When it comes to the Founding Fathers, I'm in the "mostly pretty darned good" camp. Best idea: "All men are created equal." (Imperfectly executed, but a noble thought.) Best thing about them: a lot of them were deists. Not quite as good as atheist, but they believed that belief in God was rational (which even I'll admit in some ways it is, e.g., reason for being/making some sense out of the whole big mess). And deists didn't believe that God played an active role in the day-to-day and that humans should use their reason to solve their own damned problems. And they didn't believe that the U.S. should be a Christian nation.
On the other hand, a lot of them were slaveowners. Sure, men of their times and position, etc. Still, not a great look. And then there's the Electoral College. Thanks for nothing, guys.
Historically, if I were asked who my favorite Founding Father was, you might think I'd have picked local boy John Adams - not just for himself, but for his wonderful wife Abigail. But, no. I always leaned towards Jefferson.
I can trace my Jeffersonian fandom to 1972, when I visited his home in Monticello. All those cool inventions, like the swivel chair, the dumbwaiter, and a pasta-making machine. Plus he helped popularize mac 'n cheese AND ice cream in the U.S. He was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, which remains a beautiful piece of writing. (I read it every Fourth of July.) But offsetting the man's greatness was not just his being just any-old-Southern-slaveowner. There's the Sally Hemings thing. Hemings was one of his slaves, and Jefferson began having sexual relations with her when she was 14 and Jefferson was 44. He fathered a number of children with her. (On the plus side, Jefferson did free their children. So there's that.)
But now that I've watched Ken Burns' PBS documentary on Ben Franklin, I'm coming around to some serious fandom.
I have, of course, always known about Ben. In grammar school, we even learned a little ditty about him:
Benjamin Franklin, inventor was he
Out in a storm with a kite and a key
Found how electric the lightning can be
Good old Benjamin Franklin
And I knew that he was born in Boston, but left - runaway to get away from the older brother he was indentured to - to make his fortune in Philadelphia. That he was a printer. An inventor - out in that storm, with that kite and that key. Poor Richard's Almanac. A Founding Father. The first Postmaster General. Ambassador to France. The face on the hundred dollar bill. Bald.
And then I watched the Burns' documentary, and learned so much more. And began to appreciate Franklin's genius and greatness.
At 10, he was taken out of school to work for the family's candle-making business, but he was what we'd call now a lifelong learner. A couple of years later, he was apprenticed - with a 9 year indenture - to his brother James. Where he kept learning. And started writing, irreverent and pointed essays, for his brother's upstart, anti-establishment newspaper, under the name "Silence Dogood."
At the age 17, he high-tailed it out of Boston, illegally fleeing the apprenticeship he had legally signed on for.
I'm not going to live tweet (or unlive blog) the show, but what an adventurous life the man lived.
And unlike the other Founding Fathers (most? all?), he came from a background that was very modest. A self made man!
Among his inventions: Bifocals. (Thanks, Ben.) Swim fins (of all things). The lightning rod. (The song was correct: he found how electric the lightning can be. And saved the life of plenty of bellringers and others who'd been struck by lightning.) The Franklin stove. The flexible catheter. The first electrical battery. (And named it the battery.) And he never patented any of his adventures, because he wanted people to benefit from them.
Because books were so important to him, his gateway to learning, he founded the first lending library, predecessor to the free public libraries. He published Pamela, the first novel published in America. (Friends, I read Pamela for AP English.) And he founded the college that became Penn.
Self-educated, he ended up with honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, and William and Mary.
He helped cook up the idea of uniting the colonies, i.e., the idea of the United States.
Franklin was, as his first pen name implied, a do gooder, and - marketing genius - came up with the idea of the matching gift campaign to help raise funds for important civic initiatives.
He was funny: clever, a witty writer. (I'm not familiar with any of the other Founding Fathers having a sense of humor.)
Interesting that, among the Founding Fathers, Franklin was something of the Founding Grandfather. He was born in 1706. Washington was born in 1732, Jefferson in 1743.
Ben Franklin wasn't perfect. He had slaves, house servants. And often wrote about the inferiority of Blacks. (He did offer a bit of reflection on his racist ideas, writing that maybe he was just caught up in his own biases.) Eventually, though, influenced by his Quaker friends, he freed his slaves and became a staunch abolitionist.
He also railed against non-English (especially 'swarthy' immigrants).
Still, he was a very wise man, who had a lot of very wise things to say.
There never was a good war or a bad peace.
He that lies down with Dogs, shall rise up with fleas.
Fish and visitors stink in three days
There never was a good war or a bad peace.
He that lies down with Dogs, shall rise up with fleas.Haste makes waste
There is so much there there...
So, out with the old (Thomas Jefferson). In with the new: Ben Franklin fan girl here.
I'd never heard this one, but Ben Franklin also said:
If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth the writing.
You did, indeed.
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Philadelphia is, of course, more associated with Ben Franklin than Boston is, but he was/is one of our own. The picture here is of a statue of Ben that stands in front our our Old City Hall.
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