Chapter Benjamin Franklin of Index by Simonds History of American Literature

1750-1790, His Service to the Country.

Of Franklin's later life, his large usefulness to this country throughout the Revolutionary period, his distinctions and his honors, only a bare summary can be given here. In 1753, he was appointed Postmaster-general and established the postal system on a paying basis. In 1757, he was sent to England as the representative of Pennsylvania his duties keeping him there for the ensuing five years. From 1764 to 1775, he was again in England, the official representative of four of the colonies, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Georgia. The day after his landing again in America, he was appointed a member in the Second Continental Congress, where he was conspicuous for the next fourteen months. It was he who, with characteristic humor, declared, after the signing of the Declaration of Independence: "Yes, we must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately." In September, 1776, Franklin was sent to France as a special envoy to win the sympathy and assistance of that country for the new nation. How well he succeeded in his mission, and what enthusiasm of popular admiration was aroused by his homely, benevolent personality are matters of familiar history. On his return, after having been relieved by Jefferson, in 1785, he was at once made a member of the Constitutional Convention, which finally adopted the Constitution of the United States.

"I seem to have intruded myself into the company of posterity," he said, "when I ought to have been abed and asleep." He was seventy-nine years old. He had seen the development of his country from ten disunited colonies with a population of 400,000 into a nation of thirteen united states with a population of 4,000,000. In the making of that nation, no American had borne a more useful or more conspicuous part. His place in our political history is emphasized by the fact that his signature is found appended to four great documents: the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Peace with England, and the Constitution. Of no other American can this be declared.

But this record of Franklin's versatility is by no means complete. The final word must be concerning his services to Science. Throughout his life, he was an eager searcher after truth, an ardent student of nature. His private correspondence is full of the matter of his investigations which he prosecuted with great intelligence and with remarkable results. As Mr. Franklin, the philosopher, he was renowned among contemporary scholars. That famous experiment with the kite and key which identified electricity with the lightning, was only one of many which brought him fame. The colleges of Yale and Harvard conferred on the soap-boiler's son the degree of M.A. He was honored by the scientific scholars of St. Petersburg, London, and Paris. He was a member of the Royal Society. When his death occurred in 1790, it was a French scholar who wrote the epitaph so often quoted:--

The Scholar and Scientist.

"Eripuit coelo fulmen, sceptrumque tyrannis."

Such is, in outline, the record of this remarkable man -- "the many-sided Franklin," as he is appropriately called, our first great American. It was in keeping with his intensely practical nature that Franklin should devise a peculiar, a unique plan of beneficence for the good of posterity. In his will, he bequeathed to the city of Philadelphia, and to the city of Boston, each, the sum of £1000. These funds were to be used in loans, under restrictions, to young tradesmen, in small amounts; principal and interest were to be allowed to accumulate in each case for one hundred years, when, as Franklin calculated, each fund should amount to £131,000. A division was then to be made, £100,000 to be withdrawn and be applied by each city upon public works, and the remainder be placed again in service for a second hundred years. At the expiration of that period, the donor thought that each fund would aggregate something over £4,000,000, and devised that in each instance the sum should then be divided between the city and the commonwealth, to be applied in any form that should be thought best. Unfortunately, in the face of changed conditions, Franklin's idea proved impracticable; however, the city of Boston did possess in this fund, at the end of the period stipulated by the will, the sum of $400,000. The city appropriated $100,000 additional (which was used in buying land) and the entire amount of the Franklin Fund was applied in building and equipping a great evening technical school, to be known as The Franklin Union. Mr. Andrew Carnegie has given the sum