FREE ESSAY ON BEN FRANKLIN BIOGRAPHY/CRITIQUE

BEN FRANKLIN BIOGRAPHY/CRITIQUE

Ben Franklin: Early Life 
In his many careers as a printer, moralist, essayist, civic leader, scientist, inventor,
statesman, diplomat, and philosopher, for later generations of Americans he became both a
spokesman and a model for the national character. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts on
Jan. 17, 1706, into a religious Puritan household. His father, Josiah, was a candlemaker
and a skillful mechanic. His mother, Abiah Ben's parents raised thirteen children--the
survivors of Josiah's seventeen children by two wives (#1).
Printer & Writer
Franklin left school at ten years old when he was pressed into his father's trade. At
twelve Ben was apprenticed to his half brother James, a printer of The New England
Courant. He generally absorbed the values and philosophy of the English Enlightenment. At
the age of 16, Franklin wrote some pieces for the Courant signed Silence Dogood, in which
he parodied the Boston authorities and society (#3). At one point James Franklin was
imprisoned for his liberal statements, and Benjamin carried on the paper himself. Having
thus learned to resist oppression, Benjamin refused to suffer his brother's own
domineering qualities and in 1723 ran away to Philadelphia (#1).
Soon Franklin found a job as a printer. After a year he went to England, where he became
a master printer, sowed some wild oats, amazed the locals with his swimming feats, and
lived among inspiring writers of London. By 1726 Franklin was tiring of London (#1). He
considered becoming an itinerant teacher of swimming, but when a Quaker merchant by the
name of Thomas Denham offered him a clerkship in his store in Philadelphia, he decided to
return home (#5). 
Returning to Philadelphia in 1726, he soon owned a newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette,
and began to print Poor Richard's Almanac. In the Pennsylvania Gazette, a citizen asked
editor Franklin the following question: If A found out that his neighbor B was sleeping
with his wife, was he justified in telling B's wife, and persuading her to seek a little
revenge with A? The editor's response: If an ass kicks me, should I kick him again? (#4)
His business expanded further when he contracted to do the public printing of the
province, and established partnerships with printers in other colonies. He also operated
a bookshop and became clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly and postmaster of Philadelphia
(#3). 
Civic Leader & Scientist
In 1727, Franklin began his career as a civic leader by organizing a club of aspiring
tradesmen called the Junto. They aspired to build their own businesses, insure the growth
of Philadelphia, and improve the quality of its life. Franklin led the Junto in founding
a library (1731), fire company (1736), learned society (1743), college (later the
University of Pennsylvania, 1749), and an insurance company and a hospital (1751). The
group also carried out plans for paving, cleaning, and lighting the streets and for
making them safe by organizing an efficient night watch. They even formed a voluntary
militia (#1).
Franklin had steadily extended his own knowledge by study of foreign languages,
philosophy, and science. He repeated experiments of other scientists and added his own
ideas that led to inventions of the Franklin stove, bifocal eyeglasses, and a glass
harmonica. The phenomenon of electricity interested him deeply, in 1748 he turned his
printing business over to his foreman, intending to devote his life to science (#5).
Experiments he proposed, showed that lightning was in fact a form of electricity. Later
that year his famous kite experiment, in which he flew a kite with the wire attached to a
key during a thunderstorm, further established that laboratory-produced static
electricity was akin to a previously mysterious and terrifying natural phenomenon (#1).
He was elected to the Royal Society in 1756 and to the French Academy of Sciences in
1772(#3). His later achievements included formulating a theory of heat absorption,
measuring the Gulf Stream, designing ships, and tracking storm paths.
Statesman & Diplomat
Franklin held local public offices and served twelve years as a postmaster for
Philadelphia. In the Plan of Union, which he presented (1754), to the Albany Congress, he
proposed partial self-government for the American colonies. When he went to England in
1757 as agent of the Pennsylvania Assembly, he was alarmed to hear Lord Granville,
president of the Privy Council, declare that for the colonies, the king's instructions
were the Law of the Land: for the King is the Legislator of the Colonies," (#2). In
England from 1757 to 1762, Franklin worked to persuade British officials to limit
proprietary power in Pennsylvania. 
He enjoyed English social and intellectual life. Ben attended meetings of the Royal
Society, heard great orchestras play the works of Handel, made grand tours of the
continent, and received honorary doctor's degrees from the universities of St. Andrews
(1759) and Oxford (1762) (#5). He created a pleasant family-style life at his Craven
Street boarding house in London, and began a long friendship and scientific-humorous
correspondence with his landlady's daughter, Mary Stevenson. Their letters reveal his
gifts for lively friendship, for brilliant letter writing, and for humane understanding.
At home from 1762 to 1764, Franklin traveled throughout the colonies, reorganizing the
American postal system (#2). 
The crisis caused by the Stamp Act (1765) launched Franklin into a new role as chief
defender of American rights in Britain. At first he advised obedience to the act until it
could be withdrawn, but news of violent protest against it in America stiffened his own
conflict. After an abolition of the Stamp Act, Franklin reaffirmed his love for the
British Empire and his desire to see the union of mother country and colonies secured and
established, but he also warned that the seeds of liberty are universally found and
nothing can eradicate them (#2). He opposed the Townshend Acts (1767) because such acts
of oppression would sour American tempers and perhaps even hasten their final revolt.
When the British Parliament passed the Tea Act (1773), that hurt the colonial merchants,
Franklin protested in a series of finely honed political essays, including An Edict by
the King of Prussia and Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One. As
these sarcasm's circulated in England, Franklin wrote his sister: I have held up a
Looking-Glass in which some of the Ministers may see their ugly faces, and the Nation its
Injustice (#4).
From April 1775 to October 1776, Franklin served on the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety
and in the Continental Congress, submitted articles of confederation for the united
colonies, proposed a new constitution for Pennsylvania, and helped draft the Declaration
of Independence. He readily signed the declaration, allowing him to become a
revolutionist at the age of 70. For seven years he acted as diplomat, purchasing agent,
recruiting officer, loan negotiator, admiralty court, and intelligence chief and was
generally the main representative of the new United States in Europe. Though nearly 80
years old, he oversaw the dispatch of French armies and navies to North America, supplied
American armies with French munitions, outfitted John Paul Jones and secured a succession
of loans from the nearly bankrupt French treasury (#1).
Though in his 80th year and suffering from painful bladder stones, he nonetheless
accepted election for three years as president of Pennsylvania and resumed active roles
in the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, the American
Philosophical Society, and the University of Pennsylvania. At the Constitutional
Convention of 1787, although he was too weak to stand, Franklin's good humor and gift for
compromise often helped to prevent bitter disputes (#2).
Franklin's final public pronouncements urged ratification of the Constitution and
approved the inauguration of the new federal government under his admired friend George
Washington. He wrote friends in France that we are making Experiments in Politicks, but
that American affairs mend daily and are getting into good order very fast. Thus,
cheerful and optimistic as always, Benjamin Franklin died in Philadelphia on Apr. 17,
1790 (#3). His keen mind and eloquent tongue made him a truly inspirational speaker. Many
of his quotations and maxims conveyed important truths relevant to modern society.
Franklin, hailed as an outstanding contributor in the fields of science, politics, and
literature, was also renowned for his witty tongue and humorous perspective on life (#4).

The Critique
The Autobiography and Other Writings of Benjamin Franklin by Frank Donovan contains the
complete text of the Autobiography, generous sections of Poor Richard's Almanac, and
Franklin's best writings from the Junto. In the autobiography, Benjamin began with the
first twenty-four years of his life, " penniless and unknown" as he struggled to overcome
the lack of a formal education. The adventures of a friendless and humble indirect
character continued in Philadelphia and London. Along the journey he established his own
printing press, the beginning of a financial success, and started his own newspaper. 
His purpose in life gradually changed as he grew older. Analyzing his behavior
contributed to his personal growth: he focused on his faults and tried to rectify them.
He was content in an imperfect state. He gave advice on how to achieve a successful and
useful life. Ben was particularly writing to instruct the young people.
Benjamin attempted to achieve virtuous excellence through the art of virtues. To acquire
moral perfection a person must concentrate on one virtue per week. These virtues include
temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice,
moderation, cleanliness, tranquillity, chastity, and humility. The Autobiography is not
the full story of Franklin's life. It terminates approximately in his fifty-third year,
before he became America's greatest diplomat. 
Poor Richard was an uneducated but experienced homespun philosopher, created and edited
by Ben Franklin from 1732-1757. Although Poor Richard of the early almanacs was a
dim-witted and foolish astronomer, a round character soon replaced him who was a rich
source of prudent and clever aphorisms on the value of economy, hard work, and the simple
life. 
Bibliography
Ben Franklin: Early Life 
In his many careers as a printer, moralist, essayist, civic leader, scientist, inventor,
statesman, diplomat, and philosopher, for later generations of Americans he became both a
spokesman and a model for the national character. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts on
Jan. 17, 1706, into a religious Puritan household. His father, Josiah, was a candlemaker
and a skillful mechanic. His mother, Abiah Ben's parents raised thirteen children--the
survivors of Josiah's seventeen children by two wives (#1).
Printer & Writer
Franklin left school at ten years old when he was pressed into his father's trade. At
twelve Ben was apprenticed to his half brother James, a printer of The New England
Courant. He generally absorbed the values and philosophy of the English Enlightenment. At
the age of 16, Franklin wrote some pieces for the Courant signed Silence Dogood, in which
he parodied the Boston authorities and society (#3). At one point James Franklin was
imprisoned for his liberal statements, and Benjamin carried on the paper himself. Having
thus learned to resist oppression, Benjamin refused to suffer his brother's own
domineering qualities and in 1723 ran away to Philadelphia (#1).
Soon Franklin found a job as a printer. After a year he went to England, where he became
a master printer, sowed some wild oats, amazed the locals with his swimming feats, and
lived among inspiring writers of London. By 1726 Franklin was tiring of London (#1). He
considered becoming an itinerant teacher of swimming, but when a Quaker merchant by the
name of Thomas Denham offered him a clerkship in his store in Philadelphia, he decided to
return home (#5). 
Returning to Philadelphia in 1726, he soon owned a newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette,
and began to print Poor Richard's Almanac. In the Pennsylvania Gazette, a citizen asked
editor Franklin the following question: If A found out that his neighbor B was sleeping
with his wife, was he justified in telling B's wife, and persuading her to seek a little
revenge with A? The editor's response: If an ass kicks me, should I kick him again? (#4)
His business expanded further when he contracted to do the public printing of the
province, and established partnerships with printers in other colonies. He also operated
a bookshop and became clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly and postmaster of Philadelphia
(#3). 
Civic Leader & Scientist
In 1727, Franklin began his career as a civic leader by organizing a club of aspiring
tradesmen called the Junto. They aspired to build their own businesses, insure the growth
of Philadelphia, and improve the quality of its life. Franklin led the Junto in founding
a library (1731), fire company (1736), learned society (1743), college (later the
University of Pennsylvania, 1749), and an insurance company and a hospital (1751). The
group also carried out plans for paving, cleaning, and lighting the streets and for
making them safe by organizing an efficient night watch. They even formed a voluntary
militia (#1).
Franklin had steadily extended his own knowledge by study of foreign languages,
philosophy, and science. He repeated experiments of other scientists and added his own
ideas that led to inventions of the Franklin stove, bifocal eyeglasses, and a glass
harmonica. The phenomenon of electricity interested him deeply, in 1748 he turned his
printing business over to his foreman, intending to devote his life to science (#5).
Experiments he proposed, showed that lightning was in fact a form of electricity. Later
that year his famous kite experiment, in which he flew a kite with the wire attached to a
key during a thunderstorm, further established that laboratory-produced static
electricity was akin to a previously mysterious and terrifying natural phenomenon (#1).
He was elected to the Royal Society in 1756 and to the French Academy of Sciences in
1772(#3). His later achievements included formulating a theory of heat absorption,
measuring the Gulf Stream, designing ships, and tracking storm paths.
Statesman & Diplomat
Franklin held local public offices and served twelve years as a postmaster for
Philadelphia. In the Plan of Union, which he presented (1754), to the Albany Congress, he
proposed partial self-government for the American colonies. When he went to England in
1757 as agent of the Pennsylvania Assembly, he was alarmed to hear Lord Granville,
president of the Privy Council, declare that for the colonies, the king's instructions
were the Law of the Land: for the King is the Legislator of the Colonies," (#2). In
England from 1757 to 1762, Franklin worked to persuade British officials to limit
proprietary power in Pennsylvania. 
He enjoyed English social and intellectual life. Ben attended meetings of the Royal
Society, heard great orchestras play the works of Handel, made grand tours of the
continent, and received honorary doctor's degrees from the universities of St. Andrews
(1759) and Oxford (1762) (#5). He created a pleasant family-style life at his Craven
Street boarding house in London, and began a long friendship and scientific-humorous
correspondence with his landlady's daughter, Mary Stevenson. Their letters reveal his
gifts for lively friendship, for brilliant letter writing, and for humane understanding.
At home from 1762 to 1764, Franklin traveled throughout the colonies, reorganizing the
American postal system (#2). 
The crisis caused by the Stamp Act (1765) launched Franklin into a new role as chief
defender of American rights in Britain. At first he advised obedience to the act until it
could be withdrawn, but news of violent protest against it in America stiffened his own
conflict. After an abolition of the Stamp Act, Franklin reaffirmed his love for the
British Empire and his desire to see the union of mother country and colonies secured and
established, but he also warned that the seeds of liberty are universally found and
nothing can eradicate them (#2). He opposed the Townshend Acts (1767) because such acts
of oppression would sour American tempers and perhaps even hasten their final revolt.
When the British Parliament passed the Tea Act (1773), that hurt the colonial merchants,
Franklin protested in a series of finely honed political essays, including An Edict by
the King of Prussia and Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One. As
these sarcasm's circulated in England, Franklin wrote his sister: I have held up a
Looking-Glass in which some of the Ministers may see their ugly faces, and the Nation its
Injustice (#4).
From April 1775 to October 1776, Franklin served on the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety
and in the Continental Congress, submitted articles of confederation for the united
colonies, proposed a new constitution for Pennsylvania, and helped draft the Declaration
of Independence. He readily signed the declaration, allowing him to become a
revolutionist at the age of 70. For seven years he acted as diplomat, purchasing agent,
recruiting officer, loan negotiator, admiralty court, and intelligence chief and was
generally the main representative of the new United States in Europe. Though nearly 80
years old, he oversaw the dispatch of French armies and navies to North America, supplied
American armies with French munitions, outfitted John Paul Jones and secured a succession
of loans from the nearly bankrupt French treasury (#1).
Though in his 80th year and suffering from painful bladder stones, he nonetheless
accepted election for three years as president of Pennsylvania and resumed active roles
in the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery, the American
Philosophical Society, and the University of Pennsylvania. At the Constitutional
Convention of 1787, although he was too weak to stand, Franklin's good humor and gift for
compromise often helped to prevent bitter disputes (#2).
Franklin's final public pronouncements urged ratification of the Constitution and
approved the inauguration of the new federal government under his admired friend George
Washington. He wrote friends in France that we are making Experiments in Politicks, but
that American affairs mend daily and are getting into good order very fast. Thus,
cheerful and optimistic as always, Benjamin Franklin died in Philadelphia on Apr. 17,
1790 (#3). His keen mind and eloquent tongue made him a truly inspirational speaker. Many
of his quotations and maxims conveyed important truths relevant to modern society.
Franklin, hailed as an outstanding contributor in the fields of science, politics, and
literature, was also renowned for his witty tongue and humorous perspective on life (#4).

The Critique
The Autobiography and Other Writings of Benjamin Franklin by Frank Donovan contains the
complete text of the Autobiography, generous sections of Poor Richard's Almanac, and
Franklin's best writings from the Junto. In the autobiography, Benjamin began with the
first twenty-four years of his life, " penniless and unknown" as he struggled to overcome
the lack of a formal education. The adventures of a friendless and humble indirect
character continued in Philadelphia and London. Along the journey he established his own
printing press, the beginning of a financial success, and started his own newspaper. 
His purpose in life gradually changed as he grew older. Analyzing his behavior
contributed to his personal growth: he focused on his faults and tried to rectify them.
He was content in an imperfect state. He gave advice on how to achieve a successful and
useful life. Ben was particularly writing to instruct the young people.
Benjamin attempted to achieve virtuous excellence through the art of virtues. To acquire
moral perfection a person must concentrate on one virtue per week. These virtues include
temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice,
moderation, cleanliness, tranquillity, chastity, and humility. The Autobiography is not
the full story of Franklin's life. It terminates approximately in his fifty-third year,
before he became America's greatest diplomat. 
Poor Richard was an uneducated but experienced homespun philosopher, created and edited
by Ben Franklin from 1732-1757. Although Poor Richard of the early almanacs was a
dim-witted and foolish astronomer, a round character soon replaced him who was a rich
source of prudent and clever aphorisms on the value of economy, hard work, and the simple
life. 
WORKS CITED
1. "Benjamin Franklin." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. 1998 ed. CD-ROM. Danbury:
Grolier Interactive Inc., 1998. 
2. Franklin, Benjamin The Autobiography and other writings of Benjamin Franklin. Donovan,
Frank, ed. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1963. 
3. Ketcham, Ralph "Benjamin Franklin." Lexicon Universal Encyclopedia. Vol.8. New York:
Lexicon Publications Inc., 1989. 282-284.
4. http://library.advanced.org/22254/home.htm
5. http://www-lj.eb.com/