Handout A: Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)

Our Constitution is in actual operation; everything appears to promise that it will last; but in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.

—Benjamin Franklin, Letter to M. Leroy, 1789

Introduction

Although his voice was weak, it could be clearly heard throughout Convention Hall in Philadelphia. The delegates had temporarily ceased their bickering as Benjamin Franklin, at eighty-one years the oldest member of the group, read one of his proposals. With the exception of George Washington, Franklin was probably the most esteemed member of the remarkable group of statesmen who filled Convention Hall that hot summer of 1787. Franklin had repeatedly called for harmony in the proceedings. This newest proposal, like his previous ones, sought to forge a compromise among the delegates.

A Civic Leader

Franklin was a successful American entrepreneur. As such, he looked for ways to improve the lives of his fellow citizens through his many inventions, and the formation of beneficial voluntary organizations. He also served in colonial government, represented Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress, and as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. His cardinal teaching was that “the most acceptable Service of God is doing Good to Man.” Franklin sought to promote public virtues through his many writings, such as Poor Richard’s Almanack. He formed a secret society, the Junto, to promote beneficial ideas. In 1743, he helped to create the American Philosophical Society to advance the cause of science in the New World. He also played a major role in building the first fire department, the first public library, and the first hospital in Philadelphia.

Franklin also worked to improve his community through scientific invention. An example of his selflessness was his refusal to accept patent protection for his famous stove. “That as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others,” Franklin asserted, “we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously.”

His fellow citizens repeatedly called upon Franklin to serve in public. He served as deputy postmaster of Philadelphia and deputy postmaster general of the colonies. He was a clerk for and later a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly. After American independence, he established the U.S. Post Office. “I shall never ask, never refuse, nor ever resign an office,” Franklin once declared.

The Albany Plan

In 1754, the prospect of war with the French led several of the royal governors to call for a congress of all the colonies. One purpose of the meeting was to plan war operations against the French. Another purpose was to prepare some plan of confederation among the colonies. Only seven colonies sent commissioners to this congress, which met in Albany, New York. Reception among the American colonists and the colonial newspapers was generally unfavorable. But Franklin’s own Pennsylvania Gazette ran a political cartoon with the motto “Join, or Die!”

At Albany, Franklin drafted and introduced the first formal proposal for a permanent union of the thirteen colonies. This became known as the Albany Plan. It was similar to the decentralized system of government that would later emerge under the Articles of Confederation. There would be a union of the colonies under a single central government, though each colony would preserve its local independence.

Public opinion, however, was not yet ready for a centralized colonial government. Though the Albany Congress did adopt Franklin’s plan, the colonial assemblies rejected it because it encroached on their powers. The British government also disapproved of the plan, fearing it would give the colonies too much independence.

Defender of American Rights

Between 1757 and 1775, Franklin resided in England as an agent for several colonies. During the Stamp Act crisis of 1765 he became famous in London as a defender of American rights. The British later branded Franklin a traitor. He escaped probable imprisonment by returning to Philadelphia in May 1775. There he was received as a hero of the American cause and was immediately nominated to be a member of the Second Continental Congress. Thirteen months later, he served on the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence. He then served as president of Pennsylvania’s constitutional convention.

Not long afterward, the aged statesman set sail once again for Europe as a diplomat for the newly established United States of America. Franklin succeeded in gaining French support for the American Revolution. As commissioner to France from 1779–1785, Franklin, along with John Jay and John Adams, negotiated the Treaty of Paris (1783) that ended the War for Independence.

Sage of the Constitutional Convention

Franklin arrived back in the United States in 1785. Believing the Articles of Confederation to be too weak, he joined in the call for a Constitutional Convention. He was chosen to represent the state of Pennsylvania at the Constitutional Convention that met in Philadelphia in the summer of 1787. At 81, Franklin was the oldest member of the convention. He attended almost every session, though his age and illness sometimes made it necessary for others to speak for him.

Franklin’s prestige reassured his countrymen about the meeting in Philadelphia, and his presence promoted harmony in the proceedings. Franklin made several successful proposals at the Convention. His ideas often reflected his sympathy with the common people. For example, he favored giving the lower house of Congress the sole power to propose money and tax bills. Franklin believed that the lower house would reflect the “public spirit of our common people.” He also successfully opposed property requirements for voting and financial tests for holders of federal office.

Though he favored a stronger central government, Franklin also worried about the possibility of tyranny. He therefore desired a clear listing of the powers of the federal government. He also supported an executive council instead of a single president. When this idea failed, Franklin seconded Virginian George Mason’s call for an advisory council to the president. He believed that the president should be limited to only one term in office, so that no one man should gain too much power. He also opposed giving the executive absolute veto power over the Congress. Franklin’s proposals met with some success. A cabinet was established, and Congress was given the power to override presidential vetoes by a two-thirds vote.

On September 17, the convention met for the last time. Fellow Pennsylvanian James Wilson delivered a speech on behalf of Franklin in support of the Constitution. Passage of the plan, Franklin asserted in the speech, “will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear . . . that our States are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another’s throats.” The new Constitution was ratified into law by the states on June 21, 1788.

Franklin was concerned, however, that the issue of slavery could someday result in the states “cutting one another’s throats.” Franklin had been an opponent of slavery as early as the 1730s. At the convention, he made the case that all free black men be counted as citizens. Such a course, Franklin believed, would have the “excellent effect of inducing the colonies to discourage slavery and to encourage the increase of their free inhabitants.” In 1787, Franklin was elected first president of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. His final public act was signing a petition to Congress recommending dissolution of the slave system.

Franklin was optimistic about America’s future. As the convention delegates signed the Constitution, he pointed to the sun carved into the president’s chair, and reflected: “I have often . . . in the course of this session . . . looked at that . . . without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting; but now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun.” As he exited Convention Hall upon the completion of the Constitution, a woman came up to him and asked what the delegates had created. Franklin responded, “A republic, if you can keep it.” Franklin died two and one-half years later, still optimistic that the republic he helped to shape would endure.

Reading Comprehension Questions

1. List three ways in which Franklin improved the lives of those in his community.
2. What was the Albany Congress?
3. List five proposals that Franklin made at the Constitutional Convention.

Critical Thinking Questions

4. How do you think the other delegates at the Constitutional Convention viewed Franklin?
5. What did Franklin mean when he told the woman outside Convention Hall that the delegates had created “a republic, if you can keep it”?