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As a master of the relationship between power and diplomacy, Franklin knew that it would be impossible to win at the negotiating table what was unwinnable on the battlefield.
they who threaten are afraid.”
exhibiting great patience when the pieces were not properly aligned and carefully exploiting strategic advantages when they were.
Franklin had been instrumental in shaping the three great documents of the war: the Declaration of Independence, the alliance with France, and the treaty with England.
His antipathy to excess wealth also led him to defend high taxes, especially on luxuries. A person had a “natural right” to all he earned that was necessary to support himself and his family,
“but all property superfluous to such purposes is the property of the public, who by their laws have created it.”
To some of his contemporaries, both rich and poor, Franklin’s social philosophy seemed an odd mix of conservative and radical beliefs. In fact, however, it formed a very coherent leather-apron outlook. Unlike many subsequent revolutions, the American was not a radical rebellion by an oppressed proletariat. Instead, it was led largely by propertied and shopkeeping 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
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Franklin’s theories that top government officials should serve without pay
In his spare time, Franklin perfected one of his most famous and useful inventions: bifocal glasses.
(Another member of Franklin’s commission, Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, would also have his name turned into a neologism during the French Revolution.)
“No one can replace him, Sir, I am only his successor.”
“the United States will never have a more zealous and more useful servant than M. Franklin.”
eighth and final crossing of the Atlantic.
Having taken William’s son from him, he was now extracting his wealth and his connections to America.
both nominated him for the state executive council and then its presidency, the equivalent of the governorship, to which he was elected almost unanimously.
he was, by far, the most traveled of the delegates, and he knew not only the nations of Europe but the thirteen states, appreciating both what they had in common and how they differed.
“Both sides must part with some of their demands,”
Some people, Franklin initially among them, were in favor of creating a supreme national government and reducing the states to a subordinate role.
To give the state governments some stake in the new Congress, the delegates decided that the upper chamber, dubbed the Senate after the Roman precedent, would be chosen by the state legislatures rather than by the House of Representatives. (This procedure remained in effect until 1913.)21
“Declarations of a fixed opinion, and of determined resolution never to change it, neither enlighten nor convince us,”
With his deft and self-deprecating use of double negatives—“I am not sure I shall never approve it,” “I am not sure that it is not the best”—he emphasized the humility and appreciation for human fallibility that was necessary to form a nation. Opponents attacked Franklin’s compromising approach as lacking in principle, yet that was the point of his message. “A stand for compromise,” Oberg points out, “is not the stuff of heroism, virtue, or moral certainty. But it is the essence of the democratic process.”34
he had been instrumental in shaping every major document that led to the creation of the new republic. He was the only person to sign all four of its founding papers: the Declaration of Independence, the treaty with France, the peace accord with Britain, and the Constitution.
For Franklin, who embodied the Enlightenment and its spirit of compromise, this was hardly a fault. For him, compromise was not only a practical approach but a moral one. Tolerance, humility, and a respect for others required it.
“When the fermentation is over and the troubling parts subsided, the wine will be fine and good, and cheer the hearts of those that drink it.”
Franklin and his petition were roundly denounced by the defenders of slavery, most notably Congressman James Jackson of Georgia, who declared on the House floor that the Bible had sanctioned slavery and, without it, there would be no one to do the hard and hot work on plantations.
His support for religion tended to be based on his belief that it was useful and practical in making people behave better, rather than because it was divinely inspired.
He was on the side of religious tolerance rather than evangelical faith. The side of social mobility rather than an established elite. The side of middle-class virtues rather than more ethereal noble aspirations.
He rose up the social ladder, from runaway apprentice to dining with kings, in a way that would become quintessentially American.
Eripuit cœlo fulmen sceptrumque tyrannis, he snatched lightning from the sky and the scepter from tyrants.
