Benjamin Franklin (Walter Isaacson) — Book Summaries: EP47

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1. Benjamin Franklin was an American legend and inspiring figure that has changed many industries. He made a pivotal contribution to American Politics, science, and the printing industry.
2. Franklin was one of America’s most influential diplomats. He played an important role in the struggle for independence and the founding of the USA.
3. Born in Boston on January 17, 1705.
4. Franklin has been rebellious since a young age. Even though he had little formal education, he was always very intelligent, inquisitive and inventive.
5. Franklin wanted to become a faster swimmer as a child. He invented his own flippers that he wore on his hands and feet that helped him swim faster.
6. Franklin’s parents wanted him to finish his education and join the church clergy, however it became apparent that young Benjamin would not be suitable for serving at the church. He was mischievous.
7. Since Franklin thought that saying grace every time was inefficient, he proposed to his father that he would just say grace over the whole barrel of salted meat which his father prepared for the winter, to save time.
8. Franklin started working at the age of 10, with his father, and then his older brother James who started the first independent newspaper in Boston — the Courant.
9. Franklin grew tired of working as an apprentice, because he though he was capable enough on his own. He departed the family business while in his teenage years.
10. When Franklin was 17, he left for Philadelphia to pursue a writing career, where he met Samuel Keimer who was in the printing business. Him and Keimer had long debates and philosophical discussions, and it’s where Benjamin developed his oratory skills which he would use later in life.
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12. Franklin became friends with the governor of Pennsylvania: William Keith, who gave Franklin the opportunity to work as a printing assistant for two years in London.
13. After returning from London, Franklin worked as a store clerk in a general store back in Philadelphia.
14. Franklin read a lot and one of his favourite books was “Pilgrim’s Progress” by John Bunyan. It talked about progress and self-improvement. Another of his favourite books was: “An Essay Upon Projects” by “Daniel Defoe”, which challenged the inadequate state of women’s rights.
15. Franklin practiced writing by rewriting essays from the daily British newspaper, from memory. He quizzed himself by checking the accuracy of his writing against that of the original. He posted these rewritings in his brother’s newspaper under a fake name: Mrs. Silence Dogood.
16. Franklin was very ambitious. He founded a club called “The Leather Apron Club” which was later renamed to “Junto”. Members of the club were young tradesmen who discussed current affairs of society. Many ideas blossomed from the Junto. Franklin put in place a local subscription library, a volunteer fire department, and an academy which later became the University of Pennsylvania.
17. Franklin saw a threat of war from the French and the Indian allies, and wanted to form a private, voluntary military which would be independent of Pennsylvania’s government. He got support from as many as 10,000 people signing up for his army, and proposed Franklin to become Colonel — a position he refused. This army disbanded in 1748, because the threat of war disappeared.
18. Franklin faced criticism for his self-guided actions in trying to bypass colonial government. He was condemned as a “dangerous man” by the colony’s property owner: Thomas Penn.
19. Franklin was also fascinated with the examination of the natural world around him. Franklin once saw a performance involving electricity, which inspired him to experiment with electricity himself. Most people at the time did not understand the laws of electricity.
20. Franklin was fascinated with lightning and wanted to “capture” it. He wanted to prove that lightning was in-fact electricity, and not something supernatural. He devised an experiment where he would stand with a metal rod, on a hilltop during a thunderstorm. He also used a device called “The Leyden Jar” to capture the electricity from a lightning strike.
21. Franklin’s experiment led to him inventing the lightning rod and combining multiple Leyden jars into a battery. Although his experiments were controversial with the church at the time, he received wide praise and acclaim from both Harvard and Yale which gave him honorary degrees.
22. Franklin wanted to unite the American colonies, but he understood how risky this would be. There was also a lack of clarity at this time regarding who is going to finance the war against the native tribes and the French.
23. George Washington made a failed attempt in 1753 to remove the French from the Ohio Valley, which led to the Albany conference of all colony delegates.
24. Franklin did not like the colonial proprietors and came up with a plan to unify the colonies, to be presented at the Albany conference. Franklin had help from Thomas Hutchinson — a wealthy merchant from Massachusetts.
25. Franklin was disappointed at how the dozen English colonies could not unite together and find a common ground. Franklin’s plan for a congress included representatives from each colony and a “President General” appointed by the king.
26. Franklin’s plan evolved into “Federalism”, where each colony would have it’s own government and laws, however matters of defence and expansion would be decided on only by the general government. Franklin’s plan was rejected in Albany, as colonies didn’t want to give up the level of territorial control they had.
27. In 1753, 3 years after the rejection of Franklin’s unification plan, the question was raised again by the Pennsylvania assembly. Franklin was sent to London to negotiate the issue with the powerful British families and if needed, the British government directly. These negotiations took Franklin five years, up until 1762.
28. The proprietor of Pennsylvania, Thomas Penn negotiated in a series of meetings with Franklin. The main friction point was that the proprietors of colonies did not want to pay defence taxes used to defend against the native tribes and the French. The assembly would not budge on this question.
29. Franklin did not believe that the Penn family were sole and absolute proprietors of Pennsylvania, and expressed this in his formal complaint to the assembly. This caused dissatisfaction from the Penn family.
30. The Penn family firmly believed that they should be able to veto the assembly’s decisions on matters of defence. Franklin challenged this, stating that Thomas Penn’s father William, already gave this power to the assembly in the 1701 Charter of Privileges. This upset Thomas who cut all connections with Franklin for a full year.
31. Franklin couldn’t make progress with the Penn family to get them to cooperate on the political decision making which would benefit all colonies.
32. Franklin returned to America in 1762, to discover that the political situation there has significantly worsened since he was away. Gangs like the Paxton Boys threatened to kill any native Indians in cities.
33. The British government proposed the “stamp tax” used to help fund the fight against the French and the native Indians. This tax was not well received by the colonies, who now wanted to completely break free of British rule completely. In 1975, the nine colonies met to discuss plans for unification against the British.
34. Ben Franklin supported the stamp act at first, but quickly realized that the colonies would not cooperate. Franklin also realized that compromise was not going to work when it came to applying British rules to the colonies only partially. Either all laws had to be applied, or none at all.
35. Franklin recognized that separation from the British rule was inevitable, and joined the side of the colonies. He wrote materials emphasizing the importance of unification for the colonies. These writings entitled: “Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union” became influential on the Declaration of Independence later.
36. Franklin came up with a system where there would be a single congress and each colony getting the number of representation seats proportional to their population. The council would have an executive council of 12 members, instead of a single dedicated ruler.
37. Franklin still thought that this confederation may not be necessary, if the British rule agreed to the colonies’ demands and made financial reparations. He thought the feud was isolated to specific British government participants, and not the main British crown.
38. In 1776, Thomas Paine published a pamphlet called: Common Sense, which demanded total independence from the British rule and dismissed all rationale for the rule of Kings. The pamphlet achieved a circulation of 120,000 copies and is considered a pivotal document for the rallying of independence participants. It was mistakenly thought at the time by a large portion of colonists that Ben Franklin wrote this pamphlet.
39. The Declaration of Independence was published by Thomas Jefferson on July 4th, 1776. Ben Franklin made an important edit, changing: “We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable” to “We hold these truths to be self evident”. This was an important distinction — signifying that human rights were not bestowed by a supreme being or the chosen few, but rather by reason and the equal need of every person.
40. The Declaration of Independence put the 13 colonies at war with Britain, and the colonists would need powerful allies to be able to win this war. Ben Franklin was responsible for negotiating the support of the French as allies to fight against the British.
41. Franklin went to Paris in 1776 to meet with the French foreign minister. He negotiated a deal where the French would keep the West Indies in exchange for allying against the British. The French didn’t accept the agreement immediately. The alliance with the Americans was only formalized two years later, in 1778. Without this alliance, Americans would not have a chance of defeating the British later.
42. John Adams disagreed with Franklin regarding the French alliance, and thought that France was not entitled to anything in the American territories. However, France’s financial support was much needed, and allowed the Americans to keep fighting, which culminated in victory of independence in 1781 at the battle of Yorktown, Virginia.
43. Franklin’s diplomacy skills helped mend relations with Britain after the war. He walked a fine line of negotiating with the British in secret from the French. This resulted in a peace treaty with the British in 1782, allowing the Americans to remain fully independent. The French were not pleased by this, however Franklin helped convince the French yet again, that independence was mutually beneficial for everyone.
44. The treasury was stretched thin by the end of the war. Congress didn’t have enough power to levy taxes, so political change was again needed. Franklin served as a key figure in this change in 1787 at the Constitutional Convention.
45. Franklin’s new system achieved a balance of representation between the larger and the smaller states. He split the house into a lower and an upper house. The lower house had equal representation among larger and smaller states. The upper house had proportional representation. The lower house would only be responsible for taxes and spending. The upper house would be responsible for executive officers and matters of sovereignty. This was a balance between local control and equal representation among states of different population size and power.
46. Franklin’s last fight was that against slavery. By 1787, he became a full abolitionist, and headed the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery. In 1790, Franklin petitioned to Congress for full abolition of slavery and the equality of all humans, regardless of color. This petition was refuted by defenders of slavery, who argued that the Bible allowed slavery.
47. In 1790, Franklin died, and over 20,000 people attended his funeral procession. He had made a massive impact on American history with his insatiable curiosity, diplomacy, commitment to liberty and interest in humanity’s progress.

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