Sorry that I blogged this. I was out sick today with a migraine and this was the only way i could get it to you today and my migraine finally went down enough that i could look at the screen.
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Dylan Eschler
Mr. Decarlo
AP American
22 September 2008
Debate #1
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin is remembered by many as a patriot in the Revolutionary War. He was, however, also an inventor, scientist, and a printer. He did many things that benefited this country and helped shape it into what it is today. However, under all that, Benjamin Franklin was a hypocrite, a drunk, a womanizer, and a gossiper. These things, although not widely known, help bring light onto one of this country’s founding fathers.
Benjamin Franklin did many things to help improve the life of the colonists in British America, and one way he full filled this was being an inventor. One of his inventions was the bifocals, which became the base for modern glasses. Another that was very helpful at the time was the lightning rod, which Benjamin Franklin made so that houses and building could be protected from lightning strikes, as most were made of wood and could light easily. Benjamin Franklin invented this after having extensively studied lightning for several years; and was one of the first to test the theory that lightning was actually electricity through his famous kite and key experiment. With this knowledge he was able to build the lightning rod, which actually turned into a show of patriotism because patriots used Benjamin’s model with a pointed tip and loyalists used
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England’s blunt tip version. Another useful invention was the stove, which heated a home twice as fast and had less smoke then an open fire place.
Another area that Benjamin Franklin exceeded in was Science, and one accomplishment he made was the tracking of storms. He was one of the first to observe that storms went from Southwest to Northeast. With this knowledge he was able to track storms and study them, one of his favorite pass times. Other things that he did was Charting the Gulf Stream, he was able to observe volcano climate interactions. When he heard of air balloons, he designed ways to use them as spy tools, and to drop bombs on the enemy.
The most memorable thing Benjamin Franklin is known for is his role as a statesman. He made the famous join-or-die cartoon, which urged the colonies to join up and aid the British in the French and Indian War. He was also one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and helped edit it for Jefferson. He also traveled to France in order to gain support for the American Revolution, which he succeeded in doing and the French supplies were greatly celebrated in the colonies, along with their ships in the battle of Yorktown. He was finally entrusted to be sent to England to arrange the peace treaty between American and Britain.
In all, Benjamin Franklin did many things for this country. However, there is another side to this man. A side concerned with drinking, woman, and revenge.
One thing that is not widely known about Benjamin Franklin is that he was married to an already married man. Debra Reed’s “first” husband had actually gotten into a lot of debt and abruptly left for the Barbados, still married to Debra. Benjamin Franklin
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didn’t care, and got married anyway. One thing that Benjamin Franklin also happened to be was hypocrite, a great example being his 13 virtues. These were made by Benjamin Franklin as a way to live your life; however, he didn’t really listen. One virtue is temperance, eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation, however Benjamin Franklin was known for enjoying his food, and if you look at all the paintings of him, he’s a little plump. He was also known for enjoying wine a little too much. Another couple Ben broke in one action, they were: Silence, speak not but what may benefit others or yourself, sincerity, use no hurtful deceit, justice, wrong none by doing injuries. He broke these when he used pen names over the years, some examples being Silence Dogood, Busy Body, Anthony Afterwit, and Alice Addertongue. He used pennames as ways to attack prominent members of society. He even went so far as using the names Caelia Shortface and Martha Careful to attack his former employer Samuel Keimer and made him go bankrupt, and he bought it and it became his Pennsylvania Gazette. Another virtue he broke was chastity, which basically said have sex only for having kids. However, Benjamin Franklin was a womanizer and was known to visit several women while in France when he was negotiating with France to help America. He also had an illegitimate son, whose mother was unknown. Him and his son where known to dislike each other greatly. They finally broke apart when Benjamin went with the patriots and his son, named William, stayed with the loyalists.
The final virtue is Humility, basic behave as Jesus or Socrates would, which I am sad to say he failed miserably. There are however, things to say about each argument. For
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those who hate Benjamin, there are several things he did in the name of good that can be questioned.
One thing that he did was help write the constitution. However he was 81 years old, and was known to nap during most of the convention. When the founding fathers weren’t writing, they went to parties. However Benjamin Franklin had to be “accompanied” so that the convention could be safe, and Benjamin was known to gossip after drinking too much. It is also possible that he plagiarized the work of several other scientists he worked with when he was studying lighting and storms.
For those who like Benjamin Franklin there are also several things to say that help Ben Franklin.
One is that he was part of the team that he supposedly plagiarized, and he was the only one who continued his work after the others all gave up. Also, several families during this time were separated by differing political views, and its unfair to put all the blame on Benjamin Franklin, later after the war, he even reconciled with his son through a letter (his son was living in London). Instead of leaving his son, as many cheating husband might do, he took the blame for him and took care of him, even with the help of his wife Debra Read. He also joined a group to free slaves because he believed they were equal to whites, something revolutionary for his time, he even released his own slaves. He also refused to patent his inventions saying “…as I enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously.”
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Though both sides put up good arguments, I believe that Benjamin Franklin was to a greater extent a helpful to this country when measured up to being a womanizer and a hypocrite. I believe that even though he had an illegitimate son, he still accepted the blame and raised him, something most illegitimate sons wouldn’t get. He also, even though he might not have been the most virtues person of the time, he did make may things that helped the lives of Americans, lighting rod which saved several houses from fire, and stoves that made heating easier with less smoke; and on top of that not patenting them. Although he was a little gossipy, he did actually do things like stand up for women’s rights in his columns under names like, Polly Baker and Busy Body. And finally, although when he was in France he may have been with women, he was also able to ally with the French, and I doubt the supplies or the ships at Yorktown would have come without Benjamin Franklin’s help.
