Benjamin Franklin

At 84 years old, Benjamin Franklin has this physical status:

Benjamin Franklin (1706–O.S.) Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17, 1706 [O.S.]. [An American polymath and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States] Jan 6, 1705 – April 17, 1790)

Franklin was a noted writer, printer, political theorist, and diplomat, Freemason, scientist, comedian, humorist, scholar, and diplomat.

He was a central figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories of electricity.

Among other items, he is best known for the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove.

Franklin was involved in numerous civic organisations, including the Library Company, Philadelphia's first fire department, and the University of Pennsylvania, among other things.

He exacerbated the emerging American nation as the first United States Ambassador to France.

Early life

Franklin was born on Milk Street in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 17, 1706, and baptized at Old South Meeting House. Franklin recalled that he was "primarily the leader among the boys" as a boy growing up along the Charles River.

Franklin's father wanted him to attend school with the clergy, but he didn't have enough funds 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" referred to the church as a profession, Franklin's education ended when he was ten years old. He worked for his father for a time, but it became an apprentice to his brother James, a printer who taught him the printing trade, at 12 years old. When Benjamin was 15, James founded The New-England Courant, one of the first American newspapers, which was one of the first American newspapers.

Franklin used the pseudonym "Silence Dogood," a middle-aged widow, when denied the opportunity to write a letter to the paper for publication. Mrs. Dogood's letters were released and became a point of discussion around town. Neither James nor the Courant's readers were aware of the ruse, and James was dissatisfied with Benjamin when he learned that the popular correspondent was his younger brother. Franklin was a proponent of free expression from a young age. "Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom and no such thing as public liberty without the freedom of expression," he wrote in 1722. Franklin left his apprenticeship without his brother's permission, and in doing so, he became a fugitive.

Franklin, who was 17 years old at the time, migrated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to start a new life in a new city. When he first arrived, he worked in several printer shops around town, but he wasn't thrilled by the immediate prospects. After a few months as a printer's governor, Sir William Keith persuaded him to move to London, ostensibly to buy the equipment needed to start a new newspaper in Philadelphia. Keith's hopes of supporting a newspaper were empty, he worked as a typesetter in a printer's store in London's Smithfield neighborhood. After this, he returned to Philadelphia in 1726 with the support of Thomas Denham, a shopkeeper who trained him as a clerk, bookkeeper, and bookkeeper in his company.

Franklin founded the Junto, a consortium of "likeminded young artisans and tradesmen who wanted to develop themselves while improving their community." The Junto was a discussion group for topics of the day; it later gave rise to a number of Philadelphia companies. The Junto was based on English coffeehouses that Franklin knew well and that had become the center of Enlightenment propagation in the United Kingdom.

The Junto brought reading to a new degree, but books were limited and costly. Following Franklin, the members assembled a library that was mainly created from their own books.

However, this did not suffice. Franklin suggested the establishment of a subscription library, which would pool the funds of the members to purchase books for all to read. This was the founding of the Library Company of Philadelphia: its charter was established by him in 1731. Louis Timothee, the first American librarian, was hired in 1732. The Library Company is now a major scholarly and research library.

Franklin returned to his former occupation after Denham's death. In 1728, he founded a printing house in collaboration with Hugh Meredith; the following year, he became the publisher of The Pennsylvania Gazette. Through printed essays and observations, the Gazette gave Franklin a platform for protesting a variety of local reforms and policies. His work over time, as well as his adroit maintenance of a positive image as an industrious and intellectual young man, gained him a great deal of social respect. However, even after he rose to fame as a scientist and statesman, he still signed his letters with the 'B' mark. ' Franklin, Printer.'

He published Die Philadelphische Zeitung in 1732, America's first German-language newspaper, but it was dead after just one year because four other newly established German newspapers quickly dominated the newspaper market. In German, Franklin published Moravian religious books. While staying at the Moravian Sun Inn, he often visited Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In a 1751 pamphlet on population growth and its impact on the Thirteen Colonies, he called the Pennsylvania Germans "Palatine Boors" who could never get the "Complexion" of Anglo-American settlers and referred to "Blacks and Tawneys" as weakening the colony's social system. Despite the fact that he resigned shortly after and that the terms were removed from all subsequent printings of the pamphlet, his words may have played a role in his political demise in 1764.

Franklin, according to Ralph Frasca, the printing press was used to teach colonial Americans in moral values. Frasca argues that doing well does God, since he understood moral ethics in terms of behavior, so doing well provides a service to God. Despite his own moral blunders, Franklin saw himself as uniquely qualified to instruct Americans in morality. He sought to influence American moral life by the establishment of a printing network based on a network of affiliate relationships from the Carolinas to New England. He also invented the first newspaper chain. It was more than a company venture, because like many journalists, he believed that the press owed a public service job.

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 when he established himself in Philadelphia shortly before 1730. The aim of this course in both arts and sciences was based on weekly extracts from Chambers' Universal Dictionary. When Franklin took over the Instructor and made it, he was off with all of this. The Pennsylvania Gazette is a newspaper published in Pennsylvania. The Gazette soon became his signature organ, which he charitably used for satire, but not for the sheer lack of mischief or amusement. He had a way of converting his models to his own uses from the first. The Busy-Body, which he wrote for Bradford's American Mercury in 1729, was the subject of a series of essays, although it had already been modified to accommodate homelier circumstances. The thrifty Patience, in her crowded little shop, is upset because the visitors who waste her valuable time, Mr. Spectator, according to her. As Isaac Bickerstaff had been in the Tatler, the Busy-Body himself is a true Censor Morum. Ridentius, Eugenius, Cato, and Cretico, to name a few of the fictitious characters from the 18th century classicism. And this Franklin could be used for modern satire, since Cretico, the "sowre Philosopher," is clearly a portrait of his rival, Samuel Keimer.

Franklin had mixed success in his quest to establish an inter-colonial network of newspapers that would bring him money and disseminate virtue. Over the years, he has sponsored two dozen printers in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, New York, Connecticut, and even the Bahamas. By 1753, 8 of the country's 15 English language newspapers had been published by him or his partners. In 1731, he began in Charleston, South Carolina. Elizabeth Timothy, his second editor, took over and made it a success. She was one of the first female printers in the colonial period. Franklin had a close professional relationship with her and her son Peter Timothy, who took over the South Carolina Gazette in 1746. The Gazette was neutral in political discussions, while offering the opportunity for public discussion, which encouraged others to challenge authority. Timothy avoided blandness and crude bias, and after 1765, taking a patriotic stand in the midst of a looming crisis in the United Kingdom, he took a patriotic stand. However, Franklin's Connecticut Gazette (1755–68) was dissatisfied. Political strife ripped his network apart as the Revolution came.

Franklin was enrolled in the local Masonic lodge in 1730 or 1731. He became a grand master in 1734, indicating his meteoric ascension to Pennsylvania. He edited and published the first Masonic book in the United States in the same year, a reprint of James Anderson's Constitutions of the Free-Masons. From 1735 to 1738, he was the secretary of St. John's Lodge in Philadelphia. Franklin was a Freemason for the remainder of his life.

At age 17 in 1723, Franklin introduced Deborah Read, a boarder in the Read home, to 15-year-old Deborah Read. At the time, Deborah's mother was suspicious of her young daughter marrying Franklin, who was on his way to London at Governor Keith's behest, as well as financial instability. Franklin's request to marry her daughter was denied after her own husband died recently.

Although Franklin was in London, his tour was extended, but the governor's promises of assistance were lacking. Deborah may have married John Rodgers as a result of this delay. It was a regrettable decision. Rodgers skipped his debts and charges by fleeing to Barbados with her dowry, leaving her behind. Rodgers' fate was uncertain, and Deborah was not allowed to remarry because of bigamy rules.

On September 1, 1730, Franklin married Deborah in a common-law marriage. They took in their recently adopted illegitimate teenage son and raised him in their household. They had two children together. Francis Folger Franklin Franklin's uncle was born in October 1732 and died of smallpox in 1736. Sarah "Sally" Franklin's daughter was born in 1743 and later married Richard Bache.

Deborah's fear of the sea led her that she never joined Franklin on any of his extended trips to Europe; another possible explanation for her failing to shield their son Francis from being oculated against the disease that later killed him. Deborah pleaded sick as a result of "dissatisfied absence" from his prolonged absence in November 1769, but he did not return until his company was complete. Deborah Read Franklin died of a stroke on December 14, 1774, while Franklin was on a long trip to Great Britain; he returned in 1775.

Benjamin, his illegitimate son William, was raised in his household in 1730 by 24-year-old Franklin. William was born on February 22, 1730, but his mother's identity is uncertain. He was educated in Philadelphia and began studying law in London around the age of 30. William Temple Franklin, William Temple Franklin, was born on the same day and month as William himself in 1760. The boy's mother was never identified, and he was placed in foster care. In 1762, William Franklin married Elizabeth Downes, daughter of a planter from Barbados, in London. He was appointed as New Jersey's last royal governor in 1763.

William Franklin, a Loyalist who served under King William Franklin, saw his relationships with father Benjamin fall apart as Benjamin Franklin could never accept William's role. William was deposed by the radical government of New Jersey in 1776 and was detained for six months at his home in Perth Amboy. Following the Declaration of Independence, he was officially arrested by order of the Provincial Congress of New Jersey, an organization that he refused to recognize as a "illegal assembly." He was imprisoned in Connecticut for two years, in Wallingford and Middletown, and after being discovered secretly encouraging Americans to support the Loyalist cause, he was detained in solitary confinement at Litchfield for eight months. He came to New York City, which was then occupied by the British at the time, when he was eventually released in a prisoner swap in 1778.

He served as mayor of Associated Loyalists, a quasi-military group established by King George III and headquartered in New York City while in New York City. They sparked guerrilla forays into New Jersey, southern Connecticut, and New York counties north of the city. When British troops were evacuated from New York, William Franklin was left with them and sailed to England. He stayed in London but did not return to North America. "Because of this plea, loyalists who had borne arms against the United States would have been barred from this plea (and will be given a general pardon)," Benjamin Franklin insisted that loyalists who had fought against the United States would be barred from this plea (that they be given a general pardon). He was obviously thinking about William Franklin."

Franklin began to publish Poor Richard's Almanack (with material that was both original and borrowed) under the pseudonym Richard Saunders' pseudonym, which accounts for a large portion of his public image. He wrote frequently under pseudonyms. He had a distinct, standardized style that was clear, logical, and possessed a soft, soft, but self-deprecating tone with declarative sentences. Although it was not known that he was the author, Richard Saunders' character denied it repeatedly. Both "Poor Richard's Proverbs" and "A penny saved is a penny earned" (often misquoted as "A penny saved is a penny earned") are common quotations in the modern world. Wisdom in folk culture meant being able to deliver a fitting adage for any occasion, and his readers were extremely well prepared. About ten thousand copies per year—it became a business. Franklin started distributing The General Magazine and Historical Chronicle for all the British Plantations in America in 1741. For the front page, he used the Prince of Wales' heraldic badge.

He printed Father Abraham's Sermon, also known as The Way to Wealth, in 1758, the year he stopped writing for the Almanack. Franklin's autobiography, which began in 1771 but was released after his death, has become one of the genre's best-selling books. In an essay dated June 25, 1745, he wrote "Advice to a Friend on Choosing a Mistress," in which he gives advice to a young man about channeling sexual urges. It was not published in his papers' collections during the nineteenth century due to its licentious origins. Federal court decisions from the mid-to-late twentieth century cited the paper as a reason for repealing obscenity laws, as well as a defense against censorship.

Public life

Franklin founded the Union Fire Company in 1736, one of the nation's first volunteer firefighting companies. He created a new currency for New Jersey based on his invention of novel anti-counterfeiting methods. He was an advocate for paper money throughout his career, releasing A Modest Enquiry into the Life and Necess of a Paper Currency in 1729, which also printed money. He was instrumental in the Middle Colonies' more restrained and thus fruitful monetary experiments, which stopped inflation without prompting excessive inflation. He made a paper request to the British House of Commons in 1766.

Franklin became more concerned with public affairs as he grew older. He first proposed a program for the Academy, Charity School, and College of Philadelphia in 1743. Rev. Byron, the individual who had in mind to lead the academy, had a different intention. Richard Peters, dabbled in Pensilvania, denied and Franklin disregarded his ideas until 1749 when he published Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth. 30 He was elected president of the Academy on November 13, 1749; the academy and the charity school opened in 1751.

He founded the American Philosophical Society in 1743 to help scientific men discuss their findings and theories. He started the electrical research, knowing that it would occupy him for the remainder of his life, amid bouts of politics and moneymaking.

Franklin founded the Association for General Defense during King George's war because the city's legislators had no plans to protect Philadelphia "either by erecting fortifications or building Ships of War." He raised money to create earthwork shields and buy artillery. The most notable of these was the 50-gun "Association Battery" or "Grand Battery."

Franklin (always a wealthy man) retired from printing and into other sectors in 1747. He formed an association with his foreman, David Hall, which paid Franklin half of the shop's income for 18 years. He had ample time for study in the intervening years, and he had made several new discoveries in the intervening years.

Franklin became involved in Philadelphia politics and quickly moved forward. He was elected as a citizen of Philadelphia in October 1748, and in June 1749, he became a justice of the peace for Philadelphia; and in 1751, he was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly. He was appointed deputy postmaster-general of British North America on August 10, 1753. His most notable contribution in domestic politics was his postal system reform, with mail delivered every week.

Franklin and Thomas Bond, who obtained a charter from the Pennsylvania legislature in 1751 to open a hospital. Pennsylvania Hospital was the first hospital in the colonies. Franklin founded Contributionship, the Colonies' first homeowner's insurance company, in 1752.

Franklin, Samuel Johnson of Stratford, Connecticut, and schoolteacher William Smith of Stratford, Connecticut, referred to Franklin's initial vision and created what Bishop James Madison, president of the College of William & Mary, called a "new-model" plan or style of American college between 1750 and 1753. Franklin solicited a book of moral philosophy by Samuel Johnson, titled Elementa Philosophica, which was published in 1752, and announced that it would be taught in the new colleges. In June 1753, Johnson, Franklin, and Smith met in Stratford. The new-model college will concentrate on the arts rather than Latin, have subject matter experts as professors rather than a single tutor teaching a class for four years, and there will be no religious examination for admission. Johnson went on to found King's College (now Columbia University) in New York City in 1754, while Franklin appointed Smith as provost of the College of Philadelphia, which opened in 1755. Seven men graduated on May 17, 1757; six with a Bachelor of Arts and one with a Master of Arts at its first commencement. It was later merged with the University of Pennsylvania to become the University of Pennsylvania. The college was to become influential in drafting the founding documents of the United States, for example, over one-third of the college-affiliated men who contributed to the Declaration of Independence between September 4, 1774, and July 4, 1776 were students at the college.

He led the Pennsylvania delegation to the Albany Congress in 1754. The Board of Trade in England had requested several colonies to strengthen relations with the Indians and defense against the French. Franklin suggested a broad Plan of Union for the colonies. Although the policy was not adopted, certain portions of it made their way into the Articles of Confederation and Constitution.

Both Harvard and Yale awarded him honorary master of arts degrees in 1753. He received an honorary Master of Arts degree from the College of William & Mary in 1756. Franklin established the Pennsylvania Militia in 1756. He assembled a regiment of soldiers to combat the Native American revolts that beset the American colonies.

Franklin was born in Philadelphia in 1737, and he and publisher William Hunter were the first to hold the office until 1753. (Joint appointments were common at the time, purely for political reasons.) He was responsible for the British colonies from Pennsylvania's north and east, as well as the island of Newfoundland. On April 23, 1754, local stationer Benjamin Leigh established a post office for local and outgoing mail in Halifax, Nova Scotia, but operations were not consistent. On December 9, 1755, Franklin introduced regular, monthly mail in Halifax. Hunter, who lived in Williamsburg, Virginia, and oversaw areas south of Annapolis, Maryland, during his lifetime. Franklin reorganized the service's accounting system and increased delivery times between Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. The colonial post office made its first profits by 1761 thanks to efficiency, which had resulted in the first profits.

When the lands of New France were ceded to the British under the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the British province of Quebec was established among them, and Franklin saw mail service expanded between Montreal, Trois-Rivières, Quebec City, and New York. He lived in England from 1757 to 1762, then again from 1764 to 1774), accounting for a large part of his tenure. His zeal for the American Revolution culminated in his dismissal on January 31, 1774.

The Second Continental Congress established the United States Post Office on July 26, 1775, naming Franklin as the first United States postmaster general. He had been a postmaster for decades and was a natural candidate for the position. He had just returned from England and was appointed chairman of a Committee of Investigation to develop a postal system. The committee's report, which called for the appointment of a postmaster general for the 13 American colonies, was considered by the Continental Congress on July 25 and 26. Franklin was appointed postmaster general on July 26, 1775, the first to be seated under the Continental Congress. William Goddard, his apprentice, believed that his ideas were mostly responsible for establishing the postal system and that the appointment should have been given to him, but Franklin, 36 years his senior, thankfully accepted it. Franklin, on the other hand, gave Goddard a signed ticket and told him to investigate and inspect the various post offices and mail routes as he saw fit. The newly established postal system in the United States became the United States Post Office, a system that continues to function today.

Franklin spent a significant portion of his time in London from the mid-1950s to the mid-1770s.

He was sent by the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1757 to condemn the Penn family's political clout, the colony's founders. He was in charge of removing taxes from their property for five years, trying to bring an end to the owners' prerogative to reverse legislation from the elected Assembly and their exemption from paying taxes on their property. This mission's lack of influential allies in Whitehall resulted in the failure of this mission.

Many members of the Pennsylvania Assembly were at odds with William Penn's heirs, who ruled the colony as proprietors. Franklin, the founder of the Pennsylvania House of Commons, led the "anti-proprietary movement" in the war against the Penn family and was elected Speaker of the Pennsylvania House in May 1764. His call for a change from proprietary to royal was a rare political blunder, but Pennsylvanians were concerned that such a change would jeopardize their political and religious rights. Franklin lost his seat in the October 1764 Assembly elections due to these trepidations and political assaults on his character. He was sent by the anti-proprietary party to England to continue fighting the Penn family heirship. During this journey, events drastically changed the tone of his mission.

Franklin condemned the 1765 Stamp Act in London. If he was unable to prevent the passage of the stamp distributor, he made another political blunder by recommending a friend to the post of stamp distributor for Pennsylvania. Pennsylvanians were outraged, believing that he had supported the initiative all along and threatened to burn his house in Philadelphia. Franklin soon discovered the severity of colonial resistance to the Stamp Act, and he testified in the House of Commons, which resulted in its cancellation. Franklin was instantly regarded as England's top spokesman for American interests as a result of this. He wrote well-researched papers in favor of the colonies. Georgia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts also voted him as their Crown agent.

Franklin stayed in a house on Craven Street, just off the Strand in central London, during his lengthy trips to London between 1757 and 1775. During his stay there, he developed a close relationship with his landlady, Margaret Stevenson, and her circle of friends and relatives, in particular, her daughter Mary, who was more commonly known as Polly. The Benjamin Franklin House of the Benjamin Franklin House is now a museum. Although living in London, Franklin became involved in radical politics. He belonged to a gentleman's club (which he described as "the honest Whigs"), which held public meetings and included members such as Richard Price, the minister of the Newington Green Unitarian Church who ignited the Revolution, and Andrew Kippis.

Franklin was a member of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce (now the Royal Society of Arts), which had been established in 1754. He became the Society's Correspondent Member after returning to the United States in 1775, retaining a close link. In 1956, the Royal Society of Arts introduced a Benjamin Franklin Medal to commemorate his birth and the 200th anniversary of his membership in the RSA.

Natural philosophy (which is now called science in general) brought him into overlapping circles of acquaintance. For example, Franklin was a founding member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham. In 1759, the University of St Andrews gave him an honorary doctorate in honor of his service. He was granted Freehold of St Andrews, in October 1759. In 1762, Oxford University conferred an honorary doctorate. He was often referred to as "Dr. " because of these prestigious awards. "Beforeton" is the term used to describe Franklin.

In A Scheme for a new Alphabet and a Reformed Mode of Spelling while living in London in 1768, he created a phonetic alphabet. Six letters he considered redundant were deleted from this reformed alphabet (c, j, q, w, and y), and we substituted six new letters for sounds he felt lacked letters of their own. This alphabet never caught on, and he eventually lost interest.

Franklin used London as a base from which to fly. He made short journeys through England in 1771, including Joseph Priestley at Leeds, Thomas Persuader at Manchester, and Erasmus Darwin at Lichfield. He spent five days with Lord Kames near Stirling and stayed with David Hume in Edinburgh for three weeks. He and his son spent six weeks in Scotland in 1759, and later said he thought it was "the densest happiness he had ever encountered in any part of my life."

He stayed with Lord Hillsborough in Ireland. Franklin said of him that "all the plausible behavior I have described is intended to make him more patient," he said, although the reins are tighter and the motives are pushed deeper into his reins. Franklin was invited to debate in Dublin rather than in the gallery. He was the first American to be honoured with this award. He was moved by Ireland's poverty that he witnessed while touring Ireland. The Kingdom of Ireland's economy was affected by the Thirteen Colonies' trade regulations and laws. He feared that if the laws and rules continued to apply to them, the American colonies would eventually fall to the same level of poverty.

Franklin spent two months in German lands in 1766, but his ties to the country went far beyond that lifetime. He owes a debt of gratitude to German scientist Otto von Guericke for his early experiments in electricity. In 1785, Franklin co-authored the first treaty of friendship between Prussia and America. In September 1767, he visited Paris with his new traveling companion, Sir John Pringle, 1st Baronet. His electrical discoveries were widely distributed in France. His fame led to the introduction of numerous influential scientists and politicians, as well as King Louis XV.

According to one line of argument in Parliament, Americans should bear a share of the French and Indian War's costs, and therefore taxes should be levied on them. In a highly publicized testimony in Parliament in 1766, Franklin became the American spokesman for the American people. He claimed that Americans had already contributed significantly to the Empire's defense. He said local authorities had raised, equipped, and paid 25,000 soldiers to combat France, as many as Britain did—and that many millions from American treasuries were doing so in the French and Indian war alone.

Franklin obtained private letters from Thomas Hutchinson and Andrew Oliver, governor and lieutenant governor of Massachusetts Bay in 1772, indicating that the crown had compelled the Crown to cracking down on Bostonians. Franklin sent them to America, where tensions had escalated. The letters were eventually leaked to the public in the Boston Gazette in mid-June 1773, sparking a political controversy in Massachusetts and raising serious concerns in England. The British began to see him as the source of significant doubt. Before the Privy Council on January 29, 1774, Solicitor-General Alexander Wedderburn's unashamed and insulted a hopeful solution. He returned to Philadelphia in March 1775 and abandoned his pacifist politics.

Franklin wrote two of his most popular pro-American satirical papers in 1773: "Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One" and "The King of Prussia's Order."

During his time in England, Franklin was reported to have occasionally attended the Hellfire Club's meetings during 1758 as a non-member. However, some writers and scholars would claim that he was in fact a British spy. Although there are no records (having been thrown out in 1774), several of these individuals are only assumed or linked by letters sent to each other. Franklin, a founder of the Hellfire Club and a double agent, is historian Donald McCormick, who has a history of making controversial claims.

In 1763, just after Franklin returned to Pennsylvania from England for the first time, the western frontier was engulfed in a ferocious conflict known as Pontiac's Rebellion. The Paxton Boys, a group of settlers who felt that the Pennsylvania government was doing nothing to shield them from American Indian raids, massacred a group of peaceful Susquehannock Indians who marched on Philadelphia. Franklin helped to form a local militia to protect the capital against the mob. He met with the Paxton chiefs and begged them to disperse. Franklin wrote a scathing attack on the Paxton Boys' racial stereotypes. "If an Indian bothers me," he wondered, "would it mean I might suffer the injury on all Indians?"

He formulated an early reaction to British surveillance through his own network of counter-surveillance and manipulation. "He ran a public relations campaign, obtained classified help, and churned out inflammatory and persuasive propaganda."

The American Revolution had started in Philadelphia, 1775, after Franklin's second visit to Great Britain, with skirmishes breaking out between colonials and British at Lexington and Concord. The New England militia had compelled the main British army to remain inside Boston, which had prompted the British army to remain in Boston. Franklin was unanimously selected by the Pennsylvania Assembly as their delegate to the Second Continental Congress. He was elected a member of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence in June 1776. Despite being briefly disabled by gout and unable to attend most meetings of the committee, Thomas Jefferson made several "minor but significant" changes to the draft sent to him by Thomas Jefferson, despite being partially disabled.

He is quoted as having replied to a John Hancock's remark that they must all hang together, or more accurately hang separately."

Franklin was sent to France on October 26, 1776, as the country's ambassador. William Temple Franklin, his 16-year-old grandson, was taken with him as secretary. They lived in a house in Passy, which was donated by Jacques-Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont, who favored the US. Franklin did not live in France until 1785. He ruled the affairs of his nation against France with a great deal of pride in 1778 and the signing of the 1783 Treaty of Paris.

Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, a French Revolutionary writer, orator, and statesman who was elected president of the National Assembly in 1791 was one of his associates in France. Franklin met with Mirabeau in July 1784 and gave him anonymous information that he used in his first signed work: Considerations de la t'ordre de Cincinnatus The Society of the Cincinnati, which was founded in the United States, was criticized in this issue. Franklin and Mirabeau considered it as a "noble order" that was not compatible with the new republic's egalitarian ideals.

During his stay in France, he was active as a Freemason, serving as the venerable master of the lodge Les Neuf Soir from 1779 to 1781. Louis XVI appointed a commission to look into Franz Mesmer's assertion of "animal magnetism," which was considered offensive by some. Antoine Lavoisier, the doctor Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, astronomer Jean Sylvain Bailly, and Franklin were among those named. The committee concluded in doing so by blind tests that mesmerism only seemed to work when the subjects intended it, which discredited mesmerism and became the first major demonstration of the placebo effect, which was also referred to as "imagination" at the time. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1781.

Franklin's calls for religious tolerance in France influenced French philosophers and politicians who led to Louis XVI's signing of the Edict of Versailles in November 1787. This edict effectively ended the Edict of Fontainebleau, which had denied non-Catholics civil rights and the right to freely practice their faith.

Franklin also served as the American minister to Sweden, but he never visited the country. He negotiated a treaty that had been signed in April 1783. He was in Paris on August 27, 1783, the world's first hydrogen balloon flight. The Le Globe, built by professor Jacques Charles and Les Frères Robert, was watched by a huge audience as it rose from the Champ de Mars (now the Eiffel Tower site). Franklin became so excited that he pledged money to the next attempt to develop a pilot hydrogen balloon. When La Charlière escorted from the Jardin des Tuileries, piloted by Charles and Nicolas-Louis Robert on December 1, 1783, Franklin was seated in the special enclosure for distinguished guests.

Franklin occupied second place when he returned home in 1785 as the defender of American independence, second only to George Washington's. He returned from France with an unexplained deficit of 100,000 pounds in congressional funds. "Muzzle not the ox that treadeth out his master's grain," Franklin said in response to a member of Congress's query about this. In Congress, the missing funds were never mentioned again. Le Ray honoured him with a commission portrait by Joseph Duplessis, which now hangs in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., following his return, Franklin became an abolitionist and released his two slaves. He served as president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society before becoming president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society.

The sixth president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania was elected unanimously by special election conducted on October 18, 1785, overtaking John Dickinson. The office was essentially the governor's office. He served for less than three years in office, longer than any other, and was in violation of the constitutional term of three years. He was re-elected to a full term on October 29, 1785, and again in 1785 and 1789. He served as the host of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia.

He also served as a delegate to the Convention. It was mainly an honorary post, and he rarely participated in debate.

Source