My Favorite Founding Father – Ben Franklin

Ben Franklin
January 17, 1706 – April 17, 1790

Benjamin Franklin was one of 17 children & his father was a farmer blacksmith & his mother was school teacher.  Franklin was raised in the puritan faith which many credit as being the root of American Democracy due to the self-government value of puritanism.  Being raised a puritan, Franklin was taught the importance of the individual & hard work.  How was it possible for Josiah Franklin to support and raise 17 children during a time where there was no assistance or programs to help people?  Josiah did it through a long-forgotten value called hard work and individual responsibility.  I would venture to say that if Josiah were alive today he would think of government assistance as a sign of failure of the individual.

Being true to his puritan values Franklin began working at age 10 & left home at 17 to start his own life in Philadelphia.  Franklin worked for printing houses in Philadelphia before going to London  where he worked in a printing shop.  Franklin was a young man that was making a life for himself because he had been raised in a family that stressed and taught values of working hard and being self reliant.  How many kids today leave home to forge a life of their own with nothing more than their values as a guide for them?  In today’s society it is very common for kids to never leave home & never strive for greatness because their parents failed them miserably.  All children should hunger for the day they get to leave home to make a life for themselves and to achieve something.  Too many kids are raised in families that embrace the nanny-state that provides everything for them which kills any motivation to be self -reliant.  It’s sad to think of the many people that never achieved greatness simply because the nanny-state killed their drive and desire!  Not being satisfied with his life he returned to Philadelphia where he worked as a bookkeeper for a merchant.

At the ripe old age of 21, Franklin did something truly novel, he came up with the idea to form a discussion group for tradesman who wanted to improve their community.  The year was 1727 & imagine how hard life was for people during that time.   Franklin used his puritan value of self-reliance and individualism to create a discussion group that would generate ideas on how tradesman could better themselves & help the community. What a stark contrast to today’s society where the vast majority want the government to solve their problems.

How many 21 year old today could compare to the young man that Franklin had become?  Probably not a single one!  Instead of growing up working hard at a young age, today’s youth are raised on video games, movies, violence, sex, and are not taught self-reliance and individual responsibility.  Is it their fault?  not entirely.  Where are the Josiah Franklin’s who make it their life’s goal to raise their children in a strong family environment where core values of hard work and individual responsibility are taught.

Franklin’s discussion group grew and he came up with the idea of a subscription library where the members of the group would contribute money to buy books for everyone to read.  Once again we see Franklin reverting back to his puritan values to solve a problem.  Franklin’s discussion group wanted books to read so he asked himself “how can we as individuals come up with a way for us to obtain books”  Franklin did not petition the government or the wealthy citizens for books for his discussion group, he found a way for his group to be self-reliant and achieve their.  How many groups today are self-reliant when it comes to their needs and desires?  Not very many!  The mentality today is to run to the local, state, or federal government when a group wants something.  All too often the government is eager to give these groups other people’s money instead of telling the groups to use their collective minds to be self-reliant & self-sufficient.   Once again the nanny-state has killed creativity and the idea that we can do it on our own without using other people’s money.  Very sad indeed.

You can see that Franklin was a thinker and he used his mind to solve his problems.   Franklin founded the American Philosophical Society as a discussion group for scientific men & their theories/discoveries.   Franklin began scientific inquiries which is amazing when you consider his education stopped at age 10 so that he could go to work.  Some of Franklin’s accomplishments were the  discovery of  the conservation of charge, the publishing of a proposal to prove that lightning was electricity by flying a kite into a storm, the invention of the lightning rod, & the concept of cooling.  How did Franklin do all of these amazing things with little formal education?  He challenged his mind to solve problems of his day and to discover things that helped his society & his fellow man.  Where are the Franklins of today?  When will see more & more people using their minds to help themselves and their fellow man?

Franklin later got involved in politics as a Philadelphia councilman which was just the start of a long and historic political career that would help form a nation.  Franklin’s political career included 6th President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania,  23rd Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly, United States Minister to France,  United States Minister to Sweden & the 1st United States Postmaster General.  Not bad for a man raised by a farmer & school teacher who left home at 17 after stopping his education at age 10!

The thing for me that separates Franklin from the other founders is that he is the only Founding Father who is a signatory of all four of the major documents of the founding of the United States: the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Paris, the Treaty of Alliance with France, and the United States Constitution.

Franklin is my favorite founding father due to his impressive list of accomplishments and adherence to the idea that individual is important and he/she must be self reliant.  Too many people on the left have forgotten or have never learned of the great men who are our founding fathers and they should study them all because they are and always will be the dna of what this country is and will always be.  No matter how eager the left and many in our current government are to change the fabric of our country it will never come to be simply because the majority of us understand the founding of our country & what the founders intended.  Too many on the left do not like this country because they do not know it’s history & not knowing the history of your people and your country is an injustice.  We celebrate this Father’s Day that was made possible by 7 brave and historic men who are our Founding Fathers.

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