Benjamin
Franklin
Silver
Commemorative Medallion
Franklin was born in 1706 at
Boston. He was the tenth son of a soap and candle maker. He received
some formal education but was principally self-taught. After serving an
apprenticeship to his father between the ages of 10 and 12, he went to work
for his half-brother James, a printer. In 1721 the latter founded the New
England Courant, the fourth newspaper in the colonies. Benjamin secretly
contributed 14 essays to it, his first published writings.
In 1723, because of dissension
with his half-brother, Franklin moved to Philadelphia, where he obtained
employment as a printer. He spent only a year there and then sailed to
London for 2 more years. Back in Philadelphia, he rose rapidly in the printing
industry. He published The Pennsylvania Gazette (1730-48), which had
been founded by another man in 1728, but his most successful literary venture
was the annual Poor Richard 's Almanac (1733-58). It won a popularity in the
colonies second only to the Bible, and its fame eventually spread to Europe.
Meantime, in 1730 Franklin had
taken a common-law wife, Deborah Read, who was to bear him a son and daughter,
and he also apparently had children with another nameless woman out of
wedlock. By 1748 he had achieved financial independence and gained
recognition for his philanthropy and the stimulus he provided to such civic
causes as libraries, educational institutions, and hospitals. Energetic
and tireless, he also found time to pursue his interest in science, as well as
to enter politics.
Franklin served as clerk
(1736-51) and member (1751-64) of the colonial legislature and as deputy
postmaster of Philadelphia (1737-53) and deputy postmaster general of the
colonies (1753-74). In addition, he represented Pennsylvania at the Albany
Congress (1754), called to unite the colonies during the French and Indian
War. The congress adopted his "Plan of Union," but the colonial
assemblies rejected it because it encroached on their powers.
During the years 1757-62 and
1764-75, Franklin resided in England, originally in the capacity of agent for
Pennsylvania and later for Georgia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. During the
latter period, which coincided with the growth of colonial unrest, he
underwent a political metamorphosis. Until then a contented Englishman
in outlook, primarily concerned with Pennsylvania provincial politics, he
distrusted popular movements and saw little purpose to be served in carrying
principle to extremes. Until the issue of parliamentary taxation undermined
the old alliances, he led the Quaker party attack on the Anglican proprietary
party and its Presbyterian frontier allies. His purpose throughout the years
at London in fact had been displacement of the Penn family administration by
royal authority-the conversion of the province from a proprietary to a royal
colony.
It was during the Stamp Act
crisis that Franklin evolved from leader of a shattered provincial party's
faction to celebrated spokesman at London for American rights. Although
as agent for Pennsylvania he opposed by every conceivable means the enactment
of the bill in 1765, he did not at first realize the depth of colonial
hostility. He regarded passage as unavoidable and preferred to submit to
it while actually working for its repeal.
Franklin's nomination of a
friend and political ally as stamp distributor for Pennsylvania, coupled with
his apparent acceptance of the legislation, armed his proprietary opponents
with explosive issues. Their energetic exploitation of them endangered his
reputation at home until reliable information was published demonstrating his
unabated opposition to the act. For a time, mob resentment threatened
his family and new home in Philadelphia until his tradesmen supporters
rallied. Subsequently, Franklin's defense of the American position in
the House of Commons during the debates over the Stamp Act's repeal restored
his prestige at home.
Franklin returned to
Philadelphia in May 1775 and immediately became a distinguished member of the
Continental Congress. Thirteen months later, he served on the committee that
drafted the Declaration of Independence. He subsequently contributed to
the government in other important ways, including service as postmaster
general, and took over the duties of president of the Pennsylvania
constitutional convention.
But, within less than a year and
a half after his return, the aged statesman set sail once again for Europe,
beginning a career as diplomat that would occupy him for most of the rest of
his life. In the years 1776-79, as one of three commissioners, he directed the
negotiations that led to treaties of commerce and alliance with France, where
the people adulated him, but he and the other commissioners squabbled
constantly. While he was sole commissioner to France (1779-85), he and
John Jay and John Adams negotiated the Treaty of Paris (1783), which ended the
War for Independence.
Back in the United States, in
1785 Franklin became president of the Supreme Executive Council of
Pennsylvania. At the Constitutional Convention, though he did not
approve of many aspects of the finished document and was hampered by his age
and ill-health, he missed few if any sessions, lent his prestige, soothed
passions, and compromised disputes.
In his twilight years, working
on his Autobiography, Franklin could look back on a fruitful life as the toast
of two continents. Energetic nearly to the last, in 1787 he was elected as
first president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of
Slavery-a cause to which he had committed himself as early as the 1730s. His
final public act was signing a memorial to Congress recommending dissolution
of the slavery system. Shortly thereafter, in 1790 at the age of 84,
Franklin passed away in Philadelphia and was laid to rest in Christ Church
Burial Ground.
