His life spanned 1706 to 1790, a century of kings, emperors, “lords,” and of precious little representative government or democracy. Too often we take for granted that our new nation could establish a Republic in a world of monarchies and of privileged hereditary elites.
Who you were — and who you became — depended on who your father was (buttressed by the status of the family for your arranged marriage). In the “Old World,” marriage was considered too important to be left to young adults; parents chose your love, then you were expected to love that choice.
Benjamin Franklin was a barrier buster in many ways (including marriage). More than that, he was a creative force both for bolstering individual freedoms and for building the kinds of communities that create and advance democratic, civil societies.
As mentioned in my previous column, I participated in my first rating of the greatest Americans in 1976.
My second choice was Thomas Jefferson (more on that at some future date).
Among the several factors that caused me to select Franklin was recognizing how much he had already achieved before Jefferson was born in 1743.
In 1776, Franklin was 26 years older than Washington, 29 years in advance of John Adams, and nearly half a century older than James Madison and Alexander Hamilton.
Franklin’s Autobiography was a remarkable demonstration of “The American Dream” of success, but it did not cover the range and depth of the man’s expanding democratic endeavors. Few who read his book realized that it only covered his life to 1757.
He could have remained comfortably on the sidelines at age 70 (afflicted with gout) when Independence was declared in 1776.
Instead, he was bolder as he got older, leading efforts for more democracy and expanding human rights. [Now, when 10,000 people a day turn age 65, it is encouraging to see Franklin the “Senior Citizen as Revolutionary”].
It is no small task to highlight Franklin’s greatness (I may emulate Lin-Manuel Miranda’s great hit of “Hamilton,” and do a musical production of Franklin.
I would also do it in Hip Hop, because as writer Leah Libresco has pointed out: if the pace of Hip Hop had not been used for Hamilton, the duration of the show would have been more than twice as long. [see http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/hamilton-is-the-very-model-of-a-modern-fast-paced-musical/]
So, for now, a speeded-up summary of Franklin’s huge democratic significance:
1. He valued reading and learning from an early age. He is a model of a person becoming “self-educated.”
He only had two years of formal schooling, but he wrote frequently of his “thirst for knowledge.” He was a founder of book clubs (while still a teen), noting: “We read to one another and conferr’d on what we read.”
2. He had a teenage “internship” that shaped his later life — and ours. He took over running his brother’s newspaper and wrote anonymous social criticisms (unknown by his brother, but providing early demonstrations of the power of the press in a free society; this was a major theme throughout his entire life.
He practiced and celebrated a marketplace of ideas).
3. At the age of 21, he established “The Junto” in Philadelphia (it lasted more than 40 years).
This was one of several models for community building by fostering civil, deliberative discourse (a major theme worthy of a book chapter by itself). At its core, Ben invited others to meet regularly, partly for mutual assistance, but also to consider ways to improve their society for everyone. The meetings always involved quests for knowledge and understanding that embodied the spirit of the American Enlightenment.
4. America’s Enlightenment, with Franklin as its distinctive champion, was different from the European counterparts because Franklin led the way to engage the entire population not just the privileged elite.
Given his own modest beginnings, it is not surprising that Franklin for the entirety of his life pushed for an inclusive society — one based, not on religion and theology, but on the capacity of all citizens to make informed, public judgments when they had access to reliable knowledge.
5. To those ends, it is no surprise that Franklin is the father of the American Public Library system (an “arsenal for knowledge” in the service of self-improvement and democratic society).
In addition to founding the secular college of Pennsylvania, Franklin was the major influence on the most “radical” State Constitution of the Revolutionary era.
6. Not surprising to those who knew him, Franklin wrote an inclusive constitution, the only one without property qualifications for voting, and one that eliminated the positions of governor and an “upper” house, as being inconsistent with rule by the people (why, he argued, should there be a redundancy of a second legislative chamber or an executive when citizens had already chosen their unicameral representatives?)
7. Both for the State and at the 1787 Constitutional Convention, Franklin pushed for and achieved provisions for amendments, reflecting his continuing reform attitude.
8. Franklin was the best known and most admired American throughout the world. His reputation blossomed because of his scientific experiments and his writings. His cosmopolitan spirit was shown in the many years he spent in other nations, especially representing the new United States as the best diplomat our nation has ever sent abroad (in the judgment of historian Richard B. Morris).
9. In 1790, as President of the Pennsylvania Manumission Society (while crippled by gout), he led efforts to pressure the U.S. Congress to face the paradox of a nation committed to liberty that also supported slavery.
10. Ben Franklin was also America’s first great humorist (Walter Isaacson’s biography shows his use of satire and irony, as well as “bagatelles,” throughout his long life.) Ben’s pal, Thomas Paine wrote: “Those who knew Benjamin Franklin will recollect that his mind was ever young; science that never grows grey, was always his mistress.”
To my mind, one of the most endearing tributes to Franklin was expressed by his 13 year-old grandson in 1783, when Ben was already 77.
Teen “Benny” said that his elder namesake was “very different from other old persons . . . for they are fretful and complaining, and dissatisfied [but] my grandpa is laughing and cheerful like a young person.”
Benjamin Franklin clearly fulfilled the ancient Greek salute: “May you die young — as late in life as possible!”
