[Sidenote: =Born in colonial times=]
=77. Benjamin Franklin, the Boy Printer.= When Franklin was born in
Boston (1706) there were men still living who had seen John Winthrop,
the first governor of Massachusetts, and Roger Williams, the founder of
Rhode Island.
[Sidenote: =The scholar of the family=]
Franklin's father was a poor but hard-working man. He made soap and
candles. Benjamin's nine brothers had learned trades, but his parents
had decided that he should be the "scholar of the family." At eight he
went to school to prepare for college and was soon at the head of his
class.
[Sidenote: =Put to work=]
But it was hard to feed and clothe a family of seventeen, and Benjamin
was sent to another school where he could fit himself for business. But
he did poorly in arithmetic, and at ten was taken out of school and put
to work with his father.
[Sidenote: =Longs for the sea=]
In the port of Boston Franklin saw the ships and sailors of all
nations, and longed to go to sea, but his father took him to visit the
shops, where he saw men busy at work with all kinds of tools. Although
Benjamin liked to work with tools, he liked to read better, and spent
all his little earnings in buying books. He borrowed books when he
could not buy them.
[Sidenote: =How he improved his language=]
Finally Franklin's parents decided that since he loved books so well
he might be a printer, and put him to learn the trade with an older
brother. Benjamin was to serve his brother for his board and clothes
until he was twenty-one. He worked hard at his trade, and read more
books than before. He improved his own language by writing out in his
own words what he had read, and then comparing his account with the
author's.
[Illustration: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
_From the original portrait by Joseph Siffrein Duplessis, in the Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston_]
He now offered to take half the money that his board cost, and board
himself. His brother agreed to this plan, and Benjamin saved money and
bought more books.
[Sidenote: =Writes for his brother's paper=]
He longed to write something for his brother's paper. He did so, and
put it at night under the door, but he did not dare sign his name to
what he had written. His brother showed it to his friends. They praised
it, and it was printed. It was fun for Benjamin to hear people guessing
that the writer must be some great man in Boston. Franklin wrote
several other articles, and called them the "Dogood Papers," but his
brother was angry when he learned who wrote them.
[Sidenote: =Leaves home=]
Franklin was now only seventeen, but because of his brother's cruelty
he sold his books and took a boat for New York without saying good-by
to his parents. He afterwards said that leaving home in this way was a
great mistake.
[Sidenote: =From New York to Philadelphia=]
No one in New York wanted a printer, so young Franklin took a boat
for Perth-Amboy, New Jersey, on his way to Philadelphia. His ship was
caught in a storm, and the passengers were wet and hungry when they
landed.
Franklin set out on foot across the state for Burlington. For nearly
three days he walked in the rain along muddy roads, looking so rough
people thought he was a runaway servant. He was tired and homesick. But
he took boat again, and reached Philadelphia on Sunday morning, landing
at the foot of Market Street.
[Illustration: FRANKLIN AND DEBORAH REED
_The first meeting of Franklin and the young girl who was to be his
wife_]
[Sidenote: =His sorry plight=]
He was so hungry, he thought more of something to eat than of dressing
up for Sunday. He was in a sorry plight. With his pockets stuffed with
soiled shirts and stockings, and a roll of bread under each arm and one
in his hand, Franklin walked up Market Street, and passed the home of
his future wife, Deborah Reed. No wonder she laughed at him. She would
have laughed more if some one had said: "There goes a boy who will some
day become your husband and the greatest man in Philadelphia."
[Sidenote: =Good books and good company=]
Franklin found work in a printing office, saved his money, and bought
books to study. He got acquainted with other young people who also
loved books, and he often spent his evenings with them.
[Sidenote: =A call from the governor=]
To the surprise of Franklin and his brother printers, one day Sir
William Keith, the governor of Pennsylvania, called at the shop to see
Franklin. Governors did not then pay much attention to poor printers.
The governor, who was dissatisfied with Philadelphia printers, promised
to send him to England to buy a printing press.
[Sidenote: =Returns home before going to London=]
Franklin, with the governor's letter in his pocket, hastened back to
Boston in order to get his father's help to go to London. How happy
were parents, brothers, and sisters to see the long-absent son and
brother! But his father could give him no aid, and the young printer
returned to Philadelphia. The governor, however, promised to pay his
expenses, and Benjamin took ship for England.
[Illustration: PRINTING PRESS
_From a photo of the press used by Franklin when in London, and now in
the National Museum, Washington, D.C._]
The governor had not even given him letters of introduction, to say
nothing of money, and Franklin found himself a stranger in one of the
largest cities in the world.
[Sidenote: =In a London printing office=]
He did not whine or spend his time grumbling, but went bravely to
work in a printing office. He set a good example to his beer-drinking
comrades by drinking only water and proving he was stronger and able
to do more work and do it better than any of them.
[Sidenote: =Returns to Philadelphia and marries=]
The next year a Philadelphia merchant persuaded Franklin to return to
America to become his clerk. But in a few years he went to work again
at his old trade as printer, and in a short time became the editor of
the _Pennsylvania Gazette_.
Franklin had already married Miss Reed, the young lady who had laughed
at him for making a show of himself on his first day in Philadelphia.
[Illustration: A FRANKLIN STOVE
_After a model in the rooms of the American Philosophical Society,
Philadelphia_]
[Sidenote: =Founds three great institutions=]
=78. A Rising Young Man.= He was now a rising young man in the old
Quaker city. From year to year he did many things to help others. He
started a circulating library, the first in America, out of which has
grown the Philadelphia Public Library. He founded a school which has
become the great University of Pennsylvania, and a society, called the
American Philosophical Society, which still holds important meetings.
[Sidenote: =Invents a stove=]
[Sidenote: =Forms the first fire department=]
Franklin improved the heating of houses by inventing the "Franklin
stove," but refused to take out a patent and thus make himself rich at
other people's expense. He also formed the first "fire department" in
any American town.
[Sidenote: =Poor Richard's sayings=]
Who has not heard of _Poor Richard's Almanac_? Franklin printed it,
and the people liked it so well that he sometimes printed ten thousand
copies. Here are a few of the quaint and true sayings: "A word to the
wise is enough." "God helps those who help themselves."
"Early to bed and early to rise,
Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise."
[Sidenote: =Economy is the road to wealth=]
Franklin and his young wife kept these rules faithfully. She worked in
the printing office as well as in the house. They hired no servants:
Their furniture, dress, and food were plain. He ate his breakfast of
bread and milk out of a wooden bowl with a pewter spoon. Mrs. Franklin
surprised him one day by giving him a china bowl and a silver spoon.
She said her husband deserved such things as well as other men.
[Sidenote: =Elected to office=]
The people of Philadelphia admired Benjamin Franklin more and more. At
the age of thirty he was chosen clerk of the Assembly of Pennsylvania,
and afterward was elected a lawmaker in the Assembly. Every year for
ten years his neighbors elected him to help make the laws of the colony.
[Sidenote: =Deputy postmaster-general=]
In a few years Franklin was made deputy postmaster-general for all the
colonies by the king. He surprised the people by declaring that the
mail should be carried from Philadelphia to Boston every week! He was
postmaster-general for more than twenty years.
[Illustration: MILESTONE, LYME, CONN.
_This milestone, still standing at Lyme, marks the distance on a road
surveyed by Franklin_]
[Sidenote: =Franklin plans a union of the colonies=]
In 1754 Franklin was sent by the colony of Pennsylvania to Albany,
New York, to meet men from other colonies to make a treaty with the
Iroquois, and to plan a union of the Thirteen Colonies. While George
Washington was still a surveyor, before Wolfe captured Quebec, and when
Patrick Henry was yet a boy, Franklin wrote out a plan of union which
pointed the way toward that greater Union, the United States of America.
[Sidenote: =Fame begins to come=]
Franklin was now becoming famous outside of Pennsylvania. Yale College
honored him with the degree of Master of Arts. The old University of
Cambridge, England, gave him the same degree.
All the wise men in England and France were excited by news of an
experiment made by Benjamin Franklin. He had made electricity by using
glass tubes, and he had seen the lightning flash in the storm cloud. He
decided to prove, if he could, that lightning and electricity are the
same. No one had yet done this.
[Sidenote: =Proves that lightning and electricity are the same=]
He made a kite out of silk, to which he fastened a small iron rod.
Then he tied a hempen string to the kite and the rod. To the lower
end of the string he tied a silken cord to protect his hand from the
electricity. On the string he tied a key.
One day when the storm clouds came rolling up, Franklin sent his kite
high up among them, while he waited. Soon the loose fibers on the
hempen string moved. Franklin placed his knuckles close to the key, and
sparks came flying at his hand.
[Sidenote: =More honors=]
When the news of this experiment was published some very wise men
smiled; others said it was a trick. The great universities of Oxford
and Edinburgh, however, gave him the doctor's degree, and societies of
wise men in England, France, and Spain elected him a member. He was now
the most famous American.
[Sidenote: =Sent to England to defend the colonies=]
=79. Franklin's Part in the Revolution.= Already we have seen that
England and her colonies were beginning to quarrel. What wiser man
could be sent to England to defend the colonies by tongue and pen than
Benjamin Franklin? He made friends for America among the great men of
England.
[Sidenote: =How Franklin helped the English understand the Stamp Act=]
When the Stamp Act was passed the members of Parliament asked him
nearly two hundred questions about the effects of the Stamp Act on
America. He wrote many letters to great men, and long articles to the
English newspapers, explaining how the Stamp Act injured America. Both
England and America rejoiced when the king and Parliament repealed the
Stamp Act, and Franklin sent his wife a fine London gown in honor of
the event.
[Illustration: FRANKLIN'S CLOCK]
[Sidenote: =Franklin and Pitt=]
For eight years more, while America was busy opposing the tax on tea,
Franklin was in England trying to get Parliament and the king to give
the Americans better treatment. But it was all in vain. He often talked
with William Pitt, the great friend of America, who introduced into
Parliament a plan for making friends between the two countries. But the
plan was defeated.
[Sidenote: =Hastens home=]
Franklin saw that war would come, and hastened back to his beloved
America, where he arrived just after the battle at Lexington and
Concord (1775).
[Sidenote: =Franklin plans union=]
Pennsylvania sent him to the Congress of 1775, which, sitting in
Philadelphia, made George Washington general of the Continental army.
Franklin saw that if the thirteen scattered colonies were to defeat
Great Britain they must unite. So he introduced into Congress a plan of
union, but the other members were not ready for it.
[Sidenote: =Helps write the Declaration of Independence=]
Franklin was one of five men who were named by Congress to write the
Declaration of Independence (1776).
[Sidenote: =Franklin in France=]
Soon after, Congress sent him to France to influence the king and the
people of that country to aid America in winning independence. The
French hated the English, but admired Benjamin Franklin. The king gave
money secretly, and many French officers came to serve in the American
army.
[Sidenote: =France sends aid=]
In 1778 Franklin influenced the King of France to take sides openly
with the Americans. French warships and French soldiers by thousands
now came to help fight our battles.
[Illustration: INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA, IN THE DAYS OF FRANKLIN
_From an old print_]
[Sidenote: =Treaty with England=]
After helping to make the treaty of peace with England in 1783,
Franklin came home with many honors. Though nearly eighty years old,
the people of Pennsylvania immediately elected him governor.
[Illustration: FRANKLIN AT THE COURT OF FRANCE]
Franklin did one more great work for his country. In 1787 the states
sent their wisest men to Philadelphia to make a constitution, or plan
of government. Pennsylvania chose Franklin, with others, to meet with
these men in Independence Hall.
[Sidenote: =Helps make our Constitution=]
[Sidenote: =Franklin signs the Constitution=]
George Washington, as we have seen, was the president of this meeting.
Many speeches were made, and there was debating for many weeks. The
meeting was always glad to hear Franklin speak, for he was a very wise
man. As he had helped to make, and had signed, the Declaration of
Independence, so now, after helping make the Constitution, he signed
it. Many persons did not like the Constitution. Franklin said there
were some things in the new plan which he did not like, but declared
that he signed it because of the good things it did contain. He showed
his wisdom, for it is one of the best plans of government ever made.
[Sidenote: =Died in 1790=]
Franklin spent his last days with his daughter, and, surrounded by his
grandchildren, died in 1790, at the age of eighty-four.