Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed, Volume 1 (of 2): A Biographical and Critical Study Based Mainly on his own WritingsBruce, Wiliam Cabell
History
Benjamin Franklin, Self-Revealed, Volume 1 (of 2): A Biographical and Critical Study Based Mainly on his own Writings
Bruce, Wiliam Cabell
Franklin, Benjamin, 1706-1790
Such were some of the principal achievements of Franklin for the benefit of
Philadelphia. It is not easy to magnify unduly their significance when we
bear in mind that they were all crowded into a period of some thirty years
during the greater part of which he was faithfully heeding Poor Richard's
maxim, "Keep thy shop and thy shop will keep thee"; to say nothing of the
claims upon his time of political duties and scientific studies and
experiments. Franklin was not the Romulus of Philadelphia; nor was he its
Augustus, who found it of brick and left it of marble. There was solid
brick enough in the structure of American colonial life, but little marble.
However, it can at least be said of him that rarely has any single private
individual, with no great fortune, and with no control over the public
purse except what is conferred by the favor of public opinion won by
personal intelligence and public spirit, laid the foundations of so much
that was of lasting and increasing utility to an infant community destined
to become one of the populous and opulent cities of the world. In how many
other respects his sympathy with human interests in their broader relations
made its influence felt in Colonial America we can only conjecture, but in
many ways, in addition to those already mentioned, its fructifying results
have been brought home to us. It was at his instance that the merchants of
Philadelphia sent the ship _Argo_ to the Arctics to discover a Northwest
Passage. Kalm, the Swedish botanist, when he came to Pennsylvania, found in
him a most helpful friend and patron. He labored untiringly to obtain for
Bartram, the American naturalist, the recognition which he richly merited.
One of the proudest days of his life was when his eager exertions in behalf
of silk culture in Pennsylvania were rewarded by the knowledge that the
Queen of England had not only graciously condescended to accept a sample of
Pennsylvania silk tendered to her by him but proposed to wear it in the
form of a dress. During his third sojourn in England, the hospital at home
was frequently reminded of the strength of his concern for its welfare by
gifts and suggestions more valuable than gifts. To him was entrusted the
commission of purchasing a telescope and other instruments for the
Astronomical School at Harvard College. To the library of Harvard he
occasionally forwarded parcels of books, either his own gifts or gifts from
his friends. In addition to his zealous efforts in the latter part of his
life in behalf of negro emancipation and the relief of the free blacks, he
was for several years one of the associates charged with the management of
the Bray Fund for the conversion of negroes in the British plantations. He
was also a trustee of the Society for the benefit of poor Germans, one of
the objects of which was the establishment of English schools in the German
communities which had become so numerous in Pennsylvania. It was high time
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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