted. The Stamp Act was repealed - and at a stroke, now 60 years of age, Franklin's reputation in the colonies rose to new heights.
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His performance in Parliament gained him new respect in London as well. He was now the foremost spokesman for colonial interests. In the following years, in addition to his appointment as agent for Pennsylvania, he was appointed agent for Georgia and New Jersey and ultimately Massachusetts as well - in essence the ambassador for the American colonies.
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Franklin stayed on in London. Neither his daughter's wedding nor his wife's illness nor the birth of his first grandchild - Benjamin ("Benny") Franklin Bache - could entice him to leave the multiple pleasures of London. He traveled to Europe where he was similarly acclaimed as in England, and enjoyed Paris and attendance at a grand dinner in the Palace of Versailles with King Louis XV.
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Franklin was a dutiful husband and parent, but he was determined to live his life to its full in the time remaining. His wife would suffer her final sickness and would die before he returned home.
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The Townshend duties:

Charles Townshend, the chancellor of the exchequer, decided to take Franklin at his word. The Townshend duties on glass, paper, china, paint colors, and tea, were passed by Parliament in June, 1767.
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Franklin acknowledged that he was suspect "in England of being too much of an American, and in America of being too much of an Englishman."

Once again, Franklin was caught out of touch with the strength of the radical sentiments rising in the colonies. He wrote a series of essays calling for "civility and good manners" on both sides.
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Soon, however, he came to realize that his distinction between taxes on internal and external commerce was unworkable. Taxation by a Parliament in which the colonies had no representation was being met by opposition that was spreading from Boston to the rest of the colonies. (The radicals, of course, just didn't want taxes - with or without representation.) Now, Franklin became doubtful over whether Parliament should have any lawmaking power over the colonies. However, he still desired to retain his influence in London.
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The dilemma was becoming all too clear. Franklin acknowledged that he was suspect "in England of being too much of an American, and in America of being too much of an Englishman." Mostly, he still desired the unity and prosperity of both parts of the British Empire.
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The essays challenged Parliament's sudden desire to impose taxes from afar and warned that the dispute could tear the colonies from the Empire.

In 1768, Lord Hillsboro became colonial secretary and head of the board of trade. He quickly dashed Franklin's last hopes of changing Pennsylvania into a Crown colony. Other Franklin interests that came to an end were his hopes for appointment in London as a colonial affairs official and, a few years later, his efforts to obtain an Ohio land grant.
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Increasingly free of conflicting interests, Franklin turned his full attentions to advocacy of the colonial case against Parliamentary taxation and the administration of Lord Hillsboro. Pseudonymous essays flowed from his pen. The essays challenged Parliament's sudden desire to impose taxes from afar and warned that the dispute could tear the colonies from the Empire. The dispute raged on unabated as months passed.
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He now was advocating a new arrangement, where the colonies would remain loyal to the King but would be independent of his Parliament.

The so-called Boston Massacre occurred on March 5, 1770. In an effort at compromise, Parliament rescinded all the duties but the one on tea. However, it was already too late for such compromise. The radicals in Boston had become too strong.
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Franklin, now in tune with events in the colonies, urged a continued boycott of British goods. America must be "steady and persevere" he wrote in one letter promptly published in a Philadelphia newspaper. In another letter, he challenged both Parliament's authority to tax and its authority to dispatch troops to the colonies. He now was advocating a new arrangement, where the colonies would remain loyal to the King but would be independent of his Parliament. Isaacson notes that this was "an elegant formula for commonwealth governance."
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The situation was deteriorating quickly. In January, 1771, Lord Hillsboro denied the legitimacy of any colonial agents who had not received approval of their colonial governors. He denied that colonial legislatures had power to appoint agents to London.
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His official influence at an end in London, Franklin spent most of 1771 traveling around the British Isles and enjoying the company of the leading scientists and philosophers. In Ireland, he was impressed with the impoverishment of the Irish people - (kept impoverished by subjection to the authority of Parliament).
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Now aged 65, he was increasingly in a reflective mood. The first chapters of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin began to flow from his pen. Isaacson goes at some length into the writing and subsequent critical evaluation of this work. Although never finished, it is "the world's most popular autobiography." Isaacson also covers Franklin's continuing scientific inquiries and experiments.
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As the months rolled by, Franklin was not completely idle as a diplomat. He continued to counsel conciliation to correspondents on both sides of the Atlantic, and published pseudonymous, sometimes satirical essays advocating the colonial cause and providing prescient warnings of the dire consequences of further provocations. Nevertheless, further provocation came in the form of Parliamentary regulations giving a virtual monopoly over the colonial tea trade to the corrupt East India Company.
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Franklin had himself done much to provoke unrest in Massachusetts. A member of Parliament had given him some letters sent between Massachusetts governor Thomas Hutchinson and Parliament in which the governor, among other things, advised harsh measures - "an abridgement of what are called English liberties" - to subdue colonial unrest. Franklin sent them to a friend in Massachusetts with the request that they not be published - but of course they were. The result was that the Massachusetts Assembly petitioned for the removal of governor Hutchinson. Then came the Boston Tea Party.

"On December 16, 1773, after a mass rally in the Old South Church, some fifty patriots disguised as Mohawk Indians went down to the wharves and dumped 342 chests of tea worth £10,000 into the sea." (This was equivalent to about $1,600,000 today.)

Franklin, as usual, remained calm and conciliatory, but he was dismayed by the mob action and destruction of private property. The shareholders of the East India Company "are not our adversaries," he declared.
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In England, an inconclusive duel had been fought over recriminations about the purloined Hutchinson letters, and a rematch seemed likely. Franklin felt obliged to step forward and take sole responsibility for publication of the letters. The result was Franklin's famed appearance before the Privy Council in the Cockpit - a large room in which cockfights had been held during the reign of Henry VIII.
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Every punitive measure designed to crush the rebellion served instead to strengthen the rebel cause.

Ostensibly, Franklin was appearing as agent for the Massachusetts Assembly to present their petition for the removal of governor Hutchinson. Instead, before a noisy packed house, he was subjected to an hour long tirade by Solicitor General Alexander Wedderburn who accused Franklin of multiple sins in the publishing of the governor's private correspondence and provoking unrest in the colonies.
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Franklin stood before the Privy Council and received the tirade in calm, dignified silence. He had no defense, and offered none, and ultimately refused to be questioned. The petition, of course, was rejected - and Franklin was stripped of his position as Postmaster General. Gen. Gage was soon on his way to Massachusetts to replace governor Hutchinson and impose sanctions on the rebellious colony - not exactly what the petition had been designed to accomplish. However, every punitive measure designed to crush the rebellion served instead to strengthen the rebel cause.
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At stake, he wrote, was "no less than whether Americans, and their endless generations, shall enjoy the common rights of mankind or be worse than eastern slaves."

Franklin continued his propaganda campaign on behalf of the colonial cause. However, now, Isaacson notes, his pseudonymous "satires and sarcasm became ever more biting." With no more business possible and his wife on her death bed, Franklin was still loath to leave London and his many friends and acquaintances - none of whom deserted him. In the colonies, of course, news of his ordeal in the Cockpit was embellished and raised his popularity to new heights. Deborah died towards the end of 1774.
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From London - although he knew his letters were being opened - Franklin urged a firm stand against the sanctions imposed on Massachusetts. He recognized the sanctions as a unifying force among the colonies. At stake, he wrote, was "no less than whether Americans, and their endless generations, shall enjoy the common rights of mankind or be worse than eastern slaves."
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Franklin had been urging the convening of a continental congress for a year before it first met, and now urged a boycott covering both imports and exports with England. No longer did his advice favor conciliation. William, on the other hand, remained steadfastly loyal to the Crown and strove to maintain public calm in New Jersey.
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The First Continental Congress met, reasserted its loyalty to the Crown - but not to Parliament - and voted to boycott British goods if Parliament failed to repeal its coercive acts. At the urging of his Whig friends, Franklin made yet another effort to resolve the growing dispute.

"His 'Hints for a Conversation" included seventeen points, among them: Massachusetts would pay for the destroyed tea, the tea duties would be repealed, the regulations on colonial manufacturing would be reconsidered, all money raised by trade duties would go to the colonial treasuries, no troops would be stationed in a colony without the approval of its legislature, and all powers of taxation would reside with the colonial legislatures rather than Parliament."

All his efforts had failed, his loyalties to the British Empire and the Crown had been shattered, and he was being wrenched away from his beloved London by the conflict.

He became involved in last ditch conciliatory efforts through sympathetic and concerned Whigs including William Pitt the elder - twice a former prime minister and now Lord Chatham - as well as Admiral Lord Richard Howe - who would soon be engaged in transporting a large army under his brother, Gen. William Howe, to crush the rebellion in the colonies.
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In February, 1775, Chatham introduced compromise measures in Parliament. The Continental Congress would be given official standing, and the power of taxation would reside solely in colonial legislatures. However, Parliament would retain authority over the regulation of imperial trade and the stationing of troops in the colonies. When Franklin was bitterly attacked by the Tory Lord Dartmouth, Chatham effusively defended him.
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"But Chatham was not only out of power, he was out of touch," Isaacson points out. His efforts were haughtily rejected. In March, Franklin met with Edmund Burke, the great Whig orator and philosopher. The result was Burke's famous "On Conciliation with America" speech in Parliament on March 22, 1775. "A great empire and little minds go ill together," Burke presciently proclaimed.
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Franklin was already at sea, sailing for Philadelphia. All his efforts had failed, his loyalties to the British Empire and the Crown had been shattered, and he was being wrenched away from his beloved London by the conflict. Normally reserved and cool, his eyes filled with tears in an emotional last meeting with friends. He took William Temple, aged 15, with him. Franklin was 69 years of age. However, he remained inquisitive and involved in his world, recording the temperature of the waters during the voyage and accurately charting the Gulf Stream.
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The American Revolution:

In America, the guns of the American Revolution were in action at Lexington and Concord.
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Franklin was already a committed rebel - convinced by his treatment in London that conciliation was no longer possible and that submission meant subjugation.

Franklin and his fellow Americans were neither submissive nor awed by authority. If Britain was intent on subjugating the colonies, imposing taxes and maintaining restrictive mercantile trading rules, the only alternative was independence.

Franklin had become an iconic figure. He arrived in Philadelphia on May 5, 1775, just in time for the Second Continental Congress. He was welcomed with much honor and celebration, and was quickly selected as a Congress member - the oldest. His household now included his daughter, Sally, her husband, Richard Bache, and their two children, as well as William Temple.
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The issue of conciliation or independence was yet to be resolved. With friends and his own son still loyal to the Crown, Franklin initially stayed out of the debates both within and outside the Congress. However, he was already a committed rebel - convinced by his treatment in London that conciliation was no longer possible and that submission meant subjugation.
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Isaacson points out that Franklin had hoped that the American colonies could remain in the British Empire under a political arrangement that would acknowledge their freedom from the rigid ruling hierarchies and aristocratic structures of Europe - "that its strength would be its creation of a proud middling people, a class of frugal and industrious shopkeepers and tradesmen who were assertive of their rights and proud of their status."
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Franklin and his fellow Americans were neither submissive nor awed by authority. The writings of the new Enlightenment thinkers had been widely influential. If Britain was intent on subjugating the colonies, imposing taxes and maintaining restrictive mercantile trading rules, the only alternative for the colonies was independence.
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On July 5, the Congress agreed unanimously on one last conciliation effort - the "Olive Branch Petition." It also passed a Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms, which asserted a desire to remain within the British Empire. However, Franklin was now "one of the most ardent opponents of Britain," and his letters and public activities reflected that stance.
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Confederation:

Franklin presented his proposed Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union to the Congress on July 21, 1775. Like his Albany Plan, Isaacson notes, it "contained the seeds of the great conceptual breakthrough" of a federal system. However, his proposed central government was more powerful than the colonies were prepared to accept. Understanding this, he did not press for an immediate vote.
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The author traces these confederation concepts back more than a century to an agreement between settlements in Massachusetts and Connecticut in 1643. Franklin proposed a unicameral legislature with state representation based on population. It would have a 12 person "executive council" serving for staggered 3 year terms.

"It would have the power to levy taxes, make war, manage the military, enter into foreign alliances, settle disputes between colonies, form new colonies, issue a unified currency, establish a postal system, regulate commerce, and enact laws 'necessary to the general welfare.'"

He donated his 1,000£ salary - about $160,000 today - to care for wounded soldiers. He repeatedly contributed significant sums for revolutionary purposes.

Franklin was soon a very busy man. He was a natural for the position of colonial postmaster general and set about replacing the British-run system. He donated his 1,000£ salary - about $160,000 today - to care for wounded soldiers. He repeatedly contributed significant sums for revolutionary purposes. However, he did appoint his son-in-law financial comptroller for the postal system. Franklin was also assigned to establish and design a new paper currency - an idea he had long been fond of. (The money would quickly begin to lose value on its way to becoming practically worthless.)

"Franklin's other assignments included heading up the effort to collect lead for munitions, devising ways to manufacture gunpowder, and serving on committees to deal with the Indians and to promote trade with Britain's enemies. In addition, he was made president of Pennsylvania's own defense committee. In that capacity, he oversaw construction of a secret system of underwater obstructions to prevent enemy warships from navigating the Delaware River - - -."

In October, Franklin traveled to Massachusetts to confer with Gen. Washington about finances and to draw up a new code of military conduct. In March, 1776, at 70 years of age, he undertook the arduous trip to Canada to confer with Gen. Benedict Arnold. He quickly realized the futility of the effort to enlist Canadian support. Given the meager military and financial resources at hand, he advised withdrawal of Arnold's small besieged force. This trip enfeebled him and exacerbated his gout.
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The Declaration of Independence:

Franklin had met Thomas Paine in London. Paine was a Quaker who had failed at many occupations. Franklin befriended him, paid for his passage to America, and got him a job.
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Richard Henry Lee moved that "These United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states."

With the others busy on numerous other more important matters, and Franklin still recuperating from his strenuous travels, young Thomas Jefferson got the job - and the glory. It was a providential decision.

Paine's pamphlet, Common Sense, after some revision by Franklin, was published in January, 1776. It challenged the legitimacy of hereditary rule - sold 170,000 copies - and changed everything. Sympathy for further efforts at conciliation rapidly dissolved.
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On June 7, Virginia's Richard Henry Lee moved in Congress that "These United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states." A vote was put off for a few weeks, but Congress did decide to remove all colonial governors. William was quickly arrested, tried and imprisoned.
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Franklin was appointed to a committee of five to draft a declaration explaining the decision to cut all ties to Britain. Virginia lawyer Thomas Jefferson, Massachusetts lawyer John Adams, Connecticut merchant Roger Sherman and New York lawyer Robert Livingston were also on the committee. It was not viewed as an important task. With the others busy on numerous other more important matters, and Franklin still recuperating from his strenuous travels, young Thomas Jefferson got the job - and the glory. It was a providential decision.
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The Declaration attacks the King - the British state incarnate.

As Isaacson notes, "their lives, as well as their sacred honor, had been put on the line."

The Declaration does not attack the British government, Isaacson points out. It attacks the King - the British state incarnate. Franklin had earlier drawn a similar draft resolution with bill of particulars for renouncing allegiance to the King. It is finely drawn and logical, but lacks philosophical depth and the music in the words of Jefferson's draft.
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Jefferson drew on natural rights concepts and social contract concepts founded on the consent of the people. He also drew on the Virginia Declaration of Rights recently drafted by George Mason. (He primarily drew on his own strong predilections. See, Ellis, Thomas Jefferson, "American Sphinx," segment on the Declaration of Independence.)
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The draft was edited first by Adams and then by Franklin, who made only a few changes. These were written in his own hand and are visible today on the draft document. Most dramatic, he substituted "self evident" for "sacred and undeniable" in the ringing phrase: "We hold these truths to be self evident." Isaacson notes that the concept of self evident truths derives more from Isaac Newton and Franklin's friend David Hume than from John Locke. It changed the phrase from an assertion of religion to an assertion of rationality.
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The author views Franklin's other changes as "less felicitous" but of minor purport. The Congress, however, cut a section that improbably blamed the King for the slave trade, and shortened the bill of particulars asserted against the King in the draft. (The shortening of this part of the Declaration was undoubtedly an improvement, but was bitterly resented by Jefferson for the rest of his life.)
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Franklin led the key Pennsylvania delegation - John Dickinson abstaining - in casting Pennsylvania's vote for acceptance of the Declaration. At the August 2 signing of the finished document, John Hancock, the president of the Congress, boldly signed first, remarking: "There must be no pulling different ways. We must all hang together." Franklin reputedly replied: "Yes, we must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang separately." As Isaacson notes, "their lives, as well as their sacred honor, had been put on the line."
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The Articles of Confederation:

The basic principles for a confederation government were decided upon shortly after the vote on the Declaration. However, the document wasn't completed until late in 1777, and wasn't ratified until 1781.
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Pennsylvania - and the U.S. - would both ultimately discard their unicameral legislatures, but the idea was adopted with great acclaim by revolutionary France - with tragic results.

The Articles of Confederation did not follow Franklin's plan. It did provide for a unicameral legislature, but provided for a very weak central government. Franklin's plan was influential in the formation of the Pennsylvania constitution which also provided for a unicameral legislature. The need for a strong central government would be demonstrated by subsequent events.
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Under the Articles, the small states had their way. There would be one vote per state. Franklin, like Jefferson, had more faith in democracy than most of the other founding fathers. A Franklin proposal designed to discourage the accumulation of great wealth was readily rejected. Pennsylvania - and the U.S. - would both ultimately discard their unicameral legislatures, but the idea was adopted with great acclaim by revolutionary France - with tragic results.
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Lord Howe sent peace feelers through Franklin after his brother, Gen. William Howe, routed Washington out of New York. In response, Franklin, John Adams and Edward Rutledge of South Carolina were sent to a conference on Staten Island.
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Lord Howe based his proposal on The Olive Branch Petition. It would grant the colonies some form of union and autonomy under the Crown. Unfortunately, it was now too late for that. Howe and Franklin treated each other with utmost respect. However, towns had been burned, men had died, slaves and Indians had been encouraged to attack the colonists - and the colonies were now the United States and would accept nothing but independence.
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The French alliance:

Then it was across the Atlantic once again - in winter - at nearly 71 years of age and plagued by gout and kidney stones - as one of three men commissioned to seek an alliance with France. Franklin traveled with two grandsons, William Temple, now 17 years of age, and Benny Bache, 7 years of age, in the speedy, tempest tossed little frigate Reprisal.
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"Already the greatest American scientist and writer of his time, he would display a dexterity that would make him the greatest American diplomat of all times."

Franklin was immediately widely celebrated in France. Isaacson goes on at some length about Franklin's fame and reception. He thrived in France, and his health and vigor were quickly restored. He had access to all the influential elements of French society.

"To the French, this lightening-defying scientist and tribune of liberty who had unexpectedly appeared on their shores was a symbol both of the virtuous frontier freedom romanticized by Rousseau and the Enlightenment's reasoned wisdom championed by Voltaire. For more than eight years he would play his role to the hilt. In a clever and deliberate manner, leavened by the wit and joie de vivre the French adored, he would cast the American cause, through his own personification of it, as that of the natural state fighting the corrupted one, the enlightened state fighting the irrational old order.
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"Into his hands, almost as much as those of Washington and others, had been placed the fate of the Revolution. Unless he could secure the support of France - its aid, its recognition, its navy - America would find it difficult to prevail. Already the greatest American scientist and writer of his time, he would display a dexterity that would make him the greatest American diplomat of all times. He played to the romance as well as the reason that entranced France's philosophes, to the fascination with America's freedom that captivated its public, and to the cold calculation of national interest that moved its ministers."

Alliance was at first unreachable, but Franklin was quickly involved in arranging arms shipments and commercial transactions. His substantial villa was in essence America's first foreign embassy, where he found himself "working alongside one co-commissioner who was corrupt, another who hated everyone, a secretary who was a spy, a cook who was an embezzler, and a landlord [who had donated the property rent free] who hoped to be a profiteer."
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Silas Deane of Connecticut had arrived before Franklin and had arranged the first secret shipment of aid. He would eventually be recalled and would fail a Congressional audit. The third American commissioner was Arthur Lee of Virginia. It was he who exposed Deane. He also tried to undermine Franklin. Lee also suspected that Edward Bancroft, the legation secretary, was a spy. It would be a century before historians would find the proof in the London archives. They would also find that Lee's own secretary was a spy.
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Franklin simply assumed that he was surrounded by spies, and conducted himself accordingly. Isaacson at one point writes that he found no instance when England was able to act fast enough to take advantage of the information it received. Shipments and officials crossed the seas dominated by the Royal Navy, and Count d'Estaing and his fleet made it across to the waters off of Yorktown without hindrance.
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However, later, Isaacson notes that Franklin's efforts to obtain a fine new warship under construction in Holland for Capt. John Paul Jones were blocked when England found out about it. Jones had to settle for an old ship that he renamed the Bonhomme Richard in appreciation for Franklin's efforts.
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At first, all France would offer were secret loans and ports open to American merchant ships. Money was already very tight for the profligate court of King Louis XVI, and France was not ready for any new conflict. However, the opportunity to strike a massive blow at its hated rival was widely attractive.
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Franklin and the other commissioners carried on the normal business of wartime diplomats. Franklin ran his usual propaganda campaign and kept pressing for more assistance. He received hordes of supplicants seeking officer commissions in the colonial army. Most of these were unworthy, but the Marquis de Lafayette, Baron von Steuben and Count Pulaski in particular became among Washington's most valued officers.
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Diplomatic fortunes depended, of course, on results on the battlefield. They plunged upon news that Gen. Howe had captured Philadelphia - the capital city of the Continental Congress. Franklin knew that this victory was meaningless. The Congress simply picked up and moved further inland. Then, in December, 1777, they soared with news of the victory over Gen. Burgoyne at Saratoga - a decisive victory for the war in the northern colonies.
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As Franklin carefully noted, the alliance was one between equals, with no lasting entanglements. It was a vast diplomatic triumph.

Suddenly, France was anxious for an alliance. Suddenly, Britain was anxious for peace - and on terms the colonies would have jumped at just a few years earlier. Congress would have official status - all offensive acts passed by Parliament since 1763 would be repealed - and Parliament would retain jurisdiction in the colonies over only matters of foreign policy and trade. Franklin expressed his appreciation for such a "sensible" offer, but added: "Pity it did not come a little sooner."
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With spies watching every move, both rival nations soon were in a bidding war for American favor. The spies in turn were using their insider information to speculate in the markets. The treaties of friendship and trade and military alliance with France all followed quickly on February 6, 1778. As Franklin carefully noted, the alliance was one between equals, with no lasting entanglements. It was a vast diplomatic triumph.
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Now, Franklin concentrated on maintaining the vital new alliance - and enjoying Paris. Indeed, the two activities were one and the same. He was in his element. Isaacson covers his relationships with John Adams, who was newly arrived as a replacement for Silas Deane - the aging Voltaire just before his death - the Nine Sisters Freemason Lodge of freethinking intellectuals - and some of the formidable ladies of Paris.
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Franklin was appointed minister plenipotentiary in September, 1778. Recognizing Franklin's influence in France and all Franklin had accomplished, Adams had recommended Franklin's new status and then headed home. Arthur Lee and his brothers started a propaganda campaign against Franklin, viciously questioning the loyalty of William's son, William Temple Franklin, who was acting as Franklin's private secretary - a very useful asset in a nest of spies.
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Efforts to assist Captain John Paul Jones were underway during this period. With his old ship and his outstanding fighting capabilities, Jones was able to capture the British frigate Serapis after an epic battle - to the great delight of people both in France and the U.S. (The Royal Navy was not up to snuff and it was not doing well in the early battles of the conflict.)
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The peace treaty:

John Adams was back in Paris in 1780 - authorized as minister plenipotentiary to negotiate peace with England whenever there should be a peace to negotiate. Since there was none, Adams was at loose ends.
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The blunt spoken Adams was the bull in the china shop of the French Court. Whatever the French were doing for America, it was never enough or soon enough to suit Adams.
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Franklin was managing the vital French alliance with great delicacy and sensitivity. He had established an excellent relationship with the French foreign minister, Comte de Vergennes. Now, both Franklin and Vergennes became increasingly alarmed about the impact of Adams' insensitive conduct.
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Both Adams and Franklin were ardent patriots and agreed that no alliance should be permitted to entangle their new nation in foreign matters. However, Franklin appreciated the value of an appearance of commitment to political ideals and to the interests of France - what today is called soft power.
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Adams ultimately so offended the French government that Vergennes cut off relations with him, and sent copies of the correspondence between Adams and Vergennes to Franklin. Alarmed, Franklin forwarded the correspondence to Congress. This would incense Adams and his supporters. Fortunately, at this time, Adams decided to depart for Holland to seek a loan.
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The American negotiating commission was to do nothing without the prior approval of the French government.

Indeed, by 1780, money had become critical. The British had launched a campaign in the southern colonies that appeared successful. With the traitorous conduct of Benedict Arnold, it appeared that the American cause was falling apart. Franklin's paper money - and that of the individual colonies - had lost just about all value.
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Franklin thus began to practice what during the Cold War was called "the diplomacy of vapors." (If you don't help me, I will disappear.) Without a large amount of financial assistance, he told the French, America might be forced to accept British terms, leaving the British Empire intact and stronger than ever. Franklin boldly asked for 25 million livres - about $130 million in today's dollars - and got $6 million livres - enough to keep America going.
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Despite opposition from the Lee faction in Congress - now joined by the Adams faction - Congress rejected a request by the aging Franklin to resign. Franklin was now 75 years of age. Instead, Congress made him one of the five men commissioned to negotiate peace with Britain, and gave William Temple an official appointment as secretary to the delegation. Adams had been demoted from minister plenipotentiary to just one of the five. The others were Thomas Jefferson, who declined the assignment for personal reasons - Henry Laurens, who was captured at sea and imprisoned in the Tower of London - and New York lawyer John Jay.
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This was hardly all happenstance. Vergennes had specifically requested Franklin's appointment. He also requested that Congress tie the hands of its commissioners. They were to do nothing without the prior approval of the French government. Dependence on French assistance had become total, and Congress felt obliged to accede to Vergennes' wishes. However, without some battlefield victory, there could be no peace to negotiate.
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France had indeed provided massive assistance.

News of the victory at Yorktown arrived on November 19, 1781. France had indeed provided massive assistance.
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A French fleet had providentially succeeded in driving off a smaller British fleet sent from New York to Yorktown. (It would be the last fleet victory for France over Great Britain.) This same French fleet then proceeded to the West Indies where it was beaten by an equal British force. France supplied siege canon, engineers and 9,000 of the 20,000 soldiers in the allied force, and Lafayette skillfully maneuvered the British back into Yorktown prior to Washington's arrival.
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Although publicly asserting that he would act only in concert with France, Franklin skillfully arranged direct negotiations with the British that were private and independent of the negotiations being conducted by France.

The Tory government of Lord North collapsed in March, 1782. It was replaced by a Whig government headed by Lord Rockingham. However, Adams was still in Holland and Jay had not yet arrived. Franklin was the only one in Paris available to conduct negotiations for America.
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Although publicly asserting that he would act only in concert with France, Franklin skillfully arranged direct negotiations with the British that were private and independent of the negotiations being conducted by France. He also maneuvered with his contacts in London to get a malleable envoy sent by the Whig government. Richard Oswald, a London merchant who had once lived in America, arrived April 15 to start negotiations. Franklin's influence in London ultimately made Oswald the sole negotiator for England to deal with the Americans.
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Isaacson goes into some detail concerning the diplomatic maneuvering, the proposals and counter proposals, of the negotiations. Compensation from America for confiscated loyalist property, British reparations for towns burned and damage caused by Indians, and the future of Canada were all among the issues discussed.
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Before formal negotiations could begin, Franklin insisted that British negotiators must show that they had specific authority to negotiate with the United States. This would be tacit recognition of American independence - a question Franklin insisted had been settled by Congress in 1776. Vergennes backed him up on this initial vital point, rejecting the notion that France should negotiate American interests. "All that was necessary, Vergennes added, was 'that the [French and American] treaties go hand in hand and are signed the same day.'"
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Vergennes thus tacitly agreed to Franklin's separate negotiations with Oswald. Franklin had brilliantly won all the points on this first round. The British could now begin separate negotiations with America by recognizing the U.S. as an independent political entity.
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Leverage was not totally with France and America, however. News soon arrived of the French fleet defeat in the West Indies, and later of the British victory at Gibraltar. (The British, after initial naval setbacks and setbacks in the West Indies, achieved several naval successes to reestablish dominance at sea.)
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In America, British envoys were urging members of Congress to settle for dominion autonomy under the Crown. Britain was under extreme financial pressure, but France was even deeper in the financial hole. (Moreover, the rigid, feudal, mercantilist economy of France would not be able to grow its way out from under these debts, as would the more flexible economy of England.)
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A separate treaty would be negotiated, but not a separate peace.

On July 10, Franklin sent a first peace plan to London without consulting or informing Vergennes. It consisted of four "necessary" provisions and four "advisable" provisions. Needless to say, nothing ever came of the "advisable" provisions - including the ceding of Canada to the U.S., reparations payments, acknowledgement of British guilt, and a free trade agreement. The "necessary" provisions - recognition of full and complete American independence, fishing rights off the Canadian coast, secure boundaries, removal of British troops - all ultimately were included in the peace treaty (although the complete removal of British troops from the frontier forts would not occur until after the controversial Jay Treaty of 1795).
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Gout and kidney stones then sidelined Franklin, but Jay had arrived to take over the negotiations. When Vergennes was informed of the ongoing negotiations, he made no complaint. His only concern was that no separate peace be concluded - something the American team would, of course, comply with. A separate treaty would be negotiated, but not a separate peace.
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Nevertheless, Jay made his own private contacts with London - without informing Franklin. Jay encouraged the change in Oswald's negotiating authority. Negotiations were authorized with "the colonies under the title of 13 United States," and Oswald's authority to acknowledge their independence as a preliminary matter was reaffirmed. All obstacles thus removed, official negotiations began on October 5. Franklin was still confined by his gout, but John Adams soon arrived to join Jay.

Historians have questioned whether Jay or Franklin deserve most of the credit for the very favorable terms won by the Americans in the peace treaty. Franklin laid the groundwork for the success, Jay negotiated the details, and Adams arrived in time to exert some influence on the final document. There is glory enough to go around to them all for this astounding diplomatic achievement.

By now, Adams had learned the full story of Franklin's cooperation with Vergennes in undermining his status as the sole diplomat commissioned to negotiate peace. Adams thus deeply resented both Franklin and Vergennes.
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Franklin may have been confined to his chateaux by his gout, but his diplomatic skills were as smooth as ever. When Adams and Jay finally condescended to call on Franklin, Franklin charmed them. Franklin agreed to their insistence on negotiations separate from those of France - something Franklin had already quietly laid the groundwork for before either Jay or Adams had arrived. Famously, Franklin would sum up his views of Adams in a letter to U.S. foreign secretary Robert Livingston:

"He means well for his country, is always an honest man, often a wise one, but sometimes and in some things, absolutely out of his senses."

Indeed, whatever their personal ambitions and disagreements, these three founding fathers (like all the primary founding fathers) "meant well" for their country and pursued its interests as best they understood them. Unlike the ever conciliatory Franklin, some pursued those interests with a passion that was inevitably reflected in their personal relationships and disagreements.
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The size of the new nation had been doubled at the stroke of a pen.

The treaty included some provisions that France and its ally Spain didn't like - especially:

Recognition of the Mississippi River as the western boundary of the U.S., and freedom of navigation for both the U.S. and Britain on that vital waterway.
The size of the new nation had been doubled at the stroke of a pen.
Adams had his way on the need to honor prewar private American debts to British creditors. Jay and Franklin wanted them renounced as compensation for damages caused by the war, but Adams was concerned with establishing the new nation's honor and credit.
The issue of compensation for property seized from loyalists like Franklin's son William was finessed by essentially leaving it up to the individual states - leaving those debts a forlorn hope. Perhaps because of resentment towards William, Franklin had been adamantly against any firm commitment for loyalist compensation.
The right to fish the vital cod fishing grounds off the Canadian coast was also included in the Treaty. (See, McCullough, "John Adams," segment on the peace treaty.)

The providential aspects of the improbable American victory were subsequently noted by Franklin in his correspondence in explaining his increasing faith in the existence of a benevolent god.

"Unlike many subsequent revolutions, the American was not a radical rebellion by a repressed proletariat."

The provisional treaty was signed November 30, 1782. The opening line of the treaty declared the United States "to be free, sovereign and independent." Franklin neatly smoothed any French feathers ruffled by the separate negotiations. The treaty became formally binding nine months later when France and Britain signed their peace treaty.
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Remarking on the treaty in a letter, Franklin would famously write: "There never was a good war or a bad peace." However, as Isaacson points out, Franklin was in no way a pacifist. The providential aspects of the improbable American victory were subsequently noted by Franklin in his correspondence in explaining his increasing faith in the existence of a benevolent god. "If it had not been for the justice of our cause and the consequent interposition of Providence, in which we had faith" he wrote, "we must have been ruined."
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Isaacson sums up:

"Unlike many subsequent revolutions, the American was not a radical rebellion by a repressed proletariat. Instead, it was led largely by propertied and shop-keeping citizens whose rather bourgeois rallying cry was 'No taxation without representation.' Franklin's blend of beliefs would become part of the outlook of much of America's middle class: its faith in the virtues of hard work and frugality, its benevolent belief in voluntary associations to help others, its conservative opposition to handouts that led to laziness and dependency, and its slightly ambivalent resentment of unnecessary luxury, hereditary privileges, and an idle landowning class."

The new nation under the Articles of Confederation was weak, uncoordinated, and completely lacking in diplomatic leverage.

Franklin lingered in France until July, 1785. It was a most pleasant time for him, spent with his grandsons, William Temple Franklin, now about 25 years old, and Benny Bache, now about 15 years of age. Franklin, as usual, thoroughly enjoyed his European friends and literary, scientific and intellectual acquaintances, many of whom would not survive the first few years of the French Revolution. He wrote some more of his autobiography, which he continued to work on during the last years of his life. He witnessed the early assents of hot air and hydrogen balloons, perfected his bifocal spectacles, and emphasized to his European correspondents the nature of the young United States and its middle class virtues.
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He was succeeded by Thomas Jefferson, who arrived in France in 1784 - a far more suitable envoy to succeed Franklin in France than the rigidly Puritanical John Adams. However, all three were on the same page during this brief time when they were all together. They worked to facilitate commerce, sought trade agreements, favored free trade, and worked harmoniously - unfortunately with little success. The new nation under the Articles of Confederation was weak, uncoordinated, and completely lacking in diplomatic leverage.
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Also without success was a brief, cool meeting with his loyalist son William in England before Franklin boarded ship for America. There would be - there could be - no reconciliation - and there is no record of any further correspondence between them.
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The Constitutional Convention:

Franklin arrived home in Philadelphia in September, 1785, after a fruitful voyage in which he wrote out in detail his numerous maritime observations and theories. He also tackled the then vexing problem of smoky chimneys. He was met with great public acclaim, settled at home with his daughter, Sarah, her husband and numerous children, among others, and again energized his many associations. He built two new houses and extended the existing one, including a large room for his large library. He came up with yet another invention - a mechanical arm for retrieving books from high shelves.
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The most important ingredient that he added to the Convention, Isaacson notes, was "a spirit of Enlightenment tolerance and pragmatic compromise."

Pennsylvania nominated Franklin for the presidency of its executive council - essentially the governor of the state. It also nominated him as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. To illustrate why change was essential, Isaacson sets forth a few of the problems of governance under the Articles of Confederation.
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The Convention was held in secret. Most of what we know of what happened at the Convention comes from delegate journals, especially that of James Madison.
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Franklin was now 82 years of age, and increasingly frail. His reform proposals were generally "politely listened to and, sometimes with a bit of embarrassment, tabled." The problem for Franklin was that he was far more comfortable with democracy than the great majority of the delegates. Among the primary founding fathers, perhaps only George Mason of Virginia, and Jefferson - still with John Adams on diplomatic duty in Europe - were more idealistic than Franklin. However, unlike Jefferson, Franklin was always open minded and, in spite of ideological differences, maintained a high opinion for the caliber of men he was working with.
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Franklin had traveled throughout the colonies, and was far more familiar with all the states than anyone else. However, the most important ingredient that he added to the Convention, Isaacson notes, was "a spirit of Enlightenment tolerance and pragmatic compromise." Time after time, he would emphasize the need for compromise and accommodation - the conciliation of "jarring interests."
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The small states adamantly opposed representation proportional to population, which would leave power in the hands of the larger states.

"Declarations of fixed opinion, and of determined resolution never to change it, neither enlighten nor convince us. - - - Positiveness and warmth on one side, naturally beget their like on the other."

It was agreed that an entirely new constitution providing a strong national government was needed. The Virginia delegation took the lead on this vital point. A bicameral legislature was then agreed to. However, the Convention almost came apart over the vexing dispute over representation. The small states adamantly opposed representation proportional to population, which would leave power in the hands of the larger states.
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Franklin then drafted a speech advising compromise. It was read by another delegate due to Franklin's infirmities. He pleaded that members must consult, not contend. Drawing on long held beliefs, he said:

"Declarations of fixed opinion, and of determined resolution never to change it, neither enlighten nor convince us. - - - Positiveness and warmth on one side, naturally beget their like on the other."

He himself had abandoned several of his favorite ideas. Now it was time for all members to seek compromise. Isaacson sets forth Franklin's many personal suggestions - none of them accepted.

"More important than his specific ideas was his tone of moderation and conciliation. His speech, with its openness to new ideas and absence of one-sided advocacy, provided time for tempers to cool, and his call for creative compromise had an effect."

History was watching, Franklin emphasized. Insistence on "our little, partial local interests, our projects," would result in failure that would make them "a reproach and a by-word down to future ages."

The "Connecticut Compromise" was offered by Roger Sherman and Samuel Johnson of that state soon after the speech. Representation would be apportioned by population in the lower chamber, but each state would get one senator in the upper chamber. However, it was initially narrowly rejected, and the dispute over voting strength again began getting out of hand. Franklin even suggested prayer at the start of each day to cool tempers, but the delegates would not come up with money to hire a chaplain. He famously explained:

"The longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- that God governs 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?"

History was watching, he emphasized. Insistence on "our little, partial local interests, our projects," would result in failure that would make the delegates "a reproach and a by-word down to future ages."
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The key compromise on Congressional representation had been proposed unsuccessfully several times and wasn't accepted until Franklin proposed that it be considered again. He was also on the committee that nailed down the details.

"Representatives to the lower House would be popularly elected and apportioned by population, but in the Senate 'the Legislatures of the several States shall choose and send an equal number of Delegates.'"

It was one of the most essential of the compromises that saved the Convention. Many possible compromises had already been discussed and rejected. Isaacson asserts that Franklin's role in pushing it through was crucial.

"He embodied the spirit and issued the call for compromise, he selected the most palatable option available and refined it. His prestige, his neutrality, and his eminence made it easier for all to swallow. The artisan had taken a little from all sides and made a joint good enough to hold together a nation for centuries."

This was not the only favorable compromise won by the small states. The electoral weight of the smallest states was doubled and even tripled in the electoral college by calculating the number of electors for each state on the basis of the number of their Senators as well as their Representatives. Moreover, approval of treaties and the most important Presidential appointments was placed in the Senate where the small states had their greatest strength. Senate filibuster provisions and Senatorial courtesy practices would further add to the influence of the smaller states.
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This has not been without cost. The results can be seen today in the destructive practice of providing protection for sugar plantations (hardly a strategic national industry) - and massive subsidies to wealthy agribusinesses - and all manner of "earmarks" for "bridges to nowhere." However, only idealistic fools and ideologues dream of perfection in political governance.

When supporting many of the more democratic alternative provisions considered by the Convention, Franklin was not always on the losing side. He unsuccessfully opposed the presidential veto. He successfully opposed Alexander Hamilton's efforts in favor of presidential life tenure. He successfully favored Congressional impeachment powers. He unsuccessfully favored direct election of federal judges. He successfully opposed property and wealth qualifications for elective office and voting rights. He also unsuccessfully favored having federal officials serve without pay - one Franklin supported alternative that would have had an anti democratic impact.
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He unsuccessfully favored a small executive council rather than a single president. However, that president - in the person of George Washington - was already presiding over the Convention as perhaps its most dominant even if apparently inactive participant. The role of the cabinet was, however, given institutional status.
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Franklin would spend the rest of his life as an active, ardent abolitionist.

The Constitution created an ingenious system in which the power of the national government as well as that of the states derived directly from the citizenry.

The status of slavery was the other most essential issue requiring compromise at the Convention. Franklin understood that this was the one issue that could most threaten the union, and did not personally address it at the Convention. However, Franklin would spend the rest of his life as an active, ardent abolitionist.
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Isaacson views the medley of compromises "as close to perfect as mortals have achieved," and, except for the inability to confront the issue of slavery, offers no critical comments about any of them.

"From its profound first three words, 'We the people,' to the carefully calibrated compromises and balances that followed, it created an ingenious system in which the power of the national government as well as that of the states derived directly from the citizenry. And thus it fulfilled the motto on the nation's great seal, suggested by Franklin in 1776, of E Pluribus Unum, out of many one."

I doubt, too, whether any other convention we can obtain may be able to make a better Constitution; for, when you assemble a number of men, to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views.

At the end of the Convention, Franklin summed up with a classic commentary on the new Constitution.

"I confess that I do not entirely approve this Constitution at present; but, sir, I am not sure I shall never approve it; For, having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that, the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment and pay more respect to the judgment of others.
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"Most men, indeed as well as most sects in religion, think themselves in possession of all truth, and that whatever others differ from them, it is so far in error. Steele, a Protestant, in a dedication, tells the Pope that the only difference between our two churches in their opinions of the certainty of their doctrine is, the Romish Church is infallible, and the Church of England is never wrong. - - -"
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"In these sentiments, sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults -- if they are such -- because I think a general government necessary for us - - -. I doubt, too, whether any other convention we can obtain may be able to make a better Constitution; for, when you assemble a number of men, to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected?
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"It therefore astonishes me, sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear that our councils are confounded like those of the builders of Babel, and that our States are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another's throats. Thus I consent, sir, to this Constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure that it is not the best."

"A republic, madam, if you can keep it."

All but three of the delegates remaining at the Convention put aside their doubts at Franklin's urging so that the document could be approved unanimously by the state delegations present. At the end, pointing at a carving of the sun on the back of Washington's chair, Franklin noted that his doubts as to whether that son was rising or setting had been resolved in favor of the former. When asked by a woman outside the Convention hall what type of government had been created, he responded: "A republic, madam, if you can keep it."
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His pragmatic emphasis on conciliation of different interests - on compromise and accommodation - is in fact the key to democratic governance and successful management of the collective affairs of a free people.

There was only one issue that could not be solved by compromise: slavery.

Franklin had been active in all aspects of the creation of the new nation - from development of its civil society to the slow unification of interests of the separate colonies. He is the only one who signed all the founding documents - the Declaration of Independence, the treaty with France, the peace treaty with Britain, and the Constitution. His Albany Plan was the first formal proposal for a federal scheme of national unity. His pragmatic emphasis on conciliation of different interests - on compromise and accommodation - criticized by those who permit themselves to be blinded by passions and/or sharp ideological views - is in fact the key to democratic governance and successful management of the collective affairs of a free people.

"[For Franklin], compromise was not only a practical approach, but a moral one. Tolerance, humility, and a respect for others required it. On almost every issue for more than two centuries, this supposed fault has served the Constitution, and the nation that it formed, quite well. There was only one issue that could not, then or later, be solved by constitutional compromise: slavery."

Franklin died April 17, 1790, at age 84. Clergymen of all faiths attended his funeral - a final tribute to his work for religious tolerance and freedom for all humane faiths.

The young Benjamin Franklin	Civil society leader	Albany Plan
French and Indian War	Diplomat in London	Stamp Act (1765)
Townshend duties (1767)	American Revolution	Declaration of Independence
Alliance with France	Paris Peace Treaty	Constitutional Convention