Avneet Kumar Singla - The Great Benjamin Franklin

Avneet Kumar Singla

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Avneet Kumar Singla

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Contents

Introductory Note

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN was born in Milk Street, Boston, on January 6, 1706. His father, Josiah Franklin, was a tallow chandler who married twice and of his seventeen children Benjamin was the youngest son. His schooling ended at Ten, and at twelve he was an apprentice to his brother James, a printer who published The "New England Courant". "To this journal he became a contributor, and later was for a time its nominal editor. But the brothers quarrelled, and Benjamin ran away, going first to New York and thence to Philadelphia, where he arrived in October 1723. He soon received work as a printer, but after a few months he was induced by Governor Keith to go to London, where Keith found promises empty, he worked again as a composer until he was brought back to Philadelphia by a merchant named Denman, who gave him a position in his business. After Denman's death, he returned to his former profession and shortly thereafter established his own printing house, from which he published "the Pennsylvania Gazette", to which he contributed many essays and which he made a medium to stimulate a variety of local reforms. In 1732 he began to publish his famous "Poor Richard's Almanac", for whose enrichment he borrowed or composed those splendid expressions of worldly wisdom which form the basis of much of his popular reputation. In 1758, the year he stopped writing for the almanac, he printed in it "Father Abraham's sermon", which is now considered the most famous piece of literature in colonial America.

In the meantime, Franklin became more and more concerned with public affairs. He presented a plan for an Academy, which was later incorporated and eventually developed into the University of Pennsylvania; and he founded an "American Philosophical Society" to enable scientific men to communicate their discoveries with each other. He himself had already begun his electrical research, which he continued with other scientific investigations in the intervals of making money and politics until the end of his life. In 1748 he sold his business to get leisure for study, having now acquired comparative wealth; and in a few years he had made discoveries which gave him a reputation among scholars all over Europe. In politics, he proved to be both an administrator and a controversialist; but his record as an incumbent is tainted by the use he made of his position to advance his relatives. His most notable service in domestic politics was his reform of the postal system; his fame as a statesman, however, rests mainly on his services in connection with the colonies ' relations with Great Britain and later with France. In 1757 he was sent to England to protest against the influence of the Penn's in the government of the colony, and for five years he remained there to inform the people and the Ministry of England of the colonial conditions. On his return to America he played an honourable part in the Paxton affair, through which he lost his seat in the Assembly; but in 1764 he was again sent to England as agent for the colony, this time to ask the king to resume the government from the hands of the owners. In London he actively opposed the proposed Stamp Act, but lost the credit for it and much of its popularity through his search for a friend, the Office of stamp agent in America. Even his effective work to achieve the repeal of the act still left him suspicious; but he continued his efforts to present the case for the colonies as the problems intensified towards the crisis of the Revolution. In 1767 he went to France where he was received with honour; but before returning home in 1775 he lost his position as postmaster due to his share in Massachusetts's famous letter from Hutchinson and Oliver. On his arrival in Philadelphia he was elected a member of the Continental Congress and in 1777 was sent to France as commissioner for the United States. Here he remained until 1785, the favourite of French society; and with such success he conducted the affairs of his country in such a way that on his return he obtained a place second only to that of Washington, when he campaigned for American Independence. He died on April 17, 1917.

The first five chapters of the biography are related 1771 of England. This Biography is Written in the Spirit of such as Benjamin Franklin himself writing his biography himself. So the words I, My, Me etc. should be understood in regards to Benjamin Franklin

TWYFORD, with the bishop of St. Asaph, [1] 1771.

Dear son: I have always enjoyed getting little anecdotes from my ancestors. You may remember the inquiries I made among the remnants of my relationships when you were with me in England, and the journey I made to that end. Imagine it equally pleasant to [2] you know the circumstances in my life, many of which you do not yet know, and expect the enjoyment of a week of uninterrupted leisure in my country, to retire, I sit down to write to you for you. To which I have besides some other inducements. Having emerged from the poverty and darkness in which I was born and raised, into a state of prosperity and some prestige in the world, and having gone so far through life with a considerable share of bliss, the guiding means of which I have availed myself, which has succeeded so well with the blessing of God, my posterity may like to know, as they find some of them suitable for their own situations, and therefore suitable to be imitated.

[1] the estate of Bishop Shipley, the good bishop, as Dr. Franklin called him. - B.

[2] After the words "pleasant", the words" some of " were interlined and afterward effaced. - B.

This kindness, when I thought about it, has sometimes led me to say that if it were offered to my choice, I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from the beginning, only the advantages that authors have in a second edition to correct some errors of the first. So I could, in addition to correcting the errors, change some scary accidents and events of it more favorably for others. But although this was rejected, I should accept the offer anyway. Since such a repetition is not to be expected, the next thing that life seems to prefer to live again seems to be a memory of this life and to make this memory as permanent as possible by putting it down in writing.

Again, I will indulge in the tendency that is so natural in old men to speak of themselves and their own actions in the past; and I will allow others, without being tiresome, who might feel obliged to give me a hearing with regard to age, as this may or may not be read as one pleases. And finally (I can also confess, since my denial is not believed by anyone), perhaps I will satisfy my own vanity. In fact, I have rarely heard or seen the introductory words, "without vanity I can say," &C., but some vain things immediately followed. Most people do not like vanity in others, whatever they have of it themselves; but I give it fairly, wherever I meet with it, to be convinced that it is often productive of good to the owner and others within his sphere of action; and therefore in many cases it would not be altogether absurd for a man to thank God for his vanity among the other comforts of life.