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{{Short description|American Founding Father and polymath (1706–1790)}}{{Other uses|Benjamin Franklin (disambiguation)}}
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{{Use American English|date=February 2019}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = Benjamin Franklin
| honorific_suffix    = {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FRS|FRSA|FRSE}}
| image               = Joseph Siffrein Duplessis - Benjamin Franklin - Google Art Project.jpg
| caption             = Portrait by [[Joseph Duplessis]], 1785
| office              = 6th [[Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania#Presidents|President of Pennsylvania]]
| vicepresident       = {{ubl|[[Charles Biddle]]|[[Peter Muhlenberg]]|[[David Redick]]}}
| term_start          = October 18, 1785
| term_end            = November 5, 1788
| predecessor         = [[John Dickinson]]
| successor           = [[Thomas Mifflin]]
| office1             = [[United States Minister to Sweden]]
| appointer1          = [[Congress of the Confederation]]
| term_start1         = September 28, 1782
| term_end1           = April 3, 1783
| predecessor1        = ''Position established''
| successor1          = [[Jonathan Russell]]
| office2             = [[United States Minister to France]]
| appointer2          = [[Continental Congress]]
| term_start2         = March 23, 1779
| term_end2           = May 17, 1785
| predecessor2        = ''Position established''
| successor2          = [[Thomas Jefferson]]
| order3              = 1st
| office3             = United States Postmaster General
| term_start3         = July 26, 1775
| term_end3           = November 7, 1776
| predecessor3        = ''Position established''
| successor3          = [[Richard Bache]]
| office4             = Delegate from [[Pennsylvania]] to the [[Second Continental Congress]]
| term_start4         = May 10, 1775
| term_end4           = October 26, 1776
| office5             = [[Postmaster General of British America]]
| term_start5         = August 10, 1753
| term_end5           = January 31, 1774
| predecessor5        = ''Position established''
| successor5          = ''Vacant''
| office6             = [[Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly|Speaker of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly]]
| term_start6         = May 26, 1764
| term_end6           = October 11, 1764
| predecessor6        = [[Isaac Norris (statesman)|Isaac Norris]]
| successor6          = Isaac Norris
| order8              = 1st
| office8             = President of the University of Pennsylvania
| term_start8         = November 13, 1749
| term_end8           = May 24, 1754
| successor8          = [[William Smith (Episcopal priest)|William Smith]]
| predecessor8        = ''Position established''
| office7             = Member of the [[Province_of_Pennsylvania#Government|Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly]] from [[Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania]]
| term_start7         = August 13, 1751
| term_end7           = October 11, 1764
| successor7          = 
| predecessor7        = 
| office11            = 21st Chief Clerk of the [[Province_of_Pennsylvania#Government|Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly]]
| term_start11        = October 14, 1736
| term_end11          = May 13, 1751
| successor11         = [[William Franklin]]
| predecessor11       = Joseph Growden Jr.
| office12            = President of the [[Pennsylvania_Abolition_Society|Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage]]
| term_start12        = April 23, 1787
| term_end12          = April 17, 1790
| successor12         = 
| predecessor12       = 
| birth_date          = {{OldStyleDateDY|January 17,|1706|January 6}}{{refn|group=Note|name=birthdate}}
| birth_place         = [[Boston]], Massachusetts Bay, British America
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1790|4|17|1706|1|17}}
| death_place         = [[Philadelphia]], Pennsylvania, U.S.
| resting_place       = [[Christ Church Burial Ground]]
| party               = [[Independent politician|Independent]]
| spouse              = {{marriage|[[Deborah Read]]|September 1, 1730|1774|reason=died}}
| children            = {{hlist|[[William Franklin|William]]|[[Francis Folger Franklin|Francis]]|[[Sarah Franklin Bache|Sarah]]}}
| parents             = {{ubl|[[Josiah Franklin]]|[[Abiah Folger]]}}
| signature           = Benjamin Franklin Signature.svg
| education           = [[Boston Latin School]]
}}

'''Benjamin Franklin''' ({{OldStyleDateDY|January 17,|1706|January 6, 1705}}{{refn|group=Note|name=birthdate}}{{spaced ndash}}April 17, 1790) was an American [[polymath]]: a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher and [[Political philosophy|political philosopher]].<ref name="Britannica">[[#britannica|Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021]]</ref> Among the most influential intellectuals of his time, Franklin was one of the [[Founding Fathers of the United States]]; a [[Committee of Five|drafter]] and signer of the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]]; and the first [[United States Postmaster General|postmaster general]].<ref name=Morris1973>{{cite book |last=Morris |first=Richard B. |author-link=Richard B. Morris |title=Seven Who Shaped Our Destiny: The Founding Fathers as Revolutionaries |location=New York |publisher=Harper & Row |year=1973 |isbn=978-0-06-090454-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/sevenwhoshapedou00morr/page/n15/mode/2up |pages=1, 5–30}}</ref>

Born in the [[Province of Massachusetts Bay]], Franklin became a successful [[Early American publishers and printers|newspaper editor and printer]] in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies, publishing ''[[The Pennsylvania Gazette]]'' at age 23.<ref>{{cite book |first=H.W. |last=Brands |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B2bPCEbMAvwC&pg=PA390 |title=The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin |year=2010 |page=390 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing |isbn=978-0-307-75494-3 }}</ref> He became wealthy publishing this and ''[[Poor Richard's Almanack]]'', which he wrote under the pseudonym "Richard Saunders".<ref name="Goodrich1829">{{cite book|first=Charles A. |last=Goodrich|url=https://archive.org/details/livessignerstod02goodgoog|title=Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence|date=1829|publisher=W. Reed & Company|page=[https://archive.org/details/livessignerstod02goodgoog/page/n280 267]|access-date=June 7, 2013}}</ref> After 1767, he was associated with the ''[[Pennsylvania Chronicle]]'', a newspaper known for its revolutionary sentiments and criticisms of the policies of the [[Parliament of Great Britain|British Parliament]] and [[the Crown]].<ref name="Smithsonian+Constitutional Post">{{cite web|title=William Goddard and the Constitutional Post|url=https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibition/out-of-the-mails-hugh-finlays-journey/william-goddard%E2%80%99s-constitutional-post|access-date=October 19, 2010|publisher=[[Smithsonian National Postal Museum]]}}</ref> He pioneered and was the first president of the [[Academy and College of Philadelphia]], which opened in 1751 and later became the University of Pennsylvania. He organized and was the first secretary of the [[American Philosophical Society]] and was elected its president in 1769. He was appointed deputy postmaster-general for the British colonies in 1753,<ref name=":0">{{cite web |title=Benjamin Franklin, Postmaster General |website=United States Postal Service |url=https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/pmg-franklin.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://about.usps.com/who-we-are/postal-history/pmg-franklin.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live |access-date=May 29, 2021}}</ref> which enabled him to set up the first national communications network.

Franklin was active in community affairs and colonial and state politics, as well as national and international affairs. He became a hero in America when, as an agent in London for several colonies, he spearheaded the repeal of the unpopular [[Stamp Act 1765|Stamp Act]] by the British Parliament. An accomplished diplomat, he was widely admired as the first [[List of ambassadors of the United States to France|U.S. ambassador to France]] and was a major figure in the development of positive [[France–United States relations|Franco{{ndash}}American relations]]. His efforts proved vital in securing French aid for the [[American Revolution]]. From 1785 to 1788, he served as [[Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania#Presidents|President of Pennsylvania]]. At some points in his life, he owned slaves and ran "for sale" ads for slaves in his newspaper, but by the late 1750s, he began arguing against [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]], became an active [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]], and promoted the education and [[Racial integration|integration]] of African Americans into U.S. society.<ref name="Nash pp. 618">[[#nash2006|Nash, 2006]], pp. 618–638.</ref>

As a scientist, Franklin's studies of electricity made him a major figure in the [[American Enlightenment]] and the [[history of physics]]. He also charted and named the [[Gulf Stream]] current. His numerous important inventions include the [[lightning rod]], [[bifocals]], [[glass harmonica]] and the [[Franklin stove]].<ref>[[#institute|Franklin Institute, Essay]]</ref> He founded many [[civic organization]]s, including the [[Library Company of Philadelphia|Library Company]], the [[University of Pennsylvania]],{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p={{page needed|date=April 2025}}}} and [[Philadelphia]]'s first [[Union Fire Company|fire department]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Burt |first=Nathaniel |title=The Perennial Philadelphians: The Anatomy of an American Aristocracy |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-8122-1693-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L9ueb6r1uXgC&pg=PA142 |page=142}}</ref> 
Franklin earned the title of "The First American" for his early and indefatigable campaigning for [[Thirteen Colonies|colonial unity]]. He was the only person to sign the Declaration of Independence, the [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|Treaty of Paris]] peace with Britain, and the [[Constitution of the United States|Constitution]]. Foundational in defining the American ethos, Franklin has been called "the most accomplished American of his age and the most influential in inventing the type of society America would become".{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|pp=491–492}}

Franklin's life and legacy of scientific and political achievement, and his status as one of America's most influential Founding Fathers, have seen him honored for more than two centuries after his death on the [[United States one-hundred-dollar bill|$100 bill]] and in the names of [[USS Franklin|warships]], [[List of places named for Benjamin Franklin|many towns and counties, educational institutions and corporations]], as well as in numerous [[Benjamin Franklin in popular culture|cultural references]] and a portrait in the [[Oval Office]]. His more than 30,000 letters and documents have been collected in ''[[The Papers of Benjamin Franklin]].'' [[Anne Robert Jacques Turgot]] said of him: "Eripuit fulmen cœlo, mox sceptra tyrannis" ("He snatched lightning from the sky and the scepter from tyrants").<ref>{{cite web| title=To the Genius of Franklin| url=https://philamuseum.org/collection/object/50130| work=[[Philadelphia Museum of Art]]}}</ref>

==Ancestry==
Benjamin Franklin's father, [[Josiah Franklin]], was a [[tallow]] [[Chandlery|chandler]], [[soaper]], and [[candle]]maker. Josiah Franklin was born at [[Ecton, Northamptonshire]], England, on December 23, 1657, the son of Thomas Franklin, a blacksmith and farmer, and his wife, Jane White. Benjamin's father and all four of his grandparents were born in England.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Huang|first=Nian-Sheng|date=2000|title=Franklin's Father Josiah: Life of a Colonial Boston Tallow Chandler, 1657–1745|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1586007|journal=Transactions of the American Philosophical Society|volume=90|issue=3|pages=i–155|doi=10.2307/1586007|jstor=1586007|issn=0065-9746|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

Josiah Franklin had a total of seventeen children with his two wives. He married his first wife, Anne Child, in about 1677 in Ecton and emigrated with her to [[Boston]] in 1683; they had three children before emigration and four after. Following her death, Josiah married [[Abiah Folger]] on July 9, 1689, in the [[Old South Meeting House]] by [[Samuel Willard|Reverend Samuel Willard]], and had ten children with her. Benjamin, their eighth child, was Josiah Franklin's fifteenth child overall, and his tenth and final son.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}}

Benjamin Franklin's mother, Abiah, was born in [[Nantucket]], [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]], on August 15, 1667, to [[Peter Folger (Nantucket settler)|Peter Folger]], a miller and schoolteacher, and his wife, [[Mary Morrell Folger]], a former [[Indentured servitude|indentured servant]]. Mary Folger came from a Puritan family that was among the first [[Puritan migration to New England (1620–1640)|Pilgrims]] to flee to Massachusetts for [[Freedom of religion|religious freedom]], sailing for [[Boston]] in 1635 after King [[Charles I of England]] had begun persecuting Puritans. Her father Peter was "the sort of rebel destined to transform colonial America."{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=14}} As [[Court clerk|clerk of the court]], he was arrested on February 10, 1676, and jailed on February 19 for his inability to pay bail. He spent over a year and a half in jail.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nantucket lands and landowners |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/04017892/ |access-date=May 13, 2024 |website=Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA}}</ref>

==Early life and education==
===Boston===
{{multiple image
| align = right
| direction = vertical
| image1 = Benjamin Franklin Birthplace 2.JPG
| caption1 = An 1881 illustration of Franklin's birthplace on [[Milk Street, Boston|Milk Street]] in [[Boston]]
| image2 = Benjamin Franklin Birthplace.jpg
| caption2 = A May 2008 photograph of Franklin's birthplace in Boston, commemorated with a [[bust (sculpture)|bust]] of Franklin atop the building's second-floor façade
}}
Franklin was born on [[Milk Street, Boston|Milk Street]] in [[Boston]], [[Province of Massachusetts Bay]] on January 17, 1707,{{refn|group=Note|name=birthdate| Contemporary birth records which used the Julian calendar and the [[New Year#Annunciation Style|Annunciation Style]] of enumerating years, recorded his birth as January 6, 1706.<ref>Registry of Births within the Town of Boston N.E.1707 brought in and entered Anno 1708" [https://www.ancestry.com/sharing/43472019?mark=7b22746f6b656e223a2238576d6e487a5a376b34395765775068686f774b793744556e5977435669722f752b346571734357536f593d222c22746f6b656e5f76657273696f6e223a225632227d/ Ancestry database] image 60; Original Data Source, Town and City Clerks of Massachusetts. Massachusetts Vital and Town Records. Provo, UT: Holbrook Research Institute.</ref>{{sfn|Wood|2005|p=17}}}} and [[Infant baptism|baptized]] at the [[Old South Meeting House]] in Boston. As a child growing up along the [[Charles River]], Franklin recalled that he was "generally the leader among the boys."{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=16}}

Franklin's father wanted him to attend school with the clergy but only had enough money to send him to school for two years. He attended [[Boston Latin School]] but did not graduate; he continued his education through voracious reading. Although "his parents talked of the church as a career"<ref name="autobio">{{cite book |last= Franklin |first= Benjamin |title= Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=qW4VAAAAYAAJ |access-date=February 1, 2011 |series= Macmillan's pocket English and American classics |orig-year= 1771 |year= 1901 |publisher=Macmillan |location= New York |page= vi |chapter= Introduction|isbn= 9780758302939 }}<!-- Note: the introduction of this edition is the source for this quote; please do not change the edition without verifying the quote remains sourced. --></ref> for Franklin, his schooling ended when he was ten. He worked for his father for a time, and at 12 he became an [[apprenticeship|apprentice]] to his brother James, a printer, who taught him the printing trade. When Benjamin was 15, James founded ''[[The New-England Courant]]'', which was the third newspaper founded in Boston.<ref name="Bernhard 2007 p. 11">{{cite book | last=Bernhard | first=J. | title=Porcupine, Picayune, & Post: How Newspapers Get Their Names | publisher=University of Missouri Press | series=EBL-Schweitzer | year=2007 | isbn=978-0-8262-6601-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_oO5fWi6dikC&pg=PA11 | access-date=June 1, 2023 | page=11}}</ref>

When denied the chance to write a letter to the paper for publication, Franklin adopted the pseudonym of "[[Silence Dogood]]", a middle-aged widow. Mrs. Dogood's letters were published and became a subject of conversation around town. Neither James nor the ''Courant''{{'s}} readers were aware of the ruse, and James was unhappy with Benjamin when he discovered the popular correspondent was his younger brother. Franklin was an advocate of free speech from an early age. When his brother was jailed for three weeks in 1722 for publishing material unflattering to [[Samuel Shute|the governor]], young Franklin took over the newspaper and had Mrs. Dogood proclaim, quoting ''[[Cato's Letters]]'', "Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech."{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=32}} Franklin left his apprenticeship without his brother's permission, and in so doing became a fugitive.<ref name="Seelye Selby 2018 p. 394">{{cite book | last1=Seelye | first1=J.E. | last2=Selby | first2=S. | title=Shaping North America: From Exploration to the American Revolution [3 volumes] | publisher=ABC-CLIO | year=2018 | isbn=978-1-4408-3669-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YgVnDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA394 | access-date=June 1, 2023 | page=394}}</ref>

===Moves to Philadelphia and London===
At age 17, Franklin ran away to [[Philadelphia]], seeking a new start in a new city. When he first arrived, he worked in several printing shops there, but he was not satisfied by the immediate prospects in any of these jobs. After a few months, while working in one printing house, Pennsylvania governor [[Sir William Keith, 4th Baronet|Sir William Keith]] convinced him to go to London, ostensibly to acquire the equipment necessary for establishing another newspaper in Philadelphia. Discovering that Keith's promises of backing a newspaper were empty, he worked as a [[Typesetting|typesetter]] in a printer's shop in what is today the Lady Chapel of [[St Bartholomew-the-Great|Church of St Bartholomew-the-Great]] in the [[Smithfield, London|Smithfield]] area of London, which had at that time been deconsecrated. He returned to Philadelphia in 1726 with the help of [[Thomas Denham]], an English merchant who had emigrated but returned to England, and who employed Franklin as a clerk, shopkeeper, and bookkeeper in his business.<ref name="vandoren">[[Carl Van Doren|Carl]] Van Doren, ''Benjamin Franklin''. (1945). pages 252–253</ref>

===Junto and library===
[[File:Franklin - ita, 1825 - 766672 R (cropped).jpeg|thumb|''La scuola della economia e della morale'', an 1825 sketch of Franklin]]

In 1727, at age 21, Franklin formed the [[Junto (club)|Junto]], a group of "like minded aspiring artisans and tradesmen who hoped to improve themselves while they improved their community." The Junto was a discussion group for issues of the day; it subsequently gave rise to many organizations in Philadelphia.<ref>{{cite journal | last1  = Mumford | first1 = Michael D. | s2cid = 143550175 | year = 2002 | title = Social innovation: ten cases from Benjamin Franklin | journal = Creativity Research Journal | volume = 14 | issue = 2| pages = 253–266 | doi = 10.1207/S15326934CRJ1402_11}}</ref> The Junto was modeled after English coffeehouses that Franklin knew well and which had become the center of the spread of Enlightenment ideas in Britain.<ref>David Waldstreicher, ed.,'' A Companion to Benjamin Franklin'' (2011) p. 30.</ref>{{sfn|Lemay|2005a|pp=92–94,123}}

Reading was a great pastime of the Junto, but books were rare and expensive. The members created a library, initially assembled from their own books, after Franklin wrote:

{{blockquote|A proposition was made by me that since our books were often referr'd to in our disquisitions upon the inquiries, it might be convenient for us to have them altogether where we met, that upon occasion they might be consulted; and by thus clubbing our books to a common library, we should, while we lik'd to keep them together, have each of us the advantage of using the books of all the other members, which would be nearly as beneficial as if each owned the whole.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Murray|first1=Stuart A.P.|title=The library: an illustrated history|date=2009|publisher=[[Skyhorse Pub.]]|location=New York|isbn=978-1-60239-706-4|page=147|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/libraryillustrat0000murr}}</ref>}}

This did not suffice, however. Franklin conceived the idea of a [[subscription library]], which would pool the funds of the members to buy books for all to read. This was the birth of the [[Library Company of Philadelphia]], whose charter he composed in 1731.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 1006049|title = Benjamin Franklin and Eighteenth-Century American Libraries|journal = Transactions of the American Philosophical Society|volume = 55|issue = 9|pages = 1–83|last1 = Korty|first1 = Margaret Barton|year = 1965|doi = 10.2307/1006049}}</ref>

===Newspaperman===
{{further|Early American publishers and printers}}
[[File:Franklin the printer2.jpg|thumb|Franklin (center) at work on a [[printing press]] in a painting published by the [[Detroit Publishing Company]] in {{Circa|1914}}]]
Upon Denham's death, Franklin returned to his former trade. In 1728, he set up a printing house in partnership with [[Hugh Meredith]]; the following year he became the publisher of ''[[The Pennsylvania Gazette]]'', a newspaper in Philadelphia. The ''Gazette'' gave Franklin a forum for agitation about a variety of local reforms and initiatives through printed essays and observations. Over time, his commentary, and his adroit cultivation of a positive image as an industrious and intellectual young man, earned him a great deal of social respect. But even after he achieved fame as a scientist and statesman, he habitually signed his letters with the unpretentious 'B. Franklin, Printer'.<ref name="vandoren"/>

In 1732, he published the first German-language newspaper in America – ''Die Philadelphische Zeitung'' – although it failed after only one year because four other newly founded German papers quickly dominated the newspaper market.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://german.about.com/library/weekly/aa071299.htm|title=German Newspapers in the US and Canada|access-date=October 7, 2014|archive-date=September 12, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160912040836/http://german.about.com/library/weekly/aa071299.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> Franklin also printed [[Moravian Church|Moravian]] religious books in German. He often visited [[Bethlehem, Pennsylvania]], staying at the [[Moravian Sun Inn]].<ref>{{cite journal |first=John B. |last=Frantz |title=Franklin and the Pennsylvania Germans |journal=Pennsylvania History |year=1998 |pages=21–34 |url=https://journals.psu.edu/phj/article/view/25467/25236 }}</ref> In a 1751 pamphlet on demographic growth and its implications for the Thirteen Colonies, he called the [[Pennsylvania Dutch|Pennsylvania Germans]] "Palatine Boors" who could never acquire the "Complexion" of [[Anglo-Americans|Anglo-American]] settlers and referred to "Blacks and Tawneys" as weakening the social structure of the colonies. Although he apparently reconsidered shortly thereafter, and the phrases were omitted from all later printings of the pamphlet, his views may have played a role in his political defeat in 1764.{{sfn|Gleason|2000|pp=3–17}}

According to Ralph Frasca, Franklin promoted the printing press as a device to instruct colonial Americans in moral virtue. Frasca argues he saw this as a service to God, because he understood moral virtue in terms of actions, thus, doing good provides a service to God. Despite his own moral lapses, Franklin saw himself as uniquely qualified to instruct Americans in morality. He tried to influence American moral life through the construction of a printing network based on a chain of partnerships from the Carolinas to New England. He thereby invented the first newspaper chain.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}} It was more than a business venture, for like many publishers he believed that the press had a public-service duty.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Frasca | first1 = Ralph | year = 1997 | title = Benjamin Franklin's Journalism | journal = [[Fides et Historia]] | volume = 29 | issue = 1| pages = 60–72 }}</ref><ref>Ralph Frasca, ''Benjamin Franklin's Printing Network: Disseminating Virtue in Early America'' (University of Missouri Press, 2006) {{doi|10.1111/j.1540-6563.2007.00197_16.x}} online review by [[Robert Middlekauff]].</ref>

When he established himself in Philadelphia, shortly before 1730, the town boasted two "wretched little" news sheets, [[Andrew Bradford]]'s ''The American Weekly Mercury'' and [[Samuel Keimer]]'s ''Universal Instructor in all Arts and Sciences, and Pennsylvania Gazette''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bartleby.com/225/index.html|title=Vol. 15. Colonial and Revolutionary Literature; Early National Literature, Part I. The Cambridge History of English and American Literature: An Encyclopedia in Eighteen Volumes. 1907–21|website=www.bartleby.com}}</ref> This instruction in all arts and sciences consisted of weekly extracts from ''Chambers's Universal Dictionary''. Franklin quickly did away with all of this when he took over the ''Instructor'' and made it ''The Pennsylvania Gazette''. The ''Gazette'' soon became his characteristic organ, which he freely used for satire, for the play of his wit, even for sheer excess of mischief or of fun. From the first, he had a way of adapting his models to his own uses. {{anchor|The Busy-Body}}{{anchor|The Busybody}}The series of essays called "[[The Busy-Body (pen name)|The Busy-Body]]", which he wrote for Bradford's ''American Mercury'' in 1729, followed the general [[Joseph Addison|Addisonian]] form, already modified to suit homelier conditions. The thrifty Patience, in her busy little shop, complaining of the useless visitors who waste her valuable time, is related to the women who address Mr. Spectator. The Busy-Body himself is a true Censor Morum, as [[Isaac Bickerstaff]] had been in the ''Tatler''. And a number of the fictitious characters, Ridentius, Eugenius, Cato, and Cretico, represent traditional 18th-century classicism. Franklin even used this classical framework for contemporary satire, as seen in the character of Cretico, the "sour Philosopher", who is clearly a caricature of his rival, Samuel Keimer.<ref>Cook, ''Colonial and Revolutionary Literature; Early National Literature, Part I. Colonial Newspapers and Magazines, 1704–1775'' (1917){{page needed|date=October 2022}}</ref>{{page needed|date=October 2022}}

Franklin had mixed success in his plan to establish an inter-colonial network of newspapers that would produce a profit for him and disseminate virtue. Over the years he sponsored two dozen printers in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, New York, Connecticut, and even the Caribbean. By 1753, eight of the fifteen English language newspapers in the colonies were published by him or his partners.<ref>Ralph Frasca, ''Benjamin Franklin's Printing Network: Disseminating Virtue in Early America'' (2006) pp. 19, 196.</ref> He began in [[Charleston, South Carolina]], in 1731. After his second editor died, the widow, [[Elizabeth Timothy]], took over and made it a success. She was one of the colonial era's first woman printers.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Baker | first1 = Ira L. | s2cid = 143677057 | year = 1977 | title = Elizabeth Timothy: America's First Woman Editor | journal = Journalism Quarterly | volume = 54 | issue = 2| pages = 280–85 | doi=10.1177/107769907705400207}}</ref> For three decades Franklin maintained a close business relationship with her and her son [[Peter Timothy]], who took over the ''[[South Carolina Gazette]]'' in 1746.<ref>Ralph Frasca, "'The Partnership at Carolina Having succeeded, was Encourag'd to Engage in Others': The Genesis of Benjamin Franklin's Printing Network", ''Southern Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of the South'' (2006), Vol. 13 Issue 1/2, pp.&nbsp;1–23.</ref> The ''Gazette'' was impartial in political debates, while creating the opportunity for public debate, which encouraged others to challenge authority. Timothy avoided blandness and crude bias and, after 1765, increasingly took a patriotic stand in the growing crisis with Great Britain.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Smith | first1 = Jeffery A. | year = 1993 | title = Impartiality and Revolutionary Ideology: Editorial Policies of the 'South-Carolina Gazette,' 1732–1735 | journal = Journal of Southern History | volume = 49 | issue = 4| pages = 511–26 | doi = 10.2307/2208674 | jstor = 2208674 }}</ref> Franklin's ''Connecticut Gazette'' (1755–68), however, proved unsuccessful.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Frasca | first1 = Ralph | year = 2003 | title = 'I am now about to establish a small Printing Office&nbsp;... at Newhaven': Benjamin Franklin and the First Newspaper in Connecticut | journal = Connecticut History | volume = 44 | issue = 1| pages = 77–87 | doi = 10.2307/44369668 | jstor = 44369668 | s2cid = 254488378 }}</ref> As the Revolution approached, political strife slowly tore his network apart.<ref>Frasca, ''Benjamin Franklin's Printing Network,'' pp. 161–167.</ref>

===Freemasonry===
In 1730 or 1731, Franklin was initiated into the local [[Masonic lodge]]. He became a [[Grand Master (Freemasonry)|grand master]] in 1734, indicating his rapid rise to prominence in Pennsylvania.<ref name=HC>[[History (U.S. TV channel)|The History Channel]], ''Mysteries of the Freemasons: America'', video documentary, August 1, 2006, written by Noah Nicholas and Molly Bedell</ref><ref name=freemasonry>{{cite web| url=http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/franklin_b/franklin_b.html|title=Freemasonry Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon website |publisher=Freemasonry.bcy.ca|access-date=September 21, 2009}}</ref> The same year, he edited and published the first Masonic book in the Americas, a reprint of [[James Anderson (Freemason)|James Anderson]]'s ''Constitutions of the Free-Masons''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Anderson |first1=James |last2=Franklin |first2=Benjamin |last3=Royster |first3=Paul |date=January 1, 1734 |title=The Constitutions of the Free-Masons (1734). An Online Electronic Edition. |url=https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libraryscience/25 |journal=UNL Libraries: Faculty Publications}}</ref> He was the [[Masonic lodge officers#Secretary|secretary]] of [[Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania|St. John's Lodge]] in Philadelphia from 1735 to 1738.<ref name=freemasonry/>

In January 1738, "Franklin appeared as a witness" in a manslaughter trial against two men who killed "a simple-minded apprentice" named Daniel Rees in a fake Masonic initiation gone wrong. One of the men "threw, or accidentally spilled, the burning spirits, and Daniel Rees died of his burns two days later." While Franklin did not directly participate in the [[List of hazing deaths in the United States|hazing that led to Rees' death]], he knew of the hazing before it turned fatal, and did nothing to stop it. He was criticized for his inaction in ''The American Weekly Mercury'', by his publishing rival [[Andrew Bradford]]. Ultimately, "Franklin replied in his own defense in the ''Gazette''."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Founders Online: A Defense of Conduct, 15 February 1738 |url=http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-02-02-0036 |access-date=January 17, 2024 |website=founders.archives.gov |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=says |first=Brother Hogarth |date=May 16, 2020 |title=Incredible History: Ben Franklin, Fake Masonry, and Accidental Death |url=https://forthright.space/2020/05/16/incredible-history-ben-franklin-fake-masonry-and-accidental-death/ |access-date=January 17, 2024 |website=Forthright |language=en}}</ref>

Franklin remained a Freemason for the rest of his life.<ref>Van Horne, John C. "The History and Collections of the Library Company of Philadelphia", ''The Magazine Antiques'', v. 170. no. 2: 58–65 (1971).</ref><ref>{{cite ODNB|id=52466|title=Franklin, Benjamin (1706–1790)|orig-year=2004|year=2014|last=Lemay|first=Leo}}</ref>

===Common-law marriage to Deborah Read===
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At age 17 in 1723, Franklin proposed to 15-year-old [[Deborah Read]] while a boarder in the Read home. At that time, Deborah's mother was wary of allowing her young daughter to marry Franklin, who was on his way to London at Governor Keith's request, and also because of his financial instability. Her own husband had recently died, and she declined Franklin's request to marry her daughter.<ref name="vandoren"/>

Franklin travelled to London, and after he failed to communicate as expected with Deborah and her family, they interpreted his long silence as a breaking of his promises. At the urging of her mother, Deborah married a potter named John Rogers on August 5, 1725. John soon fled to [[Barbados]] with her [[dowry]] in order to avoid debts and prosecution. Since Rogers' fate was unknown, [[bigamy]] laws prevented Deborah from remarrying.<ref name="Chylinska_2015">{{cite journal |last1=Chylinska |first1=Bozenna |date=January 2015 |title=The Colonial American Working Wife and Her Dear and Loving Husband Absent upon Some Employment: Deborah and Benjamin Franklin's Married Life |url=https://journals.theasa.net/images/contributor_uploads/01Chylinska.pdf |journal=Polish Journal for American Studies |volume=9 |access-date=May 4, 2024 |archive-date=June 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240629205036/https://journals.theasa.net/images/contributor_uploads/01Chylinska.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Constitutional Law Reporter 2018 w571">{{cite web | title=Deborah Read | website=Constitutional Law Reporter | date=November 28, 2018 | url=https://constitutionallawreporter.com/great-american-biographies/deborah-read/#:~:text=In%201725%2C%20Deborah's%20mother%20convinced,with%20Deborah%20and%20proposed%20marriage. | access-date=May 4, 2024}}</ref>

Franklin returned in 1726 and resumed his courtship of Deborah.<ref name="Chylinska_2015"/> They established a [[common-law marriage in the United States|common-law marriage]] on September 1, 1730. They took in his recently acknowledged illegitimate young son and raised him in their household. They had two children together. Their son, [[Francis Folger Franklin]], was born in October 1732 and died of [[smallpox]] in 1736. Their daughter, [[Sarah Franklin Bache|Sarah "Sally" Franklin]], was born in 1743 and eventually married [[Richard Bache]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Benjamin Franklin and women|date=2000|publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press|last=Tise|first=Larry E.|isbn=0585382778|location=University Park, Pa.|oclc=49414692}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Hayden |editor-first=Horace Edwin |date=1906 |title=Genealogical and Family History of the Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys Pennsylvania |volume=I |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H8c4AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA71 |location=New York |publisher=Lewis Publishing Company |pages=70–72 |via=[[Google Books]] }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Parton |first=James |author-link=James Parton |date=1864 |title=Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin |volume=II |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7Os5AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA629 |location=New York |publisher=Mercer Brothers |pages=629–631 |via=[[Google Books]] }}</ref>{{refn|group=Note|name=Scott|Major General [[Hugh L. Scott]] was a descendant of Franklin. The family line ran from Scott to Elizabeth Hodge (mother) to Sarah Bache (grandmother) to Dr. William Bache (great-grandfather) to Sarah Franklin Bache (great-great grandmother) to Franklin (great-great-great grandfather.){{sfn|Hayden|1906|pp=70–72}}{{sfn|Parton|1864|pp=629–631}}}}

Deborah's fear of the sea meant that she never accompanied Franklin on any of his extended trips to Europe; another possible reason why they spent much time apart is that he may have blamed her for possibly preventing their son Francis from being [[variolation|inoculated]] against the disease that subsequently killed him.<ref>{{cite news |last=Coss |first=Stephen |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/benjamin-franklin-estranged-wife-nearly-two-decades-180964400/ |title=What Led Benjamin Franklin to Live Estranged From His Wife for Nearly Two Decades? |work=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]] |date=September 2017 }}</ref> Deborah wrote to him in November 1769, saying she was ill due to "dissatisfied distress" from his prolonged absence, but he did not return until his business was done.<ref>November 1769 [http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp?vol=16&page=230a Letter] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180615055537/http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp?vol=16&page=230a |date=June 15, 2018 }} from Deborah Read to Ben Franklin, ''franklinpapers.org''</ref> Deborah Read Franklin died of a stroke on December 14, 1774, while Franklin was on an extended mission to Great Britain; he returned in 1775.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Coss |first1=Stephen |title=What Led Benjamin Franklin to Live Estranged From His Wife for Nearly Two Decades? |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/benjamin-franklin-estranged-wife-nearly-two-decades-180964400/ |website=Smithsonian |access-date=February 26, 2021 |date=September 2017}}</ref>

===William Franklin===
{{Main|William Franklin}}
[[File:WilliamFranklin.jpeg|thumb|[[William Franklin]] (1730–1813), Franklin's son, whose mother is unknown, was born out of wedlock on February 22, 1730]]
In 1730, 24-year-old Franklin publicly acknowledged his illegitimate son [[William Franklin|William]] and raised him in his household. William was born on February 22, 1730, but his mother's identity is unknown.<ref>Skemp, S. L. ''William Franklin: Son of a Patriot, Servant of a King'', Oxford University Press US, 1990, {{ISBN|0-19-505745-7}}, p. 4.</ref> He was educated in Philadelphia and beginning at about age 30 studied law in London in the early 1760s. William himself fathered an illegitimate son, [[William Temple Franklin]], born on the same day and month: February 22, 1760.<ref>{{cite web |title=William Temple Franklin Papers |url=http://www.amphilsoc.org/library/mole/f/franklin/wtf.htm |website=American Philosophical Society |access-date=February 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090507094002/http://www.amphilsoc.org/library/mole/f/franklin/wtf.htm |archive-date=May 7, 2009 }}</ref> The boy's mother was never identified, and he was placed in foster care. In 1762, the elder William Franklin married Elizabeth Downes, daughter of a [[Planter class|planter]] from [[Barbados]], in London. In 1763, he was appointed as the last [[List of colonial governors of New Jersey|royal governor]] of New Jersey.

A [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalist]] to the king, William Franklin saw his relations with father Benjamin eventually break down over their differences about the [[American Revolutionary War]], as Benjamin Franklin could never accept William's position. Deposed in 1776 by the revolutionary government of New Jersey, William was placed under house arrest at [[Proprietary House|his home]] in [[Perth Amboy, New Jersey|Perth Amboy]] for six months. After the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]], he was formally taken into custody by order of the [[Provincial Congress of New Jersey]], an entity which he refused to recognize, regarding it as an "illegal assembly."<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Skemp | first1 = Sheila L. |author-link1=Sheila L. Skemp| year = 1985 | title = William Franklin: His Father's Son | journal = [[Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography]] | volume = 109 | issue = 2| pages = 145–178 }}</ref> He was incarcerated in Connecticut for two years, in [[Wallingford, Connecticut|Wallingford]] and [[Middletown, Connecticut|Middletown]], and, after being caught surreptitiously engaging Americans into supporting the Loyalist cause, was held in solitary confinement at [[Litchfield, Connecticut|Litchfield]] for eight months. When finally released in a prisoner exchange in 1778, he moved to New York City, which was occupied by the British at the time.<ref>{{cite web |title=Franklin, William |url=http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0819491.html |website=Info Please |publisher=The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia |access-date=February 9, 2020}}</ref>

While in New York City, he became leader of the Board of Associated Loyalists, a quasi-military organization chartered by King [[George III]] and headquartered in New York City. They initiated guerrilla forays into New Jersey, southern Connecticut, and New York counties north of the city.<ref>Fleming, Thomas, ''The Perils of Peace: America's Struggle for Survival'', (Collins, New York, 2007) p. 30.</ref> When British troops evacuated from New York, William Franklin left with them and sailed to England. He settled in London, never to return to North America. In the preliminary peace talks in 1782 with Britain, "...&nbsp;Benjamin Franklin insisted that loyalists who had borne arms against the United States would be excluded from this plea (that they be given a general pardon). He was undoubtedly thinking of William Franklin."<ref>Fleming, p. 236.</ref>
{{Unreliable source?|reason=1, the writer cannot know what Franklin was thinking; 2, the source is a children's book which may take liberties with history |date=November 2021}}

===Success as an author===
[[File:The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle Vol 1, January, 1741.jpg|thumb|The January 1741 edition of ''The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle'', Franklin's magazine]]
In 1732, Franklin began to publish the noted ''Poor Richard's Almanack'' (with content both original and borrowed) under the pseudonym Richard Saunders, on which much of his popular reputation is based. He frequently wrote under pseudonyms. The first issue published was for the upcoming year, 1733.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Poor Richard's Almanack – Benjamin Franklin Historical Society |url=http://www.benjamin-franklin-history.org/poor-richards-almanac/ |access-date=December 23, 2023 |language=en-US}}</ref> He had developed a distinct, signature style that was plain, pragmatic and had a sly, soft but self-deprecating tone with declarative sentences.<ref>{{Cite web|date=August 20, 2014|title=Benjamin Franklin – Biography and Literary Works of Benjamin Franklin|url=https://literarydevices.net/benjamin-franklin/|access-date=February 7, 2022|website=Literary Devices|language=en-us}}</ref> Although it was no secret that he was the author, his Richard Saunders character repeatedly denied it. "Poor Richard's Proverbs", adages from this almanac, such as "A penny saved is twopence dear" (often misquoted as "A penny saved is a penny earned") and "Fish and visitors stink in three days", remain common quotations in the modern world. Wisdom in folk society meant the ability to provide an apt adage for any occasion, and his readers became well prepared. He sold about ten thousand copies per year—it became an institution.{{sfn|Van Doren|1945|p=109}} In 1741, Franklin began publishing ''The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle for all the British Plantations in America.'' He used the [[heraldic badge]] of the Prince of Wales as the cover illustration.

Franklin wrote a letter, "[[Advice to a Friend on Choosing a Mistress]]", dated June 25, 1745, in which he gives advice to a young man about channeling sexual urges. Due to its licentious nature, it was not published in collections of his papers during the 19th century. [[Federal judiciary of the United States|Federal court]] rulings from the mid-to-late 20th century cited the document as a reason for overturning obscenity laws and against censorship.<ref>{{cite book|editor=Carl Japikse|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z8I3bAlV25kC&pg=PA8|title=Fart Proudly: Writings of Benjamin Franklin You Never Read in School|publisher=Frog Books|year=2003|isbn=978-1-58394-079-2|page=8}}</ref>

==Public life==
{{republicanism sidebar}}

===Early steps in Pennsylvania===
[[File:Feke - Benjamin Franklin.png|thumb|A portrait of Franklin c. 1746–1750,{{refn|group=Note|According to Professor Zara Anishanslin.}} by [[Robert Feke]] widely believed to be the earliest known painting of Franklin<ref>{{cite web |url= https://collections.archives.caltech.edu/repositories/2/accessions/3195 |title= Feke/Portrait of Benjamin Franklin |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |publisher= California Institute of Technology Archives and Special Collections 
|access-date=October 5, 2025 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Franklin in Portraits: Robert Feke [CC] | website=[[YouTube]] | date=March 12, 2021 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxlYvETkq4Q |language=en}}</ref>]]
[[File:Benjamin Franklin - Join or Die.jpg|thumb|''[[Join, or Die]]'', a 1754 political cartoon by Franklin, urged the colonies to join the [[Seven Years' War]] in the [[French and Indian War]]; the cartoon was later resurrected, serving as an iconic symbol in support of the [[American Revolutionary War|American Revolution]].]]
[[File:PennsylvaniaHospitalWilliamStrickland.jpg|thumb|In 1751, Franklin co-founded [[Pennsylvania Hospital]] in Philadelphia, one of the first hospitals in the United States, depicted in this 1755 engraving by [[William Strickland (architect)|William Strickland]].]]
[[File:1757 UPenn Seal.png|thumb|Seal of the College of Philadelphia, a college founded by Franklin that is now the [[University of Pennsylvania]]]]
[[File:Chamberlin - Benjamin Franklin (1762).jpg|thumb|1762 portrait of Franklin by [[Mason Chamberlin]]]]
In 1736, Franklin created the [[Union Fire Company]], one of the first [[Volunteer fire department|volunteer firefighting companies]] in America. In the same year, he printed a new currency for New Jersey based on innovative anti-[[counterfeit]]ing techniques he had devised. His political career also commenced, particularly as the Chief Clerk of the [[Province of Pennsylvania#Government|Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly]], a capacity wherein he served until 1751.<ref>{{Cite web |title=National Park Service - Signers of the Declaration (Benjamin Franklin) |url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/declaration/bio11.htm#:~:text=Franklin%20served%20as%20clerk%20(1736-51)%20and%20member,it%20because%20it%20encroached%20on%20their%20powers. |access-date=2025-07-20 |website=www.nps.gov}}</ref> Throughout his career, he was an advocate for [[Banknote|paper money]], publishing ''A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency'' in 1729, and his printer printed money. He was influential in the more restrained and thus successful monetary experiments in the Middle Colonies, which stopped [[deflation]] without causing excessive inflation. In 1766, he made a case for paper money to the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|British House of Commons]].<ref>[[John Kenneth Galbraith]]. (1975). ''Money: Where It Came, Whence It Went'', p. 54. Houghton Mifflin Company.</ref>

As he matured, Franklin began to concern himself more with public affairs. In 1743, he first devised a scheme for the [[Academy and College of Philadelphia|Academy, Charity School, and College of Philadelphia]]; however, the person he had in mind to run the academy, Rev. [[Richard Peters (priest)|Richard Peters]], refused and Franklin put his ideas away until 1749 when he printed his own pamphlet, ''Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania.''<ref name="MontgomeryHistory">{{cite book | title=A History of the University of Pennsylvania from Its Foundation to A.D. 1770 | url=https://archive.org/details/ahistoryunivers02montgoog | publisher=George W. Jacobs & Co. | last=Montgomery |first=Thomas Harrison | year=1900 | location=Philadelphia | lccn=00003240}}</ref>{{rp|30}} He was appointed president of the Academy on November 13, 1749; the academy and the charity school opened in 1751.<ref>[http://www.archives.upenn.edu/primdocs/upl/upl125.pdf The Early Years: The Charity School, Academy and College of Philadelphia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205112444/http://www.archives.upenn.edu/primdocs/upl/upl125.pdf|date=February 5, 2012}} at the University of Pennsylvania Archives, 1972.</ref>

In 1743, he founded the [[American Philosophical Society]] to help scientific men discuss their discoveries and theories. He began the electrical research that, along with other scientific inquiries, would occupy him for the rest of his life, in between bouts of politics and moneymaking.<ref name="vandoren"/>

During [[King George's War]], Franklin raised a militia called the Association for General Defense because the legislators of the city had decided to take no action to defend Philadelphia "either by erecting fortifications or building Ships of War." He raised money to create earthwork defenses and buy artillery. The largest of these was the "Association Battery" or "Grand Battery" of 50 guns.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dorwart |first=Jeffery |title=Fort Mifflin of Philadelphia: An Illustrated History |pages=9–11 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-8122-1644-8 }}</ref><ref name=Kyria1>{{cite book|title=Philadelphia's Lost Waterfront|first =Harry |last = Kyriakodis|publisher= The History Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-62584-188-9 |page=114 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Lt2CQAAQBAJ&pg=PT114 |chapter = 16. At Washington Avenue}}</ref>

In 1747, Franklin (already a very wealthy man) retired from printing and went into other businesses.<ref>James N. Green, "English Books and Printing in the Age of Franklin", in ''The Colonial Book in the Atlantic World'' (2002), 257.</ref> He formed a partnership with his foreman, [[David Hall (printer)|David Hall]], which provided Franklin with half of the shop's profits for 18 years. This lucrative business arrangement provided leisure time for study, and in a few years he had made many new discoveries.

Franklin became involved in Philadelphia politics and rapidly progressed. In October 1748, he was selected as a councilman; in June 1749, he became a [[justice of the peace]] for Philadelphia; and in 1751, he was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly. On August 10, 1753, he was appointed deputy postmaster-general of [[British North America]]. His service in domestic politics included reforming the postal system, with mail sent out every week.<ref name="vandoren"/>

In 1751, Franklin and [[Thomas Bond (American physician)|Thomas Bond]] obtained a charter from the Pennsylvania legislature to establish a hospital. [[Pennsylvania Hospital]] was the first hospital in the colonies.<ref>{{Cite web|title=IN THE BEGINNING – The Story of the Creation of the Nation's First Hospital|url=https://www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/features/creation.html|url-status=live|access-date=August 22, 2021|website=Penn Medicine|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021015112900/http://www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/features/creation.html|archive-date=October 15, 2002}}</ref> In 1752, Franklin organized the [[Philadelphia Contributionship]], the Colonies' first [[Home insurance|homeowner's insurance]] company.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Landers|first1=Jackson|title=In the Early 19th Century, Firefighters Fought Fires ... and Each Other|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/early-19-century-firefighters-fought-fires-each-other-180960391/|access-date=December 10, 2017|work=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]]|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|date=September 27, 2016|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=McGuire|first1=Virginia|title=What Are Those Little Shields Above the Doorways of Philadelphia Homes?|url=http://www.phillymag.com/property/2013/05/03/the-storied-fire-marks-of-philadelphia/|access-date=December 10, 2017|work=[[Philadelphia (magazine)|Philadelphia]]|publisher=[[Metrocorp Publishing]]|date=May 3, 2013}}</ref>

Between 1750 and 1753, the "educational triumvirate"{{sfn|Olsen|2013|p=174}} of Franklin, [[Samuel Johnson (American educator)|Samuel Johnson]] of [[Stratford, Connecticut]], and schoolteacher [[William Smith (Episcopal priest)|William Smith]] built on Franklin's initial scheme and created what [[James Madison (bishop)|Bishop James Madison]], president of the [[College of William & Mary]], called a "new-model"<ref>Smith, Horace Wemyss, ''The Life and Correspondence of the Rev. Wm. Smith, D.D.'', Philadelphia, 1880, Volume 1: pp. 566–567.</ref> plan or style of American college. Franklin solicited, printed in 1752, and promoted an American textbook of [[Ethics|moral philosophy]] by Samuel Johnson, titled ''Elementa Philosophica'',<ref>Samuel Johnson, ''Elementa philosophica: containing chiefly, Noetica, or things relating to the mind or understanding: and Ethica, or things relating to the moral behaviour. Philadelphia'', Printed by B. Franklin and D. Hall, at the new-printing-office, near the market, 1752</ref> to be taught in the new colleges. In June 1753, Johnson, Franklin, and Smith met in Stratford.{{sfn|Olsen|2013|pp=163–274}} They decided the new-model college would focus on the professions, with classes taught in English instead of Latin, have subject matter experts as professors instead of one tutor leading a class for four years, and there would be no religious test for admission.{{sfn|Olsen|2013|p=163}} Johnson went on to found King's College (now [[Columbia University]]) in New York City in 1754, while Franklin hired Smith as provost of the College of Philadelphia, which opened in 1755. At its first commencement, on May 17, 1757, seven men graduated; six with a Bachelor of Arts and one with a Master of Arts. It was later merged with the [[University of the State of Pennsylvania]] to become the [[University of Pennsylvania]]. The college was to become influential in guiding the founding documents of the United States: in the [[Continental Congress]], for example, over one-third of the college-affiliated men who contributed to the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]] between September 4, 1774, and July 4, 1776, were affiliated with the college.{{sfn|Olsen|2013|p=308}}

In 1754, he headed the Pennsylvania delegation to the [[Albany Congress]]. This meeting of several colonies had been requested by the [[Board of Trade]] in England to improve relations with the Indians and defense against the French. Franklin proposed a broad [[Albany Plan|Plan of Union]] for the colonies. While the plan was not adopted, elements of it found their way into the [[Articles of Confederation]] and the [[Constitution of the United States|Constitution]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Union: Joseph Galloway, Plan of Union|url=https://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch7s3.html|access-date=December 30, 2022|website=press-pubs.uchicago.edu}}</ref>

In 1753, [[Harvard University]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=History of honorary degrees|url=https://www.harvard.edu/about/history/honorary-degrees/|access-date=December 30, 2022|website=Harvard University|language=en-US}}</ref> and [[Yale]]<ref>[http://ris-systech2.its.yale.edu/hondegrees/hondegrees.asp Honorary Degrees] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100610204206/http://ris-systech2.its.yale.edu/hondegrees/hondegrees.asp|date=June 10, 2010}} Yale University. Retrieved August 20, 2012.</ref> awarded him honorary master of arts degrees.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Resume {{pipe}} Ben Franklin Exhibit|url=https://www.benfranklinexhibit.org/resume|access-date=December 30, 2022|website=www.benfranklinexhibit.org}}</ref> In 1756, he was awarded an honorary [[Master of Arts]] degree from the [[College of William & Mary]].<ref>{{cite book |date=1874 |title=The History of the College of William and Mary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VfaiLj00yFYC&pg=PA48 |location=Richmond, VA |publisher=J.W. Randolph & English |page=148|isbn=978-1-4290-4333-5 }}</ref> Later in 1756, Franklin organized the [[Pennsylvania Army National Guard|Pennsylvania Militia]]. He used [[Tun Tavern]] as a gathering place to recruit a regiment of soldiers to go into battle against the Native American uprisings that beset the American colonies.<ref>{{cite book|last=Thompson|first=Peter|title=Rum Punch & Revolution: Taverngoing & Public Life in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia|date=1999|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|location=Philadelphia|page=}}</ref>

=== Postmaster ===
<!--The 'Franklin on U.S. postage' section links to this section/image file. -->
[[File:Franklin SC1 1847.jpg|thumb|The first [[United States Postal Service|U.S. postag]]e stamp, issued in 1847 in honor of Franklin]]
[[File:Franklin_signed_pass_for_Goddard3.jpg|thumb|A Pass, signed by Postmaster General Benjamin Franklin, gave [[William Goddard (publisher)|William Goddard]] the authority to travel as needed to investigate and inspect postal routes and protect the mail.<ref name="Smithsonian">{{cite web| url = https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibition/behind-the-badge-postal-inspection-service-duties-and-history-history/william-goddard| title = William Goddard, Smithsonian National Postal Museum, Essay}}</ref>]]
Well known as a printer and publisher, Franklin was appointed postmaster of Philadelphia in 1737, holding the office until 1753, when he and publisher William Hunter were named deputy postmasters–general of British North America, the first to hold the office. ([[Postmaster General of the United Kingdom#Two Postmasters General, 1691–1823|Joint appointments]] were standard at the time, for political reasons.) He was responsible for the British colonies from Pennsylvania north and east, as far as the [[Newfoundland (island)|island of Newfoundland]]. A post office for local and outgoing mail had been established in [[Halifax, Nova Scotia]], by local stationer Benjamin Leigh, on April 23, 1754, but service was irregular. Franklin opened the first post office to offer regular, monthly mail in Halifax on December 9, 1755. Meantime, Hunter became postal administrator in [[Williamsburg, Virginia]], and oversaw areas south of [[Annapolis, Maryland]]. Franklin reorganized the service's accounting system and improved speed of delivery between Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. By 1761, efficiencies led to the first profits for the colonial post office.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Civilization.ca – A Chronology of Canadian Postal History|url=https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/cpm/chrono/ch1753ae.html|access-date=December 30, 2022|website=www.historymuseum.ca}}</ref>

When the lands of [[New France]] were ceded to the British under the [[Treaty of Paris (1763)|Treaty of Paris]] in 1763, the British [[Province of Quebec (1763–1791)|province of Quebec]] was created among them, and Franklin saw mail service expanded between [[Montreal]], [[Trois-Rivières]], Quebec City, and New York. For the greater part of his appointment, he lived in England (from 1757 to 1762, and again from 1764 to 1774)—about three-quarters of his term.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Civilization.ca – A Chronology of Canadian Postal History – 1760–1840|url=https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/cpm/chrono/chs1760e.html|access-date=December 30, 2022|website=www.historymuseum.ca}}</ref> Eventually, his sympathies for the rebel cause in the American Revolution led to his dismissal on January 31, 1774.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-21-02-0021| title = To Benjamin Franklin from Anthony Todd, 31 January, 1744}}</ref>

On July 26, 1775, the [[Second Continental Congress]] established the [[United States Post Office Department#Foundations|United States Post Office]] and named Franklin as the first [[United States Postmaster General|United States postmaster general]]. He had been a postmaster for decades and was a natural choice for the position.{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|pp=206–209, 301}} He had just returned from England and was appointed chairman of a Committee of Investigation to establish a postal system. The report of the committee, providing for the appointment of a postmaster general for the 13 American colonies, was considered by the Continental Congress on July 25 and 26. On July 26, 1775, Franklin was appointed postmaster general, the first appointed under the Continental Congress. His apprentice, [[William Goddard (publisher)|William Goddard]], felt that his ideas were mostly responsible for shaping the postal system and that the appointment should have gone to him, but he graciously conceded it to Franklin, 36 years his senior.<ref name="Smithsonian" /> Franklin, however, appointed Goddard as Surveyor of the Posts, issued him a signed pass, and directed him to investigate and inspect the various post offices and mail routes as he saw fit.<ref name="RI_Journalism">{{cite web| url = http://www.uri.edu/artsci/jor/sarah.htm| title = Journalism Department University of Rhode Island}}</ref><ref name="Library_of_Congress">{{cite web| url = https://www.loc.gov/rr/news/18th/659.html| title = The Library of Congress| website = [[Library of Congress]]}}</ref> The newly established postal system became the United States Post Office, a system that continues to operate today.<ref>{{cite news|title=History of the United States Postal Systems|newspaper=Thoughtco|url=http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blmailus1.htm#CONGRESS|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120711224521/http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blmailus1.htm#CONGRESS|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 11, 2012|access-date=June 20, 2011|publisher=Inventors.about.com}}</ref>

====Political work====
[[File:US-Colonial (PA-115)-Pennsylvania-18 Jun 1764.jpg|thumb|Pennsylvania colonial currency printed by Franklin and [[David Hall (publisher)|David Hall]] in 1764]]
[[File:Benjamin Franklin 1767.jpg|thumb|Franklin in London in 1767, wearing a powdered wig and blue suit with elaborate gold braid and buttons, a far cry from the simple dress he affected at the [[Royal court|French court]] in later years, [[Portrait of Benjamin Franklin|depicted in a portrait]] by [[David Martin (artist)|David Martin]] that is now on display in the [[White House]]]]

In 1757, he was sent to England by the Pennsylvania Assembly as a colonial agent to protest against the political influence of the [[William Penn|Penn family]], the [[proprietary colony|proprietors of the colony]]. He remained there for five years, striving to end the proprietors' prerogative to overturn legislation from the elected Assembly and their exemption from paying taxes on their land. His lack of influential allies in [[Whitehall]] led to the failure of this mission.{{citation needed|date=October 2022}}

At this time, many members of the Pennsylvania Assembly were feuding with William Penn's heirs, who controlled the colony as proprietors. After his return to the colony, Franklin led the "anti-proprietary party" in the struggle against the Penn family and was elected [[List of speakers of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives|Speaker of the Pennsylvania House]] in May 1764. His call for a change from proprietary to royal government was a rare political miscalculation, however: Pennsylvanians worried that such a move would endanger their political and religious freedoms. Because of these fears and because of political attacks on his character, Franklin lost his seat in the October 1764 Assembly elections. The anti-proprietary party dispatched him to England again to continue the struggle against the Penn family proprietorship. During this trip, events drastically changed the nature of his mission.<ref name="ANB2">J.A. Leo Lemay, "Franklin, Benjamin". ''[[American National Biography]] Online'', February 2000. https://www.anb.org/display/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-0100298?rskey=69AExU&result=10</ref>

In London, Franklin opposed the [[Stamp Act 1765|1765 Stamp Act]]. Unable to prevent its passage, he made another political miscalculation and recommended a friend to the post of stamp distributor for Pennsylvania. Pennsylvanians were outraged, believing that he had supported the measure all along, and threatened to destroy his home in Philadelphia. Franklin soon learned of the extent of colonial resistance to the Stamp Act, and he testified during the House of Commons proceedings that led to its repeal.<ref>Peter Charles Hoffer, ''Benjamin Franklin Explains the Stamp Act Protests to Parliament, 1766'' (2015)</ref> With this, Franklin suddenly emerged as the leading spokesman for American interests in England. He wrote popular essays on behalf of the colonies. [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], [[New Jersey]], and [[Massachusetts]] also appointed him as their agent to the Crown.<ref name="ANB2"/>

During his lengthy missions to London between 1757 and 1775, Franklin lodged in a house on Craven Street, just off [[Strand, London|the Strand]] in [[central London]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2006/2/2006_2_49.shtml|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20091005062210/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2006/2/2006_2_49.shtml|url-status=dead|title=Tom Huntington|archivedate=October 5, 2009}}</ref> During his stays there, he developed a close friendship with his landlady, Margaret Stevenson, and her circle of friends and relations, in particular, her daughter Mary, who was more often known as Polly. The house is now a museum known as the [[Benjamin Franklin House]]. Whilst in London, Franklin became involved in [[Radicalism (historical)|radical]] politics. He belonged to a [[gentlemen's club]] (which he called "the honest [[Radical Whigs|Whigs]]"), which held stated meetings, and included members such as [[Richard Price]], the minister of [[Newington Green Unitarian Church]] who ignited the [[Revolution controversy]], and [[Andrew Kippis]].<ref>Duncan Wu, ''William Hazlitt (1737–1820), the Priestley Circle, and "The Theological Repository:" A Brief Survey and Bibliography'', The Review of English Studies New Series, Vol. 56, No. 227 (Nov. 2005), pp. 758–766 [762]. Published by: Oxford University Press {{JSTOR|3661246}}.</ref>

====Scientific work====
In 1756, Franklin had become a member of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (now the [[Royal Society of Arts]]), which had been founded in 1754. After his return to the United States in 1775, he became the Society's Corresponding Member, continuing a close connection. The Royal Society of Arts instituted a [[Benjamin Franklin Medal (Royal Society of Arts)|Benjamin Franklin Medal]] in 1956 to commemorate the 250th anniversary of his birth and the 200th anniversary of his membership of the RSA.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Nicholles|first=Natalie|title=What Would Benjamin Franklin Say?|url=https://www.thersa.org/blog/2016/12/what-would-benjamin-franklin-say|url-status=live|access-date=September 16, 2021|website=The RSA|date=December 14, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210916164701/https://www.thersa.org/blog/2016/12/what-would-benjamin-franklin-say |archive-date=September 16, 2021 }}</ref>

The study of [[natural philosophy]] (referred today as science in general) drew him into overlapping circles of acquaintance. Franklin was, for example, a corresponding member of the [[Lunar Society of Birmingham]].<ref>{{Citation|last=Schofield|first=Robert E.|title=The Industrial Orientation of Science in the Lunar Society of Birmingham|date=December 1957|journal=[[Isis (journal)|Isis]]|volume=48|issue=4|pages=408–415|publisher=The University of Chicago Press on behalf of [[The History of Science Society]]|doi=10.1086/348607|issn=0021-1753|jstor=227513|s2cid=144950413}}</ref> In 1759, the [[University of St Andrews]] awarded him an honorary doctorate in recognition of his accomplishments.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/inde/learn/historyculture/people-franklin-resume.htm|title=Benjamin Franklin's Resume – Independence National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)|website=www.nps.gov}}</ref> In October 1759, he was granted [[Freedom of the City|Freedom of the Borough]] of [[St Andrews]].<ref>{{cite web|title=The Kate Kennedy Club|url=http://www.katekennedyclub.org.uk/news.aspx#19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090327111941/http://katekennedyclub.org.uk/news.aspx|archive-date=March 27, 2009|access-date=September 21, 2009|publisher=The Kate Kennedy Club}}</ref> He was also awarded an honorary doctorate by [[Oxford University]] in 1762. Because of these honors, he was often addressed as "{{abbr|Dr.|Doctor}} Franklin."<ref name="Britannica" />

While living in London in 1768, [[Benjamin Franklin's phonetic alphabet|he developed a phonetic alphabet]] in ''A Scheme for a new Alphabet and a Reformed Mode of Spelling''. This reformed alphabet discarded six letters he regarded as redundant (c, j, q, w, x, and y), and substituted six new letters for sounds he felt lacked letters of their own. This alphabet never caught on, and he eventually lost interest.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Benjamin Franklin's Phonetic Alphabet|url=https://omniglot.com/writing/franklin.htm|access-date=December 30, 2022|website=omniglot.com}}</ref>

===Return to London and Travels in Europe===
From the mid-1750s to the mid-1770s, Franklin returned to England and spent much of his time in London.,<ref>{{cite web |title=Franklin & the House |url=https://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/the-house-benjamin-franklin/ |website=Benjamin Franklin House |access-date=8 November 2024}}</ref> using the city as a base from which to travel. In 1771, he made short journeys through different parts of England, staying with [[Joseph Priestley]] at [[Leeds]], [[Thomas Percival]] at [[Manchester]] and [[Erasmus Darwin]] at [[Lichfield]].<ref name="sparks">{{Cite web|title=Biography of Benjamin Franklin|url=https://www.ushistory.org/franklin/biography/chap05.htm|access-date=December 30, 2022|website=www.ushistory.org}}</ref> In Scotland, he spent five days with [[Henry Home, Lord Kames|Lord Kames]] near [[Stirling]] and stayed for three weeks with [[David Hume]] in Edinburgh. In 1759, he visited Edinburgh with his son and later reported that he considered his six weeks in Scotland "six weeks of the densest happiness I have met with in any part of my life."<ref name="Buchan 2003 p. 2">{{cite book | last=Buchan | first=James | title=Crowded with Genius | publisher=Harper | date=November 25, 2003 | isbn=0-06-055888-1 | page=2}}</ref>

In Ireland, he stayed with [[Wills Hill, 1st Marquess of Downshire|Lord Hillsborough]]. Franklin noted of him that "all the plausible behaviour I have described is meant only, by patting and stroking the horse, to make him more patient, while the reins are drawn tighter, and the spurs set deeper into his sides."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gIAxAQAAMAAJ&pg=PR21|title=Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin|editor=Nathan Haskell Dole|year=2003|publisher=Kessinger |access-date=September 21, 2009|isbn=978-0-7661-4375-3}}</ref> In [[Dublin]], Franklin was invited to sit with the members of the [[Parliament of Ireland|Irish Parliament]] rather than in the gallery. He was the first American to receive this honor.<ref name="sparks" /> While touring Ireland, he was deeply moved by the level of poverty he witnessed. The [[Ireland#Economy|economy]] of the [[Kingdom of Ireland]] was affected by the same trade regulations and laws that governed the Thirteen Colonies. He feared that the American colonies could eventually come to the same level of poverty if the regulations and laws continued to apply to them.<ref name="auto1">{{Cite web|title=Benjamin Franklin {{pipe}} Ken Burns {{pipe}} PBS {{pipe}} Watch Benjamin Franklin: A Ken Burns Film {{pipe}} Full Documentary Now Streaming {{pipe}} PBS|url=https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/benjamin-franklin/|access-date=December 30, 2022|website= PBS|language=en}}</ref>

Franklin spent two months in German lands in 1766, but his connections to the country stretched across a lifetime. He declared a debt of gratitude to German scientist [[Otto von Guericke]] for his early studies of electricity. Franklin also co-authored the first [[Treaty of Amity and Commerce (Prussia–United States)|treaty of friendship]] between Prussia and America in 1785.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Avalon Project: Treaty of Amity and Commerce between His Majesty the King of Prussia, and the United States of America|url=https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/prus1785.asp|access-date=December 30, 2022|website=avalon.law.yale.edu}}</ref> In September 1767, he visited Paris with his usual traveling partner, [[Sir John Pringle, 1st Baronet]]. News of his electrical discoveries was widespread in France. His reputation meant that he was introduced to many influential scientists and politicians, and also to King [[Louis XV]].{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p={{page needed|date=April 2025}}}}

===Defending the American cause===
One line of argument in Parliament was that Americans should pay a share of the costs of the [[French and Indian War]] and therefore taxes should be levied on them. Franklin became the American spokesman in highly publicized testimony in Parliament in 1766. He stated that Americans already contributed heavily to the defense of the Empire. He said local governments had raised, outfitted and paid 25,000 soldiers to fight France—as many as Great Britain itself sent—and spent many millions from American treasuries doing so in the French and Indian War alone.<ref>{{cite book |editor=James A. Henretta.|title=Documents for America's History, Volume 1: To 1877|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h_rsacFjVCAC&pg=PA110|year=2011|publisher=Bedford/St. Martin's|page=110|isbn=978-0-312-64862-6}}</ref>{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|pp=229–230}}

In 1772, Franklin [[Hutchinson letters affair|obtained private letters]] of [[Thomas Hutchinson (governor)|Thomas Hutchinson]] and [[Andrew Oliver]], [[Governor of Massachusetts|governor]] and [[Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts|lieutenant governor]] of the [[Province of Massachusetts Bay]], proving that they had encouraged the Crown to crack down on Bostonians. Franklin sent them to North America, where they escalated tensions. The letters were finally [[News leak|leaked]] to the public in the ''[[Boston Gazette]]'' in mid-June 1773,<ref>{{cite book|last=Bailyn|first=Bernard|title=The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson|location=Cambridge, MA|year=1974|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-64160-0|oclc=6825524|url=https://archive.org/details/ordealofthomashu00bern}}, p. 240.</ref> causing a political firestorm in Massachusetts and raising significant questions in England.<ref name="Penegar29">{{cite book|last=Penegar|first=Kenneth|title=The Political Trial of Benjamin Franklin|publisher=Algora Publishing|year=2011|isbn=978-0-87586-849-3|location=New York|oclc=696296728}}, p. 29.</ref> The British began to regard him as the fomenter of serious trouble. Hopes for a peaceful solution ended as he was systematically ridiculed and humiliated by [[Solicitor General for England and Wales|Solicitor-General]] [[Alexander Wedderburn, 1st Earl of Rosslyn|Alexander Wedderburn]], before the [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|Privy Council]] on January 29, 1774. He returned to Philadelphia in March 1775, and abandoned his accommodationist stance.<ref>Sheila L. Skemp, ''The Making of a Patriot: Benjamin Franklin at the Cockpit'' (Oxford University Press; 2012)</ref>

In 1773, Franklin published two of his most celebrated pro-American satirical essays: [[s:Rules By Which A Great Empire May Be Reduced To A Small One|"Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One"]], and "[[s:An Edict by the King of Prussia|An Edict by the King of Prussia.]]"<ref>{{cite web|last=Franklin|first=Benjamin|title=reprinted on The History Carper|url=http://www.historycarper.com/resources/twobf3/pa-1773.htm|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060103051246/http://www.historycarper.com/resources/twobf3/pa-1773.htm|archive-date=January 3, 2006}}</ref>

=== Agent for British and Hellfire Club membership ===
Franklin is known to have occasionally attended the [[Hellfire Club]]'s meetings during 1758 as a non-member during his time in England. However, some authors and historians would argue he was in fact a British spy. As there are no records left (having been burned in 1774<ref>''City of Blood, Cities of the Underworld'' – History Channel 2 (H2), 2008</ref>), many of these members are just assumed or linked by letters sent to each other.<ref>Ashe, Geoffrey. ''The Hell-Fire Clubs: A History of Anti-Morality''. Great Britain: Sutton Publishing, 2005, p. 121.</ref> One early proponent that Franklin was a member of the Hellfire Club and a double agent is the historian [[Donald McCormick]],<ref>{{Cite web|title="Famous British Historian claims Benjamin Franklin Was A British Spy", by Richard Deacon|url=https://msuweb.montclair.edu/~furrg/fc/deacononfranklin.html|access-date=December 30, 2022|website=msuweb.montclair.edu}}</ref> who has a history of making controversial claims.<ref>{{cite book | title=Hayek: A Collaborative Biography | chapter=Donald McCormick: 2 + 2 = 5 | last=Spence | first=Richard B. |date = January 15, 2015| page=236 | publisher=Palgrave Macmillan | isbn=978-1-137-45242-9|quote=The question at the heart of this volume is the reliability, indeed, the fundamental honesty, of Donald McCormick, best known under his nom de plume, Richard Deacon. As the chapters generally attest, 'Deacon' McCormick could be an unreliable, even misleading, source.}}</ref>

===Coming of revolution===
In 1763, soon after Franklin returned to Pennsylvania from England for the first time, the western frontier was engulfed in a bitter war known as [[Pontiac's Rebellion]]. The [[Paxton Boys]], a group of settlers convinced that the Pennsylvania government was not doing enough to protect them from [[Native Americans in the United States|American Indian]] raids, murdered a group of peaceful [[Susquehannock]] Indians and marched on Philadelphia.{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|pp=209–216}} Franklin helped to organize a local militia to defend the capital against the mob. He met with the Paxton leaders and persuaded them to disperse. Franklin wrote a scathing attack against the [[racism|racial prejudice]] of the Paxton Boys. "If an ''Indian'' injures me", he asked, "does it follow that I may revenge that injury on all ''Indians''?"<ref>Franklin, Benjamin. [http://www.historycarper.com/resources/twobf3/massacre.htm "A Narrative of the Late Massacres&nbsp;..."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060427070508/http://www.historycarper.com/resources/twobf3/massacre.htm |date=April 27, 2006 }} reprinted on The History Carper.</ref><ref name=":01scratch">{{cite book | last=Calloway|first= C. G. | date=2006 | title=The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America | chapter=4 | publisher=Oxford University Press | isbn=978-0-19-530071-0}}</ref>

He provided an early response to British surveillance through his own network of [[Surveillance art|counter-surveillance and manipulation]]. "He waged a public relations campaign, secured secret aid, played a role in privateering expeditions, and churned out effective and inflammatory propaganda."<ref>{{cite journal| last=Crews| first= Ed| title= Spies and Scouts, Secret Writing, and Sympathetic Citizens| journal= Colonial Williamsburg Journal| url=http://www.history.org/foundation/journal/Summer04/spies.cfm| date=Summer 2004| access-date=April 19, 2009}}</ref>

===Declaration of Independence===
[[File:Declaration independence.jpg|thumb|alt=About 50 men, most of them seated, are in a large meeting room. Most are focused on the five men standing in the center of the room. The tallest of the five is laying a document on a table.|[[John Trumbull]]'s portrait of the [[Committee of Five]] presenting their draft of the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration]] to the [[Second Continental Congress]] in [[Philadelphia]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=Key to Declaration|url=https://www.americanrevolution.org/deckey.php|access-date=December 30, 2022|website=www.americanrevolution.org}}</ref>]]
By the time Franklin arrived in Philadelphia on May 5, 1775, after his second mission to Great Britain, the [[American Revolution]] had begun at the [[Battles of Lexington and Concord]] the previous month, on April 19, 1775. The New England militia had forced the main British army to remain inside Boston.{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=Princeton University Press |url=https://press.princeton.edu/ideas/the-fourth-of-july-but-not-1776-independence-and-epidemics-in-boston}}</ref> The Pennsylvania Assembly unanimously chose Franklin as their delegate to the [[Second Continental Congress]].{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}} In June 1776, he was appointed a member of the [[Committee of Five]] that drafted the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]]. Although he was temporarily disabled by [[gout]] and unable to attend most meetings of the committee,{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}} he made several "small but important" changes to the draft sent to him by [[Thomas Jefferson]].{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|pp=311–312}}

The "all hang together" saying ascribed to Franklin at the signing is probably apocryphal. He reportedly replied to [[John Hancock]] when Hancock stated that [[Founding Fathers of the United States|they]] must all hang together, "Yes, we must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/lifebenjaminfra00spargoog|quote=franklin shall all hang separately sparks.|title=The Life of Benjamin Franklin: Containing the Autobiography, with Notes and a Continuation |first=Jared |last=Sparks |author-link=Jared Sparks |page=[https://archive.org/details/lifebenjaminfra00spargoog/page/n437 408]| publisher=Whittemore, Niles and Hall |location=Boston |year=1856 |access-date=April 9, 2025}}</ref>  Carl Van Doren in ''Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiographical Writings'' writes that the person who said this was most likely Richard Penn, former  governor of Pennsylvania, replying to a member of Congress who had said "they must all hang together"... 'If you do not, gentlemen,' said Mr. Penn, 'I can tell you that you will be very apt to hang separately.'"{{sfn|Van Doren|1945|pp=418–419}}

{{Anchor|Ambassador to France}}
===Ambassador to France (1776–1785)===
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[[File:Franklin1877.jpg|thumb|Franklin, in his [[fur]] hat, charmed the [[French people|French]] with what they perceived as his rustic [[New World]] [[genius]].{{refn|group=Note|Portraits of Franklin at this time often contained an inscription, the best known being [[Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune|Turgot's]] acclamation, "{{lang|la|Eripuit fulmen coelo sceptrumque tyrannis.}}" (He snatched the lightning from the skies and the scepter from the tyrants.) Historian [[Friedrich Christoph Schlosser]] remarked at the time, with ample hyperbole, that "Such was the number of portraits, busts and medallions of him in circulation before he left Paris, that he would have been recognized from them by any adult citizen in any part of the civilized world."&nbsp;– {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Franklin, Benjamin}}}}]]
[[File:Libertas Americana silver medallion 1783.jpg|thumb|While in France, Franklin designed and commissioned [[Augustin Dupré]] to engrave the medallion [[Libertas Americana]], which was minted in Paris in 1783.]]
On October 26, 1776, Franklin was dispatched to France as [[commissioner]] for the United States.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/benjamin-franklin-sets-sail-for-france|title=Benjamin Franklin sets sail for France|website=history.com|date=November 13, 2009 }}</ref> He took with him as secretary his 16-year-old grandson, [[William Temple Franklin]]. They lived in a home in the Parisian suburb of [[Passy]], donated by [[Jacques-Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont]], who supported the United States. Franklin remained in France until 1785. He conducted the affairs of his country toward the French nation with great success, which included securing a critical military alliance in 1778 and signing the 1783 [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|Treaty of Paris]].<ref>{{cite web|editor-last=Miller|editor-first=Hunter|title=British-American Diplomacy: The Paris Peace Treaty of September 30, 1783|url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/paris.asp|publisher=The Avalon Project at Yale Law School}}</ref>

Among his associates in France was [[Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau]]—a [[French Revolution]]ary writer, orator and statesman who in 1791 was elected president of the [[National Constituent Assembly (France)|National Assembly]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Book in the Painting {{pipe}} Jefferson|url=https://www.isthisjefferson.org/DLP_D04.html?zoom_highlight=Franklin|access-date=December 30, 2022|website=www.isthisjefferson.org}}</ref> In July 1784, Franklin met with Mirabeau and contributed anonymous materials that the Frenchman used in his first signed work: ''Considerations sur l'ordre de Cincinnatus''.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Mirabeau|first1=Gabriel-Honoré de Riquetti|url=http://archive.org/details/cihm_39568|title=Considérations sur l'Ordre de Cincinnatus ou Imitation d'un pamphlet anglo-américain [microforme]|date=1784|publisher=A Londres: Chez J. Johnson ...|others=Canadiana.org|isbn=978-0-665-39568-0}}</ref> The publication was critical of the [[Society of the Cincinnati]], established in the United States. Franklin and Mirabeau thought of it as a "noble order", inconsistent with the [[Egalitarianism|egalitarian]] ideals of the new republic.<ref>Van Doren, Carl. ''Benjamin Franklin'' (The Viking Press: New York). 1938. pp. 709–710.</ref>

During his stay in France, he was active as a Freemason, serving as venerable master of the lodge [[Les Neuf Sœurs]] from 1779 until 1781. In 1784, when [[Franz Mesmer]] began to publicize his theory of "[[animal magnetism]]" which was considered offensive by many, [[Louis XVI]] appointed [[Royal Commission on Animal Magnetism|a commission]] to investigate it. These included the chemist [[Antoine Lavoisier]], the physician [[Joseph-Ignace Guillotin]], the astronomer [[Jean Sylvain Bailly]], and Franklin.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Franklin's Forgotten Triumph: Scientific Testing|url=https://www.americanheritage.com/franklins-forgotten-triumph-scientific-testing|access-date=December 30, 2022|website=AMERICAN HERITAGE|language=en}}</ref> In doing so, the committee concluded, through [[Blinded experiment|blind trials]] that mesmerism only seemed to work when the subjects expected it, which discredited mesmerism and became the first major demonstration of the [[placebo]] effect, which was described at that time as "imagination."<ref>{{cite web |title=The phony health craze that inspired hypnotism |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQyAnKjD6W4 | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211123/KQyAnKjD6W4| archive-date=November 23, 2021 | url-status=live|website=YouTube | date=January 27, 2021 |publisher=Vox |access-date=January 27, 2021}}{{cbignore}}</ref> In 1781, he was elected a fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]].<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter F|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterF.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterF.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=July 28, 2014}}</ref>

Franklin's advocacy for [[religious tolerance]] in France contributed to arguments made by French philosophers and politicians that resulted in Louis XVI's signing of the [[Edict of Versailles]] in November 1787. This edict effectively nullified the [[Edict of Fontainebleau]], which had denied non-Catholics civil status and the right to openly practice their faith.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Book338glava314dictofersailles1787html Wa365bet Vioslot|url=https://booking-help.org/book_338_glava_314_Edict_of_Versailles_(1787).html|access-date=December 30, 2022|website=booking-help.org|archive-date=December 30, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221230204343/https://booking-help.org/book_338_glava_314_Edict_of_Versailles_(1787).html|url-status=usurped}}</ref>

Franklin also served as American minister to Sweden, although he never visited that country.<ref name="hist_Benj">{{cite web |title=Benjamin Franklin – People – Department History – Office of the Historian |work=history.state.gov |access-date=February 27, 2019 |url=https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/franklin-benjamin |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181023040237/https://www.history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/franklin-benjamin |archive-date=October 23, 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He negotiated a [[Treaty of Amity and Commerce (United States–Sweden)|treaty]] that was signed in April 1783. On August 27, 1783, in Paris, he witnessed the [[Hot air balloon#First manned flight|world's first hydrogen balloon flight]].<ref name="EcceF">{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5_7IRHZGyzMC&pg=PA36 |title=Eccentric France: Bradt Guide to mad, magical and marvellous France| author=Piers Letcher&nbsp;– Jacques Charles |year= 2003|publisher=Bradt Travel Guides |access-date=March 17, 2010| isbn=978-1-84162-068-8}}</ref> ''[[Robert brothers#First hydrogen balloon|Le Globe]]'', created by professor [[Jacques Charles]] and [[Robert brothers|Les Frères Robert]], was watched by a vast crowd as it rose from the [[Champ de Mars]] (now the site of the [[Eiffel Tower]]).<ref name="Sci&Soc">{{cite web| url=http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10447673 |title=Science and Society, Medal commemorating Charles and Robert's balloon ascent, Paris, 1783 |publisher=Scienceandsociety.co.uk |access-date=March 17, 2010}}</ref> Franklin became so enthusiastic that he subscribed financially to the next project to build a manned hydrogen balloon.<ref name="Fid Green">{{cite web| url=https://www.fiddlersgreen.net/models/Aircraft/Balloon-Charles.html |title=Fiddlers Green, History of Ballooning, Jacques Charles |publisher=Fiddlersgreen.net |access-date=June 20, 2011}}</ref> On December 1, 1783, Franklin was seated in the special enclosure for honored guests [[Robert brothers#First manned hydrogen balloon flight|it took off]] from the [[Tuileries Garden|Jardin des Tuileries]], piloted by Charles and [[Robert brothers|Nicolas-Louis Robert]].<ref name="EcceF"/><ref name="FAI">{{cite web| url=http://www.fai.org/ballooning/newsletter/pr00-02.htm |title=Federation Aeronautique Internationale, Ballooning Commission, Hall of Fame, Robert Brothers |publisher=Fai.org |access-date=March 17, 2010| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080516222023/http://www.fai.org/ballooning/newsletter/pr00-02.htm |archive-date=May 16, 2008}}</ref> [[Walter Isaacson]] describes a [[chess]] game between Franklin and the Duchess of Bourbon, "who made a move that inadvertently exposed her king. Ignoring the rules of the game, he promptly captured it. 'Ah,' said the duchess, 'we do not take Kings so.' Replied Franklin in a famous quip: 'We do in America.{{'"}}{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=372}}

===Return to North America===
[[File:Franklin's return to Philadelphia 1785 cph.3g09906.jpg|thumb|''Franklin's return to Philadelphia, 1785'', a portrait by [[Jean Leon Gerome Ferris]]]]
[[File:Foundation of the American Government by Henry Hintermeister.jpg|thumb|[[George Washington]] witnesses [[Gouverneur Morris]] sign the [[Constitution of the United States|Constitution]] with Franklin seen behind Morris, in [[John Henry Hintermeister]]'s 1925 portrait, ''Foundation of the American Government''<ref>{{Cite book |last=Robinson |first=Raymond H. |title= George Washington: American Symbol|chapter= The Marketing of an Icon |year=1999 |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=eLxsfeV43-wC&q=foundation%20of%20the%20American%20government%2C%20John%20Henry%20Hintermeister&pg=PA117 |page= 117 |publisher=Hudson Hills |isbn=9781555951481 |quote= Figure 56 John Henry Hintermeister (American 1869–1945) ''Signing of the Constitution'', 1925...Alternatively labeled ''Title to Freedom'' and the ''Foundation of American Government''...".}}</ref>]]

When he returned home in 1785, Franklin occupied a position second only to that of [[George Washington]] as the champion of American independence. Le Ray honored him with a commissioned portrait painted by [[Joseph Duplessis]], which now hangs in the [[National Portrait Gallery (United States)|National Portrait Gallery]] of the [[Smithsonian Institution]] in Washington, D.C. After his return, Franklin became an [[Abolitionism|abolitionist]] and freed his two slaves. He eventually became president of the [[Pennsylvania Abolition Society]].<ref name="auto1"/>

==== President of Pennsylvania and Delegate to the Constitutional convention ====
Special balloting conducted October 18, 1785, unanimously elected him the sixth [[List of governors of Pennsylvania|president]] of the [[Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania|Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania]], replacing [[John Dickinson]]. The office was practically that of the governor. He held that office for slightly over three years, longer than any other, and served the constitutional limit of three full terms. Shortly after his initial election, he was re-elected to a full term on October 29, 1785, and again in the fall of 1786 and on October 31, 1787. In that capacity, he served as host to the [[Constitutional Convention (United States)|Constitutional Convention of 1787]] in Philadelphia.<ref>Brands, ''The First American'', pp. 654–55, 694.</ref>

He also served as a delegate to the [[Constitutional Convention (United States)|Convention]]. It was primarily an honorary position and he seldom engaged in debate.
According to [[James McHenry]], [[Elizabeth Willing Powel]] asked Franklin what kind of government they had wrought. He replied: "A republic, madam, if you can keep it."{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=459}}

==Death==
[[File:Benjamin Franklin's grave 2010.JPG|thumb|Franklin's gravesite at [[Christ Church Burial Ground]] in [[Philadelphia]]]]
Franklin suffered from obesity throughout his middle age and elder years, which resulted in multiple health problems, including [[gout]], which worsened as he aged. In poor health during the signing of the [[Constitution of the United States|U.S. Constitution]] in 1787, he was rarely seen in public after then until his death.{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}}

Franklin died from [[Pleurisy|pleuritic attack]]{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|pp={{page needed|date=April 2025}}}} at his home in [[Philadelphia]] on April 17, 1790, at age 84.<ref>{{cite web|title=Later Years and Death|url=http://www.benjamin-franklin-history.org/later-years-and-death/|url-status=live|access-date=September 17, 2021|publisher=Benjamin Franklin Historical Society|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160627181743/http://www.benjamin-franklin-history.org/later-years-and-death/|archive-date=June 27, 2016}}</ref> His last reported words, conveyed to his daughter, were, "a dying man can do nothing easy", after she suggested that he change position in bed and lie on his side so he could breathe more easily.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mentalfloss.com/article/58534/64-people-and-their-famous-last-words|title=64 People and Their Famous Last Words|date=February 1, 2016|website=mentalfloss.com|language=en|access-date=February 17, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/benjamin-franklins-last-days-funeral-and-a-u-s-senate-slight|title=It was 228 years ago today: Benjamin Franklin died in Philadelphia – National Constitution Center|website=National Constitution Center – constitutioncenter.org|access-date=February 17, 2019}}</ref> Franklin's death is described in the book ''The Life of Benjamin Franklin'', quoting from the account of [[John Paul Jones]]:

{{blockquote|...&nbsp;when the pain and difficulty of breathing entirely left him, and his family were flattering themselves with the hopes of his recovery, when an imposthume, which had formed itself in his lungs, suddenly burst, and discharged a quantity of matter, which he continued to throw up while he had power; but, as that failed, the organs of respiration became gradually oppressed; a calm, lethargic state succeeded; and on the 17th instant (April 1790), about eleven o'clock at night, he quietly expired, closing a long and useful life of eighty-four years and three months.<ref>Sparks, pp. 529–30.</ref>}}

Approximately 20,000 people attended Franklin's funeral, after which he was interred in [[Christ Church Burial Ground]] in Philadelphia.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.ushistory.org/tour/christ-church-burial-ground.htm |title=Christ Church Burial Grounds |access-date=June 22, 2020 |work=[[Ushistory.org]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/2016808354/ |title=Benjamin Franklin's grave [Christ Church Burial Ground], Philadelphia |work=[[Library of Congress]] |access-date=June 22, 2020 |year=1900}}</ref> Upon learning of his death, the Constitutional Assembly in Revolutionary France entered into a state of mourning for a period of three days, and memorial services were conducted in honor of Franklin throughout the country.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Paxton|first=John|title=Companion to the French Revolution|publisher=Facts on File|year=1988|isbn=0-8160-1116-8|location=New York|pages=85}}</ref>

In 1728, at age 22, Franklin wrote what he hoped would be his own epitaph:

{{blockquote|The Body of B. Franklin Printer; Like the Cover of an old Book, Its Contents torn out, And stript of its Lettering and Gilding, Lies here, Food for Worms. But the Work shall not be wholly lost: For it will, as he believ'd, appear once more, In a new & more perfect Edition, Corrected and Amended By the Author.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Franklin|first=Benjamin|date=2010-08-16|title=Transcript of Benjamin Franklin, Epitaph – Benjamin Franklin: In His Own Words {{pipe}} Exhibitions (Library of Congress)|url=https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/franklin/bf-trans61.html|access-date=December 30, 2022 |publisher=Library of Congress}}</ref>}}

Franklin's actual grave, however, as he specified in his final will, simply reads "Benjamin and Deborah Franklin."<ref>[http://sln.fi.edu/franklin/family/lastwill.html ''The Last Will and Testament of Benjamin Franklin''.] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090821230120/http://sln.fi.edu/franklin/family/lastwill.html |date=August 21, 2009 }} The Franklin Institute Science Museum.</ref>

==Inventions and scientific inquiries==
Franklin was a prodigious inventor. Among his many creations were the [[lightning rod]], [[Franklin stove]], [[bifocals|bifocal glasses]] and the flexible [[urinary catheterization|urinary catheter]]. He never patented his inventions; in his [[The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin|autobiography]]{{refn|group=Note|There are differing versions of Franklin's Autobiography. Some closely hew to the original version, others have text inconsistencies or are heavily edited (including the William Temple Franklin version),{{Sfn|Franklin|Pine|1916|p=xviii}} being published in various texts starting with a 1791 French version (the first published), and including the 1916 Pine edition, the 1997 Library of America edition, and the 1986/2012 edition of ''Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography: A Norton Critical Edition''.}} he wrote, "...&nbsp;as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously."<ref>{{cite book
|title=The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
|chapter=Part three
|author=Benjamin Franklin
|chapter-url=http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/autobiography/page55.htm}}</ref>

===Electricity, light ===
[[File:Benjamin West, English (born America) - Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|''[[Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky]]'', a {{Circa|1816}} portrait by [[Benjamin West]] now on display at the [[Philadelphia Museum of Art]]]]

Franklin was, along with his contemporary [[Leonhard Euler]], the only major scientist who supported [[Christiaan Huygens]]'s [[wave theory of light]], which was basically ignored by the rest of the [[scientific community]]. In the 18th century, [[Isaac Newton]]'s [[corpuscular theory of light|corpuscular theory]] was held to be true; it took [[Thomas Young (scientist)|Thomas Young's]] well-known [[Double-slit experiment|slit experiment]] in 1803 to persuade most scientists to believe Huygens's theory.<ref>Jogn Gribbin, "In search of Schrödinger's cat", Black Swan, p. 12.</ref>

Franklin started exploring the phenomenon of electricity in the 1740s, after he met the itinerant lecturer Archibald Spencer, who used [[static electricity]] in his demonstrations.{{sfn|Cohen|1990|pp=40–42}} He proposed that "vitreous" and "resinous" electricity were not different types of "[[Fluid theory of electricity|electrical fluid]]" (as electricity was called then), but the same "fluid" under different pressures. (The same proposal was made independently that same year by [[William Watson (scientist)|William Watson]].) He was the first to label them as [[electric charge|positive and negative]] respectively, which replaced the then current distinction made between  'vitreous' and 'resinous' electricity,<ref>[[H. W. Brands]], ''The First American,'' 2002 p.192</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Franklin|first=Benjamin|date=May 25, 1747|title=Letter to Peter Collinson|journal=Franklin Papers|url=http://franklinpapers.org/franklin//framedVolumes.jsp?vol=3&page=126b|access-date=May 1, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020014725/http://franklinpapers.org/franklin//framedVolumes.jsp?vol=3&page=126b|archive-date=October 20, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/FranklinBenjamin.html |chapter=Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)  |first=Eric |last=Weisstein |author-link=Eric W. Weisstein |title=Eric Weisstein's World of Scientific Biography }}</ref> and he was the first to discover the principle of [[charge conservation|conservation of charge]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.physchem.co.za/Static%20Electricity/Charge.htm |title=Conservation of Charge |access-date=February 15, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080218104547/http://www.physchem.co.za/Static%20Electricity/Charge.htm |archive-date=February 18, 2008}}. Archived February 18, 2008.</ref> In 1748, he constructed a multiple plate [[capacitor]], that he called an "electrical battery" (not a true battery like [[Alessandro Volta|Volta's]] [[Voltaic pile|pile]]) by placing eleven panes of glass sandwiched between lead plates, suspended with silk cords and connected by wires.<ref name="paper1749">{{cite journal|journal=Franklin Papers|last=Franklin|first=Benjamin|date=April 29, 1749|title=Further Experiments and Observations in Electricity|url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-03-02-0148|access-date=December 21, 2023}}</ref>

In pursuit of more pragmatic uses for electricity, remarking in spring 1749 that he felt "chagrin'd a little" that his experiments had heretofore resulted in "Nothing in this Way of Use to Mankind", Franklin planned a practical demonstration. He proposed a dinner party where a turkey was to be killed via electric shock and roasted on an electrical spit.<ref name="paper1749"/> After having prepared several turkeys this way, he noted that "the birds kill'd in this manner eat uncommonly tender."<ref>[[H. W. Brands]], ''The First American,'' 2002 p.198</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Franklin|first=Benjamin|date=February 4, 1751|title=Letter to Peter Collinson|journal=Franklin Papers}}</ref> Franklin recounted that in the process of one of these experiments, he was shocked by a pair of [[Leyden jar]]s, resulting in numbness in his arms that persisted for one evening, noting "I am Ashamed to have been Guilty of so Notorious a Blunder."<ref>{{cite journal|last=Franklin|first=Benjamin|date=December 25, 1750|title=Letter to John Franklin|journal=Franklin Papers}}</ref>

Franklin briefly investigated [[electrotherapy]], including the use of the [[electric bath (electrotherapy)|electric bath]]. This work led to the field becoming widely known.{{sfn|Schiffer|2003|pp=136–37, 301}} In recognition of his work with electricity, he received the [[Royal Society]]'s [[Copley Medal]] in 1753, and in 1756, he became one of the few 18th-century Americans elected a fellow of the Society. The [[centimetre–gram–second system of units|CGS]] unit of electric charge has been named after him: one ''franklin'' (Fr) is equal to one [[statcoulomb]].

Franklin advised Harvard University in its acquisition of new electrical laboratory apparatus after the complete loss of its original collection, in a fire that destroyed the original [[Harvard Hall]] in 1764. The collection he assembled later became part of the [[Harvard Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments]], now on public display in its [[Harvard Science Center|Science Center]].<ref name="Tomase">{{cite news|last1=Tomase|first1=Jennifer|title='A How-To Guide' explores Ben Franklin's 'can-do' legacy|url=http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/06.01/10-franklin.html|access-date=August 9, 2016|work=Harvard University Gazette|date=June 1, 2006|archive-date=July 25, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100725214607/http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/06.01/10-franklin.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

====Kite experiment and lightning rod====
[[File:BEP-JONES-Franklin and Electricity.jpg|thumb|''Franklin and Electricity'', a vignette [[Art and engraving on United States banknotes|engraved]] by the [[Bureau of Engraving and Printing]], {{Circa|1860}}]]
Franklin published a proposal for an experiment to prove that [[lightning]] is electricity by [[Kite experiment|flying a kite in a storm]]. On May 10, 1752, [[Thomas-François Dalibard]] of France conducted Franklin's experiment using a {{convert|40|ft|m|adj=mid|-tall}} iron rod instead of a kite, and he extracted electrical sparks from a cloud. On June 15, 1752, Franklin may possibly have conducted his well-known kite experiment in Philadelphia, successfully extracting sparks from a cloud. He described the experiment in his newspaper, ''[[The Pennsylvania Gazette]]'', on October 19, 1752,<ref>Benjamin Franklin, [http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp?vol=4&page=360a "The Kite Experiment"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100922095736/http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp?vol=4&page=360a |date=September 22, 2010 }}, printed in ''[[The Pennsylvania Gazette]]'', October 19, 1752. In The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, The American Philosophical Society and Yale University; digital edition by The Packard Humanities Institute, Vol. 4, p. 360a. Retrieved February 6, 2017.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Pennsylvania Gazette – Benjamin Franklin Historical Society|url=http://www.benjamin-franklin-history.org/pennsylvania-gazette/|access-date=December 30, 2022|language=en-US}}</ref> without mentioning that he himself had performed it.<ref>Steven Johnson (2008) ''The Invention of Air'', p. 39 {{ISBN|978-1-59448-401-8}}. Retrieved February 6, 2017.</ref> This account was read to the Royal Society on December 21 and printed as such in the ''Philosophical Transactions''.<ref name="archives">{{Cite web|title=Founders Online: The Kite Experiment, 19 October 1752|url=http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-04-02-0135|access-date=December 30, 2022|website=founders.archives.gov|language=en}}</ref> [[Joseph Priestley]] published an account with additional details in his 1767 ''History and Present Status of Electricity''. Franklin was careful to stand on an insulator, keeping dry under a roof to avoid the danger of [[Electrical injury|electric shock]].{{sfn|Van Doren|1945|p=159}} Others, such as [[Georg Wilhelm Richmann]] in Russia, were indeed electrocuted in performing lightning experiments during the months immediately following his experiment.<ref>{{cite book|last=Clarke|first=Ronald W.|url=https://archive.org/details/benjaminfranklin00clar_0/page/87|title=Benjamin Franklin, A Biography|publisher=Random House|year=1983|isbn=978-1-84212-272-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/benjaminfranklin00clar_0/page/87 87]|author-link=Ronald W. Clark|url-access=registration}}</ref>

In his writings, Franklin indicates that he was aware of the dangers and offered alternative ways to demonstrate that lightning was electrical, as shown by his use of the concept of [[ground (electricity)|electrical ground]]. He did not perform this experiment in the way that is often pictured in popular literature, flying the kite and waiting to be struck by lightning, as it would have been dangerous.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mos.org/sln/toe/kite.html |title=Franklin's Kite |publisher=[[Museum of Science (Boston)]] |access-date=September 28, 2003 |archive-date=February 9, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100209131349/http://www.mos.org/sln/toe/kite.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Instead he used the kite to collect some electric charge from a storm cloud, showing that lightning was electrical.<ref name="Wolf"/> On October 19, 1752, in a letter to England with directions for repeating the experiment, he wrote:

{{blockquote|When rain has wet the kite twine so that it can conduct the electric fire freely, you will find it streams out plentifully from the key at the approach of your knuckle, and with this key a phial, or Leyden jar, may be charged: and from electric fire thus obtained spirits may be kindled, and all other electric experiments [may be] performed which are usually done by the help of a rubber glass globe or tube; and therefore the sameness of the electrical matter with that of {{sic|light|ening}} completely demonstrated.<ref name="Wolf">{{cite book |last=Wolf |first=Abraham |title=History of Science, Technology, and Philosophy in the Eighteenth Century |publisher=Macmillan |location=New York |year=1939 |page=232}}</ref>}}

Franklin's electrical experiments led to his invention of the [[lightning rod]]. He said that conductors with a sharp<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/14/science/lightning-rods-franklin-had-it-wrong.html |title=Lightning Rods: Franklin Had It Wrong |access-date=March 16, 2018 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=June 1, 1983}}</ref> rather than a smooth point could discharge silently and at a far greater distance. He surmised that this could help protect buildings from lightning by attaching "upright Rods of Iron, made sharp as a Needle and gilt to prevent Rusting, and from the Foot of those Rods a Wire down the outside of the Building into the Ground;&nbsp;... Would not these pointed Rods probably draw the Electrical Fire silently out of a Cloud before it came nigh enough to strike, and thereby secure us from that most sudden and terrible Mischief!" Following a series of experiments on Franklin's own house, lightning rods were installed on the Academy of Philadelphia (later the [[University of Pennsylvania]]) and the Pennsylvania State House (later [[Independence Hall]]) in 1752.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Benjamin Franklin and Lightning Rods |volume=59 |issue=1 |page=42 |last=Krider |first=Philip |journal=Physics Today |date=January 2006|doi=10.1063/1.2180176 |bibcode=2006PhT....59a..42K |s2cid=110623159 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

Though Franklin is famously associated with kites from his lightning experiments, he has also been noted by many for using kites to pull humans and ships across waterways.<ref>{{cite book| url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34193/34193-h/34193-h.htm| title= The True Benjamin Franklin| first= Sydney George| last= Fisher| year=1903 |publisher=J.B. Lippincott Company| location=Philadelphia| edition=5|page=19}}</ref> [[George Pocock (inventor)|George Pocock]] in the book ''A Treatise on The Aeropleustic Art, or Navigation in the Air, by means of Kites, or Buoyant Sails''<ref>{{cite book| url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_oMo-DVp_ypUC| title= A Treatise on The Aeropleustic Art, or Navigation in the Air, by means of Kites, or Buoyant Sails| first=George| last=Pocock| page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_oMo-DVp_ypUC/page/n16 9]| publisher=Longmans, Brown, and Co.| location=London| year=1851}}</ref> noted being inspired by Benjamin Franklin's traction of his body by kite power across a waterway.

=== Thermodynamics ===
Franklin noted a principle of [[refrigeration]] by observing that on a very hot day, he stayed cooler in a wet shirt in a breeze than he did in a dry one. To understand this phenomenon more clearly, he conducted experiments. In 1758 on a warm day in [[Cambridge]], England, he and fellow scientist [[John Hadley (chemist)|John Hadley]] experimented by continually wetting the ball of a mercury [[thermometer]] with [[diethyl ether|ether]] and using [[bellows]] to evaporate the ether.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historycarper.com/resources/twobf3/letter1.htm |title=The Writings of Benjamin Franklin: London, 1757–1775 |publisher=Historycarper.com |access-date=September 14, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110128075748/http://www.historycarper.com/resources/twobf3/letter1.htm |archive-date=January 28, 2011}}</ref> With each subsequent [[evaporation]], the thermometer read a lower temperature, eventually reaching {{convert|7|F}}. Another thermometer showed that the room temperature was constant at {{convert|65|F}}. In his letter ''[[Cooling by Evaporation]]'', Franklin noted that, "One may see the possibility of freezing a man to death on a warm summer's day."<ref>{{Cite web|title=Founders Online: From Benjamin Franklin to John Lining, 17 June 1758|url=http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-08-02-0023|access-date=June 30, 2021|website=founders.archives.gov|language=en}}</ref>

[[File:ObsrvatnsCausCurSmokyChmnys1787FranklinFigs.jpg|thumb|Figures from Franklin's ''Observations on the Cause and Cure of Smoky Chimneys'' (1787), 2nd Edition]]
In 1761, Franklin wrote a letter to Mary Stevenson describing his experiments on the relationship between color and heat absorption.<ref>Cohen, I. B. (1943). [http://www.jstor.org/stable/225739 Franklin’s Experiments on Heat Absorption as a Function of Color]. ''Isis'', ''34''(5), 404–407.</ref> He found that darker color clothes got hotter when exposed to sunlight than lighter color clothes, an early demonstration of [[black body]] [[thermal radiation]]. One experiment he performed consisted of placing square pieces of cloth of various color out in the snow on a sunny day. He waited some time and then measured that the black pieces sank furthest into the snow of all the colors, indicating that they got the hottest and melted the most snow.

According to [[Michael Faraday]], Franklin's experiments on the non-conduction of ice are worth mentioning, although the law of the general effect of [[liquefaction]] on [[electrolyte]]s is not attributed to Franklin.<ref>{{cite book |last=Faraday |first=Michael |title=Experimental researches in electricity |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XuITAAAAQAAJ&pg=PR5 |page=v |volume=2 |year=1839 |publisher=R. & J.E. Taylor |quote=Franklin's experiments on the non-conduction of ice&nbsp;...}}</ref> However, as reported in 1836 by Franklin's great-grandson [[Alexander Dallas Bache]] of the University of Pennsylvania, the law of the effect of heat on the conduction of bodies otherwise non-conductors, for example, glass, could be attributed to Franklin. Franklin wrote, "...&nbsp;A certain quantity of heat will make some bodies good conductors, that will not otherwise conduct&nbsp;..." and again, "...&nbsp;And water, though naturally a good conductor, will not conduct well when frozen into ice."<ref>{{cite book |last=Jones |first=Thomas P. |title=Journal of the Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zV9DAAAAYAAJ&pg=PP7 |pages=182–83 |year=1836 |quote=In the fourth series of his electrical researches, Mr. Faraday&nbsp;... |publisher=Pergamon Press}}</ref>

===Oceanography and hydrodynamics===
[[File:Franklin-Folger Gulf Stream chart, London, 1769 version, LOC.jpg|thumb|The first Franklin-Folger chart of the Gulf Stream printed in London in 1769]]
As deputy postmaster, Franklin became interested in [[Atlantic Ocean|North Atlantic Ocean]] circulation patterns. While in England in 1768, he heard a complaint from the Colonial Board of Customs. British packet ships carrying mail had taken several weeks longer to reach New York than it took an average merchant ship to reach [[Newport, Rhode Island]]. The merchantmen had a longer and more complex voyage because they left from London, while the packets left from [[Falmouth, Cornwall|Falmouth]] in Cornwall.<ref name="Tuchman 1988 p. 221-222">{{cite book | last=Tuchman | first=Barbara Wertheim | title=The First Salute | publisher=Knopf Publishing Group | date=1988 | isbn=0-394-55333-0 | pages=221–222}}</ref> Franklin put the question to his cousin Timothy Folger, a [[Nantucket]] whaler captain, who told him that merchant ships routinely avoided a strong eastbound mid-ocean current. The mail packet captains sailed dead into it, thus fighting an adverse current of {{convert|3|mph|km/h|0}}. Franklin worked with Folger and other experienced ship captains, learning enough to chart the current and name it the [[Gulf Stream]], by which it is still known today.<ref>{{cite web|author=Anon|title=1785: Benjamin Franklin's 'Sundry Maritime Observations'|url=http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/library/readings/gulf/gulf.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051218185445/http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/library/readings/gulf/gulf.html|archive-date=December 18, 2005|access-date=July 15, 2010|work=Ocean Explorer: Readings for ocean explorers|publisher=NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research}}</ref>

Franklin published his Gulf Stream chart in 1770 in England, where it was ignored. Subsequent versions were printed in France in 1778 and the U.S. in 1786. The British original edition of the chart had been so thoroughly ignored that everyone assumed it was lost forever until Phil Richardson, a [[Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution|Woods Hole oceanographer]] and Gulf Stream expert, discovered it in the [[Bibliothèque nationale de France|Bibliothèque Nationale]] in Paris in 1980.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Richardson |first1=Philip L. |title=Benjamin Franklin and Timothy Folger's First Printed Chart of the Gulf Stream |journal=Science |date=8 February 1980 |volume=207 |issue=4431 |pages=643–645 |doi=10.1126/science.207.4431.643|pmid=17749327 |bibcode=1980Sci...207..643R }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Wood |first=Anthony R. |title=How Franklin's chart resurfaced|url=https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/special_packages/inquirer/How_Franklin_s_chart_resurfaced.html|access-date=December 30, 2022|website=www.inquirer.com|date=March 29, 2007 |language=en}}</ref> This find received front-page coverage in ''[[The New York Times]]''.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Wilford |first1=John Noble |title=Prints of Franklin's Chart of Gulf Stream Found |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1980/02/06/archives/prints-of-franklins-chart-of-gulf-stream-found-a-good-summary-gulf.html |access-date=2 May 2025 |work=The New York Times |date=6 February 1980 |pages=A1, B7}}</ref> It took many years for British sea captains to adopt Franklin's advice on navigating the current; once they did, they were able to trim two weeks from their sailing time.<ref>1785: Benjamin Franklin's "Sundry Maritime Observations",
 The Academy of Natural Sciences, April 1939&nbsp;m</ref><ref>[http://www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/library/readings/gulf/gulf.html ''1785: Benjamin Franklin's 'Sundry Maritime Observations' ''.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081002000344/http://www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/library/readings/gulf/gulf.html |date=October 2, 2008 }} NOAA Ocean Explorer.</ref> In 1853, the oceanographer and cartographer [[Matthew Fontaine Maury]] noted that while Franklin charted and codified the Gulf Stream, he did not discover it:

{{blockquote|Though it was Dr. Franklin and Captain Tim Folger, who first turned the Gulf Stream to nautical account, the discovery that there was a Gulf Stream cannot be said to belong to either of them, for its existence was known to [[Peter Martyr d'Anghiera]], and to [[Sir Humphrey Gilbert]], in the 16th century.<ref>Source: ''Explanations and Sailing Directions to Accompany the Wind and Current Charts'', 1853, p. 53, by [[Matthew Fontaine Maury]].</ref>}}

[[File:Franklin 1786 Sundry Maritime Observations.png|thumb|An illustration from Franklin's "Sundry Maritime Observations"]]
An aging Franklin accumulated all his oceanographic findings in ''Maritime Observations'', published by the Philosophical Society's ''transactions'' in 1786.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Price|first1=Richard|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fPQfNx2TQLAC&pg=RA1-PA23|title=The Correspondence of Richard Price: February 1786 – February 1791|last2=Thomas|first2=David Oswald|last3=Peach|first3=Bernard|publisher=Duke University Press|year=1994|isbn=978-0-8223-1327-4|page=23|author-link1=Richard Price|author-link2=David Oswald Thomas|access-date=October 2, 2009}}</ref> It contained ideas for [[sea anchor]]s, [[catamaran]] hulls, [[watertight compartment]]s, shipboard lightning rods and a soup bowl designed to stay stable in stormy weather.

While traveling on a ship, Franklin had observed that the wake of a ship [[storm oil|was diminished]] when the cooks scuttled their greasy water. He studied the effects on a large pond in [[Clapham Common]], London. "I fetched out a cruet of oil and dropt a little of it on the water&nbsp;... though not more than a teaspoon full, produced an instant calm over a space of several yards square." He later used the trick to "calm the waters" by carrying "a little oil in the hollow joint of [his] cane."<ref>* W. Gratzer, Eurekas and Euphorias, pp. 80–81.</ref>

===  Meteorology ===
[[File:BenFranklin Waterspout 1806.jpg|thumb|An illustration that appears in Franklin's paper, "Water-spouts and Whirlwinds"]]
On October 21, 1743, according to the popular myth, a storm moving from the southwest denied Franklin the opportunity of witnessing a [[lunar eclipse]]. He was said to have noted that the [[prevailing winds]] were actually from the northeast, contrary to what he had expected. In correspondence with his brother, he learned that the same storm had not reached Boston until after the eclipse, despite the fact that Boston is to the northeast of Philadelphia. He deduced that storms do not always travel in the direction of the prevailing wind, a concept that greatly influenced [[meteorology]].<ref>Heidorn, Keith C. Heidorn, PhD. [http://www.islandnet.com/~see/weather/almanac/arc2003/alm03oct.htm ''Eclipsed By Storm''.] The Weather Doctor. October 1, 2003.</ref> After the Icelandic volcanic eruption of [[Laki]] in 1783, and the subsequent harsh European winter of 1784, Franklin made observations on the causal nature of these two seemingly separate events. He wrote about them in a lecture series.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dartmouth.edu/~volcano/Fr373p77.html|title=Memoirs of the literary and philosophical society of Manchester|website=www.dartmouth.edu|access-date=December 3, 2019|archive-date=June 15, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180615223254/http://www.dartmouth.edu/~volcano/Fr373p77.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Population studies===
Franklin had a major influence on the emerging science of [[demography]] or population studies.{{sfn|Houston|2008|pp=106–41}} In the 1730s and 1740s, he began taking notes on population growth, finding that the American population had the fastest growth rate on Earth.{{sfn|Lemay|2008|p=245}} Emphasizing that population growth depended on food supplies, he emphasized the abundance of food and available farmland in America. He calculated that America's population was doubling every 20 years and would surpass that of England in a century.{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=150}} In 1751, he drafted [[Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, etc.|''Observations concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, etc.'']] Four years later, it was anonymously printed in Boston and was quickly reproduced in Britain, where it influenced the economist [[Adam Smith]] and later the demographer [[Thomas Robert Malthus|Thomas Malthus]], who credited Franklin for discovering a rule of population growth.<ref>{{cite book| first=I. Bernard |last=Cohen| title=The Triumph Of Numbers: How Counting Shaped Modern Life| url=https://archive.org/details/triumphofnumbers00cohe| url-access=registration| year=2005| publisher=W.W. Norton| page=[https://archive.org/details/triumphofnumbers00cohe/page/87 87]| isbn=978-0-393-05769-0}}</ref> Franklin's predictions on how British mercantilism was unsustainable alarmed British leaders who did not want to be surpassed by the colonies, so they became more willing to impose restrictions on the colonial economy.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Aldridge | first1 = Alfred Owen | year = 1949 | title = Franklin as Demographer | journal = Journal of Economic History | volume = 9 | issue = 1| pages = 25–44 | jstor=2113719| doi = 10.1017/S0022050700090318 | s2cid = 154647498 }}</ref>

Kammen (1990) and Drake (2011) say Franklin's ''Observations concerning the Increase of Mankind'' (1755) stands alongside [[Ezra Stiles]]' "Discourse on Christian Union" (1760) as the leading works of 18th-century Anglo-American demography; Drake credits Franklin's "wide readership and prophetic insight."<ref>{{cite book| first=James David |last=Drake| title=The Nation's Nature: How Continental Presumptions Gave Rise to the United States of America| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EWV9T2MT5SoC&pg=PA63| year=2011| publisher=U. of Virginia Press| page=63| isbn=978-0-8139-3122-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| first=Michael G. |last=Kammen| title=People of Paradox: An Inquiry Concerning the Origins of American Civilization| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yvmJZh38JQ4C&pg=PA81| year=1990| publisher=Cornell U.P.| page=81| isbn=978-0-8014-9755-1}}</ref> Franklin was also a pioneer in the study of slave demography, as shown in his 1755 essay.<ref>{{cite book| first=George William |last=Van Cleve| title=A Slaveholders' Union: Slavery, Politics, and the Constitution in the Early American Republic| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dgp26Y2KzxUC&pg=PA148| year= 2010| publisher=U. of Chicago Press| page=148| isbn=978-0-226-84669-9}}</ref> In his capacity as a farmer, he wrote at least one critique about the negative consequences of price controls, trade restrictions, and subsidy of the poor. This is succinctly preserved in his letter to the ''[[London Chronicle]]'' published November 29, 1766, titled "On the Price of Corn, and Management of the poor."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historycarper.com/resources/twobf3/price.htm|title=The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, Volume III: London, 1757 – 1775 – On the Price of Corn, and Management of the Poor|publisher=Historycarper.com|access-date=December 11, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111202175522/http://www.historycarper.com/resources/twobf3/price.htm|archive-date=December 2, 2011|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Decision-making===

In a 1772 letter to [[Joseph Priestley]], Franklin laid out the earliest known description of the Pro & Con list,<ref name="decisions">{{cite book |last=Franklin |first=Benjamin |author-link=Benjamin Franklin |year=1975 |orig-year=1772 |chapter=To Joseph Priestley |editor-last=Willcox |editor-first=William Bradford |title=The papers of Benjamin Franklin: January 1 through December 31, 1772 |volume=19 |location=New Haven |publisher=Yale University Press |pages=299–300 |isbn=978-0-300-01865-3 |oclc=310601 |chapter-url=http://franklinpapers.org/yale?vol=19&page=299a }}</ref> a common [[decision-making]] technique, now sometimes called a [[decisional balance sheet]]:

{{blockquote|...&nbsp;my Way is, to divide half a Sheet of Paper by a Line into two Columns, writing over the one ''Pro'', and over the other ''Con''. Then during three or four Days Consideration I put down under the different Heads short Hints of the different Motives that at different Times occur to me for or against the Measure. When I have thus got them all together in one View, I endeavour to estimate their respective Weights; and where I find two, one on each side, that seem equal, I strike them both out: If I find a Reason ''pro'' equal to some two Reasons ''con'', I strike out the three. If I judge some two Reasons ''con'' equal to some three Reasons ''pro'', I strike out the five; and thus proceeding I find at length where the Ballance lies; and if after a Day or two of farther Consideration nothing new that is of Importance occurs on either side, I come to a Determination accordingly.<ref name="decisions" />}}

==Views on religion, morality, and slavery==
{{Republicanism sidebar|expanded=Philosophers}}
[[File:Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) MET DT2883.jpg|thumb|A bust of Franklin sculpted by [[Jean-Antoine Houdon]] in 1778]]
[[File:Pedro Américo - Voltaire abençoando o neto de Franklin em nome de Deus e da Liberdade.jpg|thumb|''Voltaire blessing Franklin's grandson, in the name of God and Liberty'', an 1890 portrait by [[Pedro Américo]]]]
[[File:Dr Richard Price, DD, FRS - Benjamin West.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Richard Price]], the radical minister of [[Newington Green Unitarian Church]], holding a letter from Franklin]]

Like the other advocates of [[Republicanism in the United States|republicanism]], Franklin emphasized that the new republic could survive only if the people were virtuous. All his life, he explored the role of civic and personal virtue, as expressed in ''Poor Richard's'' [[aphorism]]s. He felt that organized religion was necessary to keep men good to their fellow men, but rarely attended religious services himself.<ref>Franklin, ''Autobiography'', ed. Lemay, p. 65.</ref> When he met [[Voltaire]] in Paris and asked his fellow member of the Enlightenment vanguard to bless his grandson, Voltaire said in English, "God and Liberty", and added, "this is the only appropriate benediction for the grandson of Monsieur Franklin."{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=354}}

Franklin's parents were both pious Puritans.{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|pp=5–18}} The family attended the [[Old South Church]], the most liberal Puritan congregation in Boston, where Benjamin Franklin was baptized in 1706.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oldsouth.org/history.html |title=Isaacson, 2003, p. 15 |publisher=Oldsouth.org |access-date=September 21, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080531090015/http://www.oldsouth.org/history.html |archive-date=May 31, 2008}}</ref> Franklin's father, a poor chandler, owned a copy of a book, ''Bonifacius: Essays to Do Good'', by the Puritan preacher and family friend [[Cotton Mather]], which Franklin often cited as a key influence on his life. "If I have been a useful citizen," Franklin wrote to Cotton Mather's son seventy years later, "the public owes the advantage of it to that book."{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=26}} His first pen name, Silence Dogood, paid homage both to the book and to a widely known sermon by Mather. The book preached the importance of forming [[voluntary association]]s to benefit society. Franklin learned about forming do-good associations from Mather, but his organizational skills made him the most influential force in making [[Volunteering|voluntarism]] an enduring part of the American ethos.{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=102}}

Franklin formulated a presentation of his beliefs and published it in 1728.<ref>{{cite web| last = Franklin| first = Benjamin| title = Articles of Belief and Acts of Religion| work = Benjamin Franklin Papers| publisher = franklinpapers.org| date = November 20, 1728| url = http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/yale;jsessionid=9379F5D050E36AA9D1F95700EE223865?d=-363718316&d=1379669530&vol=1&page=101a| access-date = December 24, 2010| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110726104638/http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/yale;jsessionid=9379F5D050E36AA9D1F95700EE223865?d=-363718316&d=1379669530&vol=1&page=101a| archive-date = July 26, 2011| url-status=dead| df = mdy-all}}</ref> He no longer accepted the key Puritan ideas regarding salvation, the [[Christology|divinity of Jesus]], or indeed much religious dogma. He classified himself as a [[Deism|deist]] in his 1771 autobiography,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Franklin|first=Benjamin|title=Autobiography and other writings|publisher=Riverside|year=1771|location =Cambridge|page=52}}</ref> although he still considered himself a Christian.<ref name="Christian">{{cite book| last=Olson| first=Roger| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rGMKbaNIjIoC&pg=PA61 |title=The Mosaic of Christian Belief: Twenty Centuries of Unity and Diversity |publisher=InterVarsity Press |quote=Other Deists and natural religionists who considered themselves Christians in some sense of the word included Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.| year= 2009| isbn=978-0-8308-2695-7}}</ref> He retained a strong faith in a God as the wellspring of morality and goodness in man, and as a Providential actor in history responsible for American independence.{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=486}}

At a critical impasse during the Constitutional Convention in June 1787, he attempted to introduce the practice of daily common prayer with these words:

{{blockquote|...&nbsp;In the beginning of the contest with G. Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the Divine Protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a Superintending providence in our favor.&nbsp;... And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? or do we imagine that we no longer need His assistance. I have lived, Sir, a long time and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth—that God governs in the affairs of men....I therefore beg leave to move—that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of this City be requested to officiate in that service.<ref>{{cite web |title=Thursday, June 28, 1787 |url=https://www.cui.edu/centers-institutes/center-for-civics-education/convention-a-daily-journal/post/thursday-june-28-1787 |website=www.cui.edu}}</ref>}}

The motion gained almost no support and was never brought to a vote.<ref>[[Clinton Rossiter|Rossiter, Clinton]]. 1787. ''The Grand Convention'' (1966), pp. 184–85.</ref>

Franklin was an enthusiastic admirer of the evangelical minister [[George Whitefield]] during the [[First Great Awakening]]. He did not himself subscribe to Whitefield's theology, but he admired Whitefield for exhorting people to worship God through good works. He published all of Whitefield's sermons and journals, thereby earning a lot of money and boosting the Great Awakening.{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|pp= 107–113}}

When he stopped attending church, Franklin wrote in his autobiography:

{{blockquote|...&nbsp;Sunday being my studying day, I never was without some religious principles. I never doubted, for instance, the existence of the Deity; that He made the world, and governed it by His providence; that the most acceptable service of God was the doing good to man; that our souls are immortal; and that all crime will be punished, and virtue rewarded, either here or hereafter.<ref name="autogenerated1">Franklin Benjamin [http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/autobiography/singlehtml.htm "Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography".] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080905094326/http://ushistory.org/franklin/autobiography/singlehtml.htm |date=September 5, 2008 }} Section 2 reprinted on UShistory.org.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/111frank2.html |title=Benjamin Franklin |publisher=History.hanover.edu |access-date=September 21, 2009}}</ref>}}

Franklin retained a lifelong commitment to the non-religious Puritan virtues and political values he had grown up with, and through his civic work and publishing, he succeeded in passing these values into the American culture permanently. He had a "passion for virtue."{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=485}} These Puritan values included his devotion to egalitarianism, education, industry, thrift, honesty, temperance, charity and community spirit.{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=149}} Thomas Kidd states, "As an adult, Franklin touted ethical responsibility, industriousness, and benevolence, even as he jettisoned Christian orthodoxy."<ref>Kidd (2017) p. 4.</ref>

The classical authors read in the Enlightenment period taught an abstract ideal of republican government based on hierarchical social orders of king, aristocracy and commoners. It was widely believed that English liberties relied on their balance of power, but also hierarchal deference to the privileged class.<ref>Bailyn, 1992, pp. 273–74, 299–300.</ref> "Puritanism&nbsp;... and the epidemic evangelism of the mid-eighteenth century, had created challenges to the traditional notions of social stratification"<ref name="Bailyn303" /> by preaching that the Bible taught all men are equal, that the true value of a man lies in his moral behavior, not his class, and that all men can be saved.<ref name="Bailyn303">Bailyn, 1992, p. 303.</ref> Franklin, steeped in Puritanism and an enthusiastic supporter of the evangelical movement, rejected the salvation dogma but embraced the radical notion of egalitarian democracy.{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}}

Franklin's commitment to teach these values was itself something he gained from his Puritan upbringing, with its stress on "inculcating virtue and character in themselves and their communities."{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|pp=10, 102, 489}} These Puritan values and the desire to pass them on, were one of his quintessentially American characteristics and helped shape the character of the nation. [[Max Weber]] considered Franklin's ethical writings a culmination of the [[Protestant work ethic|Protestant ethic]], which ethic created the social conditions necessary for the birth of [[capitalism]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Weber |first=Max |title=The Protestant Ethic and the "Spirit of Capitalism" |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ez7CAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT11 |publisher=Penguin Books |year=2002 |translator=Peter Baehr |translator2=Gordon C. Wells |pages=9–11 |isbn=9780486122373 }}</ref>

One of his characteristics was his respect, tolerance and promotion of all churches. Referring to his experience in Philadelphia, he wrote in his autobiography, "new Places of worship were continually wanted, and generally erected by voluntary Contribution, my Mite for such purpose, whatever might be the Sect, was never refused."<ref name="autogenerated1" /> "He helped create a new type of nation that would draw strength from its religious [[Pluralism (philosophy)|pluralism]]."{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|pp=93ff}} The evangelical revivalists who were active mid-century, such as Whitefield, were the greatest advocates of religious freedom, "claiming liberty of conscience to be an 'inalienable right of every rational creature.{{' "}}<ref>Bailyn, 1992, p. 249.</ref> Whitefield's supporters in Philadelphia, including Franklin, erected "a large, new hall, that&nbsp;... could provide a pulpit to anyone of any belief."{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=112}} Franklin's rejection of dogma and doctrine and his stress on the God of ethics and morality and [[civic virtue]] made him the "prophet of tolerance."{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|pp=93ff}} He composed "A Parable Against Persecution", an apocryphal 51st chapter of Genesis in which God teaches Abraham the duty of tolerance.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mOEjB0Pdq8oC&pg=PA109|title=The Political Thought of Benjamin Franklin|isbn=978-0-87220-683-0|last1=Franklin|first1=Benjamin|year=2003|publisher=Hackett }}</ref> While he was living in London in 1774, he was present at the birth of [[General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches|British Unitarianism]], attending the inaugural session of the [[Essex Street Chapel]], at which [[Theophilus Lindsey]] drew together the first avowedly [[Unitarianism|Unitarian]] congregation in England; this was somewhat politically risky and pushed [[religious tolerance]] to new boundaries, as a denial of the doctrine of the [[Trinity]] was illegal until [[Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813|the 1813 Act]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unitarian.org.uk/support/doc-EssexHall1.shtml |title=Chapter 2, ''The History of Essex Hall'' by Mortimer Rowe B.A., D.D. Lindsey Press, 1959 |publisher=Unitarian.org.uk |access-date=June 20, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120326074021/http://www.unitarian.org.uk/support/doc-EssexHall1.shtml |archive-date=March 26, 2012 }}</ref>

Although his parents had intended for him a career in the church,<ref name="autobio" /> Franklin as a young man adopted the Enlightenment religious belief in deism, that God's truths can be found entirely through nature and reason,{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p= 46}} declaring, "I soon became a thorough Deist."<ref>{{Cite web|title=Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography|url=http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/preservation/bios/franklin/chpt4.htm|access-date=December 30, 2022|website=www.usgennet.org}}</ref> He rejected Christian dogma in a 1725 pamphlet ''[[A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain]]'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historycarper.com/resources/twobf1/m7.htm |title=A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain |publisher=Historycarper.com |access-date=September 21, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090528094815/http://www.historycarper.com/resources/twobf1/m7.htm |archive-date=May 28, 2009}}</ref> which he later saw as an embarrassment,{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=45}} while simultaneously asserting that God is "all wise, [[Omnibenevolence|all good]], [[Omnipotence|all powerful]]."{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=45}} He defended his rejection of religious dogma with these words: "I think opinions should be judged by their influences and effects; and if a man holds none that tend to make him less virtuous or more vicious, it may be concluded that he holds none that are dangerous, which I hope is the case with me." After the disillusioning experience of seeing the decay in his own moral standards, and those of two friends in London whom he had converted to deism, Franklin decided that deism was true but it was not as useful in promoting personal morality as were the controls imposed by organized religion.{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|pp=46, 486}} Ralph Frasca contends that in his later life he can be considered a non-denominational Christian, although he did not believe Christ was divine.<ref name="Faith">{{cite book |first=Ralph |last=Frasca |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CY2UVzcU5l0C&pg=PA40 |page=40 |title=Benjamin Franklin's Printing Network: Disseminating Virtue in Early America |publisher=[[University of Missouri Press]] |quote=Despite being raised a Puritan of the Congregationalist stripe by his parents, who "brought me through my Childhood piously in the Dissenting Way", Franklin recalled, he abandoned that denomination, briefly embraced deism, and finally became a non-denominational Protestant Christian. |year= 2009 |isbn=978-0-8262-6492-3}}</ref>

In a major scholarly study of his religion, Thomas Kidd argues that Franklin believed that true religiosity was a matter of personal morality and civic virtue. Kidd says Franklin maintained his lifelong resistance to orthodox Christianity while arriving finally at a "doctrineless, moralized Christianity."<ref>Thomas S. Kidd, ''Benjamin Franklin: The Religious Life of a Founding Father'' (Yale UP, 2017) p. 6.</ref> According to David Morgan,<ref>Morgan, David T. "Benjamin Franklin: Champion of Generic Religion". ''The Historian''. 62#4 2000. pp. 722 ff.</ref> Franklin was a proponent of "generic religion." He prayed to "Powerful Goodness" and referred to God as "the infinite." [[John Adams]] noted that he was a mirror in which people saw their own religion: "The [[Catholic Church|Catholics]] thought him almost a Catholic. The [[Church of England]] claimed him as one of them. The [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterians]] thought him half a Presbyterian, and the [[Quakers|Friends]] believed him a wet Quaker." Adams himself decided that Franklin best fit among the "Atheists, Deists, and Libertines."<ref>Kidd, (2017) p. 36.</ref> Whatever else Franklin was, concludes Morgan, "he was a true champion of generic religion." In a letter to Richard Price, Franklin states that he believes religion should support itself without help from the government, claiming, "When a Religion is good, I conceive that it will support itself; and, when it cannot support itself, and God does not take care to support, so that its Professors are oblig'd to call for the help of the Civil Power, it is a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one."<ref>Benjamin Franklin to Richard Price, October 9, 1780 ''Writings'' 8:153–54</ref>

In 1790, just about a month before he died, Franklin wrote a letter to [[Ezra Stiles]], president of [[Yale University]], who had asked him his views on religion:

{{blockquote|As to [[Jesus of Nazareth]], my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupt changes, and I have, with most of the present [[English Dissenters|Dissenters in England]], some Doubts as to his divinity; tho' it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and I think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an Opportunity of knowing the Truth with less Trouble. I see no harm, however, in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequence, as it probably has, of making his doctrines more respected and better observed; especially as I do not perceive that the Supreme takes it amiss, by distinguishing the unbelievers in his government of the world with any particular marks of his displeasure.<ref name="vandoren"/>}}

On July 4, 1776, Congress appointed a three-member committee composed of Franklin, Jefferson, and Adams to design the [[Great Seal of the United States]]. Franklin's proposal (which was not adopted) featured the motto: "Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God" and a scene from the [[Book of Exodus]] he took from the [[Book frontispiece|frontispiece]] of the [[Geneva Bible]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=dseverance |date=October 15, 2019 |title=The Geneva Bible: The First English Study Bible {{!}} Houston Christian University |url=https://hc.edu/museums/dunham-bible-museum/tour-of-the-museum/past-exhibits/from-geneva-the-first-english-study-bible/ |access-date=December 17, 2023 |website=hc.edu |language=en-US}}</ref> with [[Moses]], the [[Israelites]], the [[Pillar of Fire (theophany)|pillar of fire]], and [[George III of the United Kingdom|George III]] depicted as [[Pharaohs in the Bible#Pharaoh of the Exodus|pharaoh]].

[[File:FirstCommitteeGreatSealReverseLossingDrawing.jpg|thumb|upright|Franklin's design for the First Great Seal of America, inspired by the Geneva Bible published in 1560 by [[Rowland Hill|Sir Rowland Hill]] ]]

The design that was produced was not acted upon by Congress, and the Great Seal's design was not finalized until a third committee was appointed in 1782.<ref>"[https://2009-2017.state.gov/documents/organization/27807.pdf The Great Seal of the United States]" (July 2003). [[Bureau of Public Affairs]], [[United States Department of State]].</ref><ref>"1782: Original Design of the Great Seal of the United States", ''Our Documents: 100 Milestone Documents from the National Archives''. [[National Archives and Records Administration|National Archives]] ([[Oxford University Press]], 2006), pp. 18–19.</ref>

Franklin strongly supported the right to [[freedom of speech]]:

{{blockquote|In those wretched countries where a man cannot call his tongue his own, he can scarce call anything his own. Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech&nbsp;...

Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom, and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech, which is the right of every man&nbsp;...|[[Silence Dogood]] no. 8, 1722<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Coffman |editor1-first=Steve |title=Words of the Founding Fathers: Selected Quotations of Franklin, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison and Hamilton, with Sources |year=2012 |publisher=McFarland |location=Jefferson, NC |isbn=978-0-7864-5862-2| page=97| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PsFnB7FA11YC&pg=PA97 }}</ref>}}

===Thirteen Virtues===
[[File:Franklin bust at Columbia University IMG 0924.JPG|thumb|A bust of Franklin in the Archives Department at [[Columbia University]] in New York City]]
Franklin sought to cultivate his character by a plan of 13 virtues, which he developed at age 20 (in 1726) and continued to practice in some form for the rest of his life. His autobiography lists his 13 virtues as:<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin|url=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/benjamin-franklin/the-autobiography-of-benjamin-franklin/text/single-page|access-date=June 12, 2021|website=standardebooks.org}}</ref>

# [[Temperance (virtue)|Temperance]]. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
# [[Silence]]. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
# [[Order (virtue)|Order]]. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
# [[Result|Resolution]]. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
# [[Frugality]]. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
# [[Industriousness|Industry]]. Lose no time; be always employ'd in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
# [[Sincerity]]. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
# [[Justice]]. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
# [[Moderation]]. Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
# [[Cleanliness]]. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.
# [[Tranquility]]. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
# [[Chastity]]. Rarely use [[Human sexuality|venery]] but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.
# [[Humility]]. Imitate Jesus and [[Socrates]].

Franklin did not try to work on them all at once. Instead, he worked on only one each week "leaving all others to their ordinary chance." While he did not adhere completely to the enumerated virtues, and by his own admission he fell short of them many times, he believed the attempt made him a better man, contributing greatly to his success and happiness, which is why in his autobiography, he devoted more pages to this plan than to any other single point and wrote, "I hope, therefore, that some of my descendants may follow the example and reap the benefit."<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin|url=https://www.ushistory.org/franklin/autobiography/page38.htm|access-date=December 30, 2022|website=www.ushistory.org}}</ref>

===Slavery===
Franklin's views and practices concerning slavery evolved over the course of his life. In his early years, Franklin owned seven slaves, including two men who worked in his household and his shop, but in his later years became an adherent of abolition.<ref name="Nash pp. 618"/><ref>{{Cite web|title=Benjamin Franklin Abolitionist|url=https://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_citizen_abolitionist.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120907220334/http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_citizen_abolitionist.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 7, 2012|access-date=March 23, 2021|website=[[PBS]]}}</ref> A revenue stream for his newspaper was paid ads for the sale of slaves and for the capture of runaway slaves and Franklin allowed the sale of slaves in his general store. He later became an outspoken critic of slavery. In 1758, he advocated the opening of a school for the education of black slaves in Philadelphia.<ref>[[#nash2006|Nash, 2006]], pp. 623–624.</ref> He took two slaves to England with him, Peter and King. King escaped with a woman to live in the outskirts of London,<ref>[[#nash2006|Nash, 2006]], pp. 619–620.</ref> and by 1758 he was working for a household in [[Suffolk]].{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|at=Chapter 8, p. 191}} After returning from England in 1762, Franklin became more abolitionist in nature, attacking American slavery. In the wake of ''[[Somerset v Stewart]]'', he voiced frustration at British abolitionists:

{{cquote|O Pharisaical Britain! to pride thyself in setting free a single Slave that happens to land on thy coasts, while thy Merchants in all thy ports are encouraged by thy laws to continue a commerce whereby so many hundreds of thousands are dragged into a slavery that can scarce be said to end with their lives, since it is entailed on their posterity!<ref>{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ebz5CQAAQBAJ&pg=PA37| title = Eighty-eight Years – The Long Death of Slavery in the United States, 1777–1865| year = 2015| publisher = University of Georgia Press| isbn = 9780820333953}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Arnold|first=Isaac N.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RW0FAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA27|title=The History of Abraham Lincoln, and the Overthrow of Slavery|date=1866|publisher=Clarke & Company|language=en}}</ref>}}

Franklin refused to publicly debate the issue of slavery at the 1787 Constitutional Convention.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Waldstreicher |first=David|title=Benjamin Franklin, Slavery, and the Founders: On the dangers of reading backwards|journal=Common-Place|volume=04|number=4|date=July 2004|url=http://commonplace.online/article/benjamin-franklin-slavery/}}</ref>

At the time of the American founding, there were about half a million slaves in the United States, mostly in the five southernmost states, where they made up 40% of the population. Many of the leading American founders{{snd}}such as Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and [[James Madison]]{{snd}}owned slaves, but many others did not. Benjamin Franklin thought that slavery was "an atrocious debasement of human nature" and "a source of serious evils." In 1787, Franklin and [[Benjamin Rush]] helped write a new constitution for the [[Pennsylvania Abolition Society|Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery]],<ref>{{Cite web|title = Founding of Pennsylvania Abolition Society|publisher=[[PBS]] |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3p249.html}}</ref> and that same year Franklin became president of the organization.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Benjamin Franklin and Slavery|url = https://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/education/benjamin-franklin-and-slavery/}}</ref> In 1790, Quakers from New York and Pennsylvania presented their petition for abolition to Congress. Their argument against slavery was backed by the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society.<ref>Benjamin Franklin for The Pennsylvania Abolition Society to the United States Congress, ''The memorial of the Pennsylvania Society for promoting the Abolition of Slavery, the relief of free Negroes unlawfully held in bondage, and the Improvement of the Conditions of the African Race'' (February 3, 1790)</ref>

In his later years, as Congress was forced to deal with the issue of slavery, Franklin wrote several essays that stressed the importance of the [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolition of slavery]] and of the integration of African Americans into American society. These writings included:

* "[[s:An Address to the Public|An Address to the Public]]" (1789)
* "[[s:A Plan for Improving the Condition of the Free Blacks|A Plan for Improving the Condition of the Free Blacks]]" (1789)
* "[[s:Works of the late Doctor Benjamin Franklin/On the Slave Trade|Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim on the Slave Trade]]" (1790)<ref>{{Cite book |editor-last=Jehlen |editor-first=Myra |editor-last2=Warner |editor-first2=Michael |year=1997 |title=The English Literatures of America, 1500–1800 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LAYDAZmrKkgC&pg=PA891 |publisher=Psychology Press |page=891 |isbn=0-415-91903-7}}</ref>

===Vegetarianism===
Franklin became a vegetarian when he was a teenager apprenticing at a print shop, after coming upon a book by the early vegetarian advocate [[Thomas Tryon]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kaiser |first1=Larry |title=What Benjamin Franklin Really Said About Vegetarianism |url=https://www.vrg.org/history/benjamin_franklin.htm |website=The Vegetarian Resource Group |access-date=February 8, 2020}}</ref> In addition, he would have also been familiar with the moral arguments espoused by prominent vegetarian [[Quakers]] in the colonial-era [[Province of Pennsylvania]], including [[Benjamin Lay]] and [[John Woolman]]. His reasons for vegetarianism were based on health, ethics, and economy:

{{Blockquote|When about 16 years of age, I happen'd to meet with a book written by one Tryon, recommending a vegetable diet. I determined to go into it ... [By not eating meat] I presently found that I could save half what [my brother] paid me. This was an additional fund for buying books: but I had another advantage in it ... I made the greater progress from that greater clearness of head and quicker apprehension which usually attend temperance in eating and drinking.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |url=https://archive.org/details/autobiographyofb20203gut |chapter=Part One |first=Benjamin |last=Franklin}}</ref>}}

Franklin also declared the consumption of fish to be "unprovoked murder."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Richards |first1=Jennie |title=Benjamin Franklin said "Eating Flesh is Unprovoked Murder" |url=https://www.humanedecisions.com/benjamin-franklin-said-eating-flesh-is-unprovoked-murder/ |website=Humane Decisions |date=January 20, 2016 |access-date=February 8, 2020}}</ref> Despite his convictions, he [[Pescetarianism|began to eat fish]] after being tempted by fried cod on a boat sailing from Boston, justifying the eating of animals by observing that the fish's stomach contained other fish. Nonetheless, he recognized the faulty ethics in this argument<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lamb |first1=Camille |title=Ben Franklin Practiced Vegetarianism |url=https://www.miaminewtimes.com/restaurants/ben-franklin-practiced-vegetarianism-6599949 |website=Miami New Times |date=April 9, 2012 |access-date=February 8, 2020}}</ref> and would continue to be a vegetarian on and off. He was "excited" by [[tofu]], which he learned of from the writings of a Spanish missionary to Southeast Asia, [[Domingo Fernández Navarrete]]. Franklin sent a sample of [[soybean]]s to prominent American botanist [[John Bartram]] and had previously written to British diplomat and Chinese trade expert [[James Flint (merchant)|James Flint]] inquiring as to how tofu was made,<ref name="feast">{{cite web |title=Benjamin Franklin on Food |url=http://feastandphrase.com/gastronomy-and-non-fiction/benjamin-franklin-on-food/ |website=Feast and Phrase |access-date=February 8, 2020 |archive-date=January 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200124192047/http://feastandphrase.com/gastronomy-and-non-fiction/benjamin-franklin-on-food/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> with their correspondence believed to be the first documented use of the word "tofu" in the English language.<ref>{{cite book|title=History of Tofu and Tofu Products (965 CE to 2013)|last1 = Shurtleff|first1 = William|author-link=William Shurtleff | last2 = Aoyagi| first2 = Akiko|year=2013|isbn=9781928914556|page=73|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gGrUNvZt0_YC&pg=PA73 |publisher=Soyinfo Center}}</ref>

Franklin's "Second Reply to ''Vindex Patriae,''" a 1766 letter advocating self-sufficiency and less dependence on England, lists various examples of the bounty of American agricultural products, and does not mention meat.<ref name="feast" /> Detailing new American customs, he wrote that, "[t]hey resolved last spring to eat no more lamb; and not a joint of lamb has since been seen on any of their tables ... the sweet little creatures are all alive to this day, with the prettiest fleeces on their backs imaginable."<ref>{{cite web |title="Homespun": Second Reply to "Vindex Patriae" |url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-13-02-0003 |website=Founders Online |publisher=National Archives: National Historical Publications and Records Commission |access-date=February 8, 2020}}</ref>

===View on inoculation===
The concept of preventing [[smallpox]] by [[variolation]] was introduced to colonial America by an African slave named [[Onesimus (Bostonian)|Onesimus]] via his owner [[Cotton Mather]] in the early eighteenth century, but the procedure was not immediately accepted. [[James Franklin (printer)|James Franklin]]'s newspaper carried articles in 1721<ref>{{cite web | last1=Chauret | first1=Christian | last2=Canada | first2=Mark | title=Benjamin Franklin's fight against a deadly virus: Colonial America was divided over smallpox inoculation, but he championed science to skeptics | website=The Conversation | date=2021-01-01 | url=https://theconversation.com/benjamin-franklins-fight-against-a-deadly-virus-colonial-america-was-divided-over-smallpox-inoculation-but-he-championed-science-to-skeptics-161569 | access-date=2025-05-24}}</ref> that vigorously denounced the concept.<ref>One article posited that "epidemeal distempers (such as smallpox) come as Judgments from an angry and displeased God."</ref>

However, by 1736 Benjamin Franklin was known as a supporter of the procedure. Therefore, when four-year-old "Franky" died of smallpox, opponents of the procedure circulated rumors that the child had been inoculated, and that this was the cause of his subsequent death. When Franklin became aware of this gossip, he placed a notice in the ''Pennsylvania Gazette'', stating: "I do hereby sincerely declare, that he was not inoculated, but receiv'd the Distemper in the common Way of Infection ... I intended to have my Child inoculated." The child had a bad case of flux [[diarrhea]], and his parents had waited for him to get well before having him inoculated. Franklin wrote in his ''Autobiography'': "In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the small-pox, taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly, and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a child died under it; my example showing that the regret may be the same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://view.email.bostonglobe.com/?qs=cdc7f8085ee22f77eb071f6b9d9e4071a0c765f900ec6e121cc219f15fe3c7b0f14dac08a385bc3075ebdbdb0e92897b4a55d30a33d253fbd5bcff3a28c6d7166f8706d88252c267ccf997fa7e5174efba5c09e5fabbbcde|title=A Founding Father's Vaccine Regret|first=Jeff |last=Jacoby|date=September 27, 2021|access-date=September 27, 2021|via=[[Boston Globe]]}}</ref>

==Views on the future of technology==

In a letter to [[Joseph Priestley]] (8 Feb. 1780), Benjamin Franklin speculated that in the future "all Diseases may by sure means be prevented or cured, not excepting even that of [[Aging|Old Age]], and our Lives lengthened at pleasure even beyond the [[Methuselah|antediluvian Standard]]".<ref>{{cite web | title=Adams Papers Digital Edition - Massachusetts Historical Society | url=https://www.masshist.org/publications/adams-papers/index.php/volume/PJA20/pageid/PJA20p359 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Founders Online: Benjamin Franklin to Joseph Priestley, 8 February 1780 | url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-31-02-0325 }}</ref> In the same letter, Franklin wrote:<ref>{{cite web | title=In the Words of America's Science Writers | date=June 28, 2016 | url=https://americanwritersmuseum.org/in-the-words-of-americas-science-writers/ }}</ref>

<blockquote>
The rapid progress true science now makes, occasions my regretting sometimes that I was born so soon: it is impossible to imagine the height to which may be carried, in a thousand years, the power of man over matter; we may perhaps learn to [[antigravity|deprive large masses of their gravity]], and give them absolute levity for the sake of easy transport. Agriculture may diminish its labour and [[Third Agricultural Revolution|double its produce]]...
</blockquote>

In 1773, Franklin imagined a technology similar to [[cryonics]]:<ref>{{cite web | title=Would you pay £40,000 to be woken up in the future? | date=April 8, 2008 | url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/2178398.Would_you_pay_40_000_to_be_woken_up_in_the_future/ }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine | last1=Morton | first1=Tom | title=Cryonics and the Pursuit of Freedom from Mortality | magazine=Frieze | date=November 11, 2002 | issue=71 | url=https://www.frieze.com/article/cryonics-and-pursuit-freedom-mortality }}</ref> 
<blockquote>
I wish it were possible to invent a method of [[embalming]] drowned persons in such a manner that they might be recalled to life at any period, however distant; for having a very ardent desire to see and observe the state of America a hundred years hence...
</blockquote>

==Interests and activities==
===Musical endeavors===
[[File:Glassharmonica.png|thumb|While in London, Franklin developed an improved version of the [[glass harmonica]]]]
Franklin is known to have played the violin, the harp, and the guitar. He also composed music, which included a [[string quartet]] in [[classical period (music)|early classical style]].<ref>{{cite web | title=Benjamin Franklin, the Composer | last=Korn | first=Michael |website=Institute for Music Leadership | date=September 28, 2015 | url=https://iml.esm.rochester.edu/polyphonic-archive/article/benjamin-franklin-the-composer/ | access-date=April 3, 2021}}</ref> While he was in London, he developed a much-improved version of the [[glass harmonica]], in which the glasses rotate on a shaft, with the player's fingers held steady, instead of the other way around. He worked with the London glassblower Charles James to create it, and instruments based on his mechanical version soon found their way to other parts of Europe.<ref>{{Cite web|title=GFI Scientific glass blowing products and services|url=https://www.finkenbeiner.com/gh.html|access-date=December 30, 2022|publisher= G Finkenbeiner Inc.}}</ref> [[Joseph Haydn]], a fan of Franklin's enlightened ideas, had a glass harmonica in his instrument collection.<ref>{{cite book |first=Robin |last=Watefield |author-link=Robin Waterfield |title=Hidden Depths: The Story of Hypnosis: The Story of Hypnosis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JtJ5F1cr8WEC&pg=PA67 |publisher=Routledge |date=August 1, 2003 |page=67 |isbn=978-1-135-40367-6}}</ref> [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]] composed for Franklin's glass harmonica,<ref name="Harvard">{{cite book |last=Apel |first=Willi |year=1969 |chapter=Glass harmonica |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=TMdf1SioFk4C&pg=PA347 |title=Harvard Dictionary of Music |page=347 |publisher=Harvard |isbn=9780674375017}}</ref> as did [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-feb-25-mn-30005-story.html |title='Armonicists' Debate Source of Beethoven's Maladies |first=Richard |last=Benke |date=February 25, 2001 |access-date=August 21, 2018 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/1983/1129/112916.html |title=Franklin invented it, Mozart wrote for it: the 'armonica' returns |last=Carmel |first=Jeffrey J. |date=November 22, 1983 |access-date=August 21, 2018 |work=The Christian Science Monitor}}</ref> [[Gaetano Donizetti]] used the instrument in the accompaniment to Amelia's aria "Par che mi dica ancora" in the tragic opera ''[[Il castello di Kenilworth]]'' (1821),<ref name="Osborne1994">{{cite book|first=Charles |last=Osborne|title=The bel canto operas of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini|url=https://archive.org/details/belcantooperasof0000osbo|url-access=registration|date=April 1, 1994|publisher=Amadeus Press|isbn=978-0-931340-71-0}}</ref> as did [[Camille Saint-Saëns]] in his 1886 ''[[The Carnival of the Animals]]''.<ref>{{IMSLP|work=La_Carnaval_des_Animaux_%28Saint-Sa%C3%ABns%2C_Camille%29|cname=''The Carnival of the Animals''}}</ref> [[Richard Strauss]] calls for the glass harmonica in his 1917 ''[[Die Frau ohne Schatten]]'',<ref name="Harvard"/> and numerous other composers used Franklin's instrument as well.{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}}

===Chess===
[[File:Franklin Chess Club - DPLA - 0aa95351d7bea2d85f77a6d1400e9820.jpg|thumb|The Franklin Mercantile Chess Club in [[Philadelphia]], named in Franklin's honor]]

Franklin was an avid [[chess]] player. He was playing chess by around 1733, making him the first chess player known by name in the American colonies.<ref name="McCraryChessandFranklin">{{cite web |first=John |last=McCrary |url=http://www.benfranklin300.org/_etc_pdf/Chess_John_McCrary.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.benfranklin300.org/_etc_pdf/Chess_John_McCrary.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live |title=Chess and Benjamin Franklin-His Pioneering Contributions |access-date=April 26, 2009 }}</ref> His essay on "[[The Morals of Chess]]" in ''[[Columbian Magazine]]'' in December 1786 is the second known writing on chess in America.<ref name="McCraryChessandFranklin"/> This essay in praise of chess and prescribing a code of behavior for the game has been widely reprinted and translated.<ref>[[David Vincent Hooper|David Hooper]] and [[Kenneth Whyld]], ''The Oxford Companion to Chess'', Oxford University Press (2nd ed. 1992), p. 145. {{ISBN|0-19-866164-9}}.</ref><ref>The essay appears in [[Marcello Truzzi]] (ed.), ''Chess in Literature'', Avon Books, 1974, pp. 14–15. {{ISBN|0-380-00164-0}}.</ref><ref>The essay appears in a book by the felicitously named Norman Knight, "Chess Pieces", ''[[Chess Magazine]]'', [[Sutton Coldfield]], England (2nd ed. 1968), pp. 5–6. {{ISBN|0-380-00164-0}}.</ref><ref>Franklin's essay is also reproduced at the [https://web.archive.org/web/20100522105848/http://www.washingtonpost.com/gog/museums/u.s.-chess-center-museum-and-hall-of-fame,800594.html U.S. Chess Center Museum and Hall of Fame] in Washington, DC. Retrieved December 3, 2008.</ref> He and a friend used chess as a means of learning the Italian language, which both were studying; the winner of each game between them had the right to assign a task, such as parts of the Italian grammar to be learned by heart, to be performed by the loser before their next meeting.<ref>[[William Temple Franklin]], ''Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin'', reprinted in Knight, ''Chess Pieces'', pp. 136–37.</ref>

Franklin was able to play chess more frequently against stronger opposition during his many years as a civil servant and diplomat in England, where the game was far better established than in America. He was able to improve his playing standard by facing more experienced players during this period. He regularly attended [[Old Slaughter's Coffee House]] in London for chess and socializing, making many important personal contacts. While in Paris, both as a visitor and later as ambassador, he visited the famous [[Café de la Régence]], which France's strongest players made their regular meeting place. No records of his games have survived, so it is not possible to ascertain his playing strength in modern terms.<ref>{{cite book |title=The History of Chess in Fifty Moves |first=Bill |last=Price |publisher=Firefly Books (U.S.) Inc. |location=Buffalo, New York |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-77085-529-8 |pages=90–95 }}</ref>

Franklin was inducted into the [[World Chess Hall of Fame|U.S. Chess Hall of Fame]] in 1999.<ref name="McCraryChessandFranklin"/> The Franklin Mercantile Chess Club in Philadelphia, the second oldest chess club in the U.S., is named in his honor.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Murrell|first=David|date=April 21, 2017|title=How the Country's Second Oldest Chess Club is Surviving in a Center City Basement|work=The Philadelphia Inquirer|url=https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news/pennsylvania/philadelphia/Franklin-Mercantile-Chess-club.html|access-date=September 17, 2021}}</ref>

==Legacy==
{{Further|List of places named for Benjamin Franklin|Benjamin Franklin in popular culture}}
{{Infobox designation list
| embed                   =
| designation1            = Pennsylvania
| designation1_offname    = Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)
| designation1_type       = City
| designation1_criteria   = Government & Politics, Government & Politics 18th Century, Invention, Science & Medicine, Professions & Vocations, Publishing & Journalism, Writers
| designation1_date       = June 30, 1990<ref>{{cite web |title=Pennsylvania Historical Marker Search |url=http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/PHMCWebSearch/ViewMarker.aspx?markerId=1045 |website=PHMC |access-date=November 3, 2018}}</ref>
| delisted1_date          =
| designation1_partof     =
| designation1_number     =
| designation1_free1name  = Location
| designation1_free1value = [[Chestnut Street (Philadelphia)|Chestnut St.]] between 3rd & 4th Sts., at [[National Liberty Museum|Nat'l. Liberty Mus.]], [[Philadelphia]]<br /><small>{{coord|39.94881|-75.14683|type:landmark_region:US-PA|display=inline}}</small>
| designation1_free2name  = Marker Text
| designation1_free2value = Printer, author, inventor, diplomat, philanthropist, statesman, and scientist. The eighteenth century's most illustrious Pennsylvanian built a house in Franklin Court starting in 1763, and here he lived the last five years of his life.
| designation1_free3name  =
| designation1_free3value =
}}

===Bequest===
[[File:Benjamin Franklin National Memorial.jpg|thumb|upright|left|The [[Benjamin Franklin National Memorial]] at the [[Franklin Institute]] in Philadelphia]]

Franklin [[bequest|bequeathed]] £1,000 (about $4,400 at the time, or about $125,000 in 2021 dollars<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/uscompare/ |title=Seven Ways to Compute the Relative Value of a U.S. Dollar Amount – 1790 to Present |website=measuringworth.com |access-date=October 21, 2021 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070408052700/http://measuringworth.com/calculators/uscompare/ |archive-date=April 8, 2007 }}</ref>) each to the cities of Boston and Philadelphia, in trust to gather interest for 200 years. The trust began in 1785 when the French mathematician [[Charles-Joseph Mathon de la Cour]], who admired Franklin greatly, wrote a friendly parody of Franklin's ''Poor Richard's Almanack'' called ''Fortunate Richard''. The main character leaves a smallish amount of money in his will, five lots of 100 ''[[French livre|livres]]'', to collect interest over one, two, three, four or five full centuries, with the resulting astronomical sums to be spent on impossibly elaborate utopian projects.<ref>Richard Price. ''Observations on the Importance of the American Revolution, and the Means of Making it a Benefit to the World. To which is added, a Letter from M. Turgot, late Comptroller-General of the Finances of France: with an Appendix, containing a Translation of the Will of M. Fortuné Ricard, lately published in France.'' London: T. Cadell, 1785.</ref> Franklin, who was 79 years old at the time, wrote thanking him for a great idea and telling him that he had decided to leave a bequest of 1,000&nbsp;pounds each to his native Boston and his adopted Philadelphia.

By 1990, more than $2,000,000 (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=2000000|start_year=1990}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}) had accumulated in Franklin's Philadelphia trust, which had loaned the money to local residents. From 1940 to 1990, the money was used mostly for mortgage loans. When the trust came due, Philadelphia decided to spend it on scholarships for local high school students. Franklin's Boston trust fund accumulated almost $5,000,000 during that same time; at the end of its first 100 years a portion was allocated to help establish a [[Vocational school|trade school]] that became the [[Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology|Franklin Institute of Boston]], and the entire fund was later dedicated to supporting this institute.<ref>{{cite web|date=February 7, 1993|title=Excerpt from Philadelphia Inquirer article by Clark De Leon|url=http://www.mathsci.appstate.edu/~sjg/class/1010/wc/finance/franklin1.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100510050913/http://www.mathsci.appstate.edu/~sjg/class/1010/wc/finance/franklin1.html|archive-date=May 10, 2010|access-date=September 21, 2009|publisher=Mathsci.appstate.edu}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=History of the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology|url=http://www.bfit.edu/aboutus/history.php|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080731130624/http://www.bfit.edu/aboutus/history.php|archive-date=July 31, 2008|access-date=September 21, 2009|publisher=Bfit.edu}}</ref>

In 1787, a group of prominent ministers in [[Lancaster, Pennsylvania]], proposed the foundation of a new college named in Franklin's honor. Franklin donated £200 towards the development of Franklin College (now called [[Franklin & Marshall College]]).<ref>{{cite web|title=Letter of introduction: image|url=http://library.fandm.edu/archives/foundingdocs/fclist.jpg|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120301155906/http://library.fandm.edu/archives/foundingdocs/fclist.jpg|archive-date=March 1, 2012|access-date=September 17, 2021|website=Library.fandm.edu|format=JPG}}</ref>

=== Likeness and image ===
[[File:2012-07 ncc 04.JPG|thumb|A life-size bronze statue of Franklin (seated with cane) in the [[National Constitution Center]] in Philadelphia]]

As the only person to have signed the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]] in 1776, [[Treaty of Alliance (1778)|Treaty of Alliance with France]] in 1778, [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|Treaty of Paris]] in 1783, and [[Constitution of the United States|U.S. Constitution]] in 1787, Franklin is considered one of the leading [[Founding Fathers of the United States]]. His pervasive influence in the early history of the nation has led to his being jocularly called "the only president of the United States who was never president of the United States."<ref>[[Everything You Know Is Wrong|Firesign Theater quote, meant humorously but poignantly.]]</ref>

Franklin's likeness is ubiquitous. Since 1914, it has adorned American [[United States one-hundred-dollar bill|$100 bills]]. From 1948 to 1963, Franklin's portrait was on the [[Franklin half dollar|half-dollar]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Breen|first=Walter|title=Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins|publisher=Doubleday|year=1988|isbn=978-0-385-14207-6|location=New York|author-link=Walter H. Breen}}</ref> He has appeared on a [[United States fifty-dollar bill|$50 bill]] and on several varieties of the $100 bill from 1914 and 1918.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wilhite|first=Robert|url=https://archive.org/details/standardcatalogo0000krau|title=Standard Catalog of United States Paper Money (17th ed)|publisher=Krause Pubns Inc|year=1998|isbn=0-87341-653-8|url-access=registration}}</ref> Franklin also appears on the $1,000 [[United States Savings Bonds#Series EE|Series EE savings bond]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.treasurydirect.gov/instit/savbond/mat/clipart/clipart_savbond.htm |title=U.S. Savings Bond Images |website=treasurydirect.gov |access-date=October 21, 2021 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060905172433/http://www.treasurydirect.gov/instit/savbond/mat/clipart/clipart_savbond.htm |archive-date=September 5, 2006 }}</ref>
[[File:Franklin Half 1963 D Obverse.png|alt=silver coin with man's face painting left on it|thumb|180x180px|Obverse of the 1963 [[Franklin half dollar]]]]
On April 12, 1976, as part of a [[United States Bicentennial|bicentennial]] celebration, [[United States Congress|Congress]] dedicated a {{convert|20|ft|adj=on|0}} tall marble statue in Philadelphia's [[Franklin Institute]] as the [[Benjamin Franklin National Memorial]]. Vice President [[Nelson Rockefeller]] presided over the dedication ceremony.<ref>{{cite news |date=April 13, 1976 | title=Memorial dedicated |work=The Intelligencer |agency=Associated Press |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/68328398/the-daily-intelligencer/ |access-date=January 23, 2021 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Many of Franklin's personal possessions are on display at the institute. In London, his house at 36 Craven Street, which is the only surviving former residence of Franklin, was first marked with a [[blue plaque]] and has since been opened to the public as the [[Benjamin Franklin House]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=Benjamin Franklin House |journal=Nature |volume=160 |issue=4053 |page=15 |bibcode=1947Natur.160S..15. |year=1947 |doi=10.1038/160015c0 |doi-access=free }}</ref> In 1998, workmen restoring the building dug up the remains of six children and four adults hidden below the home. A total of 15 bodies have been recovered.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Schultz|first=Colin|date=October 23, 2013|title=Why Was Benjamin Franklin's Basement Filled with Skeletons?|work=Smithsonian Magazine|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-was-benjamin-franklins-basement-filled-with-skeletons-524521/|access-date=September 17, 2021}}</ref> The Friends of Benjamin Franklin House (the organization responsible for the restoration) note that the bones were likely placed there by [[William Hewson (surgeon)|William Hewson]], who lived in the house for two years and who had built a small anatomy school at the back of the house. They note that while Franklin likely knew what Hewson was doing, he probably did not participate in any dissections because he was much more of a physicist than a medical man.<ref>{{cite newsletter |magazine=The Craven Street Gazette |url=http://www.benjaminfranklinhouse.org/site/sections/news/pdf/Issue2.pdf  |publisher=The Friends of Benjamin Franklin House |title=Skeletons in the Closet |page=1 |access-date=September 8, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050929140325/http://www.benjaminfranklinhouse.org/site/sections/news/pdf/Issue2.pdf |archive-date=September 29, 2005 |date=August 1998 |url-status=deviated}}</ref>

He has been honored on U.S. postage stamps many times. The image of Franklin, the first postmaster general of the United States, occurs on the face of U.S. postage more than any other American save that of George Washington.<ref name="Scotts">Scotts Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps</ref> He appeared on the first U.S. postage stamp issued in 1847. From 1908 through 1923, the U.S. Post Office issued a series of postage stamps commonly referred to as the [[Washington–Franklin Issues]], in which Washington and Franklin were depicted many times over a 14-year period, the longest run of any one series in U.S. postal history. However, he only appears on a few [[:File:Ben Franklin 250th 1956 issue-3c.jpg|commemorative stamps]]. Some of the finest portrayals of Franklin on record can be found on the engravings inscribed on the face of U.S. postage.<ref name="Scotts" />

[[File:New100front.jpg|thumb|center|upright=1.8|{{center|Franklin has appeared on the [[United States one hundred-dollar bill|United States $100 bill]] since 1914.}}]]

{{Multiple image
 | align = center
 | caption_align = center
 | total_width = 800
 | image1 = Benjamin Franklin 1861 Issue-1c.jpg
 | caption1 = Issue of 1861
 | image2 = Benjamin Franklin2 1895 Issue-1c.jpg
 | caption2 = Issue of 1895
 | image3 = Benjamin Franklin 2-Big-Bens 1918 Issue.jpg
 | caption3 = Issue of 1918
 | footer = Examples of Franklin on U. S. Postage
}}

==See also==
* [[Benjamin Franklin in popular culture]]
* [[Bibliography of early American publishers and printers]]
* [[Founders Online]], database of Franklin's papers
* [[Franklin's electrostatic machine]]
* [[Fugio Cent]], 1787 coin designed by Franklin
* [[List of early American publishers and printers]]
* [[List of opponents of slavery]]
* [[List of richest Americans in history]]
* ''[[The Papers of Benjamin Franklin]]''
* {{annotated link|Royal Commission on Animal Magnetism}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=Note}}

==Citations==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==Bibliography==
{{main|Bibliography of Benjamin Franklin}}
{{further|Bibliography of early American publishers and printers}}
{{Library resources box|by=yes|onlinebooks=yes|viaf=56609913}}
{{refbegin}}

==References==
* [[Carl L. Becker|Becker, Carl Lotus]]. "Benjamin Franklin", ''Dictionary of American Biography'' (1931) – vol 3, with links [http://tigger.uic.edu/~rjensen/franklin.htm#becker online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100316174915/http://tigger.uic.edu/~rjensen/franklin.htm#becker |date=March 16, 2010 }}
* {{cite book |first=H. W. |last=Brands |title=The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin |year=2000 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing |isbn=978-0-385-49540-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/firstamericanlif00bran |ref=brands2000 | place=New York}}
* {{cite book | last=Crane | first=Vernon W. | title=Benjamin Franklin and a Rising People | year=1954 | access-date=June 2, 2024 | place=Boston | url=https://archive.org/details/benjaminfranklin00cran | publisher=Little, Brown and Company| isbn=978-0-673-39330-2|ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last=Franklin | first=Benjamin  | title=The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin | publisher=Garden City Publishing Company | place=Garden City, NY | editor-last=Pine | editor-first=Frank Woodworth | url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015008997101&seq=9 | access-date=June 4, 2024 | year=1916|ref={{SfnRef|Franklin|Pine|1916}}}}
* {{cite book | last=Gaustad | first=Edwin S. | title=Benjamin Franklin | year=2006 | isbn=9780195305357 | publisher=Oxford University Press | place=New York |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |title=Benjamin Franklin: An American Life |last=Isaacson |first=Walter |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2003 |location=New York |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L64OOJGaCKIC |isbn=9780684807614 }}
* {{cite book | last=Ketcham | first=Ralph L. | title=Benjamin Franklin | year=1966 | place=New York | publisher=Washington Square Press| ref=none}}
* {{cite book | author=[[Leo Lemay|Lemay, J.A. Leo]] | title=The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 1: Journalist, 1706{{endash}}1739 | place=Philadelphia | year=2005 | isbn=978-0-8122-3854-9 | publisher=University of Pennsylvania| ref=none}} 
* {{cite book | author=[[Leo Lemay|Lemay, J.A. Leo]] | title=The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 2: Printer and Publisher, 1730{{endash}}1747 | year=2005a | place=Philadelphia | publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press | isbn=978-0-8122-3855-6 |ref={{SfnRef|Lemay|2005a}}}}
* {{cite book | author=[[Leo Lemay|Lemay, J.A. Leo]] | title=The Life of Benjamin Franklin, Volume 3: Soldier, scientist, and politician, 1748{{endash}}1757 | year=2008 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NL5bcRP5aRAC&pg=PA245| publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press | isbn=978-0-8122-4121-1|ref={{SfnRef|Lemay|2008}}}}
* {{cite book | author=[[Edmund Morgan (historian)|Morgan, Edmund S.]] | title=Benjamin Franklin | year=2002 | place=New Haven, CT | isbn=0-300-10162-7 | publisher=Yale University Press| ref=none}}
* {{cite book | author=[[Stacy Schiff|Schiff, Stacy]] | title=A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America | year=2005 | publisher=Henry Holt | place=New York | isbn=978-0-8050-8009-4| ref=none}}
* {{cite book | author=[[James Srodes|Srodes, James]] | title=Franklin, The Essential Founding Father | year=2002 | publisher=Regnery History |isbn=978-0-89526-163-2 | place=Washington, DC| ref=none}}
* {{cite book|last=Van Doren|first=Carl|title=Benjamin Franklin| year=1945|author-link=Carl Van Doren|publisher=Viking|isbn=978-1-931541-85-5 | url=https://digital.libraries.psu.edu/digital/collection/digitalbks2/id/90990/| access-date=April 9, 2025|place=New York}}
* Wood, Gordon. "Benjamin Franklin" ''Encyclopedia Britannica'' (2021) [https://web.archive.org/web/20210702062014/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Benjamin-Franklin online] 
* {{cite book | author=[[Gordon S. Wood|Wood, Gordon]] | title=The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin | year=2004 | isbn=1-59420-019-X | publisher=Penguin | place=New York|  url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ak1RVLZDv4gC&pg=PA17| ref={{SfnRef|Wood|2005}}}}
* {{cite book | author=[[Esmond Wright|Wright, Esmond]] | title=Franklin of Philadelphia | year=1988 | isbn=978-0-674-31810-6 | publisher=Belknap Press | place=Cambridge, MA| ref=none}}

===Scholarly studies===
* {{cite web |title=Inventor |url=http://fi.edu/franklin/inventor/inventor.html |publisher=The Franklin Institute |access-date=April 25, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070305234033/http://fi.edu/franklin/inventor/inventor.html |archive-date=March 5, 2007 |url-status=dead |ref=institute }}
* {{cite book | last=Anderson | first=Douglas | title=The Radical Enlightenments of Benjamin Franklin  | year=1997 | place=Baltimore | publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press | isbn=978-0801854453| ref=none}}
* {{cite book | editor-last=Buxbaum | editor-first=M. H. | title=Critical Essays on Benjamin Franklin | year=1987 | isbn=978-0816186990 | publisher=GK Hall | place=Boston| ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last=Chaplin | first=Joyce | title=The First Scientific American: Benjamin Franklin and the Pursuit of Genius | year=2007 | place=New York | publisher=Basic Books | isbn=978-0465009565| ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last=Cohen  | first=I. Bernard | author-link=I. Bernard Cohen| title=Benjamin Franklin's Science | year=1990 | place=Cambridge, MA | publisher=Harvard University Press | isbn=978-0674066588| ref={{SfnRef|Cohen|1990}}}}
* {{cite book | last=Conner | first=Paul W. | title=Poor Richard's Politicks: Benjamin Franklin and His New American Order | year=1965 |isbn=978-0195005141 | place=New York | publisher=Oxford University Press| ref=none}}  
* {{cite thesis | date=2011 | last=Dixon | first=Charles Robert | title=All about the Benjamins: The Nineteenth Century Character Assassination of Benjamin Franklin | degree=PhD | publisher=University of Alabama| ref=none}} ProQuest Dissertations, 3461038.
* {{cite book | author=[[Philip Dray|Dray, Philip]] | title=Stealing God's Thunder: Benjamin Franklin's Lightning Rod and the Invention of America | year=2005 | isbn=978-0812968101 | place=New York | publisher=Random House| ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last=Dull | first=Jonathan R. | title=A Diplomatic History of the American Revolution | year=1985 | isbn=978-0300034196 | place=New Haven | publisher=Yale University Press| ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last=Dull | first=Jonathan R. | title=Benjamin Franklin and the American Revolution | year=2010 | isbn=978-0803230330 | publisher=University of Nebraska Press | place=Lincoln, NE| ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last=Ford | first=Paul Leicester | title=The Many-Sided Franklin | year=1921 | url=https://archive.org/details/manysidedfrankli01ford | place=New York | access-date=June 5, 2024 | publisher=The Century Company| ref=none}} 
** [https://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/sgml/moa-idx?notisid=ABP2287-0058-201 "Franklin as Politician and Diplomatist"] in ''The Century'' (October 1899) v. 57 pp.&nbsp;881–899. By Paul Leicester Ford.
** [https://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/sgml/moa-idx?notisid=ABP2287-0057-169 "Franklin as Printer and Publisher"] in ''The Century'' (April 1899) v. 57 pp.&nbsp;803–818.
** [https://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/sgml/moa-idx?notisid=ABP2287-0058-172 "Franklin as Scientist"] in ''The Century'' (September 1899) v.57 pp.&nbsp;750–763. By Paul Leicester Ford.
* Frasca, Ralph. "Benjamin Franklin's Printing Network and the Stamp Act." ''Pennsylvania History'' 71.4 (2004): 403–419 [https://journals.psu.edu/index.php/phj/article/download/25899/25668 online] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210115040142/https://journals.psu.edu/index.php/phj/article/download/25899/25668 |date=January 15, 2021 }}.
* Frasca, Ralph. ''Benjamin Franklin's printing network: disseminating virtue in early America'' (U of Missouri Press, 2006) [https://www.amazon.com/Benjamin-Franklins-Printing-Network-Disseminating/dp/0826216145/ excerpt].
* {{cite journal | last1 = Gleason | first1 = Philip | year = 2000 | title = Trouble in the Colonial Melting Pot | journal = Journal of American Ethnic History | volume = 20 | issue = 1| pages = 3–17 | doi = 10.2307/27502642 | jstor = 27502642 | s2cid = 254480258 }}
* {{cite thesis | date=2000 | last=Hartsock | first=Pamela Ann | title='Tracing the Pattern among the Tangled Threads': The Composition and Publication History of 'The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin' | degree=PhD|publisher=University of Missouri | ref=none}} ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 9999293.
* {{cite book | last=Houston | first=Alan | title=Benjamin Franklin and the Politics of Improvement | year=2008 | isbn=978-0-300-12447-7 | place=New Haven | publisher=Yale University Press| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dMN9VEhrTxwC&pg=PA106}} 
* Kidd, Thomas S. ''Benjamin Franklin: The Religious Life of a Founding Father'' (Yale UP, 2017) [https://www.amazon.com/Benjamin-Franklin-Religious-Founding-Father/dp/0300217498/ excerpt]
* {{cite book | editor-last=Lemay | editor-first=J.A. Leo | title=Reappraising Benjamin Franklin: A Bicentennial Perspective  | year=1993 | access-date=June 5, 2024 | url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_087413448X | place=Newark, DE | publisher=University of Delaware Press | isbn=0-87413-448-X| ref=none}}
* {{cite journal | last=Mathews | first=L.K. | title=Benjamin Franklin's Plans for a Colonial Union, 1750–1775 | journal=American Political Science Review | volume=8 | date=August 1914 | issue=3 | pages=393–412 | doi=10.2307/1946173 | jstor=1946173 | url=https://archive.org/details/jstor-1946173 | access-date=June 5, 2024| ref=none}}
* {{cite journal | last1 = McCoy | first1 = Drew R. | author-link = Drew R. McCoy | year = 1978 | title = Benjamin Franklin's Vision of a Republican Political Economy for America | journal = William and Mary Quarterly | volume = 35 | issue = 4| pages = 607–628 | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1923207 | doi = 10.2307/1923207 | jstor = 1923207 | access-date=June 5, 2024| ref=none| url-access = subscription }}
* {{cite book | editor-last1=Merli | editor-first1=Frank J  | editor-first2=Theodore A. | editor-last2=Wilson | title=Makers of American Diplomacy, from Benjamin Franklin to Henry Kissinger | year=1974 | url=https://archive.org/details/makersofamerican00merl | access-date=June 5, 2024 | place=New York | publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons | isbn=0-684-13786-0|ref=none}} 
* {{cite journal | last=Mulford | first=Carla | title=Figuring Benjamin Franklin in American Cultural Memory | journal=New England Quarterly | volume=72 |issue=3 | year=1999| pages=415–443 | doi=10.2307/366890 | jstor=366890 | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/366890 | access-date=June 5, 2024|ref=none| url-access=subscription }}
* {{Cite journal|last=Nash|first=Gary B.|date=December 2006|title=Franklin and Slavery|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4599029|journal=Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society|volume=150|issue=4|pages=618–638|jstor=4599029|ref=nash2006}}
* {{cite journal | last=Newman | first=Simon P. | title=Benjamin Franklin and the Leather-Apron Men: The Politics of Class in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia | journal=Journal of American Studies | date=August 2009 | volume=43 | issue=2 | pages=161–175 | doi=10.1017/S0021875809990089 | jstor=40464376 | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40464376 | access-date=June 5, 2024| ref=none| url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite book|last=Olsen|first=Neil C.|year=2013|title=Pursuing Happiness: The Organizational Culture of the Continental Congress|publisher=Nonagram Publications|isbn=978-1-4800-6550-5 | place=Milford, CT}}
* {{cite book | last=Olson | first=Lester C. | title=Benjamin Franklin's Vision of American Community: A Study in Rhetorical Iconology  | year=2004 | publisher=University of South Carolina Press | place=Columbia, SC | isbn=1-57003-525-3| ref=none}} 
* {{cite journal | last=Rosenthall | first=Karen M. | title=A Generative Populace: Benjamin Franklin's Economic Agendas | journal=Early American Literature | volume=51 | issue=3 | year=2016 | pages=571–598 | doi=10.1353/eal.2016.0047 | jstor=90000884 | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/90000884 | access-date=June 5, 2024| ref=none| url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite journal | last=Royot | first=Daniel | title=Review: New Perspectives on Benjamin Franklin's Humor | journal=Studies in American Humor | year=2006 | volume=3 | issue=14 | pages=133–138 | jstor=42573707 | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42573707 | access-date=June 5, 2024| ref=none}}
* {{cite book | last=Schiffer | first=Michael Brian | title=Draw the Lightning Down: Benjamin Franklin and Electrical Technology in the Age of Enlightenment | year=2003 | isbn=0-520-23802-8 | publisher=University of California Press | place=Berkeley}}
* {{cite book | last=Skemp | first=Sheila L. | title=Benjamin and William Franklin: Father and Son, Patriot and Loyalist | year=1994 | isbn=978-0312086176 | publisher=Bedford/St. Martin's | place=Boston | url=https://archive.org/details/benjaminwilliamf0000skem_x1h1/page/n5/mode/2up | access-date=June 5, 2024| ref=none}} 
* {{cite thesis |date=2009 | last=Slack | first=Kevin Lee | title=Benjamin Franklin and the Science of Virtue | degree=PhD | publisher=University of Dallas| ref=none}} ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 3357482.
* {{cite thesis | last=Smart | first=Karl Lyman | date=1989 | title=A Man for All Ages: The Changing Image of Benjamin Franklin in Nineteenth Century American Popular Literature | degree=PhD | publisher=University of Florida| ref=none}} ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 9021252.
* {{cite book | last=Waldstreicher | first=David | title=Runaway America: Benjamin Franklin, Slavery, and the American Revolution | isbn=978-0809083152 | publisher=Hill and Wang | year=2004 | place=New York| ref=none}}
* [[Kerry S. Walters|Walters, Kerry S.]] ''Benjamin Franklin and His Gods.'' (1999). 213 pp. Takes position midway between D H Lawrence's brutal 1930 denunciation of Franklin's religion as nothing more than a bourgeois commercialism tricked out in shallow utilitarian moralisms and [[Owen Aldridge]]'s sympathetic 1967 treatment of the dynamism and protean character of Franklin's "polytheistic" religion.
* {{cite journal | last=York | first=Neil | title=When Words Fail: William Pitt, Benjamin Franklin and the Imperial Crisis of 1766 | journal=Parliamentary History | date=October 2009 | volume=28 | issue=3 | pages=341–374| doi=10.1111/j.1750-0206.2009.00120.x | ref=none}}

===Historiography===
* Waldstreicher, David, ed. ''A Companion to Benjamin Franklin'' (2011), 25 essays by scholars emphasizing how historians have handled Franklin. [https://www.questia.com/library/120084135/a-companion-to-benjamin-franklin online edition] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171020013408/https://www.questia.com/library/120084135/a-companion-to-benjamin-franklin |date=October 20, 2017 }}

===Primary sources===
* "''[[A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain]]''."
* "''[[Experiments and Observations on Electricity]]''." (1751)
* "''[[Fart Proudly]]: Writings of Benjamin Franklin You Never Read in School''." Carl Japikse, Ed. Frog Ltd.; Reprint ed. 2003. {{ISBN|1-58394-079-0}}
* "''On Marriage''."
* "''Satires and Bagatelles''." aka ''Bagatelles'' (written by Franklin)
* ''Autobiography, Poor Richard, & Later Writings'' (J.A. Leo Lemay, ed.) ([[Library of America]], 1987 one-volume, 2005 two-volume) {{ISBN|978-1-883011-53-6}}
* ''Benjamin Franklin Reader'' edited by Walter Isaacson (2003)
* ''[https://archive.org/details/benjaminfranklin0000fran_o8e8 Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography]'' edited by J.A. Leo Lemay and P.M. Zall, (Norton Critical Editions, 1986); 390 pp. text, contemporary documents and 20th century analysis
* {{cite journal | last1 = Franklin | first1 = B. | last2 = Majault | first2 = M.J. | last3 = Le Roy | first3 = J.B. | last4 = Sallin | first4 = C.L. | last5 = Bailly | first5 = J.-S. | last6 = d'Arcet | first6 = J. | last7 = de Bory | first7 = G. | last8 = Guillotin | first8 = J.-I. | last9 = Lavoisier | first9 = A. | s2cid = 36506710 | year = 2002| title = Report of The Commissioners charged by the King with the Examination of Animal Magnetism | journal = International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis | volume = 50 | issue = 4| pages = 332–363 | doi = 10.1080/00207140208410109 | pmid = 12362951 |ref=none}}
* {{cite book |last=Franklin |first=Benjamin |title=Experiments and observations on electricity, made at Philadelphia in America |location=London|publisher=  Printed for David Henry; and sold by Francis Newberry |year=1769 |url=https://archive.org/details/b30499860_0003/page/n7/mode/2up |ref=franklin1769 }}
* Houston, Alan, ed. ''Franklin: The Autobiography and other Writings on Politics, Economics, and Virtue.'' Cambridge University Press, 2004. 371 pp.
* Ketcham, Ralph, ed. ''The Political Thought of Benjamin Franklin.'' (1965, reprinted 2003). 459 pp.
* Lass, Hilda, ed. ''[https://archive.org/details/thefabulousamericanfranklin The Fabulous American: A Benjamin Franklin Almanac].'' (1964). 222 pp.
* Woody, Thomas, ed. ''Educational views of Benjamin Franklin'' (1931) [https://archive.org/details/educationalviews0000fran/page/n6/mode/1uponline]
* Leonard Labaree, and others., eds., ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20060214030435/http://www.yale.edu/franklinpapers/index.html The Papers of Benjamin Franklin]'', 39 vols. to date (1959–2008), definitive edition, through 1783. This massive collection of BF's writings, and letters to him, is available in large academic libraries. It is most useful for detailed research on specific topics. [http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/ The complete text of all the documents are online and searchable]; {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100928051438/http://www.yale.edu/franklinpapers/indexintro.html |date=September 28, 2010 |title=The ''Index'' is also online }}.
* ''Poor Richard Improved'' by Benjamin Franklin (1751)
* ''Silence Dogood, The Busy-Body, & Early Writings'' (J.A. Leo Lemay, ed.) ([[Library of America]], 1987 one-volume, 2005 two-volume) {{ISBN|978-1-931082-22-8}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100928051438/http://www.yale.edu/franklinpapers/indexintro.html The Papers of Benjamin Franklin] online, Sponsored by The American Philosophical Society and Yale University
* ''[[The Way to Wealth]]''. Applewood Books; 1986. {{ISBN|0-918222-88-5}}
* ''Writings (Franklin)|Writings''. {{ISBN|0-940450-29-1}}

===For young readers===
* [[Isaac Asimov|Asimov, Isaac]]. ''The Kite That Won the Revolution'', a biography for children that focuses on Franklin's scientific and diplomatic contributions.
* Fleming, Candace. ''Ben Franklin's Almanac: Being a True Account of the Good Gentleman's Life.'' Atheneum/Anne Schwart, 2003, 128 pp. {{ISBN|978-0-689-83549-0}}.
* Miller, Brandon. Benjamin Franklin, American Genius: His Life and Ideas with 21 Activities (For Kids series) 2009 Chicago Review Press
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{Spoken Wikipedia|date=August 4, 2008|Benjamin Franklin 1.ogg|Benjamin Franklin 2.ogg|Benjamin Franklin 3.ogg}}
{{External media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?159616-1/first-american-benjamin-franklin Presentation by H.W. Brands on ''The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin'', October 5, 2000], C-SPAN| video2 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?177514-1/benjamin-franklin-american-life Presentation by Walter Isaacson on ''Benjamin Franklin: An American Life'', July 22, 2003], C-SPAN| video3 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?174035-1/benjamin-franklin Presentation by Edmund S. Morgan on ''Benjamin Franklin'', November 12, 2002], C-SPAN| video4 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?186653-1/great-improvisation Presentation by Stacy Schiff on ''A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America'', April 12, 2005], C-SPAN| video5 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?170126-1/franklin-essential-founding-father ''Booknotes'' interview with James Srodes on ''Franklin: The Essential Founding Father'', May 19, 2002], C-SPAN| video6 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?182263-1/americanization-benjamin-franklin Interview with Gordon S. Wood on ''The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin'', June 4, 2004], C-SPAN |video7 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?190664-1/life-legacy-benjamin-franklin Panel discussion on Franklin with Walter Isaacson, Gordon Wood, and Stacy Schiff, hosted by Jim Lehrer, January 8, 2006], C-SPAN}}

* [http://www.compadre.org/psrc/Franklin/ Benjamin Franklin and Electrostatics] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170814134955/http://www.compadre.org/psrc/Franklin/ |date=August 14, 2017 }} experiments and Franklin's electrical writings from Wright Center for Science Education
* [http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/ead/upenn_rbml_MsColl900 Benjamin Franklin Papers, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania.]
* [http://www.abc.net.au/rn/ockhamsrazor/stories/2006/1814928.htm Franklin's impact on medicine]&nbsp;– talk by medical historian, Dr. Jim Leavesley celebrating the 300th anniversary of Franklin's birth on ''Okham's Razor'' ABC [[Radio National]]&nbsp;– December 2006
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iKz2F0kC2U Video with sheet music] of Benjamin Franklin's string quartet

===Biographical and guides===
* {{CongLinks | congbio = F000342}}
* "[https://web.archive.org/web/20030704024551/http://www.time.com/time/2003/franklin/bffranklin.html Special Report: Citizen Ben's Greatest Virtues]"{{snd}}''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]''
* "[http://www.c-span.org/video/?163159-1/writings-benjamin-franklin Writings of Benjamin Franklin]"{{snd}}''[[American Writers: A Journey Through History]]'' by [[C-SPAN]]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120502102128/http://www.english.udel.edu/lemay/franklin/ Benjamin Franklin: A Documentary History]{{snd}}[[Leo Lemay]] at the University of Delaware
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20021002073744/http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/ Benjamin Franklin: An extraordinary life]{{snd}}PBS
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20131102055511/http://history.state.gov/milestones/1776-1783/BFranklin Benjamin Franklin: First American Diplomat, 1776–1785]{{snd}}U.S. State Department
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Franklin, Benjamin}}
* [https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/franklin/franklin.html Finding Franklin: A Resource Guide]{{snd}}Library of Congress
* [http://tigger.uic.edu/~rjensen/franklin.htm Guide to Benjamin Franklin] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100316174915/http://tigger.uic.edu/~rjensen/franklin.htm |date=March 16, 2010 }}{{snd}}[[Richard J. Jensen]] at the University of Illinois
* [http://www.librarything.com/profile/BenjaminFranklin Online edition of Franklin's personal library]
* [http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/ The Electric Benjamin Franklin]{{snd}}ushistory.org
* [https://friendsoffranklin.org/home/ Friends of Franklin Gazette] (archived)

===Online writings===
* [https://archive.org/details/SilenceDogood_201306 "A Silence Dogood Sampler" – Selections from Franklin's Silence Dogood writings]
* [http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/Franklin%20Abridged/index.html Abridgement of the Book of Common Prayer (1773), by Benjamin Franklin and Francis Dashwood], transcribed by Richard Mammana
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090821230120/http://sln.fi.edu/franklin/family/lastwill.html Franklin's Last Will & Testament] Transcription.
* [https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/franklin-home.html Library of Congress web resource: ''Benjamin Franklin&nbsp;... In His Own Words'']
* [http://www.bartleby.com/people/FranklinB.html Online Works by Franklin]
* {{Librivox author |id=350}}
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/benjamin-franklin}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=Franklin,+Benjamin | name=Benjamin Franklin}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Benjamin Franklin}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100928051438/http://www.yale.edu/franklinpapers/indexintro.html Yale edition of complete works], the standard scholarly edition
** [https://founders.archives.gov/about/Franklin Online, searchable edition]

===Autobiography===
* [[gutenberg:148|''The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin'']] at Project Gutenberg
* [http://librivox.org/the-autobigraphy-of-benjamin-franklin-ed-by-frank-woodworth-pine/ ''The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin''] LibriVox recording

===In the arts===
* [http://www.benfranklin300.com/ Benjamin Franklin 300 (1706–2006)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080820111326/http://benfranklin300.com/ |date=August 20, 2008 }} Official web site of the Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary.
* The [http://www.hsp.org/files/findingaid215franklin.pdf Historical Society of Pennsylvania Collection of Benjamin Franklin Papers], including correspondence, government documents, writings and a copy of his will, are available for research use at the [[Historical Society of Pennsylvania]].

{{Benjamin Franklin}}
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