Franklin in His Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of His Life, Drawn from Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs by Family, Friends, and Associates

Thomas Jefferson, [Anecdotes of Doctor Franklin, 1818 and 1821]

[132] [Anecdotes of Doctor Franklin, 1818 and 1821] Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) was aware of Benjamin Franklin’s reputation as an important scientist long before the two men ever met. Speaking of Franklin in Notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson observed, “No one of the present age has made more important discoveries, nor has enriched philosophy with more, or more ingenious solutions of the phaenomena of nature.” Jefferson knew Franklin’s Experiments and Observations on Electricity soon after its publication and installed one of Franklin’s lightning rods at Monticello. Living on a mountaintop, Jefferson was grateful for it on numerous occasions . Monticello slave Isaac Jefferson recorded a typical remark his master made during electrical storms: “If it hadn’t been for that Franklin the whole house would have gone.” Jefferson became good friends with Franklin when the two were delegates to the Continental Congress together. Both served on the committee responsible for drafting the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity for Taking Up Arms, the committee to consider Lord North’s conciliatory proposal, and, most important, the Committee of Five, that is, the committee assigned the task of writing the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson drafted the document, of course, but Franklin offered several important suggestions. When the Committee of Five completed their work, the Declaration of Independence came before the Continental Congress for debate. Almost every sentence came under discussion. Jefferson found excruciating the process of listening to his finely crafted words being debated, revised, or deleted. Franklin , who sat next to him during these proceedings, recognized the younger man’s discomfort and offered an anecdote to make him feel more at ease. Franklin’s anecdote had its intended effect. Jefferson remembered it well and repeated it many years later. Once Congress appointed Jefferson minister plenipotentiary and commissioned him to negotiate treaties of amity and commerce with foreign powers, he went to Paris, where he renewed his friendship with Franklin, who served as minister to the Court of France. Franklin returned to America in 1785, when Jefferson took over as minister to the Court of France. When asked [133] From Thomas Jefferson to Robert Walsh, 4 December 1818 Dr. Franklin had many political enemies, as every character must which, with decision enough to have opinions, has energy and talent to give them effect on the feelings of the adversary opinion. These enmities were chiefly in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts: in the former they were merely of the proprietary party; in the latter they did not commence till the revolution, and then sprung chiefly from personal animosities, which spreading by little and little, became at length of some extent. Dr. [Arthur] Lee was his principal calumniator, a man of much malignity, who, besides enlisting his whole family in the same hostility, was enabled, as the agent of Massachusetts with the British government, to infuse it into that State with considerable effect. Mr. [Ralph] Izard, the Doctor’s enemy also, but from a pecuniary transaction, never countenanced these charges against him. Mr. [John] Jay, Silas Deane, Mr. [Henry] Laurens, his colleagues also, ever maintained towards him unlimited confidence and respect. That he would have waived the formal recognition of our Independence I never heard on any authority worthy notice. As to the fisheries, England was urgent to if he was Franklin’s replacement, Jefferson famously said, “No one can replace him, I am only his successor.” The two would meet once more. When Jefferson returned to the United States, he learned that George Washington had appointed him secretary of state. Traveling from Virginia to New York to assume his new position, Jefferson stopped in Philadelphia to see Franklin. Jefferson found his old friend on his deathbed. Writing a biography of Franklin in the early nineteenth century for Delaplaine’s Repository of the Lives and Portraits of Distinguished American Characters, Robert Walsh approached Thomas Jefferson to see if he had any stories about him. Jefferson’s 1818 letter to Walsh is an absolute delight. Jefferson included additional episodes featuring Franklin in his own autobiography , as well. Indeed, Jefferson seemed to tell stories about Franklin more readily than he told personal stories about himself. He fleshed out anecdotes into tales, capturing their cultural contexts and Franklin’s wonderful sense of humor. Jefferson’s stories about Franklin form an important contribution to Franklin’s biography—and his own. Thomas Jefferson franklin in his own time [134] retain them exclusively, France neutral; and I believe that had they been ultimately made a sine...