More about Ben, Politics & Life
He was the ultimate renaissance man, civic leader & philosopher.
- He taught himself grammar, arithmetic, navigation, philosophy, and several languages,
- In 1727, he founded the Junto club, a society of young men who met together for self-improvement, study, mutual aid, and conviviality,
- He became a Mason in Philadelphia in 1731, as yet another way to form relationships and work with others in the city,
- He wrote “Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania" in support of establishing Philadelphia’s first institution of higher learning, wherein he declared that "the great Aim and End of all learning" is "to serve Mankind, one's Country, Friends and Family,"
- Franklin set forth his recommendations on diet, exercise, and the benefits of swimming,
- He is even credited with having proposed the concept of Daylight Savings Time in the essay "An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light.”
Benjamin Franklin died quietly at home on April 17, 1790. He was 84 years old.
He practiced the "politics of humanity."
- Political parties did not exist in back then. Benjamin Franklin may have been the centrist of his time ~ more of a philosopher than a politician.
- Disturbed by increasing French pressure along the western frontier, in 1754, Franklin designed and printed a cartoon of snake cut into sections, over the heading "Join or Die," in The Pennsylvania Gazette (often credited as America’s first political cartoon).
- The Continental Congress appointed Franklin to the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence on June 1; Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.
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Franklin's skill was most in demand as a diplomat (someone who is skilled at handling difficult affairs) to secure desperately needed aid in the American war for independence. In 1776 he was appointed as a representative to France.