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“If you would not be forgotten,
as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do
things worth writing.”
The achievements of Benjamin Franklin in the American Revolution are just one
facet of the long life of a truly remarkable and brilliant man. This most
famous citizen of Philadelphia was already bursting with accomplishments by the
time the shots were fired at Lexington and Concord.
Born in Boston to a candlemaker, he turned away from the family trade at
14 to become a printer’s apprentice, soon began publishing a newspaper, and
later Poor Richard’s Almanac, an annual publication written by Franklin that
became his entrée into public life. He established the first lending library and
organized the first public fire company after his print shop burned to the
ground. In addition to his journalistic and civic pursuits, he was a self-taught
scientist and inventor, and when revolution finally came (a cause to which the
individualistic Franklin was a late convert), he found perhaps his greatest
skill as a diplomat, currying favor for his upstart country at the royal court
of France. His efforts were successful, and France finally entered the war on
the American side, thus helping to assure victory.
Ben Franklin was the uncommon common man, an American visionary whose
legacy looms large. Like the resurgent nation, Franklin was always reinventing
himself and becoming something more than what he was. He was a persistent
advocate for the causes in which he believed, and he understood (and used well) the
power of words to turn world events.
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Benjamin Franklin
(1706–1790) |
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