He also pointed out, when speaking France, Spain and the Netherlands, that if the Colonies won their freedom, those country's colonies in the New World would be much safer from English intrusions (Isaacson, PAGE). However, he always acted like a statesman and never lost sight of the ideals of the rebel colonists, also encouraging other countries to aid the revolution because of its high ideals of liberty and democracy.
Franklin's ability to compromise and to show the various sides on an issue where the advantage lay for them in coming to a resolution served the Colonies well after the end of the Revolutionary War as the 13 budding states worked to find a way to form one federal republic (Isaacson, PAGE). It could be argued that Franklin sometimes went too far with his compromises. In a decision that history shows to be stunningly wrong, Franklin approved a Pennsylvania policy that paid for the scalps of Native Americans in an attempt to control clashes between them and Europeans (Davis, pp. 35-35). It would seem in this case that pragmatic politics won over idealism in a major and significant way. However, among those of European descent he argued for true religious tolerance, if for no other reason that everyone benefits economically when everyone works together (Isaacson, PAGE). In fact he lived to see all kinds of clergy, including Christians and Jews, walking together in parades. He helped promote the construction of Philadelphia Hall and proclaimed that anyone of any faith, including Muslim, would be allowed to preach there. When he died at the age of 84, the clergy from many different religions attended his funeral (Isaacson,...
He also promoted tolerance by using satirical writing to poke fun at those who were less tolerant, such as the Puritans (Isaacson, PAGE).
Franklin's freethinking ideas were unusual for the time, but again he stuck to his principles. Benjamin Franklin was a remarkable man who rose from
poverty to great wealth; who helped bring about a major war, and later, helped end it; and who served
government at every level from being an activist who supported the notion of
free speech by speaking freely (Isaacson, PAGE), to organizing needed community services, to helping organize the new government, and even serving beyond his own country as a diplomat to other countries. In the process he communicated the ideals of the new country at the local level, at the state level, at the federal level and to other countries.
Surely the
American Revolution would have occurred with or without the presence of Benjamin Franklin, but without his negotiating skills, which resulted in the French entering the
war on the side of the Colonists, the revolution might not have succeeded. While it seems likely that the
American colonies would have separated from England eventually, it would have been at far greater personal cost if it had taken more than one revolution. Given his contributions to the two major documents to be produced in this process - the Declaration of Independence and the
Constitution, Franklin deserves the prominent place he has held in
American history.
Bibliography
Davis, Kenneth C. Don't Know Much About History: Everything You Need to Know about American History but Never Learned. New York: Avon Books, 1995.
Isaacson, Walter. 2003. "The Adventures of Benjamin Franklin. TIME Magazine, July…
