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Speaker 1: On this episode of This World. The lies of these

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Speaker 1: men are essential to understand the American form of government

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Speaker 1: and our ideals of liberty. The Founding Fathers all played

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Speaker 1: key roles in securing American independence from Great Britain and

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Speaker 1: in the creation of the government of the United States

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Speaker 1: of America. And now the life of Benjamin Frankman. Of

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Speaker 1: all of the Founding fathers other than George Washington, who

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Speaker 1: literally was the moral strength in which America was created

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Speaker 1: and really was the father of our country, but of

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Speaker 1: all the other Founding fathers except Washington, the one who

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Speaker 1: most deserves to be considered an immortal was Benjamin Franklin.

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Speaker 1: You can make a case, and some people will for

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Speaker 1: Thomas Jefferson, who helped with Franklin to write the Declaration

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Speaker 1: of Independence, who became president, but for sheer scale of achievement,

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Speaker 1: for range of ideas, for the number of different kinds

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Speaker 1: of contributions, Benjamin Franklin literally is an immortal. He also

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Speaker 1: is a great sign of what was making America really

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Speaker 1: different because he was someone who rose by his own efforts,

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Speaker 1: not because he was an aristocrat, not because he'd inherited

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Speaker 1: a lot of money, not because he had a unique position,

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Speaker 1: but just because he worked really hard and he was

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Speaker 1: really smart, and the result was because he had this

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Speaker 1: endless interest in life that every time he turned around

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Speaker 1: he was doing something fascinating, and much of the time

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Speaker 1: he was doing things that were historic and that literally

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Speaker 1: changed history for all of us. When you wear bifocal glasses,

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Speaker 1: you are, after all, dealing with an invention of Benjamin Franklin.

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Speaker 1: When you think about having a lightning rod to divert

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Speaker 1: the lightning so that your house doesn't burn up, you're

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Speaker 1: dealing with an invention of Benjamin Franklin. The whole concept

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Speaker 1: of constantly tinkering, constantly learning. The discovery of electricity, which

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Speaker 1: is a true story. He goes out he wants to

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Speaker 1: figure out how electricity occurs, and so he flies a

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Speaker 1: kite in the middle of a thunderstorm and he attaches

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Speaker 1: metal so that lightning hits and he suddenly has discovered electricity.

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Speaker 1: This was at the time comparable to Einstein in the

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Speaker 1: twentieth century discovering relativity. People across the planet were stunned

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Speaker 1: that this American had undertaken But if you think about

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Speaker 1: it is a very common sense, non theoretical experiment and

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Speaker 1: That is sort of what marks Franklin. He just applies

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Speaker 1: common sense with a lot of intelligence, a real willingness

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Speaker 1: to work, and a kind of funny stubbornness. Now, remember

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Speaker 1: Franklin is born in Boston in seventeen o six, the

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Speaker 1: beginning of a new century. He's the tenth son out

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Speaker 1: of seventeen children. And that was an era where the

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Speaker 1: number one attitude was you got to earn a living. Frankly,

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Speaker 1: if you want to leave town, we got other kids

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Speaker 1: here too, and we'd rather have you produce money than

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Speaker 1: get a degree. Franklin has stopped schooling. When he was

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Speaker 1: ten years old. He worked in his father's candleshop. He

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Speaker 1: made money, and he listened and paid attention to everybody.

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Speaker 1: The fact is that there was nothing that didn't intrigue him. Now,

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Speaker 1: he also understood that having money was good. So if

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Speaker 1: you watch Franklin's long career, he is at the end

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Speaker 1: the oldest person at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. He's

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Speaker 1: constantly aware of the fact that having money beats not

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Speaker 1: having money. Franklin thought it was good to acquire wealth,

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Speaker 1: that if you acquired wealth, it liberated you. And in fact,

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Speaker 1: his goal was to be rich enough by forty to

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Speaker 1: be able to go into politics. And so he really

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Speaker 1: was working constantly at this question of can I find

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Speaker 1: a way? And he tried many different things simultaneously. He's

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Speaker 1: also focused on invention. He's focused on writing. He's one

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Speaker 1: of those rare people who had so much energy, had

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Speaker 1: such a great capacity to work. You know. Here he is,

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Speaker 1: for example, at eleven years of age, inventing swim fins

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Speaker 1: for his hands. He's eleven years old and he's inventing

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Speaker 1: fins he can put in his hands so he can

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Speaker 1: swim better. By the time he's twelve, he's an apprentice,

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Speaker 1: has left his father's candleshop, and now he's apprentice to

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Speaker 1: his brother. His brother, James, has a printing shop in Boston,

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Speaker 1: and at the age of twelve, Franklin is there, busy

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Speaker 1: work away learning how to print. His brother starts publishing

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Speaker 1: The New England Current, which is the first American newspaper

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Speaker 1: to use literary ideas and humorous essays, and this will

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Speaker 1: become an important part of Franklin's own style. Franklin doesn't

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Speaker 1: just look at facts. He has a very deep sense

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Speaker 1: of humor. He has a little bit cynical sense of humor,

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Speaker 1: I understood the human condition, he was quite willing to

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Speaker 1: write about it. And he also must have been an

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Speaker 1: amazingly fast writer. Remember this is an age when people

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Speaker 1: are setting type one letter at a time, so type

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Speaker 1: setting is a big deal. And if you write as

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Speaker 1: much as Franklin did, you spend a lot of time

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Speaker 1: setting type in order to send this stuff out. So

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Speaker 1: you have here a person who's constantly writing. Now, by

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Speaker 1: the time he's sixteen, he's publishing his first letters and

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Speaker 1: he always publishes fourteen of them. In the current he

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Speaker 1: uses the pen name Silent do Good, invents himself off

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Speaker 1: as a fictional widow of a country minister. You're already

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Speaker 1: seeing the Franklin who is very imaginative, very cheerful about

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Speaker 1: pretending to be a widow. At the same time, when

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Speaker 1: his brother finally realizes that Silent do Good is his

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Speaker 1: younger brother, Benjamin Franklin, he ain't very happy with him.

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Speaker 1: Franklin somehow sort of faking people out, which he was,

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Speaker 1: but he's doing it really cheerfully. So he gets to

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Speaker 1: irritated with his brother and he runs off to Philadelphia

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Speaker 1: because he and his brother can't get along anymore. Now

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Speaker 1: at this point, he is a ripe old seventeen years

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Speaker 1: of age. Philadelphia then was the biggest city in America,

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Speaker 1: the most bustling, had the most commerce, had the most

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Speaker 1: ships coming in from London. Franklin finds work as a

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Speaker 1: printer with Samuel Kimmer, and he lodges the home of

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Speaker 1: John Reid, who at the time he had no idea,

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Speaker 1: but ultimately becomes his father in law. Now, Franklin is

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Speaker 1: a very sociable person, and he was a very good conversationalist,

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Speaker 1: so people liked him. You go to taverns, they we

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Speaker 1: got an extra seat here. Come on over, Ben, sit

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Speaker 1: down and chat with us. Yeah. One of the people

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Speaker 1: who did that was the Pennsylvania governor at the time,

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Speaker 1: William Keith. So he gets to know Franklin. He says,

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Speaker 1: why don't you set up your own print shop. Well,

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Speaker 1: Franklin goes back to Boston asks his father for a loan.

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Speaker 1: His father says, you know, Ben, I mean you're not

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Speaker 1: old enough yet to do this. So Franklin goes back

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Speaker 1: and says to the governor, I'd love to do this.

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Speaker 1: My dad won't loan me the money. The governor loans

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Speaker 1: him the money. Now here's a guy who has only

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Speaker 1: been in town a couple of years and has made

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Speaker 1: such a strong impression that the governor thinks he's a

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Speaker 1: good business risk. Not only does the offer to pay

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Speaker 1: the bill, he offers to send Franklin and pay for

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Speaker 1: Franklin to go to London. Franklin gets to London and

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Speaker 1: a lesson that he will learn many times in his life.

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Speaker 1: The governor forgets to pay for him to come home,

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Speaker 1: so Franklin stuck in London to find the money to

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Speaker 1: come home. But he does come home, and when he

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Speaker 1: comes home, remembering that he had been lodging with John

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Speaker 1: Reid and he'd gotten to know Deborah Read, he asked

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Speaker 1: her to marry him. However, at this point in his

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Speaker 1: life he's only eighteen years old. Deborah's mother is thinking,

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Speaker 1: you know, this is a guy who's a little bit strange,

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Speaker 1: so she says, please be patient, be patient. But when

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Speaker 1: Franklin is abroad in London, Deborah's mother tries to convince

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Speaker 1: Deborah that she ought to marry John Rogers. But Rogers

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Speaker 1: is really a bad guy. He spends her dowry, he

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Speaker 1: runs up debts, he takes off for the West Indies

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Speaker 1: and they think he has died. Franklin, who has not

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Speaker 1: gotten money from the governor come back home, is working

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Speaker 1: at Samuel Palmer's print shop in London in order to

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Speaker 1: publish enough stuff to make enough money to be able

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Speaker 1: to get home, and in seventeen twenty five he publishes

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Speaker 1: his first pamphlet in London, which is called a Dissertatient

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Speaker 1: on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain, and argues that

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Speaker 1: humans actually lack free will and are therefore not morally

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Speaker 1: responsible for their actions. Now, this is a fairly radical idea,

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Speaker 1: and people sort of thought Franklin had lost his mind,

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Speaker 1: but it does not, in the long run a fit

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Speaker 1: who Franklin is, because he certainly did, in fact believe

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Speaker 1: in free will and thought you could make your way,

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Speaker 1: and later in life will write a whole series of

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Speaker 1: articles and books about it. But it doesn't hurt him any.

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Speaker 1: This is the guy who's learning the hard way that

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Speaker 1: politicians don't always keep their word. Because the governor has

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Speaker 1: not brought him back home, so ultimately he does in

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Speaker 1: fact get back to Philadelphia. Took him two years instead

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Speaker 1: of one, and he sees Deborah, and poor Deborah is

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Speaker 1: there with the guy who's run off of their dowry

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Speaker 1: and apparently may have died in the Caribbean, so he

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Speaker 1: tries to make her feel better. He gets his job

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Speaker 1: back at Samuel Kimer's Prince Shop, and the very typical

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Speaker 1: Franklin behavior. Franklin, all his life will see an opportunity

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Speaker 1: to get something done that requires founding an organization of

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Speaker 1: some kind, because he understands that organizations create a life

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Speaker 1: of their own. Well, he founds what's called the Hunto Club,

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Speaker 1: and the hunter Club is a group of young men.

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Speaker 1: They meet on Friday evenings and they discuss everything the

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Speaker 1: intellectual stuff, personal stuff, business stuff, community stuff. So it's

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Speaker 1: a free, willing dialogue. But it does encourage them to

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Speaker 1: read books, It encourages them to think about ideas. It

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Speaker 1: gives him a space to begin to create a personal following,

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Speaker 1: because inevitably, in any group, Franklin'll be the smartest guy,

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Speaker 1: he'll be the best storyteller, and he'll be the funniest person.

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Speaker 1: So now he's been back home, he's worked once again

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Speaker 1: for somebody else, but by seventeen twenty eight he's in

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Speaker 1: a position where he can, now, at twenty two years

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Speaker 1: of age, open his own print shop with Hugh Meredith,

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Speaker 1: and Meredith actually gets a loan from his own father.

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Speaker 1: In seventeen twenty nine, they purchase the Pennsylvania Gazette from

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Speaker 1: Samuel Kimer, and at that point Franklin begins to really

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Speaker 1: row because he likes to write. He can write a lot.

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Speaker 1: He has a style that people are attracted to, and

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Speaker 1: it both increases his name id in modern parlance, and

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Speaker 1: it beans to create more money. He writes a modest

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Speaker 1: inquiry into the nature and necessity of a paper currency,

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Speaker 1: which called for an increase in the money supply to

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Speaker 1: stimulate the economy at this stage of his career, something

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Speaker 1: which will change by late in life. He's basically what

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Speaker 1: we would call an inflationist. He thinks if we have

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Speaker 1: more paper money floating around, people will have more purchasing power,

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Speaker 1: and therefore the economy will work better. And this is

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Speaker 1: part of what has been a permanent running debate in

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Speaker 1: American society between sound money people who believe that money

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Speaker 1: ought to attain its value, and inflationary people who believe

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Speaker 1: that having money gradually depreciate actually increases the purchasing power

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Speaker 1: and increases the economy. And that fight goes on for

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Speaker 1: a long time. Franklin automately decides that paper money's dangerous,

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Speaker 1: and in fact, one of the reasons we end up

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Speaker 1: with the Constitution is to block those who would inflight currency.

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Speaker 1: The reason that mattered is once you have a lot

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Speaker 1: of property, if you're loaning out money that's worth a

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Speaker 1: dollar and they're going to pay you back with money

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Speaker 1: worth ninety cents, you're losing on the loan. So people

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Speaker 1: who are propertied really dislike having an inflationary currency. Franklin

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Speaker 1: goes from a young guy with a theory to an older,

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Speaker 1: wealthy guy with money, and decideses an older wealthy guy,

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Speaker 1: he's with people like Washington who don't want to have

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Speaker 1: an inflationary currency. Now he's picked to be the official

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Speaker 1: government printer for Pennsylvania, and there's a reason that this

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Speaker 1: really matters. Government then, like now is a major purchaser

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Speaker 1: of goods and services. Everything that the state needs published

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Speaker 1: is going to be printed by Benjamin Franklin. So he

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Speaker 1: now has a steady stream of revenue which enables him.

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Speaker 1: And remember at this stage he's twenty four. But at

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Speaker 1: twenty four he's able to buy out Meredith. He becomes

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Speaker 1: the most successful printer in town. He owns his own

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Speaker 1: company and at twenty four, having become the official government printer,

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Speaker 1: Deborah Read's parents think, you know, probably would be a

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Speaker 1: good thing to have. Benjamin Franklin has a son in law.

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Speaker 1: Now he marries her, even though they have no proof

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Speaker 1: that her husband was dead. John Rogers, remember, had married her,

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Speaker 1: spent her dowry, run up a whole bunch of debt,

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Speaker 1: fled to the Caribbean, never been heard of again. And

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Speaker 1: the question was what proof do you have? And Franklin,

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Speaker 1: as he often will, just ignore it. And so he

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Speaker 1: marries Deborah and she plays a huge role in his

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Speaker 1: life as somebody that he leans on. She did agree

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Speaker 1: to raise Franklin's illegitimate son, William. Truth is, historians are

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Speaker 1: not quite sure who the mother was. William becomes the

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Speaker 1: deep part of Franklin's household and later in life will

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Speaker 1: disappoint him deeply by being a loyalist and staying with

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Speaker 1: the British and becoming the governor of New Jersey for

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Speaker 1: the King against the Revolutionaries, which embitters Franklin substantially. Deborah

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Speaker 1: works with Franklin and this becomes a very very important

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Speaker 1: part of his life. She's really his business partner, and

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Speaker 1: when he goes off to do other things, when he

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Speaker 1: goes off to politics or goes off to a diplomat,

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Speaker 1: she's the one who stays home. She didn't particularly want

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Speaker 1: to travel, and given the way ocean travel was in

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Speaker 1: that generation, that's understandable. She ran the businesses, kept them profitable,

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Speaker 1: made him money, and it all seemed to work, and

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Speaker 1: they worked for a very long time until she died.

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Speaker 1: She is a key hidden part of why Franklin was

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Speaker 1: able to be as effective as he was. She also

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Speaker 1: put up with him. She was willing to focus on

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Speaker 1: the mundane business and household side, which would not have

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Speaker 1: made him a historic figure, but was the base of

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Speaker 1: his ability to have the time and energy and resources

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Speaker 1: to be a historic figure. So Franklin got to play

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Speaker 1: at being Van Franklin in large part because he had

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Speaker 1: a wife who was willing to tolerate him, willing to

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Speaker 1: support him, and was smart enough and hard working enough

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Speaker 1: that she could make a bunch of money while he

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Speaker 1: was doing other things. Franklin now that he's married and

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Speaker 1: he owns his own business and he's the largest printer

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Speaker 1: in Philadelphia. Now he turns and he begins to really

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Speaker 1: define himself as a citizen. By seventeen thirty one, he's

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Speaker 1: done all the stuff I've been describing to you, and

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Speaker 1: he's twenty five. He joins the Freemasons, which were a

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Speaker 1: very very important social and quasi religious group for that era.

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Speaker 1: He helps establish the Library Company of Philadelphia, which is

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Speaker 1: the first lending library in America. He aggressively defends the

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Speaker 1: freedom of the press. I would clearly be on the

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Speaker 1: side of those who favor the First Amendment rights of

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Speaker 1: the press, and at twenty five years of age, he

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Speaker 1: publishes an Apology for Printers, which defends freedom of the press.

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Speaker 1: He also enters into a partnership, gets more printing equipment,

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Speaker 1: continues to get wealthier. By seventeen thirty two, they have

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Speaker 1: their first child, Francis Folger Franklin. Sadly, Francis dies from

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Speaker 1: smallpox at the age of four. Franklin never forgives himself

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Speaker 1: because he should have been inoculated smallpox. Inoculation was increasingly popular.

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Speaker 1: People knew about it, and it worked. Franklin would later

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Speaker 1: write in his autobiography quote in seventeen thirty six, I

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Speaker 1: lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four

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Speaker 1: war years old by the smallpox taken in the common way.

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Speaker 1: I long regretted bitterly, and still regret that I have

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Speaker 1: not given it to him by inoculation close quote. Franklin

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Speaker 1: in seventeen thirty two publishes a German foreign language newspaper.

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Speaker 1: In the eighteenth century, there were so many Germans migrating

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Speaker 1: to Pennsylvania that there was serious talk of making German

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Speaker 1: the second language of the country. There was a very

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Speaker 1: large German population. Franklin was deeply opposed to making German

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Speaker 1: the second language, but he wasn't opposed to making money.

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Speaker 1: So he publishes a German language newspaper whose only difficulty

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Speaker 1: as it fails financially. And again it's an example entrepreneurs

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Speaker 1: don't always succeed. Entrepreneurs have to be able to get

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Speaker 1: back up, go back and try it again, and see

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Speaker 1: what they can get done and what they can learn.

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Speaker 1: He also in seventeen thirty two something historic happens in

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Speaker 1: the history of American literature and in the history of

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Speaker 1: Benjamin Franklin. As an American citizen. He publishes the first

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Speaker 1: edition of Poor Richard's Almanac, using a pseudonym of Richard Saunders.

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Speaker 1: Why does poor Richard's almanac matter? It is extraordinarily successful.

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Speaker 1: It's a best seller, and it's going to be a

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Speaker 1: best seller for a generation because he writes it. There's

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Speaker 1: a new almanac every year. It is filled with common

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Speaker 1: sense things like waste not, want not, a stitch in

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Speaker 1: time saves nine, penny wise and pound foolish, things which

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Speaker 1: in our era may not make a great deal of sense.

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Speaker 1: For example, we don't use the British pounds, so the

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Speaker 1: idea of being penny wise and pound foolish meaning you're

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Speaker 1: really smart about a small thing, but you're dumb about

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Speaker 1: a big thing. When it does finally get to be

304
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Speaker 1: obvious who's writing it, it just spreads his fame across

305
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Speaker 1: the whole all of the colonies. He becomes the Grand

306
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Speaker 1: Master of the Grand Lodge of Mason of Pennsylvania. Again,

307
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Speaker 1: he's rising in status, he's rising in influence. He has

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Speaker 1: a bigger and bigger network of friends. By seventeen thirty six,

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Speaker 1: at the age of thirty, he's appointed Clerk of the

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Speaker 1: Pennsylvania Assembly. So now he's helping organize and taking care

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Speaker 1: of the politicians at the same time that the colonial

312
00:19:16,440 --> 00:19:19,760
Speaker 1: government is hiring his firm to print all of the printing,

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Speaker 1: which is helping make him increasingly wealthy in many ways.

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Speaker 1: Franklin's greatest business accomplishment came from the publication of Poor

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Speaker 1: Richard's Almanac. You know. He published it once a year

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Speaker 1: for twenty five years, beginning on December nineteenth, seventeen thirty two,

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Speaker 1: originally under the pseudonym of Richard Saunders, but then ultimately

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Speaker 1: everybody knew it was Benjamin Franklin. It captured all sorts

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Speaker 1: of information about the calendar, weather predictions, sayings, poems, recipes, trivia, advice.

320
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Speaker 1: He thought it was a vehicle of instruction for common people,

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Speaker 1: folks who couldn't afford books normally, it was a literature

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Speaker 1: for the masses, and he was onto something because almanacs

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Speaker 1: were the most read secular books in the colonies. He

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Speaker 1: had little phrases from different years, but they give you

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Speaker 1: a feel for Franklin's sense of what people are to hear.

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00:20:32,080 --> 00:20:35,159
Speaker 1: He wrote, three may keep a secret if two of

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Speaker 1: them are dead. Lost time is never found again, and this,

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Speaker 1: by the way, captures his entire life. He did not

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Speaker 1: like to waste time because he felt it could never

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Speaker 1: be found again. He said, love your enemies, for they

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Speaker 1: tell you your faults and the affairs of this world.

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Speaker 1: Men are saved not by faith, but by the lack

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Speaker 1: of it. If you would not be forgotten as soon

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Speaker 1: as you are dead and rotten. Right, things were worth reading,

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Speaker 1: or do things worth writing, And the way his life was both.

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Speaker 1: The way to see by faith is to shut the

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Speaker 1: eye of reason. Women are books, and men the readers be.

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Speaker 1: There cannot be good living where there is not good drinking,

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Speaker 1: speak little do much. A friend in need is a friend.

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Speaker 1: Indeed to all apparent beauties blind. Each blemish strikes an

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Speaker 1: envious mind. Fish and visitors stink in three days. That

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00:21:29,640 --> 00:21:32,159
Speaker 1: may be one that's remembered as well as anything he

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Speaker 1: ever wrote. Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices.

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Speaker 1: Now there's some advice very seldom followed. Search others for

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Speaker 1: their virtues, thyself for thy vices. He that drinks his

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Speaker 1: cid or alone, let him catch his horse alone. Fools

347
00:21:50,960 --> 00:21:54,120
Speaker 1: need advice most, but wise men only are the better

348
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Speaker 1: for it. So that was classically Franklin, somebody who listen

349
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Speaker 1: and people picked up common sense language, and in fact

350
00:22:03,440 --> 00:22:07,760
Speaker 1: wrote out a set of advice to everyday Americans, some

351
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Speaker 1: of which he followed in his own life, and some

352
00:22:10,240 --> 00:22:13,439
Speaker 1: of which he cheerfully ignored. He helps organize the Union

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Speaker 1: Fire Company of Philadelphia, and the duty of the Union

354
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Speaker 1: Fire Company Philadelphia was to train and organize fireman because

355
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Speaker 1: the city is getting big enough. It's the largest city

356
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Speaker 1: in the New World, and it's getting big enough that

357
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Speaker 1: you need to have an organized fire department because you

358
00:22:28,680 --> 00:22:32,480
Speaker 1: have a real challenge of taking care of houses to

359
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Speaker 1: start to burn down. He also becomes the postmaster of Philadelphia.

360
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Speaker 1: Now this is again an interesting example of Franklin. He

361
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Speaker 1: is now thirty one years old. The British government appoints

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Speaker 1: him postmaster of Philadelphia, which is Frankly in office that

363
00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:55,800
Speaker 1: makes money. Postmasters back then were commercial assignments, so they

364
00:22:55,800 --> 00:22:59,000
Speaker 1: make money out of many different things. And then he

365
00:22:59,040 --> 00:23:02,360
Speaker 1: does something which truly changes history, but in a way

366
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Speaker 1: that's very practical rather than political. In seventeen forty two,

367
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Speaker 1: he invents a free standing cast iron fireplace, which is

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Speaker 1: known as the Franklin stove. Franklin stove, by the way,

369
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Speaker 1: is still available today. You can go online you can

370
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Speaker 1: buy a Franklin stove. It was a very intelligent contribution

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Speaker 1: to a better life because it used wood to generate

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Speaker 1: heat with greater efficiency than the stoves which preceded, And interestingly,

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Speaker 1: in terms of Franklin, he didn't patent it. In fact,

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Speaker 1: he didn't patent any of his inventions. His idea was, look,

375
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Speaker 1: if it works for me and my life is better,

376
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Speaker 1: why shouldn't you be able to build it and your

377
00:23:40,880 --> 00:23:43,280
Speaker 1: life can be better. He thought of this as part

378
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Speaker 1: of his civic life, and he's inventing as a citizen,

379
00:23:47,240 --> 00:23:50,000
Speaker 1: not as a businessman. Now, in the business side, he's

380
00:23:50,080 --> 00:23:53,800
Speaker 1: very tough minded and he's independently wealthy. But as an inventor,

381
00:23:54,000 --> 00:23:57,159
Speaker 1: he just liked inventing things, and of course probably his

382
00:23:57,280 --> 00:24:00,919
Speaker 1: most famous as the vocal glasses. But he just had

383
00:24:00,960 --> 00:24:04,080
Speaker 1: a constant looking at things thinking is a way to

384
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Speaker 1: do it better? Is their way to do it differently.

385
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Speaker 1: In the same time period, by the way, in seventeen

386
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Speaker 1: forty three, when he does have a daughter, Sarah, they

387
00:24:11,600 --> 00:24:14,680
Speaker 1: have her inoculated. They'd learned the lesson tragically from their

388
00:24:14,720 --> 00:24:17,600
Speaker 1: son dying from smallpox. They're not going to take the risk.

389
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Speaker 1: And the same year that his daughter's born, in seventeen

390
00:24:21,119 --> 00:24:25,119
Speaker 1: forty three, he writes a pamphlet called a Proposal for

391
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Speaker 1: Promoting Useful Knowledge, and that leads to the American Philosophical Society.

392
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Speaker 1: And one of the offshoots of the American Philosophical Society

393
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Speaker 1: is the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, which I

394
00:24:37,920 --> 00:24:40,760
Speaker 1: first visited when I was about ten, and went to

395
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Speaker 1: a couple months ago. It is a great institution. It

396
00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:46,359
Speaker 1: has all of Lewis and Clark's material because at the

397
00:24:46,359 --> 00:24:48,880
Speaker 1: time of the Lewis and Clark expedition, he was the

398
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Speaker 1: only major science museum in the country. It's a remarkable place.

399
00:24:53,960 --> 00:24:56,040
Speaker 1: If you go to Philadelphia to go by and see it.

400
00:24:56,560 --> 00:24:58,560
Speaker 1: He wakes up the way. He thinks, oh, why don't

401
00:24:58,560 --> 00:25:02,000
Speaker 1: we have a philosophical society? Well, because he writes so fast,

402
00:25:02,280 --> 00:25:04,399
Speaker 1: I think I'll write a proposal for it. And by

403
00:25:04,480 --> 00:25:06,959
Speaker 1: the way, since I'm a publisher, I think i'll publish it.

404
00:25:07,280 --> 00:25:10,439
Speaker 1: So he's publishing his own pamphlet. At the same time

405
00:25:10,920 --> 00:25:15,600
Speaker 1: he's offering to sell Franklin stoves, and Franklin stoves sell

406
00:25:15,760 --> 00:25:18,040
Speaker 1: very well. Now, he wasn't patenting it. Anybody else who

407
00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:20,320
Speaker 1: wanted to could make a Franklin Stell, but he didn't

408
00:25:20,359 --> 00:25:24,240
Speaker 1: mind making money off it himself. By seventeen forty seven,

409
00:25:24,320 --> 00:25:28,000
Speaker 1: he publishes a pamphlet called Plain Truth and proposes the

410
00:25:28,040 --> 00:25:31,359
Speaker 1: formation of a Philadelphia militia. Now just think about it.

411
00:25:31,520 --> 00:25:32,960
Speaker 1: This is the guy who wakes up in the morning,

412
00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:36,639
Speaker 1: has a big idea and writes it down and sends

413
00:25:36,680 --> 00:25:39,800
Speaker 1: it out. And people begin in the habit now thinking

414
00:25:39,800 --> 00:25:42,680
Speaker 1: I wonder what Franklin's up to next. What makes Franklin

415
00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:45,480
Speaker 1: amazing is at forty two years of age in seventeen

416
00:25:45,560 --> 00:25:49,720
Speaker 1: forty eight, he retires. He's now made enough money. He

417
00:25:49,800 --> 00:25:52,800
Speaker 1: takes on a partner who gives him additional income the

418
00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:55,280
Speaker 1: rest of his life, and the partner runs the daily

419
00:25:55,320 --> 00:25:58,400
Speaker 1: operations of the printing business. And because he now has

420
00:25:58,480 --> 00:26:01,760
Speaker 1: free time, he becomes a member of Philadelphia City Council.

421
00:26:02,480 --> 00:26:10,280
Speaker 1: So now you have businessman, inventor, writer, now politician. And

422
00:26:10,480 --> 00:26:13,600
Speaker 1: by the following year, in seventeen forty nine, he writes

423
00:26:13,720 --> 00:26:17,880
Speaker 1: proposals relating to the education of youth in Philadelphia. There's

424
00:26:17,920 --> 00:26:20,200
Speaker 1: a great story by one of my favorites about Franklin

425
00:26:20,960 --> 00:26:24,160
Speaker 1: is at one point during his political career, he took

426
00:26:24,240 --> 00:26:28,119
Speaker 1: a very unpopular position, and a number of people wanted

427
00:26:28,119 --> 00:26:32,200
Speaker 1: to sort of browbeat Y into giving it up. And

428
00:26:32,280 --> 00:26:36,600
Speaker 1: so one evening he invited them to dinner, and they

429
00:26:36,640 --> 00:26:38,600
Speaker 1: all came over to his house, and they had a

430
00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:41,560
Speaker 1: very nice house, and they all sit around the dining

431
00:26:41,600 --> 00:26:45,600
Speaker 1: room table and he serves them this very strange porridge

432
00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:50,720
Speaker 1: which they all can barely taste so bad. And he finishes,

433
00:26:50,760 --> 00:26:55,000
Speaker 1: he cleans his wall, and he says, gentlemen, this is

434
00:26:55,080 --> 00:26:58,960
Speaker 1: actually sawdust. Now, if I'm prepared to eat a bowl

435
00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:02,000
Speaker 1: of sawdust, what do you think you're going to do

436
00:27:02,800 --> 00:27:06,280
Speaker 1: to intimidate me. It was so clear that Franklin wasn't

437
00:27:06,359 --> 00:27:09,840
Speaker 1: somebody that you can intimidate. By seventeen fifty, what I

438
00:27:09,920 --> 00:27:15,680
Speaker 1: think after his bifocal glasses is his most interesting invention.

439
00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:20,520
Speaker 1: He proposes using lightning rods to keep houses safe. Franklin

440
00:27:20,560 --> 00:27:23,359
Speaker 1: figured out that if I could put up a pole

441
00:27:23,800 --> 00:27:27,600
Speaker 1: that was above the house so it would attract the lightning,

442
00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:30,320
Speaker 1: and if I could ground the pole in the ground

443
00:27:30,680 --> 00:27:33,040
Speaker 1: so that the electricity would come straight down the pole

444
00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:35,879
Speaker 1: go into the ground and never touch the house, that

445
00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:38,760
Speaker 1: your house wouldn't burn down. Well, it may have been

446
00:27:38,920 --> 00:27:43,480
Speaker 1: after his bifocal invention the most practical and most widespread

447
00:27:43,480 --> 00:27:47,920
Speaker 1: improvement in life that anybody made. It's incalculable today how

448
00:27:47,960 --> 00:27:52,160
Speaker 1: many houses did not burn down because of Benjamin Franklin,

449
00:27:52,520 --> 00:27:54,520
Speaker 1: But the numbers would be in the hundreds of thousands

450
00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:58,840
Speaker 1: by now. He continues to be involved as an active person.

451
00:27:59,080 --> 00:28:05,160
Speaker 1: In seventeen fIF he is developing lightning rods. The following year,

452
00:28:05,720 --> 00:28:08,720
Speaker 1: he decides, in passing he'll help found what was then

453
00:28:08,760 --> 00:28:12,159
Speaker 1: called the Academy for Education of Youth, and we call

454
00:28:12,240 --> 00:28:15,160
Speaker 1: it the University of Pennsylvania. And so he's going from

455
00:28:15,160 --> 00:28:18,359
Speaker 1: place to place, almost like a Johnny Appleseed of a

456
00:28:18,359 --> 00:28:24,000
Speaker 1: better life. He's also mentally exploring the world. So the

457
00:28:24,040 --> 00:28:26,960
Speaker 1: same year that he's helping found what becomes the University

458
00:28:26,960 --> 00:28:30,119
Speaker 1: of Pennsylvania, he also is writing an article on the

459
00:28:30,160 --> 00:28:33,840
Speaker 1: experiments and Observations on electricity. He's also that year, by

460
00:28:33,880 --> 00:28:37,119
Speaker 1: the way, elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly and as a

461
00:28:37,160 --> 00:28:41,440
Speaker 1: city alderman. All this is happening simultaneously. The following year,

462
00:28:41,480 --> 00:28:45,479
Speaker 1: in seventeen fifty two, he builds on his article on

463
00:28:45,520 --> 00:28:49,800
Speaker 1: the experiments and observations and electricity, and in a classically

464
00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:54,280
Speaker 1: American model, he leaves the laboratory. He steps outside, and

465
00:28:55,200 --> 00:28:58,960
Speaker 1: he flies the kite and the kite attracts lightning, and

466
00:28:59,040 --> 00:29:03,040
Speaker 1: the lightning is electtion. And he then publishes how you

467
00:29:03,080 --> 00:29:06,720
Speaker 1: can conduct the experiment because he thought through the key part,

468
00:29:06,760 --> 00:29:09,160
Speaker 1: which is, all right, if you attract the lightning, where's

469
00:29:09,200 --> 00:29:12,360
Speaker 1: electricity going? And he made sure it wasn't going through him.

470
00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:16,680
Speaker 1: He also in Passing the same year, I remember he's

471
00:29:16,960 --> 00:29:20,160
Speaker 1: making money, he's serving as a city alderman, he's serving

472
00:29:20,160 --> 00:29:22,920
Speaker 1: in the Pennsylvania Assembly. He's still writing a lot. And

473
00:29:23,240 --> 00:29:28,560
Speaker 1: in seventeen fifty two he founds the Philadelphia Contributionship. Now

474
00:29:28,560 --> 00:29:31,760
Speaker 1: what is a contribution ship? Well, you and I think

475
00:29:31,800 --> 00:29:35,600
Speaker 1: of it as a fire insurance company. And so literally

476
00:29:35,600 --> 00:29:38,520
Speaker 1: in Passing he says, now, if we all contributed a

477
00:29:38,560 --> 00:29:40,680
Speaker 1: little bit, then if one of us had our house

478
00:29:40,720 --> 00:29:43,440
Speaker 1: burned down, we could collect on the value of the

479
00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:48,600
Speaker 1: house based on our contributions. And so the Philadelphia Contribution

480
00:29:48,720 --> 00:29:52,120
Speaker 1: Ship sets the base for a mutual fire insurance company,

481
00:29:52,320 --> 00:29:56,080
Speaker 1: which becomes a model that's very, very widespread. The next year,

482
00:29:56,080 --> 00:30:00,200
Speaker 1: in seventeen fifty three, he's appointed Deputy Postmaster General of

483
00:30:00,240 --> 00:30:03,560
Speaker 1: the Colonies. Now think about this. The British government now

484
00:30:03,680 --> 00:30:06,600
Speaker 1: is saying to Franklin, we trust you enough we think

485
00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:08,880
Speaker 1: you're smart enough, we think you're a good enough businessman.

486
00:30:09,560 --> 00:30:12,360
Speaker 1: We want you to help run all of the post

487
00:30:12,360 --> 00:30:16,600
Speaker 1: offices in the entire thirteen colonies, which of course also

488
00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:20,920
Speaker 1: gives him an excuse to learn more and more and

489
00:30:20,960 --> 00:30:24,000
Speaker 1: to think beyond Philadelphia and to think beyond Pennsylvania. Now

490
00:30:24,320 --> 00:30:27,480
Speaker 1: he'd already been born and grown up in Boston, so

491
00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:31,280
Speaker 1: now he has an increasing sense of the East Coast

492
00:30:31,320 --> 00:30:33,920
Speaker 1: of the United States, the Atlantic Coast, and all the

493
00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:38,920
Speaker 1: different colonies from Georgia up through Massachusetts. He also that year,

494
00:30:38,960 --> 00:30:42,280
Speaker 1: in seventeen fifty three, he gets the Copley Medal, which

495
00:30:42,320 --> 00:30:45,280
Speaker 1: is the highest award the Royal Society of London can give.

496
00:30:46,080 --> 00:30:50,880
Speaker 1: So he's being recognized worldwide as a scientist. He is

497
00:30:51,400 --> 00:30:55,720
Speaker 1: the postmaster for all of the colonies. He is serving

498
00:30:55,880 --> 00:30:59,920
Speaker 1: in the city government, the state government, and he's active

499
00:31:00,320 --> 00:31:05,000
Speaker 1: in founding various organizations. And he's continuing to be a scientist.

500
00:31:05,080 --> 00:31:07,840
Speaker 1: All of this is simultaneous and as a scientist in

501
00:31:07,920 --> 00:31:11,120
Speaker 1: passing because remember never went to graduate school, never took

502
00:31:11,160 --> 00:31:15,400
Speaker 1: a science course. He is recognized as a worldwide contributor

503
00:31:15,640 --> 00:31:18,560
Speaker 1: because of the work he's done on electricity. He's also

504
00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:23,280
Speaker 1: concerned about what we would call national security, and he's

505
00:31:23,320 --> 00:31:26,760
Speaker 1: concerned about the French and Indians in the West. And

506
00:31:26,920 --> 00:31:29,560
Speaker 1: remember that the French Indian War will start in what

507
00:31:29,600 --> 00:31:33,400
Speaker 1: we call Pittsburgh. Then they're called Fort Duquaine, which was

508
00:31:33,440 --> 00:31:36,000
Speaker 1: a French outpost coming down. The French are coming down

509
00:31:36,200 --> 00:31:39,760
Speaker 1: from Canada. We're coming from the Atlantic coast, and we're

510
00:31:39,800 --> 00:31:44,760
Speaker 1: about to collide in western Pennsylvania. And seventeen fifty four Franklin,

511
00:31:44,800 --> 00:31:48,920
Speaker 1: Prince of Cartoon Join or Die, which argues that the

512
00:31:48,960 --> 00:31:52,360
Speaker 1: colonies have to work together in confederation, they have to

513
00:31:52,400 --> 00:31:57,200
Speaker 1: protect themselves, that no single colony is going to be

514
00:31:57,240 --> 00:32:02,040
Speaker 1: capable of developing own defenses. Now, this is a pretty

515
00:32:02,160 --> 00:32:04,560
Speaker 1: radical view at the time, and one of the signals

516
00:32:04,600 --> 00:32:07,400
Speaker 1: that's a radical view that year, seventeen fifty four is

517
00:32:07,680 --> 00:32:10,880
Speaker 1: the British government fireson. They say, you're now not the

518
00:32:10,920 --> 00:32:14,719
Speaker 1: Deputy Postmaster General. Your political views are too radical. And

519
00:32:14,760 --> 00:32:18,280
Speaker 1: for the first time Franklin is faced with the consequences

520
00:32:18,640 --> 00:32:20,920
Speaker 1: that if he really believes what he says he believes,

521
00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:23,120
Speaker 1: he's going to pay some real cost for that. In

522
00:32:23,120 --> 00:32:26,880
Speaker 1: the midst of all this, in seventeen fifty five, Franklin

523
00:32:27,040 --> 00:32:31,680
Speaker 1: with doctor Thomas Bond founded the Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation's

524
00:32:31,720 --> 00:32:35,800
Speaker 1: first hospital focused on the sick, the poor, and the insane.

525
00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:38,960
Speaker 1: And again, when you go to Philadelphia, you just see

526
00:32:39,440 --> 00:32:43,120
Speaker 1: case after case of Franklin's impact. Two hundred years later,

527
00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:47,000
Speaker 1: the French and Indian War starting in seventeen fifty six,

528
00:32:47,040 --> 00:32:50,320
Speaker 1: and you remember that it's Washington who plays a leading

529
00:32:50,440 --> 00:32:54,120
Speaker 1: role in starting the French and Indian War. Franklin was

530
00:32:54,160 --> 00:32:57,440
Speaker 1: asked to lead Pennsylvania militia against the French who were

531
00:32:57,560 --> 00:33:02,320
Speaker 1: defeating the English troops. Accompanied by his son, Franklin fought

532
00:33:02,400 --> 00:33:06,440
Speaker 1: mercilessly to take back land, establish new forts, and push

533
00:33:06,600 --> 00:33:09,680
Speaker 1: back against the French forces. He served as an officer

534
00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:12,840
Speaker 1: in the militia without even receiving pay because his devotion

535
00:33:12,960 --> 00:33:16,400
Speaker 1: to duty was so deep. He was a wealthy businessman,

536
00:33:16,840 --> 00:33:19,360
Speaker 1: so he could afford to be a volunteer for free.

537
00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:22,560
Speaker 1: In seventeen fifty seven, while the French and New War

538
00:33:22,640 --> 00:33:25,680
Speaker 1: is underway, Franklin is elected to go to England to

539
00:33:25,800 --> 00:33:30,440
Speaker 1: talk about colonial disputes with Parliament. He stays for five years,

540
00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:34,560
Speaker 1: and this is I think one of the most important

541
00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:41,400
Speaker 1: examples of change in leading up to American independence. Franklin

542
00:33:41,840 --> 00:33:47,680
Speaker 1: leaves the colonies as a loyal British servant. He finds

543
00:33:47,720 --> 00:33:52,040
Speaker 1: out over time that in fact, he'll never be accepted.

544
00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:55,240
Speaker 1: He can be wealthy, doesn't matter. He can be a

545
00:33:55,240 --> 00:33:59,400
Speaker 1: world class scientist, doesn't matter. He can win elections back home,

546
00:34:00,040 --> 00:34:04,120
Speaker 1: doesn't matter. He can be the funniest, best storyteller in

547
00:34:04,160 --> 00:34:08,239
Speaker 1: the room, doesn't matter. He's not an aristocrat. He's never

548
00:34:08,280 --> 00:34:10,839
Speaker 1: going to be accepted as an aristocrat. And I think

549
00:34:10,880 --> 00:34:14,800
Speaker 1: it's the bitterness of beginning to realize that which begins

550
00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:18,359
Speaker 1: to turn him against the English government and make him

551
00:34:18,360 --> 00:34:21,280
Speaker 1: begin to think of himself as an American. He stays

552
00:34:21,400 --> 00:34:24,440
Speaker 1: from seventeen fifty seven for five years, goes back to

553
00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:27,719
Speaker 1: Boston for two years, and in the process he invents

554
00:34:27,800 --> 00:34:32,319
Speaker 1: the glass harmonica. This was a very sophisticated device which

555
00:34:32,400 --> 00:34:36,760
Speaker 1: made a series of sounds. It was widely received, probably

556
00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:41,120
Speaker 1: ranked along with the lightning rod and the bifocals and

557
00:34:41,160 --> 00:34:46,400
Speaker 1: the Franklin stove among the most widely received of Franklin's inventions.

558
00:34:46,480 --> 00:34:52,239
Speaker 1: Both Beethoven and Mozart used Franklin's harmonica. By seventeen sixty four,

559
00:34:52,640 --> 00:34:55,919
Speaker 1: he loses his seat in the Pennsylvania Assembly, but goes

560
00:34:55,960 --> 00:34:59,319
Speaker 1: back to London as a colonial agent, and the next year,

561
00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:02,959
Speaker 1: twenty five, the Stamp Act is passed by the House

562
00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:07,240
Speaker 1: of Commons. Remember, the Stamp Act is designed to raise

563
00:35:07,320 --> 00:35:10,560
Speaker 1: money from the Americans to help pay the cost to

564
00:35:10,600 --> 00:35:14,080
Speaker 1: the French and Indian War, which the British reason had

565
00:35:14,120 --> 00:35:17,560
Speaker 1: protected America from attack, and therefore the Americans ought to

566
00:35:17,560 --> 00:35:20,960
Speaker 1: bear some burden. The Americans, of course, resented the idea,

567
00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:23,680
Speaker 1: did not want to pay the Stamp Act, and that

568
00:35:23,840 --> 00:35:26,960
Speaker 1: was the beginning of the deep disaffection that would autoly

569
00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:30,799
Speaker 1: lead to the Revolution because Franklin knew that Americans were

570
00:35:30,800 --> 00:35:33,919
Speaker 1: against it. In seventeen sixty six, just one year after

571
00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:37,680
Speaker 1: the Actress passed, he testifies in the House of Commons

572
00:35:38,320 --> 00:35:41,279
Speaker 1: in favor of repeal of the Stamp Act, proving that

573
00:35:41,360 --> 00:35:44,480
Speaker 1: his loyalties are to the colonies. Yet the very same year,

574
00:35:44,560 --> 00:35:47,760
Speaker 1: while he's testifying in the House of Comments, he's elected

575
00:35:47,760 --> 00:35:51,600
Speaker 1: as a member of the Royal Society of Sciences. He

576
00:35:51,680 --> 00:35:54,839
Speaker 1: may not be an aristocrat to the aristocrats, but he's

577
00:35:54,840 --> 00:35:57,719
Speaker 1: clearly an aristocrat to the scientists, and they have the

578
00:35:57,760 --> 00:36:01,320
Speaker 1: greatest admiration for him. Well, that's going on the British

579
00:36:01,360 --> 00:36:04,480
Speaker 1: troops are being sent to Boston. The British government's getting

580
00:36:04,760 --> 00:36:08,759
Speaker 1: tougher and tougher. The fact is that Franklin was committed

581
00:36:09,360 --> 00:36:13,400
Speaker 1: to representing the American side. It's also in this period

582
00:36:13,440 --> 00:36:18,000
Speaker 1: that his daughter Sally marries Richard Bach. Franklin really wanted

583
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:21,040
Speaker 1: her not to do that because Bach's situation financially was

584
00:36:21,120 --> 00:36:23,840
Speaker 1: bad and he was afraid that Bach was just marrying

585
00:36:23,840 --> 00:36:27,759
Speaker 1: her for her money. Nonetheless, his wife, Deborah allowed them

586
00:36:27,760 --> 00:36:32,120
Speaker 1: to be married, against Franklin's wishes, but he accepted the marriage.

587
00:36:32,120 --> 00:36:35,760
Speaker 1: After Sally had their first child. Ben helped Richard obtain

588
00:36:35,880 --> 00:36:39,200
Speaker 1: several loans help them set up a few stores. But

589
00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:42,720
Speaker 1: the truth is Franklin supported Sally in her eight children

590
00:36:42,800 --> 00:36:45,000
Speaker 1: for the rest of his life. He was, in fact

591
00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:48,600
Speaker 1: a very generous family man and was deeply concerned about

592
00:36:48,600 --> 00:36:50,879
Speaker 1: his family, even if he didn't spend very much time

593
00:36:50,920 --> 00:36:55,480
Speaker 1: with him. By seventeen sixty nine, the American Philosophical Society,

594
00:36:55,480 --> 00:36:59,040
Speaker 1: which he had helped found, has elected Franklin as its president.

595
00:36:59,719 --> 00:37:03,000
Speaker 1: They reelected him every single year after that until he died,

596
00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:06,880
Speaker 1: so he's the head of the Philosophical Society. He's inventing

597
00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:10,640
Speaker 1: musical instruments. He's inventing practical things like the Franklin stove,

598
00:37:10,719 --> 00:37:16,240
Speaker 1: the bifocals and lightning rods. And then the Boston Massacre occurs.

599
00:37:16,640 --> 00:37:20,360
Speaker 1: British troops shoot at colonists. The whole colonies are upset

600
00:37:20,680 --> 00:37:24,160
Speaker 1: and are afraid, and Franklin tries to find a way

601
00:37:24,239 --> 00:37:28,120
Speaker 1: to bring Britain and the colonies back together. In seventeen

602
00:37:28,160 --> 00:37:31,400
Speaker 1: seventy one, he begins writing his autobiography, which I can

603
00:37:31,440 --> 00:37:34,839
Speaker 1: tell you if you have never read, it is absolutely

604
00:37:34,880 --> 00:37:38,560
Speaker 1: worth your getting and reading. It's a remarkable book. It's

605
00:37:38,760 --> 00:37:42,879
Speaker 1: very candid, it's very wise. I don't care who you are.

606
00:37:43,360 --> 00:37:45,960
Speaker 1: You will learn things you'll apply to your own life

607
00:37:46,200 --> 00:37:51,200
Speaker 1: if you read Franklin's autobiography. In London, he gets a

608
00:37:51,239 --> 00:37:54,200
Speaker 1: series of letters, some thirteen letters come to him from

609
00:37:54,200 --> 00:37:58,000
Speaker 1: an anonymous sender. The letters had been stolen. There were

610
00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:01,920
Speaker 1: a correspondence between the mass Ssachusetts Governor, the Royal Governor

611
00:38:02,200 --> 00:38:06,919
Speaker 1: Thomas Hutcheson, and the Royal Lieutenant Governor Andrew Oliver, who

612
00:38:06,960 --> 00:38:12,560
Speaker 1: are writing English authorities. Somehow these letters had gotten stolen

613
00:38:13,120 --> 00:38:15,600
Speaker 1: and they were given to Franklin, who then sends them

614
00:38:15,640 --> 00:38:19,160
Speaker 1: to Samuel Adams and authorizes them to be shown to

615
00:38:19,200 --> 00:38:22,520
Speaker 1: the members of the Massachusetts Committee of Correspondence, but not

616
00:38:22,680 --> 00:38:28,160
Speaker 1: copied or published. Now, this clearly is a totally inappropriate

617
00:38:28,200 --> 00:38:31,680
Speaker 1: act and will begin the process of really alienating the

618
00:38:31,719 --> 00:38:35,319
Speaker 1: English and Franklin. By seventeen seventy three, the Stamp Act

619
00:38:35,400 --> 00:38:38,879
Speaker 1: not having worked, Parliament passes the Tea Act, which then

620
00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:42,799
Speaker 1: leads in Boston to people dressing up as Indians and

621
00:38:42,880 --> 00:38:45,120
Speaker 1: dumping the tea in the harbor in what we call

622
00:38:45,160 --> 00:38:50,040
Speaker 1: the Boston Tea Party. And interestingly, Franklin, who of course

623
00:38:50,160 --> 00:38:53,440
Speaker 1: was from Boston, originally has real ties emotionally back to

624
00:38:53,480 --> 00:38:57,080
Speaker 1: Boston as well as to Philadelphia. That same year, the

625
00:38:57,120 --> 00:39:01,600
Speaker 1: Massachusetts Speaker, Thomas Cushing gives the letters that Franklin had

626
00:39:01,640 --> 00:39:05,560
Speaker 1: sent to the Massachusetts House, and the House concluded that

627
00:39:05,719 --> 00:39:10,279
Speaker 1: Governor Hutcheson intended to overthrow the Constitution. They decide to

628
00:39:10,320 --> 00:39:16,520
Speaker 1: petition for Hutcheson and Oliver's removal, and despite Franklin's wishes,

629
00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:39,280
Speaker 1: the letters were published in the Boston Gazette. Franklin tries

630
00:39:39,320 --> 00:39:43,480
Speaker 1: to communicate to the British through satire. In September seventy

631
00:39:43,560 --> 00:39:47,759
Speaker 1: seventy three, he publishes two articles in the Public Advertiser

632
00:39:47,800 --> 00:39:52,320
Speaker 1: in London, one quote Rules by which a Great Empire

633
00:39:52,719 --> 00:39:55,920
Speaker 1: may be reduced to a small one, and the second

634
00:39:56,560 --> 00:39:58,480
Speaker 1: Edict by the King of Prussia. Both of them are

635
00:39:58,520 --> 00:40:02,200
Speaker 1: satirical and both attacked the British attitude toward the colonies.

636
00:40:02,239 --> 00:40:05,440
Speaker 1: Now remember, at this point, the aristocrats are amused. They

637
00:40:05,440 --> 00:40:07,960
Speaker 1: don't want to be lectured by some colonial, even if

638
00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:11,600
Speaker 1: he's a famous scientist and a wealthy man. And they're

639
00:40:11,600 --> 00:40:15,680
Speaker 1: increasingly angry because they see the Americans as totally ungrateful

640
00:40:16,080 --> 00:40:19,160
Speaker 1: and treasonous. When Britain had fought the French, Britain had

641
00:40:19,160 --> 00:40:22,440
Speaker 1: defeated the Indians, Britain had protected the colonies and all

642
00:40:22,480 --> 00:40:26,040
Speaker 1: they get back in return. His constant complaint refusal to

643
00:40:26,040 --> 00:40:30,040
Speaker 1: pay taxes and people who clearly are not appropriate for

644
00:40:30,120 --> 00:40:34,400
Speaker 1: English society. Two things happen in the early seventeen seventies

645
00:40:34,440 --> 00:40:39,720
Speaker 1: that really affect Franklin. First was that his wife, Deborah

646
00:40:39,800 --> 00:40:43,239
Speaker 1: dies he was still in England. They had been separated physically,

647
00:40:43,600 --> 00:40:46,360
Speaker 1: but they wrote each other constantly. She had run the

648
00:40:46,360 --> 00:40:49,600
Speaker 1: business in his absence. When he did return home to America,

649
00:40:49,600 --> 00:40:52,759
Speaker 1: he wrote a friend quote, I have lately lost my

650
00:40:52,840 --> 00:40:56,719
Speaker 1: old and faithful companion, and I every day become more

651
00:40:56,800 --> 00:40:59,719
Speaker 1: sensible of the greatness of that loss, which cannot now

652
00:40:59,760 --> 00:41:05,879
Speaker 1: be appeared. I suspect you both realized how many days

653
00:41:05,920 --> 00:41:08,640
Speaker 1: they'd been apart, how much of their lives had been separate,

654
00:41:09,160 --> 00:41:12,560
Speaker 1: and with gratitude, how much she had done, how she

655
00:41:12,640 --> 00:41:16,319
Speaker 1: had enabled him to be Benjamin Franklin, because she had

656
00:41:16,400 --> 00:41:19,680
Speaker 1: run the business, she'd earned the money, she'd paid attention to,

657
00:41:19,719 --> 00:41:23,239
Speaker 1: all the details that he cheerfully ignored. But the other

658
00:41:23,239 --> 00:41:25,680
Speaker 1: thing which happened in the seventeen seventies while he was

659
00:41:25,719 --> 00:41:29,400
Speaker 1: still in London, when word reached Great Britain that the

660
00:41:29,440 --> 00:41:33,839
Speaker 1: official letters of the Governor and the Lieutenant Governor had

661
00:41:33,880 --> 00:41:39,240
Speaker 1: been somehow submitted to the House of Commons of the colony.

662
00:41:39,680 --> 00:41:44,319
Speaker 1: There was an enormous uprising in Britain of interest, where

663
00:41:44,320 --> 00:41:47,719
Speaker 1: did these come from? Who was responsible? And finally Franklin

664
00:41:47,800 --> 00:41:51,080
Speaker 1: cleared the air. In December of seventeen seventy three, he

665
00:41:51,120 --> 00:41:54,759
Speaker 1: wrote a brief note to the newspaper saying I'm the

666
00:41:54,760 --> 00:41:58,360
Speaker 1: person who released him. While that guaranteed that the Privy Council,

667
00:41:58,440 --> 00:42:02,880
Speaker 1: which was in effect the highest political judicial body in

668
00:42:02,880 --> 00:42:06,239
Speaker 1: Britain would see him and would demand to know what

669
00:42:06,320 --> 00:42:08,839
Speaker 1: he was doing and why he was doing it, and

670
00:42:08,920 --> 00:42:11,960
Speaker 1: he went twice. The first time he went, he frankly

671
00:42:11,960 --> 00:42:14,040
Speaker 1: thought they were going to enquire about what had happened

672
00:42:14,480 --> 00:42:17,799
Speaker 1: with Hutchinson and Oliver the governor Lieutenant Governor and why

673
00:42:17,840 --> 00:42:20,760
Speaker 1: were they in such trouble. Instead he found that the

674
00:42:20,800 --> 00:42:24,520
Speaker 1: Solicitor General of Britain attacked him for a full solid hour,

675
00:42:25,320 --> 00:42:28,160
Speaker 1: and when they said, okay, it's your turn, he just

676
00:42:28,360 --> 00:42:30,680
Speaker 1: stood there quietly and said, I didn't realize this was

677
00:42:30,680 --> 00:42:33,319
Speaker 1: the point of this, and I want a lawyer, and

678
00:42:33,360 --> 00:42:35,239
Speaker 1: they agreed he ought to have a lawyer. So two

679
00:42:35,280 --> 00:42:38,120
Speaker 1: weeks later they came back together. But in the interim

680
00:42:38,800 --> 00:42:42,400
Speaker 1: the Boston Tea Party news had reached Great Britain that

681
00:42:42,480 --> 00:42:45,720
Speaker 1: the Americans had dressed like Indians, gone into the harbor,

682
00:42:45,760 --> 00:42:48,920
Speaker 1: thrown the tea from the East India Company into the harbor,

683
00:42:48,960 --> 00:42:52,400
Speaker 1: destroying it. And there was a high sense of rage

684
00:42:52,800 --> 00:42:56,080
Speaker 1: in the governing class in Britain. And so when Franklin

685
00:42:56,120 --> 00:43:01,320
Speaker 1: shows back up, he is attacked for for several hours

686
00:43:01,600 --> 00:43:04,920
Speaker 1: in a very direct and aggressive and nasty way, and

687
00:43:04,960 --> 00:43:07,600
Speaker 1: it's quite clear that he is the target, and that

688
00:43:07,600 --> 00:43:10,640
Speaker 1: there's nothing he can do to defend himself. He is

689
00:43:10,680 --> 00:43:15,760
Speaker 1: wearing a blue coat, which, to show how Franklin's mind worked,

690
00:43:16,239 --> 00:43:20,000
Speaker 1: he will wear again when he signs the Peace Treaty

691
00:43:20,480 --> 00:43:24,200
Speaker 1: declaring the United States to be free and independent. And

692
00:43:24,280 --> 00:43:26,880
Speaker 1: somebody said, why do you have this old coat? Remember

693
00:43:27,120 --> 00:43:31,239
Speaker 1: the peace Treaty now that he's signing is more than

694
00:43:31,239 --> 00:43:34,520
Speaker 1: a decade later. And he said, for a little sense

695
00:43:34,560 --> 00:43:38,160
Speaker 1: of revenge. Franklin was not a man who one could

696
00:43:38,200 --> 00:43:41,239
Speaker 1: attack easily or lightly, or expect to ever turn the

697
00:43:41,239 --> 00:43:45,000
Speaker 1: other cheek. So he goes home having been attacked by

698
00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:50,040
Speaker 1: the British elites, and now he is clearly committed to independence.

699
00:43:50,640 --> 00:43:54,000
Speaker 1: He's elected as a Pennsylvania delegate to the second Continental Congress,

700
00:43:54,680 --> 00:43:59,000
Speaker 1: and he also, ironically, having been fired by the British

701
00:43:59,320 --> 00:44:03,200
Speaker 1: as the postmas General, which happened the day after the

702
00:44:03,239 --> 00:44:07,200
Speaker 1: Privy Council meeting to punish him, he is now elected

703
00:44:07,200 --> 00:44:10,840
Speaker 1: as the Postmaster General of the colonies by the Continental Congress.

704
00:44:11,239 --> 00:44:13,440
Speaker 1: So at the very moment that the British are losing

705
00:44:13,520 --> 00:44:16,879
Speaker 1: control of the post offices, they are being turned back

706
00:44:16,920 --> 00:44:19,560
Speaker 1: over to the guy who had been in charge of

707
00:44:19,600 --> 00:44:22,720
Speaker 1: the post offices on behalf of the king, so Franklin

708
00:44:22,800 --> 00:44:24,040
Speaker 1: knew what he was doing and how to do it.

709
00:44:24,760 --> 00:44:27,640
Speaker 1: In seventeen seventy six, he's asked to be one of

710
00:44:27,920 --> 00:44:32,160
Speaker 1: five people who draft the Declation Independence, and he is

711
00:44:32,920 --> 00:44:36,440
Speaker 1: clearly a key figure who people trust and plays a

712
00:44:36,440 --> 00:44:40,080
Speaker 1: significant role in working with Jefferson and Adams to get

713
00:44:40,080 --> 00:44:44,440
Speaker 1: the final draft of the Declation Independence approved by the Congress.

714
00:44:45,320 --> 00:44:50,480
Speaker 1: Then he's asked to go to France to be a

715
00:44:50,560 --> 00:44:54,160
Speaker 1: commissioner from the Continental Congress in order to get the

716
00:44:54,200 --> 00:44:57,560
Speaker 1: French to help us. Remember, at this point, without the

717
00:44:57,560 --> 00:45:00,600
Speaker 1: help of France, the United States will use the war

718
00:45:00,680 --> 00:45:04,440
Speaker 1: to Britain because we'll have no money, we'll have no ammunition,

719
00:45:05,000 --> 00:45:08,240
Speaker 1: we'll have no uniforms, we will have no effective navy.

720
00:45:08,800 --> 00:45:12,799
Speaker 1: And so this was life and death. And Franklin, who

721
00:45:12,840 --> 00:45:16,200
Speaker 1: had the great advantage of being a world famous scientist,

722
00:45:16,800 --> 00:45:21,040
Speaker 1: is a very major player. And because he's also so personable,

723
00:45:21,480 --> 00:45:26,520
Speaker 1: so amused by life, and so engaging with people, he

724
00:45:26,600 --> 00:45:32,640
Speaker 1: became a very very widely admired and liked diplomat. Franklin

725
00:45:33,160 --> 00:45:36,400
Speaker 1: plays a key role is in Europe, not in America,

726
00:45:37,000 --> 00:45:40,640
Speaker 1: works very hard to keep the French on our side,

727
00:45:40,800 --> 00:45:45,000
Speaker 1: and then after Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown in seventeen eighty one,

728
00:45:45,440 --> 00:45:49,360
Speaker 1: effectively ending the military part of the war, Congress appoints Franklin,

729
00:45:49,840 --> 00:45:53,480
Speaker 1: along with John Jay, John Adams, and Henry Lawrence, to

730
00:45:53,520 --> 00:45:57,280
Speaker 1: be a commissioner to negotiate peace, and in seventeen eighty

731
00:45:57,280 --> 00:46:01,879
Speaker 1: three they complete the negotiations the peace treat Franklin, by

732
00:46:01,920 --> 00:46:05,719
Speaker 1: the way, is the toughest, most hard nosed person on

733
00:46:05,800 --> 00:46:08,319
Speaker 1: the question of whether or not there should be any

734
00:46:08,360 --> 00:46:12,160
Speaker 1: compensation for Tories who had stayed on the side of

735
00:46:12,160 --> 00:46:15,920
Speaker 1: the British and said absolutely no. These people were traders.

736
00:46:15,960 --> 00:46:18,160
Speaker 1: They should not get a penny, and he was just

737
00:46:18,600 --> 00:46:20,719
Speaker 1: firm that that was not going to be part of

738
00:46:20,760 --> 00:46:24,400
Speaker 1: the agreement. They signed the peace Treaty, as I said earlier,

739
00:46:24,719 --> 00:46:27,919
Speaker 1: with Franklin wearing the same coat that he had worn

740
00:46:28,040 --> 00:46:31,799
Speaker 1: back when the Privy Council tried to humiliate it. And

741
00:46:32,440 --> 00:46:36,200
Speaker 1: Franklin then returns because now he's no longer totally drowning

742
00:46:36,480 --> 00:46:39,919
Speaker 1: and being a diplomat, so he returns to being an

743
00:46:39,920 --> 00:46:44,440
Speaker 1: inventor and a commentator. In seventeen eighty three, we complete negotiations,

744
00:46:44,680 --> 00:46:48,320
Speaker 1: we signed the peace treaty. Now the colonies are independent states,

745
00:46:48,880 --> 00:46:53,080
Speaker 1: and one year later Franklin writes quote an Economical Project

746
00:46:53,320 --> 00:46:56,800
Speaker 1: for diminishing the cost of light, which is in fact

747
00:46:56,880 --> 00:47:01,239
Speaker 1: the first document proposing daylight savings time. He does this

748
00:47:01,320 --> 00:47:03,520
Speaker 1: in passing. He just thinks to himself, gosh, wouldn't it

749
00:47:03,520 --> 00:47:06,040
Speaker 1: make sense if we change so that we had more time,

750
00:47:06,080 --> 00:47:09,200
Speaker 1: more daylight? And he writes this out, and of course,

751
00:47:09,600 --> 00:47:12,839
Speaker 1: well over one hundred years later it begins to be implemented,

752
00:47:13,200 --> 00:47:16,719
Speaker 1: So the daylight saving time that we currently celebrate can

753
00:47:16,760 --> 00:47:19,560
Speaker 1: be traced back to an idea from Benjamin Franklin. Then

754
00:47:19,600 --> 00:47:22,520
Speaker 1: the same year he invents the bifocal glasses. As he's

755
00:47:22,560 --> 00:47:25,160
Speaker 1: getting older, he notices that he has one pair of

756
00:47:25,160 --> 00:47:28,160
Speaker 1: glasses for seeing up close, one pair of glasses for

757
00:47:28,200 --> 00:47:31,400
Speaker 1: seeing in the distance. He's constantly taking off one putting

758
00:47:31,400 --> 00:47:33,920
Speaker 1: on the other. You always have to carry extra glasses,

759
00:47:34,400 --> 00:47:37,400
Speaker 1: And he thinks to himself, well, what if I arrange

760
00:47:37,400 --> 00:47:39,480
Speaker 1: it so when you look down, which is what you

761
00:47:39,520 --> 00:47:42,440
Speaker 1: do when you're reading, you have close vision, and when

762
00:47:42,440 --> 00:47:46,000
Speaker 1: you look out, which you're looking up, you have distance vision.

763
00:47:46,360 --> 00:47:51,360
Speaker 1: He goes to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in seventeen

764
00:47:51,360 --> 00:47:54,120
Speaker 1: eighty seven. He's the oldest person at the convention. He

765
00:47:54,160 --> 00:47:58,080
Speaker 1: occasionally falls asleep during the sessions, but he also when

766
00:47:58,120 --> 00:48:01,440
Speaker 1: the convention is about to melt down in bitterness and

767
00:48:01,640 --> 00:48:05,160
Speaker 1: hostility between the large states and the small states, and

768
00:48:05,239 --> 00:48:08,960
Speaker 1: his most important intervention, he says, why don't we suspend

769
00:48:09,080 --> 00:48:11,840
Speaker 1: for a day, have a day of prayer and fasting,

770
00:48:12,360 --> 00:48:15,080
Speaker 1: and have various ministers come in and pray to us

771
00:48:15,480 --> 00:48:18,279
Speaker 1: to get ourselves back on the right mindset, which is

772
00:48:18,320 --> 00:48:21,520
Speaker 1: in fact precisely what they do. And the very famous

773
00:48:21,560 --> 00:48:26,080
Speaker 1: moment when he is leaving the Constitutional Convention having completed

774
00:48:26,080 --> 00:48:29,360
Speaker 1: the work, and the lady says to him on Independence

775
00:48:29,400 --> 00:48:32,080
Speaker 1: Hall steps, what have you done? And he said, we

776
00:48:32,200 --> 00:48:36,319
Speaker 1: have created a republic if you can keep it, and

777
00:48:36,560 --> 00:48:39,000
Speaker 1: understood thoroughly that in the long run it would be

778
00:48:39,040 --> 00:48:41,319
Speaker 1: up to the American people whether or not it would

779
00:48:41,360 --> 00:48:43,839
Speaker 1: work and whether or not it would survive. I wanted

780
00:48:43,880 --> 00:48:47,959
Speaker 1: his comment to go and stand there at Independence Hall

781
00:48:49,120 --> 00:48:54,360
Speaker 1: and think about the people who signed the Declaration Independence,

782
00:48:55,000 --> 00:48:58,839
Speaker 1: to go across to the great New Constitution Center, which

783
00:48:58,880 --> 00:49:02,759
Speaker 1: is just remarkable, to go to the Franklin Institute, and

784
00:49:02,840 --> 00:49:05,879
Speaker 1: to realize again and again the impact that this guy

785
00:49:05,960 --> 00:49:08,600
Speaker 1: had to take a map and go around and see

786
00:49:08,640 --> 00:49:13,600
Speaker 1: all the different places where there are universities or insurance companies,

787
00:49:13,680 --> 00:49:17,400
Speaker 1: or libraries or fire departments, things that Benjamin Franklin created

788
00:49:17,400 --> 00:49:20,360
Speaker 1: in his lifetime. By seventeen eighty eight, he's being to

789
00:49:20,400 --> 00:49:23,520
Speaker 1: realize that eighty two years of age, he likely doesn't

790
00:49:23,560 --> 00:49:25,919
Speaker 1: have many more years left, so he writes a will

791
00:49:26,040 --> 00:49:29,160
Speaker 1: leaving most of his state to his daughter Sarah. Seventeen

792
00:49:29,200 --> 00:49:33,080
Speaker 1: eighty nine, he's elected president of the Pennsylvania Society for

793
00:49:33,200 --> 00:49:37,560
Speaker 1: Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. Here's a guy who constantly,

794
00:49:38,160 --> 00:49:43,880
Speaker 1: endlessly fought for human freedom, who steadily spread the opportunity

795
00:49:43,920 --> 00:49:46,280
Speaker 1: for freedom, and who at the end of his life

796
00:49:46,760 --> 00:49:50,200
Speaker 1: is working on the abolition of slavery. In fact, submits

797
00:49:50,640 --> 00:49:55,120
Speaker 1: the first antislavery tradition before the US Congress. He had

798
00:49:55,160 --> 00:49:57,719
Speaker 1: had slaves very early, two slaves who worked in his household,

799
00:49:58,120 --> 00:50:00,719
Speaker 1: but when he was young, But as he got older,

800
00:50:00,719 --> 00:50:03,480
Speaker 1: he began to think, this is an evil institution. And

801
00:50:03,560 --> 00:50:05,840
Speaker 1: if you believe in the principles of the American Revolution,

802
00:50:05,880 --> 00:50:08,399
Speaker 1: if you believe in a declaration that says we're all

803
00:50:08,440 --> 00:50:11,680
Speaker 1: created equal, it's simply wrong. And at a time when

804
00:50:11,719 --> 00:50:15,840
Speaker 1: it was still a very, very radical position. He was

805
00:50:16,000 --> 00:50:20,040
Speaker 1: actively in favor of the abolition of slavery. Ultimately, in

806
00:50:20,040 --> 00:50:24,960
Speaker 1: seventeen ninety he dies, Washington is now president, the country

807
00:50:24,960 --> 00:50:28,840
Speaker 1: has established. He leaves behind a fair amount of wealth

808
00:50:28,840 --> 00:50:31,640
Speaker 1: for Sally and her husband, but he leaves behind for

809
00:50:31,680 --> 00:50:35,080
Speaker 1: the world a whole series of inventions and breakthroughs and

810
00:50:35,160 --> 00:50:40,200
Speaker 1: understandings that are just astonishing and that ultimately improve the

811
00:50:40,239 --> 00:50:43,319
Speaker 1: lives of millions and millions of people. Gives you a

812
00:50:43,360 --> 00:50:47,520
Speaker 1: sense of why he is an immortal and somebody who

813
00:50:47,719 --> 00:50:51,160
Speaker 1: really I think represents the best of the American tradition

814
00:50:51,680 --> 00:50:55,160
Speaker 1: of constant effort, constant dreaming, constant hard work to term

815
00:50:55,200 --> 00:51:02,560
Speaker 1: the dreams into reality. You can learn more about Benjamin

816
00:51:02,600 --> 00:51:06,480
Speaker 1: Franklin on our show page at Newtsworld dot com. Newsworld

817
00:51:06,600 --> 00:51:10,480
Speaker 1: is produced by Gainish three sixty and iHeartMedia. Our executive

818
00:51:10,520 --> 00:51:14,880
Speaker 1: producer is Guarnsey Sloan and our researcher is Rachel Peterson.

819
00:51:15,440 --> 00:51:18,520
Speaker 1: The artwork for the show was created by Steve Penley.

820
00:51:19,400 --> 00:51:23,040
Speaker 1: Special thanks the team at Gingrish three sixty. If you've

821
00:51:23,040 --> 00:51:26,240
Speaker 1: been enjoying Newtsworld, I hope you'll go to Apple Podcast

822
00:51:26,280 --> 00:51:29,000
Speaker 1: and both rate us with five stars and give us

823
00:51:29,040 --> 00:51:31,640
Speaker 1: a review so others can learn what it's all about.

824
00:51:32,320 --> 00:51:35,360
Speaker 1: Right now, listeners of Newsworld consign up for my three

825
00:51:35,640 --> 00:51:40,279
Speaker 1: free weekly columns at gainwisthree sixty dot com slash newsletter.

826
00:51:40,760 --> 00:51:43,080
Speaker 1: I'm new gingrich. This is Newsworld