The Autobiography of Ben Franklin

The Autobiography of Benjamin
Franklin
by Benjamin Franklin

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Title: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

Author: Benjamin Franklin
Release Date: July, 1994 [EBook #148] [This file was last updated on
October 7, 2003]
Edition: 11
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN ***

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES EDITED BY CHARLES W
ELIOT LLD P F COLLIER & SON COMPANY, NEW YORK (1909)

INTRODUCTORY NOTE
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN was born in Milk Street, Boston, on January
6, 1706. His father, Josiah Franklin, was a tallow chandler who married
twice, and of his seventeen children Benjamin was the youngest son.
His schooling ended at ten, and at twelve he was bound apprentice to
his brother James, a printer, who published the "New England
Courant." To this journal he became a contributor, and later was for a
time its nominal editor. But the brothers quarreled, and Benjamin ran
away, going first to New York, and thence to Philadelphia, where he
arrived in October, 1723. He soon obtained work as a printer, but after
a few months he was induced by Governor Keith to go to London,
where, finding Keith's promises empty, he again worked as a
compositor till he was brought back to Philadelphia by a merchant
named Denman, who gave him a position in his business. On Denman's
death he returned to his former trade, and shortly set up a printing

house of his own from which he published "The Pennsylvania Gazette,"
to which he contributed many essays, and which he made a medium for
agitating a variety of local reforms. In 1732 he began to issue his
famous "Poor Richard's Almanac" for the enrichment of which he
borrowed or composed those pithy utterances of worldly wisdom which
are the basis of a large part of his popular reputation. In 1758, the year
in which he ceases writing for the Almanac, he printed in it "Father
Abraham's Sermon," now regarded as the most famous piece of
literature produced in Colonial America.
Meantime Franklin was concerning himself more and more with public
affairs. He set forth a scheme for an Academy, which was taken up
later and finally developed into the University of Pennsylvania; and he
founded an "American Philosophical Society" for the purpose of
enabling scientific men to communicate their discoveries to one
another. He himself had already begun his electrical researches, which,
with other scientific inquiries, he called on in the intervals of
money-making and politics to the end of his life. In 1748 he sold his
business in order to get leisure for study, having now acquired
comparative wealth; and in a few years he had made discoveries that
gave him a reputation with the learned throughout Europe. In politics
he proved very able both as an administrator and as a controversialist;
but his record as an office-holder is stained by the use he made of his
position to advance his relatives. His most notable service in home
politics was his reform of the postal system; but his fame as a
statesman rests chiefly on his services in connection with the relations
of the Colonies with Great Britain, and later with France. In 1757 he
was sent to England to protest against the influence of the Penns in the
government of the colony, and for five years he remained there, striving
to enlighten the people and the ministry of England as to Colonial
conditions. On his return to America he played an honorable part in the
Paxton affair, through which he lost his seat in the Assembly; but in
1764 he was again despatched to England as agent for the colony, this
time to petition the King to resume the government from the hands of
the proprietors. In London he actively opposed the proposed Stamp Act,
but lost the credit for