¶ … Americanization of Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin played a major role in the American Revolution and its history and his contributions changed the history of America as we know it.
One of the most interesting and influential characters in American history is Benjamin Franklin. Franklin was a brilliant man that contributed deeply to both the scientific and political community. Much of what there is to know about his life can be found in Gordon S. Wood's book titled "The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin." The purpose of this paper is to examine the life of Benjamin Franklin through the provided text in order to answer these significant questions:
How come Benjamin Franklin was an unlikely revolutionary?
What caused Franklin to join the revolution?
How can we compare and contrast Franklin's mythology with his reality?
Franklin Preferred London to Philadelphia and royal governments to democracy, why?
How come American colonists were suspicious of Franklin?
Why did Franklin's patriotism switch sides in the conflict?
How did Franklin contribute to the United States?
How come Benjamin Franklin was an unlikely revolutionary?
Arthur Lee wrote a very strongly worded letter to Samuel Adams in which he warned him of trusting Benjamin Franklin. Franklin's dedication to the revolution was heavily scrutinized and mistrusted by the American colonists. Luckily for Franklin, Lee's charges never got accepted by the Massachusetts Legislature, but the damage on his name had been done. In Franklin's mind the love he once had for England deteriorated as he spent more time in the colonies. Eventually his view of his motherland was that it was a massive war machine bent on fighting America (Wood, 2004-page 160).
Franklin didn't fully swear himself over to America, and even if he did no one would've believed him due to his strong connection to England. It wasn't until he spent time in France that he finally began the process of Americanization (Wood, 2004 pg150).
What caused Franklin to join the revolution?
The year was 1783 and many colonists felt that Franklin's loyalty had switched from England to France. It was easy to believe that since the man was often involved with the French aristocracy, as well as, the King. It was also during the time he spent in France that he truly became Americanized and made him a revolutionary (Wood, 2004-page 210). To place the nail in the coffin and drive home the idea that Franklin was truly an American, he had his commissioner's state all of his contributions to the country at the peace treat of 1798.
The ultimate change occurred for Franklin after the dealings with England and the Stamp Act. His original motivation was to unify the nations but after realizing that would never happen, he decided to fight for change.
Compare and contrast Franklin's mythology with his reality.
Historians have spent lots of time and effort dissecting the myths regarding the founding fathers to learn who they really were. It has become quite the industry because lots of Americans love to glorify the founding fathers. The case is a little different with Franklin though. The man has always been viewed as very human and thus there isn't much mythology that needs to be removed. In fact, he was criticized by the other founding fathers for being ordinary (Wood, 2004-page 4). Wood wrote that Franklin came out of the last century with more reality than his counterparts. While he is still widely popular within the academia, it did not help his reputation among intellectuals. He identified heavily with the material America and was thus mocked by many critics (Wood, 2004-page 5). John Keats also points out the fact that there was no glamour or flare related to Franklin, or any other big names among the American generals either.
So who was the real Franklin of history?
Gatsby's receding green light is a good analogy for the historical figure that was Benjamin Franklin (Wood, 2004-page 9). The man's life in reality was not how most people view him today. For example, lots of people imagine Franklin as a penny hoarder that stocked up on money. However, the real Franklin seemed little concerned about money and was one of the most benevolent members of the founding fathers (Wood, 2004-page 9). Even though he had a prominent and famous career in science he still believed public service to be the highest calling. Thus he spent the remainder of his retirement serving his fellow men.
Franklin Preferred London to Philadelphia...
Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston in 1706. According to Panesar (2004), Franklin was the most famous people across the world during his lifetime. Franklin was a literary author who happened to be involved in politics, having a special place in the hearts and minds of many Americans. Studies have shown that Franklin was a leading figure in the American Revolution, where, he served in the Second Continental Congress as
Franklin's constantly being out of sync with his colleagues is seen once again in Franklin's inability to understand that the next logical progress of his republicanism was liberal democracy. Thus, as the oldest member of the Constitutional Convention, Franklin was unable to anticipate and comprehend the factionalism that was beginning to dominate the American political climate. On the contrary, Franklin even made the wrong political call by viewing liberalism
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