If one were asked which American past or present represented the wisest American, one would be hard pressed to leave Ben Franklin out of consideration. Franklin was a diplomat, a revolutionary and a statesman, but he was also an inventor, a scientist, and author, a printer and endowed with a supreme capacity for wit and humor. Born in 1706, Franklin lived a rich and varied life until his death in 1790 (Events 1, 3). He spent his youth as an apprentice to his brother James, a printer in Boston where he was born. By the time he was 16, he ran away to Philadelphia and founded his own newspaper, published Poor Richard’s Almanac, and threw himself with all the energy, ambition and optimism of youth into originating a subscription library, a philosophical society, a fire company, a hospital, a militia, took on the job of postmaster of Philadelphia, wrote a proposal for the University of Philadelphia, invented bifocal glasses, the “Franklin” stove, and a water-harmonica (Events 1-3). None of these accomplishments or activities included his scientific experiments with lightning which taught us much about electricity and were responsible for the invention of the lightning rod.
The remarkable Franklin would become a respected diplomat and statesman in his later years. However, he spent time as a revolutionary during his life. He supported the colonies throughout the Revolution, and he helped draft and was among the signers of the Declaration of Independence. As a diplomat, he helped form a union with France and was involved in the negotiation of the peace treaty with Great Britain. Before his days as a diplomat, revolutionary and statesman, Franklin’s myriad activities kept him fully occupied. The beginning of the 1730s were marked by two great occasions in Franklin’s life, his marriage to Rebecca Read and his publishing of Poor Richard’s Almanac. Franklin’s success in the publishing of this Almanac would last for mo...