Ben and Me

Ben and Me

By Eric Weiner

This book reflects on Franklin’s biography and the author contrasts what he learns with our modern world and his own life.  It is a light read but reminds me of why I admire Franklin so much. The book is divided into chapters reflecting on specific character traits. When asked in High School history class, which American Presidents I most admired, my answer was Lincoln followed by FDR.  Interesting in the light of today; both were famous for assuming and expanding presidential power and decision making in a national crisis.  I would have to add Franklin to my list though he was never a president. Of interest, he had much in common with cultural “influencers” that are all the rage today.

When traveling back from England for the first time, the delays traveling west found Franklin developing thought processes he would use for the rest of his life. He was still quite young—in modern developmental thinking, he was not fully integrated ie frontal cortex with the rest of the brain. He embarks on self improvement that might belie that general time-frame:  “He also began to question the philosophy of Deism (belief in an all powerful universal entity or force which has no specific interactions with our world’s events). Years later….’I began to suspect that this doctrine, tho’ it might be true, was not very useful.’”

“For Franklin, the ultimate test of any moral proposition was not its truth but its utility. Okay, something is ‘true.’ That’s nice,' says Franklin, 'But what are the consequences of acting on it? If they are not good, not beneficial either on a personal or societal level, discard it and find another, more useful truth.'”

Textual Ben: In the same trip, he developed a ‘Plan of Conduct’. “His plan consisted of four simple rules. He would be frugal and pay off his debts. He would aim for sincerity “in every word and action." He would practice patience and focus on the business at hand, not allowing himself to be distracted by "any foolish project of growing suddenly rich." And he would not. "...speak ill of anyone and instead excuse their faults.”

Back in Pennsylvania, building a printing business, he developed an editorial style that reflected simplicity. Good writing must be useful….”it must benefit the reader either by improving his virtue or his knowledge.”  He would champion freedom of the press: “the opinions of men are almost as various as their faces….If printers didn’t print anything that offended someone, there would be very little printed.” 

Funny Ben could use humor very effectively. Some have come to us since childhood: “Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead. A country man between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.”  His biggest target in the revolution was the British. He penned a song in 1775, “the King’s Own Regulars,”  “For fifteen miles there follow’d and pelted us, we scarce had time to pull/a trigger/But did you ever know a retreat performed with more vigor?” The song became famous for making even George Washington laugh.

Angry Ben: “Love your enemies for they tell you your faults.”

Quoting Marcus Aurelius, “The best revenge is not to be like your enemy.”

Franklin was called to the King’s privy counsel in the setting of Revolutionary tensions before the war started. Franklin had published copies of letters written by the Governor of Massachusetts which suggested abridging the rights of citizens as a response to dissent. The Privy Counsel knew he had released these letters which was considered a breach of conduct. He was publicly humiliated by this body for over an hour. His reputation and morality were mocked. He went into the meeting a struggling loyal citizen of the British Crown and came out of it, a revolutionary devoted to the cause of American independence. His opinion of leaders in high places who had prejudiced and unreasonable expectations and beliefs would be a source of great satire as the years unfolded.  Using one of Franklin’s own mind games, looking at a problem from the other person’s point of view—-imagine our Postmaster General (his position at the time in the colonies) making private letters not addressed to him public. I think both sides of the aisle would come down hard on that one.

Decisive Ben: While in England representing the colonies before the outbreak of war, he met a failed Corset maker with ambition. He wrote a letter of recommendation to his son-in-law. While he had little formal education, he would make a good clerk or surveyor. He also could write. The young man’s name?  Thomas Paine.

Doubting Ben: Benjamin Franklin was at the Constitutional Convention and drove many of the compromises—which suited his temperament well.  “Whenever people assemble, Franklin’s speech continued, “they assemble their prejudices, passions, failings, and selfishness too.” The Constitutional Convention was no exception. “ From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does.’ It will astonish America’s enemies too,” Franklin added, salivating as they were at the prospect of the young states, “cutting one another’s throats.;”

He encouraged delegates to sign the instrument (not the document) as he saw it as a tool—not an end but a means: “Franklin saw the Constitution as an instrument, like a scalpel or fountain pen, an inert object in need of a skilled practitioner.”

Belated Ben: In his last public writing, penned less than a month before his death, was a biting satire of slavery. He wrote it in response to the angry tirade of a Georgia congressman who had objected to an abolitionist motion brought before the first federal Congress. His satire found him writing as Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim, an Algerian prince who defends the practice of enslaving Christians captured by Barbary pirates. “If we end our practice of enslaving Christians,” he asks, “who in this hot climate, are to cultivate our lands?  Surely not us says Ibrahim, for then we would, be our own slaves.”  Besides he says," we are actually improving the lives of the enslaved people by introducing them to the infinite mercy of Allah and providing an opportunity of making themselves acquainted with the true doctrine and thereby saving their immortal souls.”

Of note, as with many of the Founding Fathers, Ben owned slaves in his lifetime. Irredeemable sin? He became something of an abolitionist in later life. The author concludes that even with flaws, such as person as Franklin has something to teach us as he himself taught himself on this central issue.

Eternal Ben: “when his friend Ezra stiles, a minister and president of Yale, solicited Franklin’s thoughts on religion and, in particular, the afterlife, Franklin’s reply was characteristically sly. ‘It is a question I do not dogmatize upon,”’he said, “having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble.”  Classic Ben……Experience trumps theory.  Every time.

Young Ben wrote an epitaph when confronted with a serious illness when young it is found at his burial site:

The body of B. Franklin, Printer;

Like the Cover of an old Book,

Its Contents torn out,

And stripped of its Lettering & Gilding,

Lies here, Food for the Worms.

But the Work shall not be wholly lost;

For it will, as he believed appear once more,

In a new and more perfect Edition,

Corrected and amended By the Author.