Ben_Franklin

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706, in Boston, Massachusetts, into a devoted Puritan household. The Puritans were a religious group that stood against the beliefs of the Church of England. In 1683 his family had left England and moved to New England in search of religious freedom. Franklin's father was a candle maker and a mechanic, and his mother raised a family of thirteen children. Franklin did not have a good education young, instead, at eleven, he began work at his fathers candle shop, but he hated this trade and the smell of it. He eventually left and began work for his brother who printed for the Boston newspaper. Franklin read every second in the shop and was soon writing pieces that criticized the Boston establishment. He loved to read and even became a vegetarian in order to save money to buy books. When authorities imprisoned his brother for his own critical articles, Benjamin continued the paper himself. In 1723 at age seventeen Franklin left home and moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. By this time, Franklin embraced the ideas of enlightenment, and he followed people like Locke and Newton. In 1724, he traveled to England and became a master printer. He returned to Philadelphia and started his own press, publishing a newspaper called the Pennsylvania Gazette and a publication called Poor Richard's Almanack, which contained advice and sayings that are still popular in America today. He then became a clerk of the Pennsylvania Assembly, and the postmaster of Philadelphia. In 1727, he became involved in community improvement, forming such groups as the Junto. After inventing the Franklin stove, he turned over to science and became interested in electricity. His experiment with the key and the kite proved that lightning was a form of electricity. Also, with his invention of the lightning rod he became even more famous. In 1751, Franklin was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly, beginning his career as a public official. He became a leader in the Quaker political party, which opposed the Proprietary party. In the Assembly, Franklin created lawmaking strategies and wrote powerful statements defending the right of the people's elected representatives to regulate the government of Pennsylvania. Franklin was loyal to the British Empire during the French and Indian War. In order to defend the British Empire, he persuaded the Assembly to pass Pennsylvania's first militia law, set aside budget money for defense, and appoint government representatives to carry on a full-scale war. For years he found his country vital to America, but was still sometimes surprised by their indifference toward the colonies. He traveled to America for two years as deputy postmaster general of North America, and greatly improved the postal service. In 1764, he lost his seat on the Pennsylvania Assembly, but went to England as a representative from Pennsylvania. His mission was to get Pennsylvania to be taken over as a royal colony, but he decided against that because of the dangers of royal government. Franklin played a great role in making the Declaration of Independence in 1776. In 1765 the Stamp Act placed a tax on all papers and printed materials in the colonies. Many colonists opposed the tax as taxation without representation. After learning of the violent protest, Franklin began his own stand against this. In an appearance before Parliament in 1766, he outlined American insistence on self-government. Nevertheless, when the tax was removed Franklin again expressed his faith in America's prospects within the British Empire. For a period, Benjamin was the foremost American spokesman in England, until Hutchinson exposed him as dishonest. In 1774 he was removed as postmaster general. Despite this, he still began to work for better relations. Radical protests and the build up of troops quickly ended this. Franklin left England in 1775, and joined America in its fight for independence during the American Revolution. In 1776, he helped draft the Declaration of Independence and signed it. At seventy years old, he became a passionate revolutionary. He was then appointed as representative to France. He became popular with the French, who wanted to help fight England, but wouldn’t until they were certain of victory. In 1777, he sped up the trade of weapons to gain support of France. These efforts were rewarded when King Louis XVI entered into an alliance with America. Franklin continued to fight to get France to send aid to North America. He helped secure all of the outside aid that the US had gained for the American rebels. After the British surrender at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781, Franklin made the first contact with representatives of the British government. In 1782 as the other peace commissioners, John Adams and John Jay, made their way toward peace negotiations in Paris, Franklin set the main terms of the final agreement. These included independence, guaranteed fishing rights, removal of all British forces, and a western boundary on the Mississippi River. Franklin, Adams, and Jay made an ideal team, winning for the United States a peace treaty of genuine national independence in 1783. Franklin returned to Philadelphia from France in 1785. He accepted election for three years as president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania. Even through illness he finished his autobiography. Franklin's most notable accomplishment at this time was his attendance at the Constitutional Convention in 1787. At the end of the convention he asked each member, who did not entirely approve of the Constitution, to sign the document to give it a chance as the best form of government they had at the time. Near the end of his days he pushed for ratification of the constitution, and to approve inauguration of the new government under George Washington. Franklin died peacefully in Philadelphia on April 17, 1790.