Speaker 1: On this episode of This World. The lives of these
Speaker 1: men are essential to understand the American form of government
Speaker 1: and our ideals of liberty. The Founding Fathers all played
Speaker 1: key roles in securing American independence from Great Britain and
Speaker 1: in the creation of the government of the United States
Speaker 1: of America. And now the life of Benjamin Frankman. Of
Speaker 1: all of the Founding fathers other than George Washington, who
Speaker 1: literally was the moral strength in which America was created
Speaker 1: and really was the father of our country, but of
Speaker 1: all the other Founding fathers except Washington, the one who
Speaker 1: most deserves to be considered an immortal was Benjamin Franklin.
Speaker 1: You can make a case, and some people will for
Speaker 1: Thomas Jefferson, who helped with Franklin to write the Declaration
Speaker 1: of Independence, who became president, but for sheer scale of achievement,
Speaker 1: for range of ideas, for the number of different kinds
Speaker 1: of contributions, Benjamin Franklin literally is an immortal. He also
Speaker 1: is a great sign of what was making America really
Speaker 1: different because he was someone who rose by his own efforts,
Speaker 1: not because he was an aristocrat, not because he'd inherited
Speaker 1: a lot of money, not because he had a unique position,
Speaker 1: but just because he worked really hard and he was
Speaker 1: really smart, and the result was because he had this
Speaker 1: endless interest in life that every time he turned around
Speaker 1: he was doing something fascinating, and much of the time
Speaker 1: he was doing things that were historic and that literally
Speaker 1: changed history for all of us. When you wear bifocal glasses,
Speaker 1: you are, after all, dealing with an invention of Benjamin Franklin.
Speaker 1: When you think about having a lightning rod to divert
Speaker 1: the lightning so that your house doesn't burn up, you're
Speaker 1: dealing with an invention of Benjamin Franklin. The whole concept
Speaker 1: of constantly tinkering, constantly learning. The discovery of electricity, which
Speaker 1: is a true story. He goes out he wants to
Speaker 1: figure out how electricity occurs, and so he flies a
Speaker 1: kite in the middle of a thunderstorm and he attaches
Speaker 1: metal so that lightning hits and he suddenly has discovered electricity.
Speaker 1: This was at the time comparable to Einstein in the
Speaker 1: twentieth century discovering relativity. People across the planet were stunned
Speaker 1: that this American had undertaken What if you think about
Speaker 1: it is a very common sense, non theoretical experiment. And
Speaker 1: that is sort of what marks Franklin. He just applies
Speaker 1: common sense with a lot of intelligence, a real willingness
Speaker 1: to work, and a kind of funny stubbornness. Now, remember
Speaker 1: Franklin is born in Boston in seventeen o six, the
Speaker 1: beginning of a new century. He's the tenth son out
Speaker 1: of seventeen children. And that was an era where the
Speaker 1: number one attitude was you got to earn a living. Frankly,
Speaker 1: if you want to leave town, we got other kids
Speaker 1: here too, and we'd rather have you produce money than
Speaker 1: get a degree. Franklin has stopped schooling when he was
Speaker 1: ten years old. He worked in his father's candleshop. He
Speaker 1: made money, and he listened and paid attention to everybody.
Speaker 1: The fact is that there was nothing that didn't intrigue him. Now,
Speaker 1: he also understood that having money was good. So if
Speaker 1: you watch Franklin's long career, and he is at the
Speaker 1: end the oldest person at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: he's constantly aware of the fact that having money beats
Speaker 1: not having money. Franklin thought it was good to acquire wealth,
Speaker 1: that if you acquired wealth, it liberated you. And in fact,
Speaker 1: his goal was to be rich enough by forty to
Speaker 1: be able to go into politics. And so he really
Speaker 1: was working constantly at this question of can I find
Speaker 1: a way? And he tried many different things simultaneously. He's
Speaker 1: also focused on invention. He's focused on writing. He's one
Speaker 1: of those rare people who had so much energy, had
Speaker 1: such a great capacity to work. You know, here he is,
Speaker 1: for example, at eleven years of age, inventing swim fins
Speaker 1: for his hands. He's eleven years old and he's inventing
Speaker 1: fins he can put in his hands so he can
Speaker 1: swim better. By the time he's twelve, he's an apprentice,
Speaker 1: has left his father's candleshop and now he's apprenticed to
Speaker 1: his brother. His brother, James, has a printing shop in Boston,
Speaker 1: and at the age of twelve, Franklin is there, busy
Speaker 1: working away learning how to print. His brother starts publishing
Speaker 1: The New England Current, which is the first American newspaper
Speaker 1: to use literary ideas and humorous essays, and this will
Speaker 1: become an important part of Franklin's own style. Franklin doesn't
Speaker 1: just look at facts. He has a very deep sense
Speaker 1: of humor. He has a little bit cynical sense of humor.
Speaker 1: I understood the human condition, he was quite willing to
Speaker 1: write about it. And he also must have been an
Speaker 1: amazingly fast writer. Remember this is an age when people
Speaker 1: are setting type one letter at a time, so type
Speaker 1: setting is a big deal. And if you write as
Speaker 1: much as Franklin did, you spend a lot of time
Speaker 1: setting type in order to send this stuff out. So
Speaker 1: you have here a person who's constantly writing. Now, by
Speaker 1: the time he's sixteen, he's publishing his first letters, and
Speaker 1: he always publishes fourteen of them. In the current he
Speaker 1: uses the pen name Silent do Good, invents himself he
Speaker 1: was a fictional widow of a country minister. You're already
Speaker 1: seeing the Franklin who is very imaginative, very cheerful about
Speaker 1: pretending to be a widow. At the same time, when
Speaker 1: his brother finally realizes that Silent do Good is his
Speaker 1: younger brother, Benjamin Franklin, he ain't very happy with him.
Speaker 1: Franklin somehow sort of faking people out, which he was,
Speaker 1: but he's doing it really cheerfully. So he gets entritated
Speaker 1: with his brother and he runs off to Philadelphia because
Speaker 1: he and his brother can't get along anymore. Now at
Speaker 1: this point he is a ripe old seventeen years of age.
Speaker 1: Philadelphia then was the biggest city in America, the most bustling,
Speaker 1: had the most commerce, had the most ships coming in
Speaker 1: from London. Franklin finds work as a printer with Samuel Kimmer,
Speaker 1: and he lodges the home of John Reid, who at
Speaker 1: the time he had no idea, but ultimately becomes his
Speaker 1: father in law. Now, Franklin is a very sociable person
Speaker 1: and a parent. He was a very good conversationalist, so
Speaker 1: people liked him and you go to taverns, Hey, we
Speaker 1: got an extra seat here. Come on over, Ben, sit
Speaker 1: down and chat with us. Yeah. One of the people
Speaker 1: who did that was the Pennsylvania governor at the time,
Speaker 1: William Keith. So he gets to know Franklin. He says,
Speaker 1: why don't you set up your own print shop. Well,
Speaker 1: Franklin goes back to Boston and asks his father for
Speaker 1: a loan. His father says, you know, Ben, I mean
Speaker 1: you're not old enough yet to do this. So Franklin
Speaker 1: goes back and says to the governor, I'd love to
Speaker 1: do this. My dad won't loan me the money. The
Speaker 1: governor loans him the money. No, here's a guy who
Speaker 1: has only been in town a couple of years and
Speaker 1: has made such a strong impression that the governor thinks
Speaker 1: he's a good business risk. Not only does the offer
Speaker 1: to pay the bill, he offers to send Franklin and
Speaker 1: pay for Franklin to go to London. Franklin gets to
Speaker 1: London and the lesson that he will learn many times
Speaker 1: in his life. The governor forgets to pay for him
Speaker 1: to come home, so Franklin stuck in London. You can
Speaker 1: find the money to come home. But he does come home.
Speaker 1: And when he comes home, remembering that he had been
Speaker 1: lodging with John Reid and he'd gotten to know Deborah Read,
Speaker 1: he asked her to marry him. However, at this point
Speaker 1: in his life, he's only eighteen years old. Deborah's mother
Speaker 1: is thinking, you know, this is a guy who's a
Speaker 1: little bit strange, so she says, please be patient, be patient.
Speaker 1: But when Franklin is abroad in London, Deborah's mother tries
Speaker 1: to convince Deborah that she ought to marry John Rodgers.
Speaker 1: But Rogers is really a bad guy. He spends her dowry,
Speaker 1: he runs up debts, he takes off for the West
Speaker 1: Indies and they think he has died. Franklin, who has
Speaker 1: not gotten money from the governor come back home, is
Speaker 1: working at Samuel Palmer's print shop in London in order
Speaker 1: to publish enough stuff to make enough money to be
Speaker 1: able to get home, and in seventeen twenty five he
Speaker 1: publishes his first pamphlet in London, which is called a
Speaker 1: Dissertate on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain, and argues
Speaker 1: that humans actually lack free will and are therefore not
Speaker 1: morally responsible for their actions. Now, this is a fairly
Speaker 1: radical idea, and people sort of thought Franklin had lost
Speaker 1: his mind, but it does not, in the long run
Speaker 1: a fit who Franklin is, because he certainly did, in
Speaker 1: fact believe in free will and thought you could make
Speaker 1: your way, and later in life will write a whole
Speaker 1: series of articles and books about it. But it doesn't
Speaker 1: hurt him many. This is the guy who's learning the
Speaker 1: hard way that politicians don't always keep their word. Because
Speaker 1: the governor has not brought him back home, so ultimately
Speaker 1: he does in fact get back to Philadelphia. Took him
Speaker 1: two years instead of one, and he sees Deborah and
Speaker 1: poor Deborah is there with the guy who's run off
Speaker 1: of their dowry and apparently may have died in the Caribbean,
Speaker 1: so he tries to make her feel better. He gets
Speaker 1: his job back at Samuel Kimeron's Prince and the very
Speaker 1: typical Franklin behavior. Franklin, all his life will see an
Speaker 1: opportunity to get something done that requires founding an organization
Speaker 1: of some kind, because he understands that organizations create a
Speaker 1: life of their own. Well, he founds what's called the
Speaker 1: Hunto Club, and the hunter Club is a group of
Speaker 1: young men. They meet on Friday evenings and they discuss everything,
Speaker 1: the intellectual stuff, personal stuff, business stuff, community stuff. So
Speaker 1: it's a free, willing dialogue. But it does encourage them
Speaker 1: to read books, It encourages them to think about ideas.
Speaker 1: It gives him a space to begin to create a
Speaker 1: personal following, because inevitably, in any group, Franklin'll be the
Speaker 1: smartest guy, he'll be the best storyteller, and he'll be
Speaker 1: the funniest person. So now he's been back home, he's
Speaker 1: worked once again for somebody else, but by seventeen twenty
Speaker 1: eight he's in a position where he can now at
Speaker 1: twenty two years of age open his own print shop
Speaker 1: with Hugh Meredith, and Meredith actually gets a loan from
Speaker 1: his own father. In seventeen twenty nine, they purchase the
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania Gazette from Samuel Kimer, and at that point Franklin
Speaker 1: begins to really row because he likes to write. He
Speaker 1: can write a lot. He has a style that people
Speaker 1: are attracted to, and it both increases his name id
Speaker 1: in modern parliance, and it begins to create more money.
Speaker 1: He writes a modest inquiry into the nature and necessity
Speaker 1: of a paper currency, which called for an increase in
Speaker 1: the money supply to stimulate the economy at this stage
Speaker 1: of his career, something which will change by late in life.
Speaker 1: He's basically what we would call an inflationist. He thinks
Speaker 1: if we have more paper money floating around, people will
Speaker 1: have more purchasing power, and therefore the economy will work better.
Speaker 1: And this is part of what has been a permanent
Speaker 1: running debate in American society between sound money people who
Speaker 1: believe that money ought to attain its value, and inflationary
Speaker 1: people who believe that having money gradually depreciate actually increases
Speaker 1: the purchasing power and increases the economy, and that fight
Speaker 1: goes on for a long time. Franklin automately decides that
Speaker 1: paper money's dangerous, and in fact, one of the reasons
Speaker 1: we end up with the Constitution is to block those
Speaker 1: who would inflct currency. The reason that mattered is once
Speaker 1: you have a lot of property, if you're loaning out
Speaker 1: money that's worth a dollar and they're going to pay
Speaker 1: you back with money worth ninety cents, you're losing on
Speaker 1: the loan. So people who are propertied really dislike having
Speaker 1: an inflationary currency. Franklin goes from a young guy with
Speaker 1: a theory to an older, wealthy guy with money, and decides,
Speaker 1: as an older wealthy guy, he's with people like Washington
Speaker 1: who don't want to have an inflationary currency. Now he's
Speaker 1: picked to be the official government printer for Pennsylvania, and
Speaker 1: there's a reason that this really matters. Government then, like
Speaker 1: now is a major purchaser of goods and services. Everything
Speaker 1: that the state needs published is going to be printed
Speaker 1: by Benjamin Franklin. So he now has a steady stream
Speaker 1: of revenue which enables him. And remember at this stage
Speaker 1: he's twenty four. But at twenty four he's able to
Speaker 1: buy out Meredith. He becomes the most successful printer in town.
Speaker 1: He owns his own company and at twenty four, having
Speaker 1: become the official government printer, Deborah Read's parents think, you know,
Speaker 1: probably would be a good thing to have. Benjamin Franklin
Speaker 1: has a son in law. Now he marries her, even
Speaker 1: though they have no proof that her husband was dead
Speaker 1: John Rodgers member had married her, spent her dowry, run
Speaker 1: up a whole bunch of debt, fled to the Caribbean,
Speaker 1: never been heard of again. And the question was what
Speaker 1: proof do you have? And Franklin, as he often will,
Speaker 1: just ignored it. And so he marries Deborah and she
Speaker 1: plays a huge role in his life as somebody that
Speaker 1: he leans on. She did agree to raise Franklin's illegitimate son, William.
Speaker 1: Truth is, historians are not quite sure who the mother was.
Speaker 1: William becomes the deep part of Franklin's household, and later
Speaker 1: in life will disappoint him deeply by being a loyalist
Speaker 1: in staying with the British and becoming the governor of
Speaker 1: New Jersey for the King against the Revolutionaries, which embitters
Speaker 1: Franklin substantially. Deborah works with Franklin, and this becomes a
Speaker 1: very very important part of his life. She's really his
Speaker 1: business partner, and when he goes off to do other things,
Speaker 1: when he goes off to politics or he goes off
Speaker 1: to a diplomat, she's the one who stays home. She
Speaker 1: didn't particularly want to travel, and given the way ocean
Speaker 1: travel was in that generation, that's understandable. She ran the businesses,
Speaker 1: kept unprofitable, made him money, and it all seemed to work,
Speaker 1: and they worked for a very long time until she died.
Speaker 1: She is a key hidden part of why Franklin was
Speaker 1: able to be as effective as he was. She also
Speaker 1: put up with him. She was willing to focus on
Speaker 1: the mundane business and household side, which would not have
Speaker 1: made him an historic figure, but was the base of
Speaker 1: his ability to have the time and energy and resources
Speaker 1: to be a historic figure. So Franklin got to play
Speaker 1: at being Van Franklin in large part because he had
Speaker 1: a wife who was willing to tolerate him, willing to
Speaker 1: support him, and was smart enough and hard working enough
Speaker 1: that she could make a bunch of money while he
Speaker 1: was doing other things. Franklin, now that he's married and
Speaker 1: he owns his own business, and he's the largest printer
Speaker 1: in Philadelphia. Now he turns and he begins to really
Speaker 1: define himself as a citizen. By seventeen thirty one, he's
Speaker 1: done all the stuff I've been describing to you, and
Speaker 1: he's twenty five. He joins the Freemasons, which were a
Speaker 1: very very important social and quasi religious group that era.
Speaker 1: He helps establish the Library Company of Philadelphia, which is
Speaker 1: the first lending library in America. He aggressively defends the
Speaker 1: freedom of the press. I would clearly be on the
Speaker 1: side of those who favor the First Amendment rights of
Speaker 1: the press, And at twenty five years of age, he
Speaker 1: publishes an Apology for Printers which defends freedom of the press.
Speaker 1: He also enters into a partnership, gets more printing equipment,
Speaker 1: continues to get wealthier. By seventeen thirty two, they have
Speaker 1: their first child, Francis Folger Franklin. Sadly, Francis dies from
Speaker 1: smallpox at the age of four. Franklin never forgives himself
Speaker 1: because he should have been inoculated smallpox. Inoculation was increasingly popular.
Speaker 1: People knew about it, and it worked. Franklin would later
Speaker 1: write in his autobiography quote in seventeen thirty six, I
Speaker 1: lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four
Speaker 1: four years old, by the smallpox taken in the common way.
Speaker 1: I long regretted bitterly, and still regret that I have
Speaker 1: not given it to him by inoculation close quote. Franklin
Speaker 1: in seventeen thirty two publishes a German foreign language newspaper.
Speaker 1: In the eighteenth century, there were so many Germans migrating
Speaker 1: to Pennsylvania that there was serious talk of making German
Speaker 1: the second language of the country. There was a very
Speaker 1: large German population. Franklin was deeply opposed to making German
Speaker 1: the second language, but he wasn't opposed to making money.
Speaker 1: So he publishes a German language newspaper whose only difficulty
Speaker 1: as it fails financially and again it's an example entrepreneurs
Speaker 1: don't always succeed. Entrepreneurs have to be able to get
Speaker 1: back up, go back and try it again, and see
Speaker 1: what they can get done and what they can learn.
Speaker 1: He also in seventeen thirty two something historic happens in
Speaker 1: the history of American literature and in the history Benjamin
Speaker 1: Franklin as an American citizen. He publishes the first edition
Speaker 1: of Poor Richard's Almanac using a pseudonym of Richard Saunders.
Speaker 1: Why does poor Richard's Almanac matter? It is extraordinarily successful.
Speaker 1: It's a best seller, and it's going to be a
Speaker 1: best seller for a generation because he writes it. There's
Speaker 1: a new almanac every year. It is filled with common
Speaker 1: sense things like waste not, want not, a stitch in
Speaker 1: time saves nine, penny wise and pound foolish, things which
Speaker 1: in our era may not make a great deal of sense.
Speaker 1: For example, we don't use the British pounds, so the
Speaker 1: idea of being penny wise and pound foolish meaning you're
Speaker 1: really smart about a small thing, but you're dumb about
Speaker 1: a big thing. When it does finally get to be
Speaker 1: obvious who's writing it, it just spreads his fame across
Speaker 1: the whole all of the colonies. He becomes the Grand
Speaker 1: Master of the Grand Lodge of Mason of Pennsylvania. Again,
Speaker 1: he's rising in status and influence. He has a bigger
Speaker 1: and bigger network of friends. By seventeen thirty six, at
Speaker 1: the age of thirty, he's appointed Clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly.
Speaker 1: So now he's helping organize and taking care of the
Speaker 1: politicians at the same time that the colonial government is
Speaker 1: hiring his firm to print all of the printing, which
Speaker 1: is helping make him increasingly wealthy. In many ways. Franklin's
Speaker 1: greatest business accomplishment came from the publication of Poor Richard's Almanac.
Speaker 1: You know. He published it once a year for twenty
Speaker 1: five years, beginning on December nineteenth, seventeen thirty two, originally
Speaker 1: under the pseudonym of Richard Saunders, but then ultimately everybody
Speaker 1: knew it was Benjamin Franklin. It captured all sorts of
Speaker 1: information about the calendar, weather predictions, sayings, poems, recipes, trivia, advice.
Speaker 1: He thought it was a vehicle of instruction for common people,
Speaker 1: folks who couldn't afford books normally, it was a literature
Speaker 1: for the masses, and he was onto something because almanacs
Speaker 1: were the most read secular books in the colonies. He
Speaker 1: had little phrases from different years, but to give you
Speaker 1: a feel for Franklin's sense of what people are to hear,
Speaker 1: he wrote, three may keep a secret. If two of
Speaker 1: them are dead, lost time is never found again, and this,
Speaker 1: by the way, captures his entire life. He did not
Speaker 1: like to waste time because he felt it could never
Speaker 1: be found again. He said, love your enemies, for they
Speaker 1: tell you your faults and the affairs of this world. Men
Speaker 1: are saved not by faith, but by the lack of it.
Speaker 1: If you would not be forgotten as soon as you
Speaker 1: are dead and rotten. Right things were reading or do
Speaker 1: things worth writing? And the way his life was both. The
Speaker 1: way to see by faith is to shut the eye
Speaker 1: of reason. Women are books, and men the readers be.
Speaker 1: There cannot be good living where there is not good drinking,
Speaker 1: speak little do much. A friend in need is a friend,
Speaker 1: indeed to all apparent beauties blind. Each blemish strikes an
Speaker 1: envious mind. Fish and visitors stink in three days. That
Speaker 1: may be one that's remembered as well as anything he
Speaker 1: ever wrote. Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices.
Speaker 1: Now there's some advice very seldom followed. Search others for
Speaker 1: their virtues, thyself for thy vices. He that drinks his
Speaker 1: ciight or alone, let him catch his horse alone. Fools
Speaker 1: need advice most, but wise men only are the better
Speaker 1: for it. So that was classically Franklin. Somebody who listens
Speaker 1: the people picked up common sense language, and in fact
Speaker 1: wrote out a set of advice to everyday Americans, some
Speaker 1: of which he followed in his own life, and some
Speaker 1: of which he cheerfully ignored. He helps organize the Union
Speaker 1: Fire Company of Philadelphia, and the duty of the Union
Speaker 1: Fire Company Philadelphia was to train and organize fireman because
Speaker 1: the city is getting big enough. It's the largest city
Speaker 1: in the New World, and it's getting big enough that
Speaker 1: you need to have an organized fire department because you
Speaker 1: have a real challenge of taking care of houses that
Speaker 1: start to burn down. He also becomes the postmaster of Philadelphia.
Speaker 1: Now this is again an interesting example of Franklin. He
Speaker 1: is now thirty one years old. The British government appoints
Speaker 1: him postmaster of Philadelphia, which is, frankly an office that
Speaker 1: makes money. Postmasters back then were commercial assignments, so they
Speaker 1: make money out of many different things. And then he
Speaker 1: does something which truly changes history, but in a way
Speaker 1: that's very practical rather than political. In seventeen forty two,
Speaker 1: he invents a freestanding cast iron fireplace, which is known
Speaker 1: as the Franklin Stove. Franklin Stove, by the way, is
Speaker 1: still available today. You can go online. You can buy
Speaker 1: a Franklin stove. It was a very intelligent contribution to
Speaker 1: a better life because it used wood to generate heat
Speaker 1: with greater efficiency than the stoves which preceded. And interestingly,
Speaker 1: in terms of Franklin, he didn't patent it. In fact,
Speaker 1: he didn't patent any of his inventions. His idea was, look,
Speaker 1: if it works for me and my life is better,
Speaker 1: why shouldn't you be able to build it and your
Speaker 1: life can be better. He thought of this as part
Speaker 1: of his civic life, and he's inventing as a citizen,
Speaker 1: not as a businessman. Now on the business side, he's
Speaker 1: very tough minded and he's independently wealthy. But as an inventor,
Speaker 1: he just liked inventing things, and of course probably his
Speaker 1: most famous as the vocal glasses by but he just
Speaker 1: had a constant looking at things, thinking as a way
Speaker 1: to do it better is their way to do it differently.
Speaker 1: In the same time period, by the way, in seventeen
Speaker 1: forty three, when he does have a daughter, Sarah, they
Speaker 1: have her inoculated. They'd learned the lesson tragically from their
Speaker 1: son dying from smallpox. They're not going to take the risk.
Speaker 1: And the same year that his daughters born seventeen forty three,
Speaker 1: he writes a pamphlet called A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge,
Speaker 1: and that leads to the American Philosophical Society. And one
Speaker 1: of the offshoots of the American Philosophical Society is the
Speaker 1: Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, which I first visited
Speaker 1: when I was about ten, and went to a couple
Speaker 1: months ago. It is a great institution. It has all
Speaker 1: of Lewis and Clark's material because at the time of
Speaker 1: the Lewis and Clark expedition, he was the only major
Speaker 1: science museum in the country. It's a remarkable place. If
Speaker 1: you go to Philadelphia to go by and see it.
Speaker 1: He wakes up the way he thinks, oh, why don't
Speaker 1: we have a philosophical society? Well, because he writes so fast,
Speaker 1: I think I'll write a proposal for it. And by
Speaker 1: the way, since I'm a publisher, I think i'll publish it.
Speaker 1: So he's publishing his own pamphlet. At the same time
Speaker 1: he's offering to sell Franklin stoves, and Franklin stoves sell
Speaker 1: very well. Now he wasn't patenting it. Anybody else who
Speaker 1: wanted to could make a Franklin stew but he didn't
Speaker 1: mind making money off it himself. By seventeen forty seven,
Speaker 1: he publishes a pamphlet called Plain Truth and proposes the
Speaker 1: formation of a Philadelphia militia. Let's just think about it.
Speaker 1: This is the guy who wakes up in the morning,
Speaker 1: has a big idea and writes it down and sends
Speaker 1: it out, and people beg are in the habit now
Speaker 1: thinking I wonder what Franklin's up to next. What makes
Speaker 1: Franklin amazing is at forty two years of age in
Speaker 1: seventeen forty eight, he retires. He's now made enough money.
Speaker 1: He takes on a partner who gives him additional income
Speaker 1: the rest of his life, and the partner runs the
Speaker 1: daily operations of the printing business. And because he now
Speaker 1: has free time, he becomes a member of Philadelphia City Council.
Speaker 1: So now you have businessman, inventor, writer, now politician. And
Speaker 1: by the following year, in seventeen forty nine, he writes
Speaker 1: proposals relating to the education of youth in Philadelphia. There's
Speaker 1: a great story by one of my favorites about Franklin is.
Speaker 1: At one point during his political career, he took a
Speaker 1: very unpopular position, and a number of people wanted to
Speaker 1: sort of Browbeaty into giving it up. And so one
Speaker 1: evening he invited them to dinner, and they all came
Speaker 1: over to his house, and they had a very nice house,
Speaker 1: and they all sit around the dining room table and
Speaker 1: he serves them this very strange porridge which they all
Speaker 1: can barely taste so bad. And he finishes, he cleans
Speaker 1: his ball, and he says, gentlemen, this is actually sawdust. Now,
Speaker 1: if I'm prepared to eat a bowl of sawdust, what
Speaker 1: do you think you're going to do to intimidate me.
Speaker 1: It was so clear that Franklin wasn't somebody that you
Speaker 1: can intimidate. By seventeen fifty, what I think, after his
Speaker 1: bifocal glasses is his most interesting invention. He proposes using
Speaker 1: lightning rods to keep houses safe. Franklin figured out that
Speaker 1: if I could put up a pole that was above
Speaker 1: the house so it would attract the lightning, and if
Speaker 1: I could ground the pole in the ground so that
Speaker 1: the electricity would come straight down the pole go into
Speaker 1: the ground and never touch the house, that your house
Speaker 1: wouldn't burn down. Well, it may have been after his
Speaker 1: bifocal invention the most practical and most widespread improvement in
Speaker 1: life that anybody made. It's incalculable today how many houses
Speaker 1: did not burn down because of Benjamin Franklin. But the
Speaker 1: numbers would be in the hundreds of thousands by now.
Speaker 1: He continues to be involved as an active person. In
Speaker 1: seventeen fifteen, he is developing lightning rods. The following year,
Speaker 1: he decides, in passing he'll help found what was then
Speaker 1: called the Academy for Education of Youth, and we call
Speaker 1: it the University of Pennsylvania. And so he's going from
Speaker 1: place to place, almost like a Johnny Appleseed of a
Speaker 1: better life. He's also mentally exploring the world. So the
Speaker 1: same year that he's helping found what becomes the University
Speaker 1: of Pennsylvania, he also is writing an article on the
Speaker 1: experiments and observations on electricity. He's also that year, by
Speaker 1: the way, elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly and as a
Speaker 1: city alderman. All this is happening simultaneously. The following year,
Speaker 1: in seventeen fifty two, he builds on his article on
Speaker 1: the Experiments and observations and electricity, and in a classically
Speaker 1: American model, he leaves the laboratory. He steps outside and
Speaker 1: he flies a kite, and the kite attracts lightning, and
Speaker 1: the lightning is elected. And he then publishes how you
Speaker 1: can conduct the experiment because he thought through the key part,
Speaker 1: which is, all right, if you attract the lightning, where's
Speaker 1: electricity going? And he made sure it wasn't going through him.
Speaker 1: He also in Passing the same year, I remember he's
Speaker 1: making money. He's serving as a city alderman, he's serving
Speaker 1: in the Pennsylvania Assembly. He's still writing a lot. And
Speaker 1: in seventeen fifty two he founds the Philadelphia Contributionship. Now
Speaker 1: what is a contribution ship? Well, you and I think
Speaker 1: of it as a fire insurance company. And so literally
Speaker 1: in Passing, he says, now, if we all contributed a
Speaker 1: little bit, then if one of us had our house
Speaker 1: burned down, we could collect on the value of the
Speaker 1: house based on our contributions. And so the Philadelphia Contributionship
Speaker 1: sets the base for a mutual fire insurance company, which
Speaker 1: becomes a model that's very, very widespread. The next year,
Speaker 1: in seventeen fifty three, he's appointed Deputy Postmaster General of
Speaker 1: the Colonies. Now think about this. The British government now
Speaker 1: is saying to Franklin, we trust you enough, we think
Speaker 1: you're smart enough, we think you're a good enough businessman.
Speaker 1: We want you to help run all of the post
Speaker 1: offices in the entire thirteen colonies, which of course also
Speaker 1: gives him an excuse to learn more and more and
Speaker 1: to think beyond Philadelphia and to think beyond Pennsylvania. Now
Speaker 1: he'd already been born and grown up in Boston, so
Speaker 1: now he has an increasing sense of the East coast
Speaker 1: of the United States, the Atlantic Coast, and all the
Speaker 1: different colonies from Georgia up through Massachusetts. He also that year,
Speaker 1: in seventeen fifty three, he gets the Copley Medal, which
Speaker 1: is the highest award the Royal Society of London can give.
Speaker 1: So he's being recognized worldwide as a scientist. He is
Speaker 1: the postmaster for all of the colonies. He is serving
Speaker 1: in the city government, the state government, and he's active
Speaker 1: in founding various organizations, and he's continuing to be a scientist.
Speaker 1: All of this is simultaneous and as a scientist in
Speaker 1: passing because remember never went to graduate school, never took
Speaker 1: a science course. He is recognized as a worldwide contributor
Speaker 1: because of the work he's done on electricity. He's also
Speaker 1: concerned about what we would call national security, and he's
Speaker 1: concerned about the French and Indians in the West. And
Speaker 1: remember that the French Indian War will start in what
Speaker 1: we call Pittsburgh, then called Fort Duquine, which was a
Speaker 1: French outpost coming to the French are coming down from Canada.
Speaker 1: We're coming from the Atlantic coast, and we're about to
Speaker 1: collide in western Pennsylvania. And seventeen fifty four Franklin, Prince
Speaker 1: of Cartoon, Join or Die, which argues that the colonies
Speaker 1: have to work together in confederation, they have to protect themselves,
Speaker 1: that no single colony is going to be capable of
Speaker 1: developing defenses. Now, this is a pretty radical view at
Speaker 1: the time, and one of the signals it's a radical
Speaker 1: view that year seventeen fifty four is the British government Fireshi.
Speaker 1: They say you're now not the Deputy Postmaster General. Your
Speaker 1: political views are too radical. And for the first time
Speaker 1: Franklin is faced with the consequences that if he really
Speaker 1: believes what he says he believes, he's going to pay
Speaker 1: some real cost for that. In the midst of all this,
Speaker 1: in seventeen fifty five, Franklin, with doctor Thomas Bond, founded
Speaker 1: the Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation's first hospital focused on the sick,
Speaker 1: the poor, and the insane. And again, when you go
Speaker 1: to Philadelphia, you just see case after case of Franklin's impact.
Speaker 1: Two hundred years later, the French and Indian War starting
Speaker 1: in seventeen fifty six, and you remember that it's Washington
Speaker 1: who plays a leading role in starting the French and
Speaker 1: Indian War. Franklin was asked to lead Pennsylvania militia against
Speaker 1: the French who were defeating the English troops. Accompanied by
Speaker 1: his son, Franklin fought mercilessly to take back land, establish
Speaker 1: new forts, and push back against the French forces. He
Speaker 1: served as an officer in the militia without even receiving pay,
Speaker 1: because his devotion to duty was so deep. He was
Speaker 1: a wealthy businessman, so he could afford to be a
Speaker 1: volunteer for free. In seventeen fifty seven, while the French
Speaker 1: and New Wars underway, Franklin is elected to go to
Speaker 1: England to talk about colonial disputes with Parliament. He stays
Speaker 1: for five years, and this is I think one of
Speaker 1: the most important examples of change in leading up to
Speaker 1: American independence. Franklin leaves the colonies as a loyal British servant.
Speaker 1: He finds out over time that in fact, he'll never
Speaker 1: be accepted. He can be wealthy, doesn't matter. He can
Speaker 1: be a world class scientist, doesn't matter. He can win
Speaker 1: elections back home, an't matter. He can be the funniest,
Speaker 1: best storyteller in the room, doesn't matter. He's not an aristocrat.
Speaker 1: He's never going to be accepted as an aristocrat. And
Speaker 1: I think it's the bitterness of beginning to realize that
Speaker 1: which begins to turn him against the English government and
Speaker 1: making him begin to think of himself as an American.
Speaker 1: He stays from seventeen fifty seven for five years, goes
Speaker 1: back to Boston for two years, and in the process
Speaker 1: he invents the glass harmonica. This was a very sophisticated
Speaker 1: device which made a series of sounds. It was widely received,
Speaker 1: probably ranked along with the lightning rod and the bifocals
Speaker 1: and the Franklin stove among the most widely received of
Speaker 1: Franklin's inventions. Both Beethoven and Mozart used Franklin's harmonica. By
Speaker 1: seventeen sixty four, he loses his seat in the Pennsylvania Assembly,
Speaker 1: but goes back to London as a colonial agent, and
Speaker 1: the next year the Stamp Act is passed by the
Speaker 1: House of Commons. Remember, the Stamp Act is designed to
Speaker 1: raise money from the Americans to help pay the cost
Speaker 1: to the French and Indian War, which the British reasoned
Speaker 1: had protected America from attack, and therefore the Americans ought
Speaker 1: to bear some burden. The Americans, of course, resented the idea,
Speaker 1: did not want to pay the Stamp Act, and that
Speaker 1: was the beginning of the deep disaffection that would autoly
Speaker 1: lead to the Revolution, because Franklin knew that Americans were
Speaker 1: against it. In seventeen sixty six, just one year after
Speaker 1: the Actress passed, he testifies in the House of Commons
Speaker 1: in favor of repeal of the Stamp Act, proving that
Speaker 1: his loyalties are to the colonies. Yet the very same year,
Speaker 1: while he's testifying in the House of Comments, he's elected
Speaker 1: as a member of the Royal Society of Sciences. He
Speaker 1: may not be an aristocrat to the aristocrats, but he's
Speaker 1: clearly an aristocrat to the scientists, and they have the
Speaker 1: greatest admiration for him. Well, that's going on. The British
Speaker 1: troops are being sent to Boston. The British government's getting
Speaker 1: tougher and tougher. The fact is that Franklin was committed
Speaker 1: to representing the American side. It's also in this period
Speaker 1: that his daughter Sally marries Richard Bach. Franklin really wanted
Speaker 1: her not to do that because Bach's situation financially was
Speaker 1: bad and he was afraid that Bach was just marrying
Speaker 1: her for her money. Nonetheless, his wife, Deborah allowed them
Speaker 1: to be married, against Franklin's wishes. He accepted the marriage
Speaker 1: after Sally had their first child. Ben helped Richard obtain
Speaker 1: several loans help them set up a few stores. But
Speaker 1: the truth is Franklin supported Sally in her eight children
Speaker 1: for the rest of his life. He was, in fact
Speaker 1: a very generous family man and was deeply concerned about
Speaker 1: his family, even if he didn't spend very much time
Speaker 1: with him. By seventeen sixty nine, the American Philosophical Society,
Speaker 1: which he had helped found, has elected Franklin as its president,
Speaker 1: and then they reelected him every single year after that
Speaker 1: until he died. So he's the head of the Philosophical
Speaker 1: Society he's inventing musical instruments. He's inventing practical things like
Speaker 1: the Franklin stove, the bifocals and lightning rods. And then
Speaker 1: the Boston Massacre occurs. British troops shoot at colonists. The
Speaker 1: whole colonies are upset and are afraid, and Franklin tries
Speaker 1: to find a way to bring Britain and the colonies
Speaker 1: back together. In seventeen seventy one, he begins writing his autobiography,
Speaker 1: which I can tell you if you have never read,
Speaker 1: it is absolutely worth your getting and reading. It's a
Speaker 1: remarkable book. It's very candid, it's very wise. I don't
Speaker 1: care who you are. You will learn things you'll apply
Speaker 1: to your own life if you read Franklin's autobiography. In London,
Speaker 1: he gets a series of letters, Some thirteen letters come
Speaker 1: to him from an anonymous sinder. The letters have been stolen.
Speaker 1: There were a correspondence between the mass Governor, the Royal
Speaker 1: Governor Thomas Hutcheson and the Royal Lieutenant Governor Andrew Oliver,
Speaker 1: who are writing English authorities. Somehow these letters had gotten
Speaker 1: stolen and they were given to Franklin, who then sends
Speaker 1: them to Samuel Adams and authorizes them to be shown
Speaker 1: to the members of the Massachusetts Committee of Correspondence, but
Speaker 1: not copied or published. Now, this clearly is a totally
Speaker 1: inappropriate act and will begin the process of really alienating
Speaker 1: the English and Franklin. By seventeen seventy three, the Stampack,
Speaker 1: not having worked, Parliament passes the Tea Act, which then
Speaker 1: leads in Boston to people dressing up as Indians and
Speaker 1: dumping the tea in the harbor in what we call
Speaker 1: the Boston Tea Party. And interestingly, Franklin, who of course
Speaker 1: was from Boston, originally has real ties emotionally back to
Speaker 1: Boston as well as to Philadelphia. That same year, the
Speaker 1: Massachusetts Speaker, Thomas Cushing, gives the letters that Franklin had
Speaker 1: sent to the Massachusetts House, and the House concluded that
Speaker 1: Governor Hutcheson intended to overthrow the Constitution. They decide to
Speaker 1: petition for Hutcheson and Oliver's removal, and despite Franklin's wishes,
Speaker 1: the letters are published in the Boston Gazette. Franklin tries
Speaker 1: to communicate to the British through satire. In September seventy
Speaker 1: seventy three, he publishes two articles in the Public Advertiser
Speaker 1: in London, one quote Rules by which a Great Empire
Speaker 1: may be reduced to a small one, and the second
Speaker 1: Edict by the King of Prussia. Both of them are satirical,
Speaker 1: and both of them attacked the British attitude toward the colonies.
Speaker 1: Now remember, at this point, the aristocrats are amused. They
Speaker 1: don't want to be lectured by some colonial, even if
Speaker 1: he's a famous scientist and a wealthy man. And they're
Speaker 1: increasingly angry because they see the Americans as totally ungrateful
Speaker 1: and treasonous. When Britain had fought the French, Britain had
Speaker 1: defeated the Indians, Britain had protected the colonies and all
Speaker 1: they get back in return his constant complaint refusal to
Speaker 1: pay taxes, and people who clearly are not appropriate for
Speaker 1: English society. Two things happen in the early seventeen seventies
Speaker 1: that really affect Franklin. First was that his wife, Deborah
Speaker 1: dies he was still in England. They had been separated physically,
Speaker 1: but they wrote to each other constantly. She had run
Speaker 1: the business in his absence. When he did return home
Speaker 1: to America, he wrote a friend quote I have lately
Speaker 1: lost my old and faithful companion, and I every day
Speaker 1: become more sensible of the greatness of that loss, which
Speaker 1: cannot now be I suspect you both realized how many
Speaker 1: days they'd been apart, how much of their lives had
Speaker 1: been separate, and with gratitude, how much she had done,
Speaker 1: how she had enabled him to be Benjamin Franklin, because
Speaker 1: she had run the business, she'd earned the money, she'd
Speaker 1: paid attention to, all the details that he cheerfully ignored.
Speaker 1: But the other thing which happened in the seventeen seventies
Speaker 1: while he was still in London, when word reached Great
Speaker 1: Britain that the official letters of the Governor and the
Speaker 1: Lieutenant Governor had been somehow submitted to the House of
Speaker 1: Commons of the colony. There was an enormous uprising in
Speaker 1: Britain of interest, where did these come from? Who was responsible?
Speaker 1: And finally Franklin cleared the air. In December of seventeen
Speaker 1: seventy three, he wrote a brief note to the newspaper
Speaker 1: saying I'm the person who released him. While that guaranteed
Speaker 1: that the Privy Council, which was in effect the highest
Speaker 1: political judicial body in Britain would see him and would
Speaker 1: demand to know what he was doing and why he
Speaker 1: was doing it, and he went twice. The first time
Speaker 1: he went, he frankly thought they were going to enquire
Speaker 1: about what had happened with Hutchinson and Oliver the governor
Speaker 1: Lieutenant Governor and why were they in such trouble. Instead
Speaker 1: he found that the Solicitor General of Britain attacked him
Speaker 1: for a full solid hour, and when they said, okay,
Speaker 1: it's your turn, he just stood there quietly and said,
Speaker 1: I didn't realize this was the point of this, and
Speaker 1: I want a lawyer, and they agreed he ought to
Speaker 1: have a lawyer. So two weeks later they came back together.
Speaker 1: But in the interim the Boston Tea Party news had
Speaker 1: reached Great Britain that the Americans had dressed like Indians,
Speaker 1: gone into the harbor, thrown the tea from the East
Speaker 1: India Company into the harbor, destroying it. And there was
Speaker 1: a high sense of rage in the governing class in Britain.
Speaker 1: And so when Franklin shows back up, he is attacked
Speaker 1: for for several hours in a very direct and aggressive
Speaker 1: and nasty way, and it's quite clear that he is
Speaker 1: the target, and that there's nothing he can do to
Speaker 1: defend himself. He is wearing a blue coat, which, to
Speaker 1: show how Franklin's mind worked, he will wear again when
Speaker 1: he signs the Peace Treaty declaring the United States to
Speaker 1: be free and independent. And somebody said, why do you
Speaker 1: have this old coat? Remember the peace Treaty now that
Speaker 1: he's signing is more than a decade later. And he said,
Speaker 1: for a little sense of revenge. Franklin was not a
Speaker 1: man who one could attack easily or lightly, or expect
Speaker 1: to ever turn the other cheek. So he goes home
Speaker 1: having been attacked by the British elites, and now he
Speaker 1: is clearly committed to independence. He's elected as a Pennsylvania
Speaker 1: delegate to the second Continental Congress, and he also, ironically,
Speaker 1: having been fired by the British as the postmas to General,
Speaker 1: which happened the day after the Privy Council meeting to
Speaker 1: punish him, he is now elected as the Postmaster General
Speaker 1: of the colonies by the Continental Congress. So at the
Speaker 1: very moment that the British are losing control of the
Speaker 1: post offices, they are being turned back over to the
Speaker 1: guy who had been in charge of the post offices
Speaker 1: on behalf of the king, so Franklin knew what he
Speaker 1: was doing and how to do it. In seventeen seventy six,
Speaker 1: he's asked to be one of five people who draft
Speaker 1: the Declation Independence, and he is clearly a key figure
Speaker 1: who people trust and plays a significant role in working
Speaker 1: with Jefferson and Adams to get the final draft of
Speaker 1: the Declation Independence approved by the Congress. Then he's asked
Speaker 1: to go to France to be a commissioner from the
Speaker 1: Continental Congress in order to get the French to help us. Remember,
Speaker 1: at this point, without the help of France, the United
Speaker 1: States will lose use the war to Britain because we'll
Speaker 1: have no money, we'll have no ammunition, we'll have no uniforms,
Speaker 1: we will have no effective navy. And so this was
Speaker 1: life and death. And Franklin, who had the great advantage
Speaker 1: of being a world famous scientist, is a very major player.
Speaker 1: And because he's also so personable, so amused by life,
Speaker 1: and so engaging with people, he became a very very
Speaker 1: widely admired and liked diplomat. Franklin plays a key role
Speaker 1: is in Europe, not in America, works very hard to
Speaker 1: keep the French on our side. And then after Cornwallis
Speaker 1: surrenders at Yorktown in seventeen eighty one, effectively ending the
Speaker 1: military part of the war, Congress appoints Franklin, along with
Speaker 1: John Jay, John Adams, and Henry Lawrence, to be a
Speaker 1: commissioner to negotiate peace, and in seventeen eighty three they
Speaker 1: complete the negotiations and they signed the peace Treaty. Franklin,
Speaker 1: by the way, is the toughest, most hard nosed person
Speaker 1: on the question of whether or not there should be
Speaker 1: any compensation for Tories who had stayed on the side
Speaker 1: of the British and said absolutely no. These people were traders.
Speaker 1: They should not get a penny, and he was just
Speaker 1: firm that that was not going to be part of
Speaker 1: the agreement. They signed the peace treaty, as I said earlier,
Speaker 1: with Franklin wearing the same coat that he had worn
Speaker 1: back when the Privy Council tried to humiliate it. And
Speaker 1: Franklin then returns because now he's no longer totally drowning
Speaker 1: and being a diplomat, so he returns to being an
Speaker 1: inventor and a commentator. In seventeen eighty three we complete negotiations,
Speaker 1: we signed the peace treaty. Now the colonies are independent states.
Speaker 1: And one year later Franklin writes quote an Economical Project
Speaker 1: for diminishing the cost of light, which is in fact
Speaker 1: the first document proposing daylight saving time. He does this
Speaker 1: in passing. He just thinks to himself, gosh, wouldn't it
Speaker 1: make sense if we change so that we had more time,
Speaker 1: more daylight? And he writes this out, and of course,
Speaker 1: well over one hundred years later it begins to be implemented,
Speaker 1: So the daylight saving time that we currently celebrate can
Speaker 1: be traced back to an idea from Benjamin Franklin. Then
Speaker 1: the same year he invents the bifocal glasses. As he's
Speaker 1: getting older, he notices that he has one pair of
Speaker 1: glasses for seeing up close, one pair of glasses for
Speaker 1: seeing in the distance. He's constantly taking off one putting
Speaker 1: on the other. You always have to carry extra glasses,
Speaker 1: And he thinks to himself, well, what if I arrange
Speaker 1: it so when you look down, which is what you
Speaker 1: do when you're reading, you have close vision, and when
Speaker 1: you look out, which you're looking up, you have distance vision.
Speaker 1: He goes to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in seventeen
Speaker 1: eighty seven. He's the oldest person at the convention. He
Speaker 1: occasionally falls asleep during the sessions, but he also when
Speaker 1: the convention is about to melt down in bitterness and
Speaker 1: hostility between the large states and the small states, and
Speaker 1: his most important intervention, he says, why don't we suspend
Speaker 1: for a day, have a day of prayer and fasting,
Speaker 1: and have various ministers come in and pray to us
Speaker 1: to get ourselves back on the right mindset, which is
Speaker 1: in fact precisely what they do. And the very famous
Speaker 1: moment when he is leaving the Constitutional Convention, having completed
Speaker 1: the work, and the lady says to him on Independence
Speaker 1: Hall steps, what have you done? And he said, we
Speaker 1: have created a republic if you can keep it, and
Speaker 1: understood thoroughly that in the long run it would be
Speaker 1: up to the American people whether or not it would
Speaker 1: work and whether or not it would survive. I wanted
Speaker 1: his comment to go and stand there at Independence Hall
Speaker 1: and think about the people who signed the decreation Independence,
Speaker 1: To go across to the great New Constitution Center, which
Speaker 1: is just remarkable, to go to the Franklin Institute, and
Speaker 1: to realize again and again the impact that this guy
Speaker 1: had to take a map and go around and see
Speaker 1: all the different places where there are universities or insurance companies,
Speaker 1: or libraries or fire departments, things that Benjamin Franklin created
Speaker 1: in his lifetime. By seventeen eighty eight, he's being to
Speaker 1: realize that eighty two years of age, he likely doesn't
Speaker 1: have many more years left, so he writes a will
Speaker 1: leaving most of his state to his daughter Sarah. Seventeen
Speaker 1: eighty nine, he's elected president of the Pennsylvania Society for
Speaker 1: Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. Here's a guy who constantly,
Speaker 1: endlessly fought for human freedom, who steadily spread the opportunity
Speaker 1: for freedom, and who at the end of his life
Speaker 1: is working on the abolition of slavery. In fact, submits
Speaker 1: the first anti slavery pradition before the US Congress. He
Speaker 1: had had slaves very early, two slaves who worked in
Speaker 1: his household, but when he was young, but as he
Speaker 1: got older, he began to think, this is an evil institution.
Speaker 1: And if you believe in the principles of the American Revolution,
Speaker 1: if you believe in a declaration that says we're all
Speaker 1: created equal, it's simply wrong, and at a time when
Speaker 1: it was still a very, very radical position, he was
Speaker 1: actively in favor of the abolition of slavery. Ultimately, in
Speaker 1: seventeen ninety he dies, Washington is now president, the country
Speaker 1: is established. He leaves behind a fair amount of wealth
Speaker 1: for Sally and her husband, but he leaves behind for
Speaker 1: the world a whole series of inventions and breakthroughs and
Speaker 1: understandings that are just astonishing and that ultimately improve the
Speaker 1: lives of millions and millions of people. Gives you a
Speaker 1: sense of why he is an immortal and somebody who
Speaker 1: really I think represents the best of the American tradition
Speaker 1: of constant effort, constant dreaming, constant hard work to term
Speaker 1: the dreams into reality. You can learn more about Benjamin
Speaker 1: Franklin on our show page at Newtsworld dot com. Newsworld
Speaker 1: is produced by Gainwrish three sixty and iHeartMedia. Our executive
Speaker 1: producer is Guarnsey Sloan and our researcher is Rachel Peterson.
Speaker 1: The artwork for the show was created by Steve Penley.
Speaker 1: Special thanks the team at Ginrich three sixty. If you've
Speaker 1: been enjoying Newtsworld, I hope you'll go to Apple Podcast
Speaker 1: and both rate us with five stars and give us
Speaker 1: a review so others can learn what it's all about.
Speaker 1: Right now, listeners of Newsworld consign up for my three
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Speaker 1: I'm new Gingrich. This is Newsworld