Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary
"Dr. Franklin's Profile," by Red Grooms, is on view in Philadelphia.
Posted on 12/19/2005 7:15:21 PM PST by Pharmboy
Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary
"Dr. Franklin's Profile," by Red Grooms, is on view in Philadelphia.
PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 14 -There was something insufferable about Benjamin Franklin, and many of his contemporaries knew it. John Adams wrote, "Had he been an ordinary man, I should never have taken the trouble to expose the turpitude of his intrigues, or to vindicate my reputation against his vilifications and calumnies."
Franklin could change positions when they seemed unpopular, compromise on principles and turn statecraft into a matter of personality. snip...
In other contexts, Franklin's treatment of family could have made Poor Richard blush through his almanack: He began a three-generation tradition of siring illegitimate children; he made sure to spend 15 of the last 17 years of his marriage away from his wife in foreign lands, making no effort to see her in her final years; to his children and heirs he was capable of stunning callousness mixed with bouts of devotion.
Nor was his later reputation sterling among literary figures. Melville referred to Franklin's "primeval orientalness." Mark Twain, only partly in jest, accused him of "animosity toward boys" with his pert maxims about propriety. D. H. Lawrence, who could have been Franklin in a fun-house mirror, called him a "dry, moral, utilitarian little democrat."
No, Franklin, the middle-class materialist and moralist, has not had an easy time of it, particularly during much of the 20th century when he was often considered annoyingly bourgeois. It is even difficult to clearly define his contribution to the founding of the United States. Unlike Jefferson, he was not a devotee of high principle and a practitioner of high prose. Unlike Washington, he could not have led an army through adversity or channeled a fledgling country through birth pangs. Unlike Madison or even Hamilton, he was no theoretician.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
In the 20th Century, Franklin would've worn a leisure suit, white shoes, an open neck shirt with a gold chain, and would've participated in swing parties....
To describe a Founding Father as "annoyingly bourgeois" tells me all I need to know about this writer. The fact that the NYT is behind this piece just confirms what I already know.
"Benjamin Franklin: In His Own Words" is at the Southwest Gallery of the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress in Washington through June 17.
Peter Harholdt
A glass armonica, musical instrument designed by Benjamin Franklin.
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If crack would've existed in the eighteenth century, Ben Franklin would have weighed eighty pounds and lived in an alley somewhere.
With all due respect, the Times was describing some contemporary opinions of Franklin and not the writer's. He was not without controversy in his life, as were other Founders. He was very human...
A bit extreme, eh?
From what I understand, Franklin really loved crack....
"...No, Franklin, the middle-class materialist and moralist, has not had an easy time of it, particularly during much of the 20th century when he was often considered annoyingly bourgeois..."
Maybe I should tell you what i really think? :)
I was born in Franklin, Massachusetts. It broke off from Wrentham and was named Essex for a year or so. But then the town fathers got the idea that they would rename the town after Dr. Franklin and on the basis of this honor get him to donate a church bell, which they needed to summon the farmers to worship, or in case of fire, Indian attack, etc., etc.
Dr. Franklin, however, was not of that mind. In a letter to his nephew, he wrote that he had decided that, "Sense being preferable to Sound", the farmers of Franklin would be better off with a library. So a case of books was purchased and sent off to them.
Franklin, Massachusetts now has the oldest public library in the United States. The books Dr. Franklin sent still exist and are on display in a glass and oak case in the front of the library (called Ray Memorial Library after the mill-owning family that paid to have the present main building built in the 19th Century). I know this, having spent many hours in that library during my elementary, junior high and early high school years.
He was primarily known in Europe as a scientist, not a statesman, and had a range of interests and talents that astonish anyone who comes to learn of him with a blank slate. I do not think his memory is in any particular danger from the likes of D.H. Lawrence.
Congressman Billybob
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To be fair, he sired this child (not "children" as is implied by the wording) before his marriage, and he took responsibiity for and raised him. The child eventually became the royalist governor of NJ during the Revolution and as a result was permanently alienated from his father.
I love Ben Franklin- warts and all. AND~I love the story of your hometown library!
Quite true. I don't think there is a single great personage in history who was "normal" or "average." (Christ maybe, but He was Divine) They were all human and human to the extreme in many cases, embodying both virtuous and dark elements in their personalities.
The Times has no shame ... or talent.
Me too. Franklin is the most human and, I've always felt, the most American of the founding fathers. Franklin sometimes seems like a early prototype of the unpretentious men that would make this country great. Bourgeois? That is only something nasty to a leftist.
I particularly love his autobiography.
Very interesting. I read something, somewhere, once, about how really famous Franklin was in his time for being a scientist. Of course, he's fave here, since the kid shares his birthday, his adjusted birthday of Jan 17th. Truly we must be ever grateful for our founding fathers.
Some day, perhaps, you'll advance from your current station as an misinformed student.
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