The Political Philosophy of Benjamin Franklin

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION Benjamin Franklin is and has always been the most American of Americans. He embodies the best of what we are and what we aspire to be. He is a wellspring of homespun wisdom, a selfmade man, hopeful, clever, skeptical, and wry, a fierce lover of liberty and plain dealing, thoroughly independent, and forever inventing new projects for the common good. How could we not love the man who carries our virtues to such charming perfection? Franklin has been much commented upon, much praised and imitated, and sometimes fiercely reviled in every century since his birth; but seldom has there been such a flurry of fascination with this national icon as there is today, with the publication of a trove of recent volumes on the life he lived and the story he made of it. All this attention is well deserved. The most famous man of his age, Franklin was influential in an amazing number of ways: as a founder of fire departments and libraries, sanitation projects, militias, hospitals, and a great university; as the inventor of wood-burning stoves, lightning rods, and matching grants; as the author of the popular Poor Richard’s Almanack and of the runaway best seller The Way to Wealth; and as a scientist of almost the very first rank, who laid the foundation for the modern understanding of electricity. But it was in politics that Franklin made the greatest impact and to politics that he gave the lion’s share of his energies. Thus, it is curious that while so much attention has been paid to Franklin’s life, so little has hitherto been given to his political thought. To begin to repair that neglect, this volume oVers an introduction to Franklin’s political philosophy, using his own inimitable words as much as possible but giving them an order and system that he did not. Order was never Franklin’s strong point, 1 ;l: as he will tell us himself. The work aims also both to illuminate important congruences and contrasts between Franklin and other political thinkers and to provide the best response we can make to Franklin’s major critics. But perhaps it would be well to confront at the outset the possibility that even Franklin himself did not regard his political thought as worth systematizing or defending. He says almost as much in a 1767 letter to his sister (although he also gives us ample reason to be skeptical of all Franklinian displays of modesty). You desire me to send you all the political Pieces I have been the Author of. I have never kept them. They were most of them written occasionally for transient Purposes, and having done their Business , they die and are forgotten. I could as easily make a Collection for you of all the past Parings of my Nails.1 The neglect of Franklin’s political philosophy seems to stem from a general concurrence with this judgment, a belief that in political matters Franklin was a man of action and not of systematic or profound theorizing.2 And there is something to be said for this view. On the plane of political action, Franklin’s importance can scarcely be overrated. Once he came to support American independence from Britain, his influence was so weighty that the British suspected him of being the prime source of all their troubles in the colonies. His deft negotiations for French aid were vital to American success in the Revolutionary War, and his equally skillful handling of the peace treaty ensured, against the wishes of enemies and even European friends, that the new United States would have the territory and economic strength to become a great nation. But Franklin never wrote a political treatise or even devised an important political doctrine. Nor was he inclined, as JeVerson and Madison were, to speak and think in terms of universal human rights. Even among Franklin ’s practical proposals for political reform, most bore little direct fruit; this is true of his eVorts to overturn proprietary government in Pennsylvania, his advocacy of a continental union loyal to the British crown, his unflagging eVorts over many years to prevent the breach with Britain, and his long-avowed support for unicameral legislatures, plural executives, and prohibitions on salaries for elected oYcials. The Political Philosophy of Benjamin Franklin 2 Franklin’s modesty and his failings notwithstanding, his writings on these matters are well worth...