Part 3

July 21, 1775, Franklin formally presented to Congress a skilful plan for a federal government, which was the foundation stone of the present Federal Constitution. It contains some things out of the Albany plan of 1754; and had it been adopted as it stood, would have been a better instrument of government than was later drawn up by Congress. Franklin proposed and urged a strong, vigorous and well-knit union. He was also a member of the committee to draw up the Declaration of Independence in 1776. His principal contribution to the discussion was his famous retort when somebody said, “We must all hang together”--“Yes, we must all hang together, or we shall all hang separately.” Franklin took an honorable part in the Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention of 1776, and to him was due the fine phrase in the Pennsylvania Bill of Rights, “That all men have a natural and inalienable right to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences and understanding.”

_Franklin as a Diplomat_

Benjamin Franklin was now seventy years old, and said of himself to a fellow member of Congress, “I am old and good for nothing; but as the storekeepers say of their remnants of cloth, I am but a fag end, and you may have me for what you please to give.” Yet he accepted the most important post of his life when in September, 1776, he was elected commissioner to France. There for nine years he served his country as the most popular, most sagacious, and most successful foreign minister ever appointed by the United States.

He was not merely a diplomatic representative; he was a commercial and financial agent, fitted out vessels, issued commissions, borrowed money. Well did Horace Walpole say of him that Franklin was furnishing materials for writing the History of the Decline of the British Empire. Without Franklin the two treaties of 1778 with France could not have been obtained. By his personal relations with Englishmen of note, he was the natural starting point for overtures of concord; and in the negotiations of the peace of 1782 he stood alongside the eager, impetuous, and hotly national John Adams, and courteous, high bred and determined John Jay, as chief of that remarkable triumvirate of negotiators.

After all, Franklin’s chief service abroad was not so much the obtaining of favorable terms as the maintaining of American character. Who could deny the right to be a nation to a people whose best aspirations were typified by this shrewd, hard-headed, kindly man, a gallant among the fashionables, a philosopher among scientists, a statesman among ministers, a man among men?

_Franklin in the Federal Convention_

At seventy-nine years of age most men expect retirement, and it was very grateful to Franklin that, on his return to America in 1785, he should almost immediately be chosen by Pennsylvania to be the president of the commonwealth. His universal popularity was shown by the people of western North Carolina (now east Tennessee), who, in 1784, set up a short-lived frontier commonwealth, to which by way of compliment they gave the name of Franklin. In 1787, Franklin readily accepted membership in the Federal Convention, as one of the Pennsylvania delegation. He was somewhat out of touch with the real difficulties of the time, and most of his suggestions were overruled, but his influence throughout was in favor of a well organized, strong central government; and he was almost the only member to introduce an element of humanity and good humor.

On the last day of the convention he rose to urge a spirit of compromise, a willingness to yield something of one’s own opinion; to avoid the spirit of “a certain French lady, who, in a dispute with her sister, said, ‘I don’t know how it happens, sister, but I meet with nobody but myself that is always in the right.’” When at the end, signatures of the members were appended, numerous enough to make it likely that the Constitution would be accepted by the people, Franklin looked at the sun painted behind the President’s chair, and made a comment which is as applicable to his own reputation as it was to the new Federal Constitution. “I have often and often in the course of the session, and the vicissitudes of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that sun behind the President without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting; but now at length, I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun.”

This was the end of Franklin’s public life; three years later he died, full of years and honor, with the established reputation of a man of learning, power, and statesmanship. Possessed of a calm dignity that impressed even the frivolous court of France, he added a love of fun such as no other great American public man has shown, except Abraham Lincoln. His Autobiography abounds in delightful pictures of the gawky youth and the serene statesman. His vast powers belong to his country; his great endeavors went into federal government, which he helped to found, to protect, and to restate in the immortal Constitution of 1787. That is his best monument.

_SUPPLEMENTARY READING_

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, WITH NOTES BY JOHN BIGELOW. An attractive edition in Everyman’s Library.

SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF FRANKLIN

POOR RICHARD’S ALMANAC

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN SELF-REVEALED _By W. C. Bruce_

THE TRUE BENJAMIN FRANKLIN _By S. G. Fisher_

SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN _By L. C. Holman_

⁂ Information concerning the above books may be had on application to the Editor of The Mentor.

_THE OPEN LETTER_

Benjamin Franklin’s eyes were blue-gray. How do we know this? Because Duplessis’s pastel portrait in colors tells us so. Franklin had bland, shrewd, clear seeing eyes that comprehended in their genial, open glance the whole of human nature. They first saw the light of day on January 17, 1706, and they were closed for--the last time on April 17, 1790. During all those years those luminous blue-gray eyes were observing life closely, studiously and intelligently, and they saw many great things come to pass--the most important being the making of a new nation. The eyes of Franklin saw Liberty in its cradle, and with earnest solicitude, watched its growth and development until it became the watchword and dominating principle of a great republic. Moreover, while witnessing these national events, and sharing actively in them, Franklin had time to look into the everyday affairs of men, to find solutions for many problems of the work-a-day world, to suggest and plan improved methods of doing things, to invent useful devices--and, with his printing establishment as a means of public expression, to give utterance to a system of practical philosophy that was a benefit and blessing to his fellow men. Franklin was the peerless Practical Man, and his writings contain the Complete Gospel of Common Sense.

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It would be well if all of us could look at the world through Ben Franklin’s discerning, gray eyes. It is not the gray color of the eye, but the gray matter back of it that counts. I note here the color of Ben Franklin’s eyes only because I have just been “checked up” on the subject of eyes. A reader writes me as follows:

Let me call attention to a discrepancy in the Julius Cæsar number of The Mentor. On cover page 2 the statement is made that Cæsar’s eyes were dark gray. On page 8 it is said that they were black.

Our reader overlooks the fact that the two statements are not made by the same writer. The first statement is made by the English historian James Anthony Froude; the other by George W. Botsford, late professor of ancient history in Columbia University. These two eminent scholars present the conclusions that they have individually drawn from historical study. When two authorities differ it is the duty of The Mentor, as an educational publication, to present the two statements for the reader’s comparison. It is probable that the original evidence on which Mr. Froude and Professor Botsford based their statements was to the effect that Cæsar’s eyes were very dark and piercing in their glance--and that, surely, is near enough for the color of eyes nearly two thousand years ago.

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We are reproducing Duplessis’s pastel portrait of Franklin on this page. This picture has a story. Duplessis made several portraits of Franklin; this seems to be the only one in pastel, the others being oil paintings. When Franklin was in France he lived at Passy, a suburb of Paris. A friend and neighbor was M. le Veillard, who frequently urged Franklin to write his memoirs. Franklin lent a willing ear, and it was his wish that his neighbor should translate the memoirs, when finished, into French. With that end in view, he turned over to M. le Veillard much auto-biographical material. This pastel portrait by Duplessis was made especially for M. le Veillard, and when that unfortunate gentleman met his death on the Revolutionary scaffold in 1794, the picture went to his daughter, and later came into the possession of Mr. John Bigelow, when he was United States Minister to France (1865-66). By him it was presented to the New York Public Library, and it now hangs in the trustees’ room.

DAYLIGHT SAVING FRANKLIN’S IDEA

There was nothing of any significance in the affairs of mankind that escaped Benjamin Franklin’s attention. Not only political, social, commercial, literary and artistic matters concerned him, but likewise the many problems, great and small, that had to be met in the course of the day’s work. He was the first to conceive the idea of daylight saving--which means that he was, in practical wisdom, 130 odd years ahead of his time.

On an early morning walk along the streets of London in 1784 the thought first came to Franklin, and in passing it on to the world at large he said:

“In a walk through the Strand and Fleet street one morning at 7 o’clock, I observed there was not one shop open, although it had been daylight and the sun up above three hours, the inhabitants of London choosing voluntarily to live by candle light and sleep by sunshine; and yet often complaining a little absurdly of the duty on candles and the high price of tallow.”

Soon thereafter in the _Journal de Paris_ he published an article, later appearing among his essays under the title “An Economical Project,” which further elaborated the advantages of daylight saving; namely, of “Turning the clock forward an hour” so that everybody would live one hour longer by daylight and one hour less by artificial light.

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=1= =Beautiful Children in Art=, by Kobbé. =2= =Makers of American Poetry=, by Mabie. =3= =Washington the Capital=, by Elmendorf. =4= =Beautiful Women in Art=, by Willing. =5= =Romantic Ireland=, by Elmendorf. =6= =Masters of Music=, by Henderson. =7= =Natural Wonders of America=, by Elmendorf. =8= =Pictures We Love to Live With=, by Huneker. =9= =The Conquest of the Peaks=, by Fay. =10= =Scotland, the Land of Song and Scenery=, by Elmendorf. =11= =Cherubs in Art=, by Kobbé. =12= =Statues with a Story=, by Lorado Taft. =13= =The Discoverers=, by Albert Bushnell Hart. =14= =London=, by Elmendorf. =15= =The Story of Panama=, by Bonsal. =16= =American Birds of Beauty=, by E. H. Forbush. =17= =Dutch Masterpieces=, by Van Dyke. =18= =Paris, the Incomparable=, by Elmendorf. =19= =Flowers of Decoration=, by H. S. 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Finck. =42= =Egypt, the Land of Mystery=, by Elmendorf. =43= =The Revolution=, by Albert Bushnell Hart. =44= =Famous English Poets=, by Mabie. =45= =Makers of American Art=, by J. T. Willing. =46= =The Ruins of Rome=, by Botsford. =47= =Makers of Modern Opera=, by H. E. Krehbiel. =48= =Two Early German Painters--Dürer and Holbein=, by F. J. Mather, Jr. =49= =Vienna, the Queen City=, by Elmendorf. =50= =Ancient Athens=, by Botsford. =51= =The Barbizon School=, by Hoeber. =52= =Abraham Lincoln=, by Hart. =53= =George Washington=, by McElroy. =54= =Mexico=, by Frederick Palmer. =55= =Famous American Women Painters=, by Arthur Hoeber. =56= =The Conquest of the Air=, by Woodhouse. =57= =Court Painters of France=, by Coffin, N. A. =58= =Holland=, by Elmendorf. =59= =Our Feathered Friends=, by E. H. Forbush. =60= =Glacier National Park=, by Hornaday. =61= =Michelangelo=, by Cox. =62= =American Colonial Furniture=, by Esther Singleton. =63= =American Wild Flowers=, by Eaton. =64= =Gothic Architecture=, by Ward. =65= =The Story of the Rhine=, by Elmendorf. =66= =Shakespeare=, by Mabie. =67= =American Mural Painters=, by Hoeber. =68= =Celebrated Animal Characters=, by Hornaday. =69= =Japan=, by Elmendorf. =70= =The Story of the French Revolution=, by Albert Bushnell Hart. =71= =Rugs and Rug Making=, by Mumford. =72= =Alaska=, by Browne. =73= =Charles Dickens=, by Mabie. =74= =Grecian Masterpieces=, by Lorado Taft. =75= =Fathers of the Constitution=, by Albert Bushnell Hart. =76= =Masters of the Piano=, by Finck. =77= =American Historic Homes=, by Singleton. =78= =Beauty Spots of India=, by Elmendorf. =79= =Etchers and Etching=, by Weitenkampf. =80= =Oliver Cromwell=, by Albert Bushnell Hart. =81= =China=, by Elmendorf. =82= =Favorite Trees=, by Hornaday. =83= =Yellowstone National Park=, by Elmendorf. =84= =Famous Women Writers of England=, by Mabie. =85= =Painters of Western Life=, by Hoeber. =86= =China and Pottery of Our Forefathers=, by Esther Singleton. =87= =The Story of The American Railroad=, by Albert Bushnell Hart. =88= =Butterflies=, by Holland. =89= =The Philippine Islands=, by Worcester. =90= =Great Galleries of the World--the Louvre=, by Van Dyke. =91= =William M. Thackeray=, by Mabie. =92= =The Grand Canyon=, by Elmendorf. =93= =Architecture in American Country Homes=, by Aymar Embury. =94= =The Story of the Danube=, by Albert Bushnell Hart. =95= =Animals in Art=, by Kobbé. =96= =The Holy Land=, by Elmendorf. =97= =John Milton=, by Mabie. =98= =Joan of Arc=, by Ida M. Tarbell. =99= =Furniture of the Revolutionary Period=, by Esther Singleton. =100= =The Ring of the Nibelung=, by Finck. =101= =The Golden Age of Greece=, by Botsford. =102= =Chinese Rugs=, by Mumford. =103= =The War of 1812=, by Albert Bushnell Hart. =104= =Great Galleries of the World--The National Gallery, London=, by Van Dyke. =105= =Masters of the Violin=, by Finck. =106= =American Pioneer Prose Writers=, by Mabie. =107= =Old Silver=, by Esther Singleton. =108= =Shakespeare’s Country=, by William Winter. =109= =Historic Gardens of New England=, by Mary H. Northend. =110= =The Weather=, by C. F. 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Newman. =133= =The Story of the American Army=, by Hart. =134= =Our Planet Neighbors=, by Harold Jacoby. =135= =The Story of Russia=, by Leo Pasvolsky. =136= =The Story of the Hudson=, by A. B. Hart. =137= =Prehistoric Animal Life=, by Dr. Matthew. =138= =Hawaii=, by E. M. Newman. =139= =Earthquakes and Volcanoes=, by Talman. =140= =The Canadian Rockies=, by Ruth Kedzie Wood. =141= =Corot=, by Elliott Daingerfield. =142= =Bolivia=, by E. M. Newman. =143= =Russian Art=, by William A. Coffin. =144= =The American Government=, by A. B. Hart. =145= =Christmas in Picture and Story=, by Singleton. =146= =The Picture on the Wall=, by Weitenkampf. =147= =Lafayette=, by Albert Bushnell Hart. =148= =American Composers=, by Henry T. Finck. =149= =The Luxembourg Gallery=, by Wm. A. Coffin.

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