Franklin Woolman Poor Richard\'s \"Way

Franklin Woolman

Poor Richard's "Way to Wealth" versus John Woolman's Way to Divine Riches

For the Quaker John Woolman, morality and spirituality were the highest goods a man could pursue, far above the mundane, worldly goods that were the objects of business and finance. Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, although reared in a Quaker home, saw the accumulation of wealth as something very different. Because of the nature of the American system of commerce, accumulating wealth was evidence of individual merit. Wealth showed an individual had worked hard and was thrifty.

In contrast to Franklin, Woolman wrote in his journal that although he enjoyed business, he saw his prosperity as a negative temptation. "The increase of business became my burden; for though my natural inclination was toward merchandise, yet I believed truth required me to live more free from outward cumbers; and there was now a strife in my mind between the two. In this exercise my prayers were put up to the Lord, who graciously heard me, and gave me a heart resigned to His holy will" (Woolman, Chapter 3). Worldly diligence, in Woolman's view, took his mind from spiritual diligence. In contrast, "diligence," Franklin wrote in the voice of Poor Richard "is the mother of good luck, and God gives all things to industry" (Franklin, "The Way to Wealth," 1758)

Franklin was proud of the discipline he showed in making a success of his life. Woolman felt he had to discipline his enjoyment of worldly things like commerce not to become obsessed with being a success. "Then I lessened my outward business, and, as I had opportunity, told my customers of my intentions, that they might consider what shop to turn to; and in a while I wholly laid down merchandise" (Woolman, Chapter 3). To make a living, Woolman eventually turned more of his efforts to agriculture, even though he had less affinity and ability for this endeavor. But Woolman believed working the land brought him closer to God and freed his mind for more important matters. Woolman saw giving up business, pleasure, and money as a way of submitting his will to God: "This work of subjecting the will is compared to the mineral in the furnace, which, through fervent heat, is reduced from its first principle: 'He refines them as silver is refined; he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver.'" (Woolman, Chapter 3).

Franklin's Autobiography, in contrast, is a tale not of submission, but self-realization -- Franklin even absconded from the tyrannical rule of his brother to begin his own enterprise because the young Franklin was determined not to bend to what he saw as a tyrant's rule. Some of his advice in "The Way to Wealth" echoes Woolman's in spirit, like the advice to avoid fancy dress: "you are about to put yourself under such tyranny, when you run in debt for such dress! Your creditor has authority, at his pleasure, to deprive you of your liberty," Franklin advises (Franklin, "The Way to Wealth," 1758). But the purpose of such avoidance is not spiritual salvation through material denial, but to pursue "The Way to Wealth" by avoiding going into debt.