1
00:00:10,500 --> 00:00:13,870
Histories of Lives
are seldom entertaining,

2
00:00:14,040 --> 00:00:18,670
unless they contain something
either admirable or exemplar.

3
00:00:18,840 --> 00:00:21,880
Know then, That I am an Enemy to Vice,

4
00:00:22,050 --> 00:00:23,800
and a Friend to Vertue.

5
00:00:23,970 --> 00:00:27,100
A mortal Enemy to arbitrary Government

6
00:00:27,260 --> 00:00:29,560
and unlimited Power.

7
00:00:29,720 --> 00:00:31,430
I am naturally very jealous

8
00:00:31,600 --> 00:00:34,440
for the Rights and Liberties
of my Country;

9
00:00:34,600 --> 00:00:38,690
and the least appearance of an Incroachment
on those invaluable Priviledges,

10
00:00:38,860 --> 00:00:42,440
is apt to make my Blood
boil exceedingly.

11
00:00:42,610 --> 00:00:45,700
Benjamin Franklin.

12
00:00:50,240 --> 00:00:51,580
Franklin is, by far,

13
00:00:51,740 --> 00:00:54,080
the most approachable of our Founders.

14
00:00:54,250 --> 00:00:55,960
He's not somebody made of stone,

15
00:00:56,120 --> 00:00:58,920
like a George Washington.

16
00:00:59,090 --> 00:01:01,460
Franklin was pretty simple
in his moral code.

17
00:01:01,630 --> 00:01:04,220
He was driven by a desire
to pour forth

18
00:01:04,380 --> 00:01:06,970
benefits for the common good.

19
00:01:07,140 --> 00:01:08,890
But there's a lot in Benjamin Franklin

20
00:01:09,050 --> 00:01:10,760
that makes you flinch,

21
00:01:10,930 --> 00:01:14,350
and we see Franklin
not as a perfect person,

22
00:01:14,520 --> 00:01:16,100
but somebody evolving to see

23
00:01:16,270 --> 00:01:18,520
if he could become more perfect.

24
00:01:20,690 --> 00:01:22,530
He was a teenage runaway

25
00:01:22,690 --> 00:01:25,150
who achieved such remarkable success

26
00:01:25,320 --> 00:01:28,660
that his example would be
handed down for generations

27
00:01:28,820 --> 00:01:32,910
as the embodiment
of the American dream.

28
00:01:33,080 --> 00:01:37,170
He was a printer, a publisher,
and a writer,

29
00:01:37,330 --> 00:01:41,250
producing everything from
essays on politics and religion

30
00:01:41,420 --> 00:01:44,340
to biting satires and words of wisdom

31
00:01:44,510 --> 00:01:47,380
that would endure forever.

32
00:01:47,550 --> 00:01:49,930
He was a prolific inventor

33
00:01:50,090 --> 00:01:52,930
and a scientist whose
pioneering discoveries

34
00:01:53,100 --> 00:01:57,100
would make him the most famous
American in the world.

35
00:01:57,270 --> 00:01:58,770
He was a civic leader,

36
00:01:58,940 --> 00:02:01,560
the founder of a library
and a college,

37
00:02:01,730 --> 00:02:03,900
who introduced a host of improvements

38
00:02:04,070 --> 00:02:08,490
that made the lives
of everyday people better.

39
00:02:08,660 --> 00:02:10,660
He embraced the Enlightenment belief

40
00:02:10,820 --> 00:02:13,280
in the perfectibility of human beings;

41
00:02:13,450 --> 00:02:17,410
but no one understood
their foibles and failings,

42
00:02:17,580 --> 00:02:20,670
including his own, better than he did.

43
00:02:23,130 --> 00:02:27,550
He also owned and enslaved
human beings

44
00:02:27,720 --> 00:02:30,800
and benefited from
the institution of slavery.

45
00:02:32,180 --> 00:02:34,930
He was a reluctant revolutionary

46
00:02:35,100 --> 00:02:39,310
who became an indispensable
founder of a new nation;

47
00:02:39,480 --> 00:02:40,900
helped craft the document

48
00:02:41,060 --> 00:02:44,070
that declared his
country's independence;

49
00:02:44,230 --> 00:02:46,360
and then did as much as anyone

50
00:02:46,530 --> 00:02:49,280
to secure the victory that assured it.

51
00:02:50,860 --> 00:02:52,820
And he guided
the complicated compromises

52
00:02:52,990 --> 00:02:55,910
that created his
nation's Constitution,

53
00:02:56,080 --> 00:03:01,290
then tried to rectify
its central failing.

54
00:03:01,460 --> 00:03:04,750
He constantly remade himself

55
00:03:04,920 --> 00:03:08,210
from apprentice,
to printer, to scientist,

56
00:03:08,380 --> 00:03:13,430
to government official, to
revolutionary, to abolitionist.

57
00:03:13,590 --> 00:03:16,220
He never was finished with himself.

58
00:03:16,390 --> 00:03:19,480
He always thought that
he was a work in progress.

59
00:03:19,640 --> 00:03:22,440
He could be funny and unforgiving;

60
00:03:22,600 --> 00:03:24,860
folksy and philosophical;

61
00:03:25,020 --> 00:03:27,980
generous and shrewdly calculating;

62
00:03:28,150 --> 00:03:32,030
broadminded, yet deeply prejudiced;

63
00:03:32,200 --> 00:03:35,780
a family man, who spent years
away from his wife

64
00:03:35,950 --> 00:03:37,830
and let political differences

65
00:03:37,990 --> 00:03:41,370
destroy his relationship with his son.

66
00:03:43,120 --> 00:03:44,790
He concealed those
contradictions behind

67
00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:48,670
a carefully crafted public image.

68
00:03:48,840 --> 00:03:50,920
He's a Puritan who then becomes

69
00:03:51,090 --> 00:03:54,140
the leading figure
in the Enlightenment.

70
00:03:54,300 --> 00:03:55,800
So that he stands astride

71
00:03:55,970 --> 00:03:59,020
so many contradictions
in his own life,

72
00:03:59,180 --> 00:04:00,660
that he understands them
and they don't become

73
00:04:00,680 --> 00:04:02,810
contradictions for him.

74
00:04:02,980 --> 00:04:06,810
They become some
seamless web of insight.

75
00:04:06,980 --> 00:04:08,820
He wrote so much.
He wrote so well.

76
00:04:08,980 --> 00:04:11,940
He's somebody that
we need to know about.

77
00:04:12,110 --> 00:04:15,570
He can put us in touch
with the sensibilities

78
00:04:15,740 --> 00:04:18,870
of the 18th century in a way
that makes it

79
00:04:19,040 --> 00:04:23,920
both accessible and, yet,
captures its remoteness.

80
00:04:24,080 --> 00:04:25,710
Franklin is endlessly,

81
00:04:25,880 --> 00:04:27,880
endlessly interesting.

82
00:04:28,040 --> 00:04:29,670
He is the only Founding Father who

83
00:04:29,840 --> 00:04:31,300
evidently had a sense of humor,

84
00:04:31,460 --> 00:04:33,260
who was evidently human,

85
00:04:33,420 --> 00:04:35,010
who evidently had a sex life.

86
00:04:35,180 --> 00:04:36,900
And there's so much
about him that makes him

87
00:04:36,930 --> 00:04:38,760
seem approachable, on the one hand,

88
00:04:38,930 --> 00:04:41,270
and super-human on the other hand.

89
00:04:41,430 --> 00:04:45,600
"Let all men know
thee," Benjamin Franklin said,

90
00:04:45,770 --> 00:04:48,520
"but no man
know thee thoroughly."

91
00:04:50,610 --> 00:04:53,860
I never intend
to wrap my Talent in a Napkin.

92
00:04:54,030 --> 00:04:58,160
To be brief; I am courteous
and affable, good humor'd

93
00:04:58,320 --> 00:05:00,080
unless I am first provok'd,

94
00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:04,250
and handsome, and sometimes witty.

95
00:05:04,410 --> 00:05:06,040
If you would not be forgotten,

96
00:05:06,210 --> 00:05:08,880
as soon as you are dead and rotten,

97
00:05:09,040 --> 00:05:11,050
either write things worth reading,

98
00:05:11,210 --> 00:05:16,840
or do things worth the writing.
Benjamin Franklin.

99
00:05:28,940 --> 00:05:31,070
Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston

100
00:05:31,230 --> 00:05:34,190
on January 17, 1706,

101
00:05:34,360 --> 00:05:38,610
the youngest son and 15th child
of Josiah Franklin,

102
00:05:38,780 --> 00:05:40,740
who had come from England

103
00:05:40,910 --> 00:05:45,330
to the Massachusetts Bay Colony
in 1683.

104
00:05:45,500 --> 00:05:47,960
Josiah made candles and soap

105
00:05:48,120 --> 00:05:51,090
and became a respected member
of South Church,

106
00:05:51,250 --> 00:05:55,880
one of the town's 3
congregations of Puritans.

107
00:05:56,050 --> 00:05:58,760
When his first wife
died in childbirth,

108
00:05:58,930 --> 00:06:02,050
Josiah married Abiah Folger
of Nantucket,

109
00:06:02,220 --> 00:06:05,770
who came from a family
of free-thinkers.

110
00:06:05,930 --> 00:06:09,020
Benjamin would be her eighth child.

111
00:06:10,810 --> 00:06:12,980
He grew up in a 4-room house

112
00:06:13,150 --> 00:06:15,530
where the dinner table
was always crowded,

113
00:06:15,690 --> 00:06:20,700
and often included friends his
pious and serious-minded father

114
00:06:20,870 --> 00:06:23,490
invited over for conversation.

115
00:06:24,870 --> 00:06:27,870
From the start,
the boy was precocious.

116
00:06:28,040 --> 00:06:30,960
He was reading the Bible by age 5.

117
00:06:31,130 --> 00:06:35,090
His sister Jane recalled
that he "studied incessantly"

118
00:06:35,250 --> 00:06:38,630
and "was addicted to
all kinds of reading."

119
00:06:38,800 --> 00:06:41,050
But he was also irreverent.

120
00:06:41,220 --> 00:06:45,140
He found the long prayers
before each meal tedious

121
00:06:45,310 --> 00:06:48,680
and suggested his father
simply say grace once

122
00:06:48,850 --> 00:06:52,230
over the entire winter's
supply of food.

123
00:06:52,400 --> 00:06:58,360
"It would be," young Benjamin
said, "a vast saving of time."

124
00:07:01,200 --> 00:07:02,780
He and his boyhood friends

125
00:07:02,950 --> 00:07:06,040
fished and frolicked in a nearby pond.

126
00:07:06,200 --> 00:07:09,040
An avid swimmer,
he designed rudimentary fins

127
00:07:09,210 --> 00:07:12,790
to propel himself faster
across the water;

128
00:07:12,960 --> 00:07:15,290
other times, he floated on his back

129
00:07:15,460 --> 00:07:19,880
and let himself be
pulled along by a kite.

130
00:07:20,050 --> 00:07:22,390
Josiah initially thought his son

131
00:07:22,550 --> 00:07:24,220
should study for the ministry

132
00:07:24,390 --> 00:07:27,770
and enrolled him at age 8
in the Boston school

133
00:07:27,930 --> 00:07:31,640
that prepared students
for Harvard College.

134
00:07:31,810 --> 00:07:34,730
But the academy proved too expensive,

135
00:07:34,900 --> 00:07:37,440
and eager to have
another set of hands,

136
00:07:37,610 --> 00:07:41,200
his father put him to work
in the family's candle shop.

137
00:07:41,360 --> 00:07:46,160
He was 10 years old;
his schooling was over.

138
00:07:47,540 --> 00:07:51,080
I think it was crucial
to Franklin's success

139
00:07:51,250 --> 00:07:53,790
that he had very little
formal education.

140
00:07:55,290 --> 00:07:57,670
When people go through formal schools,

141
00:07:57,840 --> 00:08:00,300
they learn what
you're supposed to know.

142
00:08:00,460 --> 00:08:04,390
They also learn what
you don't have to know.

143
00:08:04,550 --> 00:08:06,240
With Franklin, he never knew
what he didn't have to know,

144
00:08:06,260 --> 00:08:08,140
so, he assumed he had
to know everything.

145
00:08:10,980 --> 00:08:13,770
In 1718, at age 12,

146
00:08:13,940 --> 00:08:16,230
Franklin began the work
that would define

147
00:08:16,400 --> 00:08:17,770
the rest of his life.

148
00:08:17,940 --> 00:08:20,230
He signed a 9-year apprenticeship,

149
00:08:20,400 --> 00:08:23,950
legally indenturing himself
to his older brother James,

150
00:08:24,110 --> 00:08:28,330
who had opened
a printing shop in Boston.

151
00:08:28,490 --> 00:08:30,490
Printing was
an amazing business if you were

152
00:08:30,660 --> 00:08:35,040
both clever with your hands
and good at thinking.

153
00:08:35,210 --> 00:08:38,670
Printers are setting type
upside-down and backward.

154
00:08:38,840 --> 00:08:42,090
And you have to be really
hyper-literate to understand

155
00:08:42,260 --> 00:08:43,880
how language works that way,

156
00:08:44,050 --> 00:08:45,490
and to correct things as you go along,

157
00:08:45,510 --> 00:08:47,220
and get it right.

158
00:08:47,390 --> 00:08:49,970
Handling the heavy sets of lead type

159
00:08:50,140 --> 00:08:52,770
strengthened and broadened
his shoulders.

160
00:08:52,930 --> 00:08:54,770
Having access to books

161
00:08:54,940 --> 00:08:58,900
strengthened and liberated his mind.

162
00:08:59,070 --> 00:09:01,030
Often I sat up in my room

163
00:09:01,190 --> 00:09:03,320
reading the greatest part
of the night,

164
00:09:03,490 --> 00:09:05,740
when the book was borrowed
in the evening and had to be

165
00:09:05,910 --> 00:09:09,410
returned early in the morning
lest it should be missed.

166
00:09:09,580 --> 00:09:12,830
And all the little money
that came into my hands

167
00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:15,960
was ever laid out in books.

168
00:09:17,170 --> 00:09:18,880
Here was a kid who only had

169
00:09:19,040 --> 00:09:22,460
two years of formal education, ever.

170
00:09:22,630 --> 00:09:28,090
So, what did he do?
He taught himself how to write.

171
00:09:28,260 --> 00:09:31,390
He composed poetry--
including a ballad

172
00:09:31,560 --> 00:09:36,190
commemorating the recent killing
of Blackbeard the pirate.

173
00:09:36,350 --> 00:09:38,560
He read articles from "The Spectator,"

174
00:09:38,730 --> 00:09:40,360
a London periodical,

175
00:09:40,520 --> 00:09:43,070
and, on paper salvaged
from the print shop,

176
00:09:43,230 --> 00:09:46,820
attempted to reproduce them by memory.

177
00:09:46,990 --> 00:09:50,740
He stayed up late at night
and rose early each morning

178
00:09:50,910 --> 00:09:54,290
to continue his reading
before the shop opened.

179
00:09:54,450 --> 00:10:01,210
"I was," Franklin said,
"extremely ambitious."

180
00:10:01,380 --> 00:10:05,130
In 1721, his brother James
decided to publish

181
00:10:05,300 --> 00:10:09,140
his own weekly newspaper,
"The New-England Courant."

182
00:10:10,720 --> 00:10:14,010
From its inception,
the paper courted controversy.

183
00:10:14,180 --> 00:10:16,430
Its first issue
attacked Cotton Mather,

184
00:10:16,600 --> 00:10:19,730
Boston's pre-eminent preacher
and the colony's

185
00:10:19,900 --> 00:10:23,020
strict and severe moral authority.

186
00:10:23,190 --> 00:10:25,690
Mather called the newspaper wicked,

187
00:10:25,860 --> 00:10:29,280
filled with immorality, and lies.

188
00:10:29,450 --> 00:10:31,620
What James Franklin does is he creates

189
00:10:31,780 --> 00:10:36,200
the first real independent
newspaper in America.

190
00:10:36,370 --> 00:10:39,040
His paper, in Boston, is, quote,

191
00:10:39,210 --> 00:10:40,710
"Not published by Authority."

192
00:10:40,880 --> 00:10:44,380
All the others, you were
given a stamp of authority.

193
00:10:44,550 --> 00:10:48,630
On April 2, 1722, an essay appeared

194
00:10:48,800 --> 00:10:51,260
over the name of Silence Dogood,

195
00:10:51,430 --> 00:10:54,560
who claimed to be a widowed
woman from the countryside,

196
00:10:54,720 --> 00:10:57,140
and who had lots of homespun wisdom

197
00:10:57,310 --> 00:10:59,940
and sharp social critiques to share.

198
00:11:00,100 --> 00:11:02,650
It was an immediate hit.

199
00:11:02,810 --> 00:11:06,900
No one, including
James Franklin, had any idea

200
00:11:07,070 --> 00:11:09,900
that the real author
was a teenage boy,

201
00:11:10,070 --> 00:11:13,370
James's 16-year-old brother Benjamin,

202
00:11:13,530 --> 00:11:17,620
who had secretly slipped
the essay under the door.

203
00:11:17,790 --> 00:11:21,670
More of Silence Dogood's
articles began to appear.

204
00:11:21,830 --> 00:11:25,250
She offered irreverent
advice on funeral eulogies,

205
00:11:25,420 --> 00:11:28,460
advocated fiercely
for women's education,

206
00:11:28,630 --> 00:11:32,340
and in one dispatch
poked fun at Harvard

207
00:11:32,510 --> 00:11:34,300
and the wealthy parents who dreamed of

208
00:11:34,470 --> 00:11:38,600
sending their children
to the elite institution.

209
00:11:38,770 --> 00:11:41,270
Most of them
consulted their own Purses

210
00:11:41,440 --> 00:11:44,270
instead of their Childrens Capacities.

211
00:11:44,440 --> 00:11:46,270
At Harvard They learn little more than

212
00:11:46,440 --> 00:11:48,690
how to carry themselves handsomely,

213
00:11:48,860 --> 00:11:51,070
and enter a Room genteely...

214
00:11:51,240 --> 00:11:52,660
and from whence they return,

215
00:11:52,820 --> 00:11:55,240
after Abundance of Trouble and Charge,

216
00:11:55,410 --> 00:11:57,950
as great Blockheads as ever,

217
00:11:58,120 --> 00:12:01,080
only more proud and self-conceited.

218
00:12:03,790 --> 00:12:06,170
In the summer of 1722,

219
00:12:06,340 --> 00:12:09,630
James was jailed for 3 weeks
without trial

220
00:12:09,800 --> 00:12:12,680
for questioning the competence
of Cotton Mather

221
00:12:12,840 --> 00:12:15,430
and the colony's other leaders.

222
00:12:15,590 --> 00:12:18,640
Quoting from an article he had
read in a London newspaper,

223
00:12:18,810 --> 00:12:23,890
Benjamin, as Silence Dogood,
came to his brother's defense.

224
00:12:25,560 --> 00:12:26,640
Without Freedom of Thought,

225
00:12:26,730 --> 00:12:29,320
there can be no such Thing as Wisdom;

226
00:12:29,480 --> 00:12:31,900
and no such Thing as publick Liberty,

227
00:12:32,070 --> 00:12:33,820
without Freedom of Speech.

228
00:12:35,360 --> 00:12:37,530
Whoever would overthrow
the Liberty of a Nation,

229
00:12:37,700 --> 00:12:41,370
must begin by subduing
the Freeness of Speech.

230
00:12:43,460 --> 00:12:45,080
When James was released from jail

231
00:12:45,250 --> 00:12:47,420
and resumed putting out his newspaper,

232
00:12:47,580 --> 00:12:51,010
Benjamin confessed publicly
that he, in fact,

233
00:12:51,170 --> 00:12:54,340
was writing Silence Dogood's essays.

234
00:12:54,510 --> 00:12:57,050
Many cheered him for his artfulness,

235
00:12:57,220 --> 00:12:59,930
but James was jealous.

236
00:13:00,100 --> 00:13:04,560
They would argue--and it
sometimes came to blows.

237
00:13:04,730 --> 00:13:06,520
I fancy his harsh and tyrannical

238
00:13:06,690 --> 00:13:08,810
Treatment of me, might be a means of

239
00:13:08,980 --> 00:13:12,320
impressing me with that
Aversion to arbitrary Power

240
00:13:12,480 --> 00:13:15,900
that has stuck to me
thro' my whole Life.

241
00:13:17,450 --> 00:13:19,700
Franklin decided to run away,

242
00:13:19,870 --> 00:13:24,620
even if it meant breaking his
legal obligation to his brother.

243
00:13:24,790 --> 00:13:28,210
After selling some of his books
to pay for his passage,

244
00:13:28,380 --> 00:13:31,590
he slipped out of town
on a ship heading south,

245
00:13:31,750 --> 00:13:35,800
convincing the captain to keep
quiet under the false pretense

246
00:13:35,970 --> 00:13:40,140
that he had gotten a girl
pregnant and needed to leave.

247
00:13:40,300 --> 00:13:43,060
He was 17 years old.

248
00:13:52,150 --> 00:13:56,360
11 days later, on October 6, 1723,

249
00:13:56,530 --> 00:13:59,030
Franklin arrived at
the Market Street wharf

250
00:13:59,200 --> 00:14:01,660
on the Delaware River in Philadelphia,

251
00:14:01,830 --> 00:14:05,790
the City of Brotherly Love
founded by William Penn,

252
00:14:05,950 --> 00:14:10,540
a Quaker for whom the colony of
Pennsylvania was named.

253
00:14:10,710 --> 00:14:13,710
With 6,000 residents,
Philadelphia was now

254
00:14:13,880 --> 00:14:18,680
America's third-largest city
after Boston and New York.

255
00:14:18,840 --> 00:14:22,510
It was a thriving outpost
of the British Empire--

256
00:14:22,680 --> 00:14:26,680
its streets filled with both
newcomers and Native peoples,

257
00:14:26,850 --> 00:14:32,860
including the Lenape, on whose
land the city now stood.

258
00:14:33,020 --> 00:14:36,070
People are coming
from all sorts of backgrounds.

259
00:14:36,240 --> 00:14:38,110
There's Anglicans, there's Jews,

260
00:14:38,280 --> 00:14:40,490
there's slaves, freed slaves.

261
00:14:40,660 --> 00:14:43,280
There's the Germans coming in
and the Presbyterians

262
00:14:43,450 --> 00:14:45,910
and the Native Americans
who were there.

263
00:14:46,080 --> 00:14:49,420
And, unlike Puritan Boston,
where you have to follow

264
00:14:49,580 --> 00:14:52,790
the theocratic maxims
of the Mather family,

265
00:14:52,960 --> 00:14:58,050
people in Philadelphia
have a certain tolerance.

266
00:14:58,220 --> 00:15:01,050
Colonial Philadelphia
had a different vibe,

267
00:15:01,220 --> 00:15:02,850
a different flavor.

268
00:15:03,010 --> 00:15:07,470
Growing commerce, saloons and taverns,

269
00:15:07,640 --> 00:15:10,940
a sort of hospitable place,
but also a place in which

270
00:15:11,100 --> 00:15:14,690
people could find themselves
and create themselves.

271
00:15:14,860 --> 00:15:17,570
Franklin landing in
Philadelphia at this moment

272
00:15:17,730 --> 00:15:20,900
was perfect for him,
in terms of timing.

273
00:15:21,070 --> 00:15:24,990
He didn't have to be someone
who came from great wealth

274
00:15:25,160 --> 00:15:28,200
in order to find opportunity.

275
00:15:28,370 --> 00:15:30,580
He's just a kid.

276
00:15:30,750 --> 00:15:32,830
He's run away from his apprenticeship,

277
00:15:33,000 --> 00:15:35,000
so, he's scared, probably,
that they're going to

278
00:15:35,170 --> 00:15:36,420
track him down.

279
00:15:36,590 --> 00:15:40,010
He's not sure what comes next.

280
00:15:40,170 --> 00:15:42,800
"I was dirty from
my journey," Franklin wrote,

281
00:15:42,970 --> 00:15:46,350
"and I knew no soul
nor where to look for lodging.

282
00:15:46,510 --> 00:15:50,600
I was fatigued and very hungry."

283
00:15:50,770 --> 00:15:54,150
It was a Sunday, and he saw
a crowd of well-dressed people

284
00:15:54,310 --> 00:15:56,690
heading into a church.

285
00:15:56,860 --> 00:16:00,780
They were Quakers about to
attend their weekly service,

286
00:16:00,940 --> 00:16:04,660
marked by sitting in silence together.

287
00:16:06,950 --> 00:16:08,410
I sat down among them,

288
00:16:08,580 --> 00:16:10,750
and after looking round awhile

289
00:16:10,910 --> 00:16:12,410
and hearing nothing said,

290
00:16:12,580 --> 00:16:15,630
I fell fast asleep, and continued so

291
00:16:15,790 --> 00:16:20,170
till the meeting broke up, when
one was kind enough to rouse me.

292
00:16:23,090 --> 00:16:25,390
Walking up
Market Street, he passed a house

293
00:16:25,550 --> 00:16:28,390
and exchanged glances
with a 15-year-old girl

294
00:16:28,560 --> 00:16:31,520
standing in the doorway,
who, he was sure,

295
00:16:31,680 --> 00:16:34,390
"thought I made, as I certainly did,

296
00:16:34,560 --> 00:16:37,650
a most awkward,
ridiculous appearance."

297
00:16:38,980 --> 00:16:41,820
He went to work at one of
the city's print shops

298
00:16:41,990 --> 00:16:44,610
and eventually began
renting a room at the house

299
00:16:44,780 --> 00:16:47,620
he had passed that first morning.

300
00:16:48,870 --> 00:16:50,910
The girl he had seen was
his landlord's daughter--

301
00:16:51,080 --> 00:16:53,120
Deborah Read.

302
00:16:53,290 --> 00:16:54,830
They struck up a romance,

303
00:16:55,000 --> 00:16:59,550
and by the fall of 1724
were talking of marriage.

304
00:17:01,880 --> 00:17:04,260
Meanwhile, patrons of
the print shop had noticed

305
00:17:04,420 --> 00:17:06,890
Franklin's skill and diligence.

306
00:17:07,050 --> 00:17:10,260
One of them, Pennsylvania's
governor William Keith,

307
00:17:10,430 --> 00:17:15,140
offered what seemed to be
the opportunity of a lifetime.

308
00:17:15,310 --> 00:17:17,520
He would send Franklin to London

309
00:17:17,690 --> 00:17:20,190
with letters of introduction
and credit

310
00:17:20,360 --> 00:17:21,900
to purchase the equipment needed

311
00:17:22,070 --> 00:17:25,610
to start his own
print shop in Philadelphia.

312
00:17:27,780 --> 00:17:30,240
Marriage to Deborah
would have to wait.

313
00:17:30,410 --> 00:17:33,660
Benjamin was bound for England.

314
00:17:41,090 --> 00:17:42,750
The great center of England

315
00:17:42,920 --> 00:17:45,420
is the city of London
and parts adjacent.

316
00:17:45,590 --> 00:17:47,680
All that vast mass of buildings,

317
00:17:47,840 --> 00:17:50,850
and how much farther
it may spread, who knows?

318
00:17:51,010 --> 00:17:53,890
New squares and new streets
rising up every day

319
00:17:54,060 --> 00:17:56,850
to such a prodigy of buildings
that nothing in the world

320
00:17:57,020 --> 00:18:02,150
does, or ever did, equal it,
except old Rome.

321
00:18:02,320 --> 00:18:03,570
Daniel Defoe.

322
00:18:05,900 --> 00:18:07,820
With more than 600,000 residents,

323
00:18:07,990 --> 00:18:10,780
100 times the size of Philadelphia,

324
00:18:10,950 --> 00:18:13,870
London was the teeming hub
of an empire

325
00:18:14,040 --> 00:18:19,000
that considered its far-flung
colonists with mild disdain.

326
00:18:19,170 --> 00:18:23,300
They viewed Americans as
backwards suppliers of raw materials

327
00:18:23,460 --> 00:18:26,340
and as purchasers
of manufactured goods

328
00:18:26,510 --> 00:18:30,220
only England could provide.

329
00:18:30,390 --> 00:18:31,510
Coming out of the Provinces,

330
00:18:31,600 --> 00:18:33,810
he found a greater world.

331
00:18:33,970 --> 00:18:38,810
In England, he was
young and impressionable

332
00:18:38,980 --> 00:18:45,690
and able to make his way into
that huge metropolis of London

333
00:18:45,860 --> 00:18:48,990
from nothing but his ability.

334
00:18:49,150 --> 00:18:52,200
Upon his arrival,
Franklin learned too late that

335
00:18:52,370 --> 00:18:56,160
Governor Keith had
a reputation for unreliability.

336
00:18:56,330 --> 00:18:59,920
There were no letters of credit
or introduction.

337
00:19:00,080 --> 00:19:03,340
Once more, he would have
to fend for himself.

338
00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:07,050
For a year and a half,
he made the most of it.

339
00:19:07,210 --> 00:19:09,630
London had more print shops
than all of

340
00:19:09,800 --> 00:19:12,180
the American colonies combined,

341
00:19:12,340 --> 00:19:14,300
and he quickly found work,

342
00:19:14,470 --> 00:19:19,730
impressing his employers with
his strength and his sobriety.

343
00:19:19,890 --> 00:19:22,940
Unlike all the other workers,
he did not drink

344
00:19:23,110 --> 00:19:28,110
a pint of beer 6 different times
during the workday.

345
00:19:28,280 --> 00:19:31,410
I drank
only Water; the other Workmen

346
00:19:31,570 --> 00:19:32,700
wonder'd to see from this

347
00:19:32,860 --> 00:19:36,080
that the Water-American,
as they call'd me,

348
00:19:36,240 --> 00:19:38,290
was stronger than themselves.

349
00:19:40,330 --> 00:19:43,330
He spent his
free time poring through books,

350
00:19:43,500 --> 00:19:47,800
especially Enlightenment
treatises by Isaac Newton,

351
00:19:47,960 --> 00:19:51,760
René Descartes, John Locke,
and other philosophers

352
00:19:51,930 --> 00:19:54,930
who argued that truths
were to be found

353
00:19:55,100 --> 00:19:58,890
through the study of how things
work in the natural world.

354
00:20:02,770 --> 00:20:03,850
The Enlightenment.

355
00:20:04,020 --> 00:20:06,900
It's a commitment
to reason and science.

356
00:20:07,070 --> 00:20:09,070
It's a belief that
every problem can be solved

357
00:20:09,230 --> 00:20:12,610
and that every institution
can be reformed,

358
00:20:12,780 --> 00:20:14,320
that life on Earth is perfectible,

359
00:20:14,490 --> 00:20:17,200
at least up to a point,

360
00:20:17,370 --> 00:20:19,620
and maybe altogether.

361
00:20:19,790 --> 00:20:21,620
In London, Franklin also seemed

362
00:20:21,790 --> 00:20:23,460
to have forgotten Deborah

363
00:20:23,620 --> 00:20:25,790
and indulged in what he called

364
00:20:25,960 --> 00:20:28,670
"foolish intrigues
with low women."

365
00:20:28,840 --> 00:20:31,840
He wrote her only one letter.

366
00:20:32,010 --> 00:20:36,680
In his absence,
Deborah married someone else.

367
00:20:36,850 --> 00:20:38,640
But when a Quaker merchant

368
00:20:38,810 --> 00:20:41,060
offered Franklin a job as a clerk

369
00:20:41,220 --> 00:20:43,480
selling merchandise in a general store

370
00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:44,850
back in Philadelphia

371
00:20:45,020 --> 00:20:48,360
and then dangled
a potential partnership,

372
00:20:48,520 --> 00:20:50,530
he headed home.

373
00:20:53,450 --> 00:20:56,950
During the 12-week voyage,
Franklin wrote out a plan

374
00:20:57,120 --> 00:21:01,290
for future conduct,
with 4 basic rules:

375
00:21:01,450 --> 00:21:03,410
be "extremely frugal,"

376
00:21:03,580 --> 00:21:07,210
"endeavor to speak the truth
in every instance,"

377
00:21:07,380 --> 00:21:11,920
"apply myself industriously
to whatever business I take,"

378
00:21:12,090 --> 00:21:14,880
and "speak ill of
no man whatever."

379
00:21:17,510 --> 00:21:20,930
In Philadelphia, he threw
himself into his new job,

380
00:21:21,100 --> 00:21:25,100
becoming, he said,
an "expert at selling."

381
00:21:25,270 --> 00:21:28,900
But that winter, his employer
took ill and died.

382
00:21:30,190 --> 00:21:33,860
Franklin decided to return
to his old trade as a printer.

383
00:21:35,030 --> 00:21:37,530
In 1728, he opened

384
00:21:37,700 --> 00:21:39,950
his own shop on Market Street

385
00:21:40,120 --> 00:21:42,410
with a partner whose father underwrote

386
00:21:42,580 --> 00:21:45,460
the initial expenses.

387
00:21:45,620 --> 00:21:49,000
He had devised a foundry
for casting type,

388
00:21:49,170 --> 00:21:52,670
saving the cost of sending to
England for replacements,

389
00:21:52,840 --> 00:21:54,920
and won a contract to print

390
00:21:55,090 --> 00:21:58,010
the authorized history of the Quakers.

391
00:21:59,220 --> 00:22:00,930
When his new partner took to drinking,

392
00:22:01,100 --> 00:22:04,270
Franklin found other backers
to buy him out

393
00:22:04,430 --> 00:22:07,690
and continued as sole proprietor.

394
00:22:07,850 --> 00:22:10,060
In his drive to succeed,
he often worked

395
00:22:10,230 --> 00:22:11,860
until 11 at night

396
00:22:12,020 --> 00:22:14,900
and was back at his shop before dawn.

397
00:22:16,490 --> 00:22:18,990
I took care not only to be in Reality

398
00:22:19,160 --> 00:22:21,580
Industrious and frugal, but to avoid

399
00:22:21,740 --> 00:22:24,950
all Appearances of the Contrary.

400
00:22:25,120 --> 00:22:27,580
He made sure people noticed,

401
00:22:27,750 --> 00:22:31,290
and his business increased.

402
00:22:31,460 --> 00:22:34,170
He was a writer.
You know, writers invent.

403
00:22:34,340 --> 00:22:38,260
He might be his own best invention.

404
00:22:38,430 --> 00:22:42,220
Franklin is so relentless
in learning how to do things,

405
00:22:42,390 --> 00:22:45,850
learning how to do things
correctly in a certain way,

406
00:22:46,020 --> 00:22:48,060
how to write, how to dress, how to

407
00:22:48,230 --> 00:22:50,230
speak to different kinds of people.

408
00:22:50,400 --> 00:22:53,440
It's sort of impossible
to know what was there

409
00:22:53,610 --> 00:22:56,610
before he did all that
and invented himself.

410
00:22:59,360 --> 00:23:02,120
With 11 other up-and-coming tradesmen,

411
00:23:02,280 --> 00:23:05,290
Franklin formed a club
that met each Friday evening

412
00:23:05,450 --> 00:23:10,000
to socialize and forge
business connections.

413
00:23:10,170 --> 00:23:12,750
But they also discussed current events

414
00:23:12,920 --> 00:23:16,420
and politely debated
a variety of topics--

415
00:23:16,590 --> 00:23:20,380
What is wisdom?
What defines good writing?

416
00:23:20,550 --> 00:23:23,970
Did importing indentured
and enslaved servants

417
00:23:24,140 --> 00:23:27,390
help or hurt the colonial economy?

418
00:23:28,890 --> 00:23:32,270
The official name of the group
was the Leather Apron Club.

419
00:23:32,440 --> 00:23:35,820
Informally, they
called themselves the Junto,

420
00:23:35,980 --> 00:23:39,190
from the Latin for
"joined together."

421
00:23:39,360 --> 00:23:42,820
At 21, Franklin was
its youngest member,

422
00:23:42,990 --> 00:23:47,120
but unquestionably its driving force.

423
00:23:47,290 --> 00:23:51,210
Franklin believed
that the virtues and values

424
00:23:51,370 --> 00:23:53,250
of a working middle class

425
00:23:53,420 --> 00:23:56,710
were going to be the backbone
of American society.

426
00:23:56,880 --> 00:23:59,300
The artisans, the shopkeepers,

427
00:23:59,460 --> 00:24:02,300
the people who put on leather
aprons early in the morning

428
00:24:02,470 --> 00:24:05,260
to help serve the public.

429
00:24:05,430 --> 00:24:07,850
The Junto moved its meeting place

430
00:24:08,010 --> 00:24:10,680
from a local tavern to a rented house,

431
00:24:10,850 --> 00:24:12,690
and at Franklin's suggestion,

432
00:24:12,850 --> 00:24:14,770
each member brought some books

433
00:24:14,940 --> 00:24:17,020
that the other members could read.

434
00:24:20,110 --> 00:24:21,420
Eventually, they broadened the idea

435
00:24:21,440 --> 00:24:24,860
into the Library Company
of Philadelphia,

436
00:24:25,030 --> 00:24:27,280
America's first subscription library

437
00:24:27,450 --> 00:24:28,870
open to the public,

438
00:24:29,040 --> 00:24:31,710
who paid small dues
for the chance to borrow

439
00:24:31,870 --> 00:24:35,130
books imported from Europe.

440
00:24:35,290 --> 00:24:37,670
And, every year,
more and more books would be

441
00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:41,010
collected and extend knowledge.

442
00:24:41,170 --> 00:24:44,130
What was so important
about the Library Company

443
00:24:44,300 --> 00:24:50,060
was that it wasn't
just for wealthy, elite men.

444
00:24:50,220 --> 00:24:52,230
This Library afforded me

445
00:24:52,390 --> 00:24:56,150
the Means of Improvement
by constant Study,

446
00:24:56,310 --> 00:24:58,940
for which I set apart
an Hour or two each Day;

447
00:24:59,110 --> 00:25:01,280
and thus repair'd in some Degree

448
00:25:01,440 --> 00:25:03,860
the Loss of the Learned Education

449
00:25:04,030 --> 00:25:06,570
my Father once intended for me.

450
00:25:08,620 --> 00:25:10,240
He always looked
around wherever he was

451
00:25:10,410 --> 00:25:12,040
and said, "What needs to be done?

452
00:25:12,200 --> 00:25:13,600
"What's missing?
What are the things

453
00:25:13,620 --> 00:25:15,620
that a community ought to have?"

454
00:25:15,790 --> 00:25:19,210
He had read enough to know
that there was more elsewhere

455
00:25:19,380 --> 00:25:21,920
and he wanted to make
those good things happen

456
00:25:22,090 --> 00:25:24,130
to the community of Philadelphia.

457
00:25:25,590 --> 00:25:27,840
Self-reliance, which Franklin loved,

458
00:25:28,010 --> 00:25:30,390
and community engagement may seem like

459
00:25:30,560 --> 00:25:31,850
they oppose each other.

460
00:25:32,020 --> 00:25:34,890
But as Franklin repeatedly said,

461
00:25:35,060 --> 00:25:37,060
the good that we can do together

462
00:25:37,230 --> 00:25:40,110
surpasses the good we can do alone.

463
00:25:43,280 --> 00:25:46,070
Over the coming years,
Franklin and his Junto

464
00:25:46,240 --> 00:25:48,450
would turn to other civic projects

465
00:25:48,620 --> 00:25:51,240
to improve life in Philadelphia.

466
00:25:52,950 --> 00:25:54,790
Under their guidance, the city formed

467
00:25:54,950 --> 00:25:57,210
volunteer fire companies.

468
00:25:57,370 --> 00:25:59,670
They advocated for a police force

469
00:25:59,830 --> 00:26:02,500
paid by a property tax.

470
00:26:02,670 --> 00:26:04,420
And at one Junto meeting,

471
00:26:04,590 --> 00:26:08,640
Franklin raised the idea
of starting a college.

472
00:26:10,550 --> 00:26:12,560
When the Public Academy
of Philadelphia

473
00:26:12,720 --> 00:26:15,480
finally opened in 1751,

474
00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:19,440
Franklin would be elected
president of the board.

475
00:26:19,600 --> 00:26:23,570
It was the first non-sectarian
college in America

476
00:26:23,730 --> 00:26:28,030
and would later become
the University of Pennsylvania.

477
00:26:30,120 --> 00:26:31,700
Expanding on the Junto model,

478
00:26:31,870 --> 00:26:33,910
he proposed and organized

479
00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:37,210
the American Philosophical Society,

480
00:26:37,370 --> 00:26:40,670
whose members would be
scientists and intellectuals

481
00:26:40,830 --> 00:26:43,210
from throughout the colonies,

482
00:26:43,380 --> 00:26:47,010
who could share ideas
and scholarly papers by mail

483
00:26:47,170 --> 00:26:50,470
if they could not
come to meetings in person.

484
00:26:50,640 --> 00:26:54,930
It would become the colonies'
first learned society.

485
00:26:56,600 --> 00:26:59,350
And to build a new hospital,
he devised a plan

486
00:26:59,520 --> 00:27:04,230
that matched private donations
with public funds,

487
00:27:04,400 --> 00:27:07,990
giving people, he said,
"an additional motive to give,

488
00:27:08,150 --> 00:27:11,820
since every man's donation
would be doubled."

489
00:27:13,370 --> 00:27:14,930
He always believed
that if you just get a few

490
00:27:14,950 --> 00:27:17,290
good and interested men, always men,

491
00:27:17,450 --> 00:27:21,210
on any civic problem,
you can solve it.

492
00:27:21,370 --> 00:27:26,210
Ben Franklin is,
I think, emblematic of what

493
00:27:26,380 --> 00:27:29,970
America wanted to be,
should be, could be.

494
00:27:30,130 --> 00:27:33,600
The things that he spoke of,
the things that he wrote about,

495
00:27:33,760 --> 00:27:38,980
often missing are other people.

496
00:27:39,140 --> 00:27:42,100
Women, people of color, in particular,

497
00:27:42,270 --> 00:27:45,230
enslaved men and women, never had

498
00:27:45,400 --> 00:27:48,610
the opportunities that
a Ben Franklin had.

499
00:28:00,410 --> 00:28:02,670
Franklin's print shop was thriving.

500
00:28:02,830 --> 00:28:05,670
Pennsylvania's colonial
legislature awarded him

501
00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:09,300
the contract to print
its paper currency.

502
00:28:09,460 --> 00:28:10,920
When he learned that South Carolina

503
00:28:11,090 --> 00:28:12,840
was looking for a printer,

504
00:28:13,010 --> 00:28:15,050
he dispatched one of his employees

505
00:28:15,220 --> 00:28:17,680
to open a shop in Charleston.

506
00:28:19,640 --> 00:28:23,690
And on October 2, 1729,
he began publishing

507
00:28:23,850 --> 00:28:28,360
his own newspaper,
"The Pennsylvania Gazette."

508
00:28:28,520 --> 00:28:31,530
He filled its pages with
reports from other newspapers

509
00:28:31,690 --> 00:28:33,660
in America and England,

510
00:28:33,820 --> 00:28:35,780
along with crime stories,

511
00:28:35,950 --> 00:28:38,740
notices of fires and deaths,

512
00:28:38,910 --> 00:28:40,750
a moral advice column,

513
00:28:40,910 --> 00:28:45,540
funny tales he concocted that
flirted with sexual innuendo,

514
00:28:45,710 --> 00:28:50,210
and letters from readers,
including some he wrote himself,

515
00:28:50,380 --> 00:28:52,260
under tongue-in-cheek pseudonyms like

516
00:28:52,420 --> 00:28:56,640
Anthony Afterwit
and Alice Addertongue.

517
00:28:56,800 --> 00:28:59,510
"If you would make your
paper a vehicle of scandal,"

518
00:28:59,680 --> 00:29:02,230
Addertongue advised in one letter,

519
00:29:02,390 --> 00:29:05,400
"you would double the number
of your subscribers."

520
00:29:07,150 --> 00:29:08,940
The "Gazette" caught on.

521
00:29:10,320 --> 00:29:11,940
Ben Franklin understood the power

522
00:29:12,110 --> 00:29:14,700
of the printing press.

523
00:29:14,860 --> 00:29:18,570
He understood that
those who controlled words,

524
00:29:18,740 --> 00:29:22,950
those who are able to
disseminate information, um,

525
00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:24,580
had a certain amount of power.

526
00:29:24,750 --> 00:29:29,250
He could be the arbiter of
what was seen as important.

527
00:29:31,210 --> 00:29:33,090
The idea, first, was to engage people,

528
00:29:33,260 --> 00:29:35,090
to entertain people.

529
00:29:35,260 --> 00:29:36,690
Franklin understood that
if you could get people

530
00:29:36,720 --> 00:29:38,300
to laugh with you, you're halfway to

531
00:29:38,470 --> 00:29:41,140
getting them to agree with you.

532
00:29:41,310 --> 00:29:43,180
He also welcomed essays

533
00:29:43,350 --> 00:29:46,770
espousing opinions of all kinds.

534
00:29:46,940 --> 00:29:48,400
If all printers were determined

535
00:29:48,560 --> 00:29:50,230
not to print anything till they were

536
00:29:50,400 --> 00:29:52,360
sure it would offend nobody,

537
00:29:52,530 --> 00:29:54,650
there would be very little printed.

538
00:29:55,900 --> 00:29:57,860
He said in the end you have to bear

539
00:29:58,030 --> 00:30:02,740
some responsibility for the type
of ideas that you put forward.

540
00:30:02,910 --> 00:30:05,200
And if they're really odious,
if they're really harmful,

541
00:30:05,370 --> 00:30:08,420
you have to curate them out.

542
00:30:08,580 --> 00:30:10,540
If you made a mistake, you could,

543
00:30:10,710 --> 00:30:15,670
as they always did in those
days, add an errata page.

544
00:30:15,840 --> 00:30:20,220
And you could fix anything
with that errata page.

545
00:30:21,760 --> 00:30:23,890
Local merchants advertised their goods

546
00:30:24,060 --> 00:30:25,390
in the "Gazette;"

547
00:30:25,560 --> 00:30:28,640
tradesmen advertised their services.

548
00:30:28,810 --> 00:30:32,400
Franklin also published
notices offering rewards

549
00:30:32,570 --> 00:30:35,110
for runaway indentured servants,

550
00:30:35,280 --> 00:30:36,860
like he had once been,

551
00:30:37,030 --> 00:30:39,410
and slaves for sale.

552
00:30:41,530 --> 00:30:44,200
To be sold in Lots or singly,

553
00:30:44,370 --> 00:30:47,250
a choice parcel of Negroes
lately Imported,

554
00:30:47,410 --> 00:30:49,960
consisting chiefly of
young Men and Girls,

555
00:30:50,120 --> 00:30:52,290
bred to Plantation Business;

556
00:30:52,460 --> 00:30:55,300
also Jamaica Rum,
Sugar of sundry Sorts,

557
00:30:55,460 --> 00:30:58,380
Molasses, Cotton, and Pimento.

558
00:31:00,970 --> 00:31:04,510
Run away from the subscriber,
a Negroe lad called Ned,

559
00:31:04,680 --> 00:31:08,430
about 18 years of age,
5 feet 7 inches high,

560
00:31:08,600 --> 00:31:10,810
speaks pretty good English, but thick,

561
00:31:10,980 --> 00:31:14,400
has very thick lips, and is much
pitted with the small-pox;

562
00:31:16,690 --> 00:31:20,240
TO BE SOLD, A LIKELY young
breeding Negroe Woman,

563
00:31:20,410 --> 00:31:23,200
speaks good English,
understands her Needle

564
00:31:23,370 --> 00:31:25,790
and any sort of Household Work,

565
00:31:25,950 --> 00:31:27,450
and has had the Small-Pox.

566
00:31:29,160 --> 00:31:30,920
Enquire of the Printer.

567
00:31:38,130 --> 00:31:39,260
When Benjamin Franklin

568
00:31:39,420 --> 00:31:41,340
had returned from England,

569
00:31:41,510 --> 00:31:44,140
he had fallen back into
some of the habits

570
00:31:44,300 --> 00:31:46,850
he had acquired in London.

571
00:31:47,010 --> 00:31:49,680
That hard-to-
be-govern'd Passion of Youth

572
00:31:49,850 --> 00:31:52,850
hurried me frequently into
Intrigues with low Women

573
00:31:53,020 --> 00:31:54,520
that fell in my Way,

574
00:31:54,690 --> 00:31:57,020
which were attended with some Expence.

575
00:31:57,190 --> 00:32:01,110
Besides a continual Risque
to my Health by a Distemper

576
00:32:01,280 --> 00:32:02,860
which of all Things I dreaded,

577
00:32:03,030 --> 00:32:06,200
tho' by great good Luck I escaped it.

578
00:32:07,950 --> 00:32:10,750
Now, as he became
a successful businessman,

579
00:32:10,910 --> 00:32:15,000
he decided he needed to
settle down and get married.

580
00:32:16,500 --> 00:32:19,510
Meanwhile, his former fiancée
Deborah Read

581
00:32:19,670 --> 00:32:22,300
had seen her marriage fall apart.

582
00:32:22,470 --> 00:32:26,890
Her husband had abandoned her
and fled to the West Indies.

583
00:32:27,050 --> 00:32:30,770
Reports came back that he
had died there in a brawl,

584
00:32:30,930 --> 00:32:32,730
but they were unconfirmed.

585
00:32:34,310 --> 00:32:37,900
In Quaker Pennsylvania,
Deborah was in a legal limbo.

586
00:32:38,070 --> 00:32:41,740
If she remarried and it
turned out he wasn't dead,

587
00:32:41,900 --> 00:32:45,780
she would be guilty of bigamy,
punishable at the time

588
00:32:45,950 --> 00:32:49,990
by 39 lashes and life imprisonment.

589
00:32:51,750 --> 00:32:53,620
She now lived with her widowed mother,

590
00:32:53,790 --> 00:32:56,920
who sold homemade remedies
to support them both

591
00:32:57,080 --> 00:32:59,840
in their house on Market Street.

592
00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:02,340
Franklin felt some responsibility

593
00:33:02,510 --> 00:33:05,260
for Deborah's unhappiness,
and he said,

594
00:33:05,430 --> 00:33:09,350
"our mutual affection
was revived."

595
00:33:09,510 --> 00:33:14,270
On September 1, 1730,
forgoing a legal wedding,

596
00:33:14,440 --> 00:33:16,520
they simply moved in together

597
00:33:16,690 --> 00:33:19,440
and entered into
a common-law marriage,

598
00:33:19,610 --> 00:33:22,860
a practice not all that uncommon.

599
00:33:24,280 --> 00:33:26,450
She prov'd
a good and faithful Helpmate.

600
00:33:26,610 --> 00:33:29,030
Assisted me much
by attending the Shop.

601
00:33:29,200 --> 00:33:32,750
We throve together, and have
ever mutually endeavour'd

602
00:33:32,910 --> 00:33:35,250
to make each other happy.

603
00:33:35,410 --> 00:33:37,830
I think he loved her.

604
00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:40,960
I think they rubbed on
together beautifully,

605
00:33:41,130 --> 00:33:43,590
as he would have said.

606
00:33:43,760 --> 00:33:45,360
I think during the time
that Franklin was

607
00:33:45,420 --> 00:33:47,390
an up-and-coming tradesman,

608
00:33:47,550 --> 00:33:50,890
it was a perfect union.

609
00:33:51,060 --> 00:33:54,850
She was an excellent
choice for a wife.

610
00:33:55,020 --> 00:33:59,020
She was well connected;
she belonged to Christ Church,

611
00:33:59,190 --> 00:34:01,650
which was the church in town.

612
00:34:01,820 --> 00:34:04,610
It was less of a romantic
relationship than it was

613
00:34:04,780 --> 00:34:08,530
a good, strong,
business-like partnership.

614
00:34:09,910 --> 00:34:11,870
But there was a complication.

615
00:34:12,030 --> 00:34:16,540
Franklin had recently fathered
a son with another woman.

616
00:34:16,710 --> 00:34:18,960
He never revealed
the mother's identity,

617
00:34:19,130 --> 00:34:22,710
but Franklin wanted to take
custody of the child.

618
00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:25,380
Deborah agreed the boy
could live with them.

619
00:34:25,550 --> 00:34:28,550
He was named William.

620
00:34:28,720 --> 00:34:30,640
She takes in his son,
who is not her son,

621
00:34:30,800 --> 00:34:33,010
and raises him, not always happily.

622
00:34:34,640 --> 00:34:36,230
Benjamin and Deborah

623
00:34:36,390 --> 00:34:38,140
expanded the print shop to include

624
00:34:38,310 --> 00:34:40,610
sales of her mother's ointments,

625
00:34:40,770 --> 00:34:44,480
fine soap from Franklin's family
back in Boston,

626
00:34:44,650 --> 00:34:48,860
coffee, tea, chocolate,
and other items.

627
00:34:49,030 --> 00:34:51,570
Deborah purchased rags,
which mills throughout

628
00:34:51,740 --> 00:34:54,080
the colonies turned into paper,

629
00:34:54,240 --> 00:34:56,750
creating another profit center.

630
00:34:56,910 --> 00:34:59,580
She also managed the household,

631
00:34:59,750 --> 00:35:03,250
and at night bound books
by candlelight.

632
00:35:05,300 --> 00:35:08,670
Two years into their union, in 1732,

633
00:35:08,840 --> 00:35:11,800
they had a child
of their own, Francis.

634
00:35:11,970 --> 00:35:16,100
His proud and doting
father called him Franky.

635
00:35:17,430 --> 00:35:19,520
But just after his fourth birthday,

636
00:35:19,690 --> 00:35:24,480
Franky came down with smallpox
and died.

637
00:35:24,650 --> 00:35:27,150
The huge tragedy of their lives

638
00:35:27,320 --> 00:35:29,900
was the death of Franky.

639
00:35:30,070 --> 00:35:33,320
Franklin was one of the few
people in the Colonies

640
00:35:33,490 --> 00:35:37,080
who was 100% behind inoculation.

641
00:35:37,240 --> 00:35:40,540
But it was thought that because Franky

642
00:35:40,710 --> 00:35:42,750
had a very bad cold at the time,

643
00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:46,550
they should hold off
until he recovered enough

644
00:35:46,710 --> 00:35:49,380
to be able to withstand
the assault on his system

645
00:35:49,550 --> 00:35:52,180
that inoculation would provide.

646
00:35:52,340 --> 00:35:54,640
He never was inoculated.

647
00:35:54,800 --> 00:35:57,310
Franklin never forgave himself.

648
00:36:08,150 --> 00:36:09,670
Franklin's exposure to the writings of

649
00:36:09,740 --> 00:36:11,950
Europe's Enlightenment thinkers

650
00:36:12,110 --> 00:36:15,410
had led him to reject most of
the Puritan teachings

651
00:36:15,570 --> 00:36:18,040
of his family's church in Boston.

652
00:36:18,200 --> 00:36:21,410
He no longer worshipped
a God intimately connected

653
00:36:21,580 --> 00:36:23,210
with a person's daily life

654
00:36:23,370 --> 00:36:27,670
who answered private prayers
or sent down punishments.

655
00:36:29,840 --> 00:36:32,300
But he still believed in
a Supreme Being

656
00:36:32,470 --> 00:36:35,640
who had created the world.

657
00:36:35,800 --> 00:36:37,300
I believe He is pleased

658
00:36:37,470 --> 00:36:39,220
and delights in the happiness

659
00:36:39,390 --> 00:36:41,140
of those He has created;

660
00:36:41,310 --> 00:36:45,690
and since without virtue man can
have no happiness in this world,

661
00:36:45,860 --> 00:36:50,650
I firmly believe He
delights to see me virtuous.

662
00:36:50,820 --> 00:36:53,200
Avirtuous heretick shall be saved

663
00:36:53,360 --> 00:36:55,740
before a wicked Christian.

664
00:36:57,200 --> 00:36:59,240
No one feared for Benjamin's soul

665
00:36:59,410 --> 00:37:03,120
more than his pious parents
back in Boston,

666
00:37:03,290 --> 00:37:06,500
whose Calvinist Puritanism
espoused that salvation

667
00:37:06,670 --> 00:37:09,380
came solely through God's grace

668
00:37:09,550 --> 00:37:11,210
rather than good works

669
00:37:11,380 --> 00:37:14,130
and anyone who strayed
from that doctrine

670
00:37:14,300 --> 00:37:16,890
would be eternally damned.

671
00:37:18,180 --> 00:37:20,600
Benjamin, for whom tolerance
was becoming

672
00:37:20,770 --> 00:37:23,350
central to his evolving beliefs,

673
00:37:23,520 --> 00:37:26,190
tried to explain himself.

674
00:37:26,350 --> 00:37:29,270
Honored Father and Mother, I imagine

675
00:37:29,440 --> 00:37:31,940
a Man must have a good deal
of Vanity who believes

676
00:37:32,110 --> 00:37:35,150
that all the Doctrines
he holds, are true;

677
00:37:35,320 --> 00:37:37,780
and all he rejects, are false.

678
00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:42,910
I think vital Religion
has always suffer'd,

679
00:37:43,080 --> 00:37:47,170
when Orthodoxy is more
regarded than Virtue.

680
00:37:47,330 --> 00:37:50,960
And the Scripture assures me,
that at the last Day,

681
00:37:51,130 --> 00:37:54,260
we shall not be examin'd
by what we thought,

682
00:37:54,420 --> 00:37:55,800
but what we did.

683
00:38:00,390 --> 00:38:02,850
He's a man of
omnivorous curiosity, um,

684
00:38:03,020 --> 00:38:05,430
of endless invention,
of endless self-invention.

685
00:38:05,600 --> 00:38:07,310
He's so bent on self-improvement,

686
00:38:07,480 --> 00:38:09,860
on teaching himself
how to write properly,

687
00:38:10,020 --> 00:38:12,730
or cleansing himself
of his moral sins.

688
00:38:12,900 --> 00:38:15,190
He gives us this idea
that human nature

689
00:38:15,360 --> 00:38:16,650
may be flawed in some ways,

690
00:38:16,820 --> 00:38:19,320
but anything can be improved.

691
00:38:21,410 --> 00:38:24,040
In his constant
effort for self-improvement,

692
00:38:24,200 --> 00:38:27,250
Franklin made a list of 12 virtues

693
00:38:27,410 --> 00:38:31,840
that could lead him to what
he called "moral perfection":

694
00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:38,550
temperance, silence, order,

695
00:38:38,720 --> 00:38:44,220
resolution, frugality, industry,

696
00:38:44,390 --> 00:38:53,320
sincerity, justice,
moderation, cleanliness,

697
00:38:53,480 --> 00:38:56,780
tranquility, and chastity.

698
00:38:58,360 --> 00:39:00,490
Then he made a chart with 7 columns

699
00:39:00,660 --> 00:39:02,490
for each day of the week

700
00:39:02,660 --> 00:39:05,540
and rows labeled with each virtue

701
00:39:05,700 --> 00:39:07,870
and went to work on his progress,

702
00:39:08,040 --> 00:39:12,250
marking any infraction
with a black spot.

703
00:39:12,420 --> 00:39:16,300
"I was surprised," he said,
"to find myself much fuller

704
00:39:16,460 --> 00:39:19,050
of faults than I had imagined."

705
00:39:20,550 --> 00:39:23,800
Every week, Franklin
would make a chart and check,

706
00:39:23,970 --> 00:39:26,180
did he master the virtue?

707
00:39:26,350 --> 00:39:29,230
At one point, he said,
"I've mastered all the 12

708
00:39:29,390 --> 00:39:30,770
"virtues I had.

709
00:39:30,940 --> 00:39:33,310
"And I showed it around
with great pride.

710
00:39:33,480 --> 00:39:36,480
"And one of my friends said,
'Franklin, you're missing

711
00:39:36,650 --> 00:39:37,880
a virtue you might want
to try.'"

712
00:39:37,900 --> 00:39:39,740
And Franklin says,
"What's that?"

713
00:39:39,900 --> 00:39:41,360
And the friend says, "Humility.

714
00:39:41,530 --> 00:39:45,160
You might want to add
that one to your list."

715
00:39:45,330 --> 00:39:47,950
In reality,
there is perhaps no one of our

716
00:39:48,120 --> 00:39:52,370
natural Passions so hard
to subdue as Pride.

717
00:39:52,540 --> 00:39:55,290
Disguise it, struggle with it,
beat it down, stifle it,

718
00:39:55,460 --> 00:39:59,340
mortify it as much as one
pleases, it is still alive,

719
00:39:59,510 --> 00:40:03,510
and will every now and then
peep out and show itself.

720
00:40:03,680 --> 00:40:07,060
Even if I could conceive that
I had completely overcome it,

721
00:40:07,220 --> 00:40:11,560
I should probably be
proud of my Humility.

722
00:40:15,560 --> 00:40:18,820
7 years after the
death of their son Franky,

723
00:40:18,980 --> 00:40:23,700
Deborah gave birth to another
child, a daughter named Sarah.

724
00:40:23,860 --> 00:40:26,080
They called her Sally.

725
00:40:27,410 --> 00:40:30,120
Franklin's son William
was now a teenager,

726
00:40:30,290 --> 00:40:34,080
as restless as his father
had been at that age.

727
00:40:34,250 --> 00:40:37,130
Deborah treated him
with occasional coldness,

728
00:40:37,290 --> 00:40:40,260
but Franklin was indulgent
as a father,

729
00:40:40,420 --> 00:40:43,550
making sure the boy
got the formal education

730
00:40:43,720 --> 00:40:46,640
Franklin himself had been denied.

731
00:40:48,180 --> 00:40:50,980
At age 16, William enlisted
to fight against

732
00:40:51,140 --> 00:40:53,690
the French and their Indian allies

733
00:40:53,850 --> 00:40:56,810
in what was called King George's War,

734
00:40:56,980 --> 00:40:59,320
and quickly rose
to the rank of captain,

735
00:40:59,480 --> 00:41:03,150
tracking down deserters
in Pennsylvania.

736
00:41:03,320 --> 00:41:05,910
When he returned to Philadelphia,

737
00:41:06,070 --> 00:41:08,490
his father began to envision William

738
00:41:08,660 --> 00:41:11,450
rising in the ranks
of the British Empire

739
00:41:11,620 --> 00:41:16,040
and made plans for him
to study the law in England.

740
00:41:19,880 --> 00:41:23,720
Franklin had started
to acquire some wealth.

741
00:41:25,010 --> 00:41:27,720
Like many other
Colonial Pennsylvanians,

742
00:41:27,890 --> 00:41:30,600
he held a number of enslaved people,

743
00:41:30,760 --> 00:41:33,100
up to 5 or 6, in his home,

744
00:41:33,270 --> 00:41:36,940
including a married couple,
Peter and Jemima.

745
00:41:37,100 --> 00:41:40,070
He was committed to slave labor.

746
00:41:40,230 --> 00:41:44,780
He used it alongside of
his business ventures

747
00:41:44,950 --> 00:41:47,360
in order to gain more wealth.

748
00:41:47,530 --> 00:41:49,070
At the time,

749
00:41:49,240 --> 00:41:51,620
nearly a tenth of
Philadelphia's residents

750
00:41:51,790 --> 00:41:53,040
were enslaved,

751
00:41:53,200 --> 00:41:56,920
toiling in homes and businesses.

752
00:41:57,080 --> 00:41:59,460
We tend to associate slavery with

753
00:41:59,630 --> 00:42:01,710
plantation labor in the South.

754
00:42:01,880 --> 00:42:04,510
But there were slaves all up
and down the Eastern Seaboard,

755
00:42:04,670 --> 00:42:06,800
every one of the 13 Colonies.

756
00:42:06,970 --> 00:42:08,860
And they did everything.
They served as domestic servants;

757
00:42:08,890 --> 00:42:12,430
they served as cooks;
um, they served as nursemaids;

758
00:42:12,600 --> 00:42:17,060
they served as dock workers;
they served as hired hands.

759
00:42:17,230 --> 00:42:21,110
The advantage was that
Africans couldn't leave.

760
00:42:21,270 --> 00:42:24,610
Indentured servants
filled out their time.

761
00:42:24,780 --> 00:42:27,200
Africans, you had for life.

762
00:42:28,450 --> 00:42:30,450
Many of Franklin's Quaker friends

763
00:42:30,620 --> 00:42:34,160
considered slavery a sin
that threatened to corrode

764
00:42:34,330 --> 00:42:37,750
the moral fiber of
the community at large.

765
00:42:37,920 --> 00:42:41,500
Franklin published some of
their anti-slavery tracts--

766
00:42:41,670 --> 00:42:44,920
though he intentionally
kept his own name as printer

767
00:42:45,090 --> 00:42:47,630
off the title page.

768
00:42:47,800 --> 00:42:50,680
Franklin lived in
a moment in which slavery was

769
00:42:50,840 --> 00:42:55,560
being challenged, pretty
constantly, in Philadelphia.

770
00:42:55,720 --> 00:42:59,270
He was very aware that this
was happening, yet he still

771
00:42:59,440 --> 00:43:02,690
made the decision to
hold onto his men and woman

772
00:43:02,860 --> 00:43:04,650
who were enslaved.

773
00:43:04,820 --> 00:43:06,690
He made a choice.

774
00:43:15,240 --> 00:43:16,750
Franklin's publishing empire was

775
00:43:16,910 --> 00:43:19,960
expanding and making more money.

776
00:43:20,120 --> 00:43:22,130
He was named clerk of Pennsylvania's

777
00:43:22,290 --> 00:43:25,420
colonial assembly,
which didn't pay well,

778
00:43:25,590 --> 00:43:28,420
but had won the contract
to print their proceedings,

779
00:43:28,590 --> 00:43:30,590
which did.

780
00:43:30,760 --> 00:43:34,300
He made even more profits
printing the paper currency

781
00:43:34,470 --> 00:43:38,270
for Pennsylvania, Delaware,
and New Jersey.

782
00:43:38,430 --> 00:43:41,230
With former employees,
he would establish

783
00:43:41,400 --> 00:43:44,440
printing partnerships in
Newport, Rhode Island;

784
00:43:44,610 --> 00:43:48,360
New York City; and Antigua
in the West Indies;

785
00:43:48,530 --> 00:43:52,660
as well as the one in
Charleston, South Carolina.

786
00:43:52,820 --> 00:43:56,240
He published Bibles,
and Samuel Richardson's

787
00:43:56,410 --> 00:43:59,580
"Pamela," the first novel
printed in America,

788
00:43:59,750 --> 00:44:03,460
along with treaties with
Native peoples that were used

789
00:44:03,630 --> 00:44:08,550
to systematically dispossess
them of their lands.

790
00:44:08,710 --> 00:44:13,840
In 1737, he was appointed
Philadelphia's postmaster,

791
00:44:14,010 --> 00:44:16,430
giving him access to news from Europe

792
00:44:16,600 --> 00:44:21,480
and the rest of the Colonies
before his competitors.

793
00:44:21,640 --> 00:44:23,370
One of the advantages
of being a printer is that

794
00:44:23,400 --> 00:44:26,360
he is totally tuned into the news.

795
00:44:26,520 --> 00:44:28,610
He's totally tuned into
everything that's

796
00:44:28,780 --> 00:44:30,360
going on in North America.

797
00:44:30,530 --> 00:44:34,870
His vision is broader than
most of his neighbors.

798
00:44:35,030 --> 00:44:39,330
He had a kind of public opinion
embedded in his brain.

799
00:44:39,490 --> 00:44:42,750
And he knew that opinion
in the end was what would

800
00:44:42,920 --> 00:44:45,420
decide where power resided.

801
00:44:48,630 --> 00:44:51,130
Early to Bed, and early to rise,

802
00:44:51,300 --> 00:44:54,930
makes a Man healthy, wealthy and wise.

803
00:44:56,510 --> 00:44:58,680
By now, thousands of readers

804
00:44:58,850 --> 00:45:00,810
from South Carolina to New York

805
00:45:00,970 --> 00:45:04,690
were buying Franklin's
"Poor Richard's Almanack,"

806
00:45:04,850 --> 00:45:08,320
which he had launched in 1733.

807
00:45:08,480 --> 00:45:11,400
Many printers published almanacs.

808
00:45:11,570 --> 00:45:15,530
They outsold everything
in the colonies except Bibles

809
00:45:15,700 --> 00:45:18,030
and had the advantage
of requiring people

810
00:45:18,200 --> 00:45:21,750
to buy a new one each year.

811
00:45:21,910 --> 00:45:23,870
But Franklin's stood out.

812
00:45:24,040 --> 00:45:25,790
In addition to weather predictions,

813
00:45:25,960 --> 00:45:29,960
astronomical, astrological,
and other observations,

814
00:45:30,130 --> 00:45:34,930
he included aphorisms that
combined wisdom with humor,

815
00:45:35,090 --> 00:45:38,050
philosophy with word play.

816
00:45:38,220 --> 00:45:40,100
All of it was ostensibly written

817
00:45:40,260 --> 00:45:42,350
by the hapless Richard Saunders,

818
00:45:42,520 --> 00:45:44,640
who claimed he was writing his almanac

819
00:45:44,810 --> 00:45:48,310
simply because his wife
threatened to burn his books

820
00:45:48,480 --> 00:45:51,570
if he didn't earn something from them.

821
00:45:51,730 --> 00:45:53,610
Franklin got this from his reading

822
00:45:53,780 --> 00:45:55,200
of Jonathan Swift.

823
00:45:55,360 --> 00:45:56,760
Swift had produced
the "Bickerstaff Papers,"

824
00:45:56,780 --> 00:45:59,530
which was a parody of the almanac.

825
00:45:59,700 --> 00:46:03,950
And Franklin decides
to incorporate this style

826
00:46:04,120 --> 00:46:05,960
into Richard Saunders.

827
00:46:06,120 --> 00:46:07,870
And it was genius.

828
00:46:08,040 --> 00:46:10,060
People go to almanacs for
all sorts of important things--

829
00:46:10,090 --> 00:46:11,380
when to plant potatoes or peas;

830
00:46:11,550 --> 00:46:14,340
when... what's the best time
to harvest--

831
00:46:14,510 --> 00:46:16,970
but they stayed
because these fillers were

832
00:46:17,130 --> 00:46:20,390
funny, witty, and useful.

833
00:46:20,550 --> 00:46:23,140
"Fish and visitors,"
Poor Richard wrote,

834
00:46:23,310 --> 00:46:25,810
"stink in 3 days."

835
00:46:25,980 --> 00:46:31,360
"He that lies down with dogs,
shall rise up with fleas."

836
00:46:31,520 --> 00:46:34,900
"God helps them
that help themselves."

837
00:46:35,070 --> 00:46:37,610
"Haste," he said, "makes waste."

838
00:46:37,780 --> 00:46:41,450
And "lost time is
never found again."

839
00:46:43,040 --> 00:46:46,830
God heals,
and the doctor takes the fees.

840
00:46:47,000 --> 00:46:49,290
A countryman between two lawyers

841
00:46:49,460 --> 00:46:52,880
is like a fish between two cats.

842
00:46:54,420 --> 00:46:57,130
The greatest monarch
on the proudest throne,

843
00:46:57,300 --> 00:47:00,430
is obliged to sit upon his own arse.

844
00:47:01,430 --> 00:47:04,770
Franklin is endlessly quotable.

845
00:47:04,930 --> 00:47:07,560
You could live your life,
I think, in Franklin aphorisms,

846
00:47:07,730 --> 00:47:10,010
most of which, we should say,
are stolen from other people

847
00:47:10,060 --> 00:47:12,060
but slightly reworked,
so in Franklin's version,

848
00:47:12,230 --> 00:47:14,270
they're in a better form.

849
00:47:14,440 --> 00:47:17,150
"Three can keep a secret,
if two of them are dead."

850
00:47:19,200 --> 00:47:22,070
I think one of
Franklin's great inventions is

851
00:47:22,240 --> 00:47:25,790
that American style of homespun humor,

852
00:47:25,950 --> 00:47:29,660
somebody who's pricking at
the pretensions of the elite,

853
00:47:29,830 --> 00:47:32,630
somebody who has sort of a
cracker barrel sensibility.

854
00:47:32,790 --> 00:47:36,170
This new style of humor
where people are poking fun

855
00:47:36,340 --> 00:47:38,340
at themselves indirectly.

856
00:47:38,510 --> 00:47:42,220
You see it in Mark Twain
and Will Rogers and others.

857
00:47:42,390 --> 00:47:44,350
I think it started with Franklin.

858
00:47:54,730 --> 00:47:56,400
The man who had
arrived in Philadelphia

859
00:47:56,570 --> 00:47:59,570
virtually penniless at age 17

860
00:47:59,740 --> 00:48:02,320
was now the city's largest bookseller,

861
00:48:02,490 --> 00:48:05,700
its most successful
printer and publisher,

862
00:48:05,870 --> 00:48:09,830
and the biggest paper merchant
in all the colonies.

863
00:48:10,000 --> 00:48:13,500
He considered himself
prosperous enough to retire

864
00:48:13,670 --> 00:48:17,880
from the day-to-day running
of his businesses in 1748,

865
00:48:18,050 --> 00:48:20,670
at age 42.

866
00:48:20,840 --> 00:48:24,010
"I would rather have it said,
'He lived usefully, '"

867
00:48:24,180 --> 00:48:28,850
Franklin wrote his mother,
"than 'He died rich.'"

868
00:48:29,020 --> 00:48:30,850
I am in a fair Way of having

869
00:48:31,020 --> 00:48:35,110
no other Tasks than such as I
shall like to give my Self,

870
00:48:35,270 --> 00:48:39,940
and of enjoying what I look upon
as a great Happiness,

871
00:48:40,110 --> 00:48:43,450
Leisure to read, make Experiments,

872
00:48:43,610 --> 00:48:47,330
and converse at large with such
ingenious and worthy Men

873
00:48:47,490 --> 00:48:49,240
as are pleas'd to honor me

874
00:48:49,410 --> 00:48:51,830
with their friendship
and Acquaintance,

875
00:48:52,000 --> 00:48:53,670
on such points as may produce

876
00:48:53,830 --> 00:48:57,920
something for
the common benefit of mankind,

877
00:48:58,090 --> 00:49:01,720
uninterrupted by the
little cares and fatigues

878
00:49:01,880 --> 00:49:03,220
of business.

879
00:49:05,010 --> 00:49:06,030
There was something
in Franklin that always

880
00:49:06,050 --> 00:49:07,470
wanted a little bit more.

881
00:49:07,640 --> 00:49:09,430
He wanted to learn more.
He wanted to go

882
00:49:09,600 --> 00:49:11,390
to more interesting places.

883
00:49:11,560 --> 00:49:13,770
He wanted to have a broader influence.

884
00:49:13,940 --> 00:49:16,310
Despite his lack of
a formal education,

885
00:49:16,480 --> 00:49:18,570
Franklin had turned himself

886
00:49:18,730 --> 00:49:21,860
into an influential
writer and thinker.

887
00:49:22,030 --> 00:49:23,700
Now, with more time to pursue

888
00:49:23,860 --> 00:49:27,070
whatever intrigued his
restless imagination,

889
00:49:27,240 --> 00:49:31,500
he would become better known
as a scientist and inventor.

890
00:49:34,580 --> 00:49:36,500
He studied the earth's rotation;

891
00:49:36,670 --> 00:49:39,460
conducted experiments
showing that dark cloths

892
00:49:39,630 --> 00:49:42,550
absorb more heat than bright fabrics;

893
00:49:42,710 --> 00:49:45,300
and became fascinated
by the human body's

894
00:49:45,470 --> 00:49:47,680
circulatory system.

895
00:49:47,840 --> 00:49:51,430
He loved anatomy, he loved botany,

896
00:49:51,600 --> 00:49:54,310
he loved the way leaves had veins.

897
00:49:54,480 --> 00:49:57,690
He was most curious to know
everything you can know about

898
00:49:57,850 --> 00:50:00,020
everything that was possibly knowable.

899
00:50:00,190 --> 00:50:04,780
Wanting to know everything
is a key to his creativity.

900
00:50:04,950 --> 00:50:06,820
He observed weather patterns

901
00:50:06,990 --> 00:50:10,240
and correctly deduced
that the coastal storms

902
00:50:10,410 --> 00:50:12,330
now called Nor'easters

903
00:50:12,490 --> 00:50:15,460
actually moved in from the south.

904
00:50:15,620 --> 00:50:17,870
For an ailing brother, he fashioned

905
00:50:18,040 --> 00:50:20,710
a more comfortable catheter.

906
00:50:20,880 --> 00:50:25,090
And he designed a metal stove
to fit into a hearth,

907
00:50:25,260 --> 00:50:29,470
improving on the ones many
German immigrants were using.

908
00:50:29,640 --> 00:50:32,810
Franklin's radiated more heat
out into the room

909
00:50:32,970 --> 00:50:35,930
and had an opening for those
who still wished

910
00:50:36,100 --> 00:50:38,730
to bask in the fire's glow.

911
00:50:38,900 --> 00:50:41,820
An ironworker who was
a fellow Junto member

912
00:50:41,980 --> 00:50:46,360
began manufacturing them,
and they sold for 5 pounds each

913
00:50:46,530 --> 00:50:48,780
throughout the northeast.

914
00:50:48,950 --> 00:50:51,070
When Franklin was urged to take out

915
00:50:51,240 --> 00:50:57,370
a potentially lucrative patent
on his invention, he declined.

916
00:50:57,540 --> 00:50:59,420
As we enjoy great advantages

917
00:50:59,580 --> 00:51:01,250
from the invention of others,

918
00:51:01,420 --> 00:51:04,920
we should be glad of
an opportunity to serve others

919
00:51:05,090 --> 00:51:06,720
by an invention of ours,

920
00:51:06,880 --> 00:51:11,470
and this we should do
freely and generously.

921
00:51:13,930 --> 00:51:16,100
But nothing he did as a scientist

922
00:51:16,270 --> 00:51:18,350
would do more to serve others,

923
00:51:18,520 --> 00:51:20,270
and bring him more fame,

924
00:51:20,440 --> 00:51:24,940
than his work in the fledgling
field of electricity.

925
00:51:25,110 --> 00:51:28,950
"I never was before engaged
in any study," Franklin wrote,

926
00:51:29,110 --> 00:51:33,780
"that so totally engrossed
my attention and my time."

927
00:51:35,290 --> 00:51:37,830
Franklin had become
interested in electricity,

928
00:51:38,000 --> 00:51:40,710
which, at the time,
was certainly not understood,

929
00:51:40,870 --> 00:51:42,750
but it was also
sort of a parlor trick.

930
00:51:42,920 --> 00:51:44,750
People would come in
with a--with a glass rod

931
00:51:44,920 --> 00:51:48,210
and some silk and shock
each other and lift

932
00:51:48,380 --> 00:51:49,590
pieces of paper.

933
00:51:49,760 --> 00:51:51,380
He and his Junto friends

934
00:51:51,550 --> 00:51:54,050
staged electricity parties

935
00:51:54,220 --> 00:51:57,850
in which they used a charge
to ring bells

936
00:51:58,020 --> 00:52:02,730
and make a toy he called an
electrical spider jump around.

937
00:52:02,900 --> 00:52:07,070
Men and women exchanged
electrical kisses.

938
00:52:07,230 --> 00:52:09,070
Franklin also electrified

939
00:52:09,240 --> 00:52:12,950
a gilt-edged portrait of
King George II that created

940
00:52:13,110 --> 00:52:15,620
what he called a high-treason shock

941
00:52:15,780 --> 00:52:20,120
if someone touched his crown.

942
00:52:20,290 --> 00:52:23,460
He used a more powerful shock
to kill a turkey and reported

943
00:52:23,630 --> 00:52:26,170
that it seemed uncommonly tender

944
00:52:26,340 --> 00:52:30,090
compared to one slaughtered
the conventional way.

945
00:52:30,260 --> 00:52:33,510
He kept saying,
"We have to find useful things

946
00:52:33,680 --> 00:52:36,100
to do with this electricity."

947
00:52:36,260 --> 00:52:38,280
He said one of the only useful
things in his first year

948
00:52:38,310 --> 00:52:41,140
of experiments was that
he would get shocked

949
00:52:41,310 --> 00:52:43,980
and knock him down; and he said,
"Electricity was useful

950
00:52:44,150 --> 00:52:46,770
for making
a vain person humble."

951
00:52:46,940 --> 00:52:49,780
As his studies turned more serious,

952
00:52:49,940 --> 00:52:52,740
and he began documenting
his observations,

953
00:52:52,900 --> 00:52:54,990
he came up with new terms to describe

954
00:52:55,160 --> 00:52:57,780
electricity's mysterious properties.

955
00:52:59,620 --> 00:53:01,540
It had two charges, he wrote,

956
00:53:01,710 --> 00:53:03,750
positive and negative,

957
00:53:03,920 --> 00:53:08,420
and it could travel by what
he called a conductor.

958
00:53:08,590 --> 00:53:11,880
He grouped a collection of
glass containers together,

959
00:53:12,050 --> 00:53:14,180
each possessing an electrical charge,

960
00:53:14,340 --> 00:53:18,600
and named it a battery,
using the military term

961
00:53:18,760 --> 00:53:21,890
for an array of cannons.

962
00:53:22,060 --> 00:53:23,690
Benjamin Franklin
comes up with the most

963
00:53:23,850 --> 00:53:26,600
important theory of the era, which is

964
00:53:26,770 --> 00:53:28,770
the Single Fluid Theory
of Electricity,

965
00:53:28,940 --> 00:53:32,530
which is that it's not some substance,

966
00:53:32,690 --> 00:53:33,960
but it's a positive and a negative.

967
00:53:33,990 --> 00:53:37,200
And it flows from
positive to negative.

968
00:53:37,370 --> 00:53:40,620
But pure science
had less appeal to Franklin

969
00:53:40,790 --> 00:53:42,870
than putting it to practical use.

970
00:53:45,120 --> 00:53:48,210
Lightning was seen as being
Divine Retribution.

971
00:53:48,380 --> 00:53:50,750
Of course, the irony was that
most of the buildings

972
00:53:50,920 --> 00:53:53,010
that were destroyed by lightning
were churches

973
00:53:53,170 --> 00:53:55,260
'cause in a lot of communities
in the 18th century,

974
00:53:55,430 --> 00:53:56,710
they were the highest structure.

975
00:53:58,430 --> 00:54:01,060
Franklin is convinced that lightning

976
00:54:01,220 --> 00:54:05,390
bears a similarity
to an electrical spark.

977
00:54:05,560 --> 00:54:07,270
He's looking at electric sparks,

978
00:54:07,440 --> 00:54:10,060
he's looking at lightning,
and he puts in his notebook

979
00:54:10,230 --> 00:54:13,690
all the similarities
and at the end of the page,

980
00:54:13,860 --> 00:54:16,030
he says, "Let the experiment
be made."

981
00:54:18,820 --> 00:54:20,280
Franklin detailed his theory

982
00:54:20,450 --> 00:54:22,620
that lightning was electricity

983
00:54:22,790 --> 00:54:26,210
and that metal objects
could draw off a charge.

984
00:54:26,370 --> 00:54:30,290
He proposed an experiment
that involved placing a person

985
00:54:30,460 --> 00:54:32,630
in what he called a sentry box

986
00:54:32,800 --> 00:54:34,840
on a high tower or hilltop

987
00:54:35,010 --> 00:54:37,680
and raising a sharply pointed iron rod

988
00:54:37,840 --> 00:54:40,760
when storm clouds approached.

989
00:54:40,930 --> 00:54:43,970
He shared his observations
with a London scientist,

990
00:54:44,140 --> 00:54:47,440
Peter Collinson, who had
supplied him with equipment

991
00:54:47,600 --> 00:54:49,940
for his electrical studies.

992
00:54:50,100 --> 00:54:52,980
Franklin was planning
to conduct the experiment

993
00:54:53,150 --> 00:54:56,240
on the new steeple of
Christ Church off Market Street

994
00:54:56,400 --> 00:54:59,410
as soon as its
construction was completed.

995
00:54:59,570 --> 00:55:04,200
But the work went slowly
and Franklin grew impatient.

996
00:55:04,370 --> 00:55:06,450
He then came up with
an alternative way

997
00:55:06,620 --> 00:55:08,500
to test his theory.

998
00:55:08,670 --> 00:55:10,670
He was less confident in this method

999
00:55:10,830 --> 00:55:13,090
and decided to do it in secret,

1000
00:55:13,250 --> 00:55:16,760
trusting only his son William
to take part.

1001
00:55:18,170 --> 00:55:22,350
In June of 1752,
with storm clouds threatening,

1002
00:55:22,510 --> 00:55:25,890
he and William went to a field
with a silk kite,

1003
00:55:26,060 --> 00:55:29,850
to which Franklin had attached
a sharp-pointed wire.

1004
00:55:31,230 --> 00:55:34,110
Dangling at the end of
the kite's long twine string

1005
00:55:34,270 --> 00:55:36,440
was a metal key.

1006
00:55:36,610 --> 00:55:40,450
They got the kite aloft
and Franklin maneuvered it

1007
00:55:40,610 --> 00:55:43,280
toward the approaching clouds.

1008
00:55:43,450 --> 00:55:45,450
What he was showing
was that the atmosphere

1009
00:55:45,620 --> 00:55:47,500
became electrified,

1010
00:55:47,660 --> 00:55:50,460
not that the kite had to be
struck by a lightning bolt,

1011
00:55:50,620 --> 00:55:53,920
which is often the way it's
depicted in illustrations.

1012
00:55:54,090 --> 00:55:55,500
Franklin suddenly noticed

1013
00:55:55,670 --> 00:55:57,460
the individual strands of hemp

1014
00:55:57,630 --> 00:55:58,720
along the kite's string

1015
00:55:58,880 --> 00:56:01,760
stiffening and standing on end.

1016
00:56:01,930 --> 00:56:04,050
He moved his free hand toward the key

1017
00:56:04,220 --> 00:56:07,560
and felt a mild shock on his knuckle.

1018
00:56:07,720 --> 00:56:09,560
When the rain began, and water

1019
00:56:09,730 --> 00:56:11,850
started streaming down the twine,

1020
00:56:12,020 --> 00:56:14,480
sparks flew off the key.

1021
00:56:14,650 --> 00:56:17,030
Franklin was exultant.

1022
00:56:17,190 --> 00:56:20,190
"Thereby," he wrote of his experiment,

1023
00:56:20,360 --> 00:56:23,740
"the sameness of electrical
matter with that of lightning

1024
00:56:23,910 --> 00:56:26,410
has been
completely demonstrated."

1025
00:56:29,000 --> 00:56:30,660
Meanwhile, the theories

1026
00:56:30,830 --> 00:56:32,670
he had shared with Collinson

1027
00:56:32,830 --> 00:56:34,170
had been published,

1028
00:56:34,330 --> 00:56:36,960
and unbeknownst to him,
other scientists

1029
00:56:37,130 --> 00:56:40,510
were already
testing and verifying them.

1030
00:56:40,670 --> 00:56:44,260
Experiments using his original
sentry box proposal

1031
00:56:44,430 --> 00:56:49,350
had been taking place
all over England and Europe.

1032
00:56:49,520 --> 00:56:52,810
"Monsieur Franklin's idea,"
a French physicist wrote,

1033
00:56:52,980 --> 00:56:54,810
"has ceased to be a conjecture;

1034
00:56:54,980 --> 00:56:58,320
here it has become a reality."

1035
00:56:58,480 --> 00:57:00,820
The kite experiment, that really was

1036
00:57:00,990 --> 00:57:03,490
the symbol of his breakthrough.

1037
00:57:03,660 --> 00:57:07,280
It showed that the atmosphere
was electrified,

1038
00:57:07,450 --> 00:57:10,910
that thus thunder and lightning
were electrical forces.

1039
00:57:11,080 --> 00:57:14,290
And it overthrew
centuries of superstition

1040
00:57:14,460 --> 00:57:17,630
and scientific confusion about
what this might be.

1041
00:57:19,210 --> 00:57:20,520
He made a really
fundamental contribution

1042
00:57:20,550 --> 00:57:22,670
to basic science.

1043
00:57:22,840 --> 00:57:25,220
And the fact that
he did it as an American,

1044
00:57:25,390 --> 00:57:28,220
coming out of the wilds
of, uh, of America,

1045
00:57:28,390 --> 00:57:33,060
in the European eyes, made him,
uh, instantly world famous.

1046
00:57:33,230 --> 00:57:35,940
There's a hilarious little piece

1047
00:57:36,100 --> 00:57:38,020
in the "Gentleman's Magazine"
in London

1048
00:57:38,190 --> 00:57:40,110
where this commentator
says that "Now we know

1049
00:57:40,270 --> 00:57:42,320
"that Mr. Franklin's
theories about

1050
00:57:42,490 --> 00:57:45,200
"emptying the clouds of
electricity are actually true;

1051
00:57:45,360 --> 00:57:47,640
"whereas, once upon a time,
we didn't even think there was

1052
00:57:47,780 --> 00:57:50,030
such a person as Mr. Franklin."

1053
00:57:50,200 --> 00:57:51,800
'Cause it does seem
incredibly improbable

1054
00:57:51,870 --> 00:57:54,460
that the reigning expert on

1055
00:57:54,620 --> 00:57:57,290
an enormous attribute of Nature

1056
00:57:57,460 --> 00:58:00,170
would come from Philadelphia,
wherever the hell that was.

1057
00:58:01,590 --> 00:58:03,380
Benjamin Franklin had unlocked

1058
00:58:03,550 --> 00:58:05,300
the mystery of electricity,

1059
00:58:05,470 --> 00:58:09,470
but he still wanted
to put his discovery to work.

1060
00:58:09,640 --> 00:58:12,060
In Germany during the mid-century,

1061
00:58:12,220 --> 00:58:16,020
386 churches had been
struck by lightning

1062
00:58:16,190 --> 00:58:19,400
and more than 100 bell ringers killed.

1063
00:58:19,560 --> 00:58:22,440
In Italy, hundreds more
people perished

1064
00:58:22,610 --> 00:58:27,160
when a bolt hit a building that
had gunpowder stored in it.

1065
00:58:27,320 --> 00:58:30,030
Franklin concluded that lightning

1066
00:58:30,200 --> 00:58:32,410
seeks the path of least resistance

1067
00:58:32,580 --> 00:58:34,410
to connect with the ground.

1068
00:58:34,580 --> 00:58:35,910
Providing a better conductor

1069
00:58:36,080 --> 00:58:39,500
might safely divert the charge.

1070
00:58:39,670 --> 00:58:42,920
He then arranged for
what he called lightning rods

1071
00:58:43,090 --> 00:58:45,760
to be placed atop
Pennsylvania's State House

1072
00:58:45,920 --> 00:58:48,090
and his college building--

1073
00:58:48,260 --> 00:58:52,970
the first such devices
ever erected in the world.

1074
00:58:53,140 --> 00:58:55,270
Lightning bolts aren't there

1075
00:58:55,430 --> 00:58:56,930
sent by an angry god.

1076
00:58:57,100 --> 00:58:58,900
It's not something you can just

1077
00:58:59,060 --> 00:59:02,190
try to pray and it goes away.

1078
00:59:02,360 --> 00:59:05,030
You have to find practical,
scientific solutions

1079
00:59:05,190 --> 00:59:08,610
that help us understand our cosmos.

1080
00:59:08,780 --> 00:59:11,160
The lightning rod changes the world.

1081
00:59:11,320 --> 00:59:12,990
It's one of the most
important inventions

1082
00:59:13,160 --> 00:59:14,600
of the Enlightenment and, of course,

1083
00:59:14,620 --> 00:59:15,750
he won't patent it.

1084
00:59:15,910 --> 00:59:17,500
He believes a good idea

1085
00:59:17,660 --> 00:59:19,080
belongs to humankind.

1086
00:59:19,250 --> 00:59:21,130
Some religious leaders objected

1087
00:59:21,290 --> 00:59:23,920
that Franklin was
attempting to interfere

1088
00:59:24,090 --> 00:59:29,590
with one of God's most effective
methods of punishing sinners.

1089
00:59:29,760 --> 00:59:31,430
Surely the
Thunder of Heaven is no more

1090
00:59:31,590 --> 00:59:36,310
supernatural than the Rain,
Hail or Sunshine of Heaven,

1091
00:59:36,470 --> 00:59:38,980
against the Inconvenience
of which we guard

1092
00:59:39,140 --> 00:59:41,600
by Roofs & Shades without Scruple.

1093
00:59:43,560 --> 00:59:46,360
Scientists in America and Europe

1094
00:59:46,530 --> 00:59:49,650
were hailing him for his
achievements in electricity.

1095
00:59:49,820 --> 00:59:53,990
Harvard, Yale, and the College
of William and Mary in Virginia

1096
00:59:54,160 --> 00:59:57,160
gave him honorary degrees.

1097
00:59:57,330 --> 01:00:00,410
London's Royal Society
made him the first person

1098
01:00:00,580 --> 01:00:03,000
living outside of Britain to receive

1099
01:00:03,170 --> 01:00:06,340
its prestigious Copley Medal.

1100
01:00:06,500 --> 01:00:09,010
And one English scientist
called his work

1101
01:00:09,170 --> 01:00:11,510
"the greatest discovery
that has been made

1102
01:00:11,680 --> 01:00:14,930
since the time
of Sir Isaac Newton."

1103
01:00:15,100 --> 01:00:19,730
In Germany, the Enlightenment
philosopher Immanuel Kant said

1104
01:00:19,890 --> 01:00:24,400
Franklin had stolen the fire
of heaven and called him

1105
01:00:24,560 --> 01:00:26,320
the "modern Prometheus."

1106
01:00:36,830 --> 01:00:38,910
By the collision
of different sentiments,

1107
01:00:39,080 --> 01:00:41,580
sparks of truth are struck,

1108
01:00:41,750 --> 01:00:44,710
and political light is obtained.

1109
01:00:46,170 --> 01:00:48,130
He had a kind of social intelligence

1110
01:00:48,300 --> 01:00:51,670
that matched his
book learning intelligence.

1111
01:00:51,840 --> 01:00:54,640
He really was an American
genius, but part of his genius

1112
01:00:54,800 --> 01:00:58,430
lay in his ability
to get people to work with him

1113
01:00:58,600 --> 01:00:59,920
and to move things in a direction

1114
01:01:00,020 --> 01:01:01,770
he wanted them to go.

1115
01:01:01,930 --> 01:01:04,350
Franklin's
involvement in civic affairs

1116
01:01:04,520 --> 01:01:07,610
took a new political turn
when he was elected to

1117
01:01:07,770 --> 01:01:12,780
Pennsylvania's colonial
Assembly in 1751.

1118
01:01:12,950 --> 01:01:15,110
I conceived my becoming a member

1119
01:01:15,280 --> 01:01:18,660
would enlarge my power of doing good.

1120
01:01:18,830 --> 01:01:21,370
I would not however insinuate
that my ambition was not

1121
01:01:21,540 --> 01:01:24,250
flattered by all these promotions.

1122
01:01:24,420 --> 01:01:26,080
It certainly was.

1123
01:01:26,250 --> 01:01:28,250
For considering my low beginning

1124
01:01:28,420 --> 01:01:30,760
they were great things to me.

1125
01:01:34,010 --> 01:01:36,640
He worked on
everything from regulations

1126
01:01:36,800 --> 01:01:38,680
on the size of bread loaves

1127
01:01:38,850 --> 01:01:41,390
to a tax on dogs;

1128
01:01:41,560 --> 01:01:43,890
pushed through a plan
to pave Market Street

1129
01:01:44,060 --> 01:01:46,440
and keep it swept of dust;

1130
01:01:46,600 --> 01:01:48,980
then gained approval
to install newly designed

1131
01:01:49,150 --> 01:01:51,110
street lamps in the city

1132
01:01:51,280 --> 01:01:53,950
with 4 replaceable glass panes

1133
01:01:54,110 --> 01:01:56,700
that made them easier to repair.

1134
01:01:58,320 --> 01:02:01,410
In 1752, the British
government appointed

1135
01:02:01,580 --> 01:02:03,290
the 46-year-old Franklin

1136
01:02:03,450 --> 01:02:06,370
to the top postal job in America,

1137
01:02:06,540 --> 01:02:08,960
sharing the title of deputy postmaster

1138
01:02:09,130 --> 01:02:11,460
with a man from the South.

1139
01:02:11,630 --> 01:02:14,170
Franklin immediately started
making the colonies'

1140
01:02:14,340 --> 01:02:17,430
mail service more efficient.

1141
01:02:17,590 --> 01:02:20,510
He established the first
home-delivery system

1142
01:02:20,680 --> 01:02:23,140
and cut the time it took
for a letter to get from

1143
01:02:23,310 --> 01:02:27,480
Philadelphia to New York City
to one day.

1144
01:02:27,650 --> 01:02:30,020
On an inspection tour
that took him through

1145
01:02:30,190 --> 01:02:32,900
Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia,

1146
01:02:33,070 --> 01:02:37,570
he learned more about the
colonies south of Pennsylvania.

1147
01:02:37,740 --> 01:02:40,620
The American identity begins to form

1148
01:02:40,780 --> 01:02:44,200
when Franklin creates a Postal
System that allows people

1149
01:02:44,370 --> 01:02:47,370
to communicate up and down the coast.

1150
01:02:47,540 --> 01:02:49,420
Most of the Colonies
thought of themselves

1151
01:02:49,580 --> 01:02:51,170
closer to London.

1152
01:02:51,340 --> 01:02:53,460
Even letters would go,
from Charleston,

1153
01:02:53,630 --> 01:02:55,970
if it had to go to Boston,
it would go to London,

1154
01:02:56,130 --> 01:02:58,470
and then back to Boston.

1155
01:02:58,630 --> 01:03:00,760
So, by doing a Postal Road
up and down the coast,

1156
01:03:00,930 --> 01:03:05,100
he helps knit the American
Colonies together.

1157
01:03:05,270 --> 01:03:07,980
The future prosperity
of the British Empire,

1158
01:03:08,140 --> 01:03:09,980
Franklin wrote in one essay,

1159
01:03:10,150 --> 01:03:13,070
lay in the American colonies.

1160
01:03:13,230 --> 01:03:15,440
Because of the abundance of land,

1161
01:03:15,610 --> 01:03:18,240
he predicted the white
population would double

1162
01:03:18,400 --> 01:03:21,160
every 20 years, and within a century

1163
01:03:21,320 --> 01:03:24,160
would even surpass England's.

1164
01:03:24,330 --> 01:03:28,290
All of this disregarded the
sovereignty of Native peoples,

1165
01:03:28,460 --> 01:03:31,330
whose land it had been for millennia.

1166
01:03:33,590 --> 01:03:35,210
In the same essay, he argued,

1167
01:03:35,380 --> 01:03:37,840
strictly on economic grounds,

1168
01:03:38,010 --> 01:03:42,510
that the importation of black
slaves diminished a nation

1169
01:03:42,680 --> 01:03:44,600
because "The Whites who have Slaves"

1170
01:03:44,760 --> 01:03:49,270
are "enfeebled" by
not working themselves.

1171
01:03:49,440 --> 01:03:51,850
He is combining racism

1172
01:03:52,020 --> 01:03:55,780
and opposition to the
slave trade, simultaneously.

1173
01:03:55,940 --> 01:03:58,320
Some of the initial efforts

1174
01:03:58,490 --> 01:04:03,160
to stop the slave trade
to North America

1175
01:04:03,320 --> 01:04:04,120
originated in concern that there were

1176
01:04:04,280 --> 01:04:06,580
too many black people there.

1177
01:04:06,740 --> 01:04:10,500
It was an immigration problem,
rather than a moral problem.

1178
01:04:12,790 --> 01:04:15,420
He also worried
about the influx of immigrants

1179
01:04:15,590 --> 01:04:19,090
he described as having
"a swarthy complexion,"

1180
01:04:19,260 --> 01:04:22,090
including Spaniards, Italians,

1181
01:04:22,260 --> 01:04:26,140
French, Russians, and Swedes--

1182
01:04:26,310 --> 01:04:28,270
even the Germans, who now represented

1183
01:04:28,430 --> 01:04:31,310
a third of his own colony.

1184
01:04:31,480 --> 01:04:33,980
"Why," he wrote, "should Pennsylvania,

1185
01:04:34,150 --> 01:04:38,690
"founded by the English,
become a Colony of Aliens,

1186
01:04:38,860 --> 01:04:42,950
"who will shortly be so numerous
as to Germanize us

1187
01:04:43,110 --> 01:04:46,490
instead of our Anglifying them."

1188
01:04:48,080 --> 01:04:50,330
We have so fair an Opportunity,

1189
01:04:50,500 --> 01:04:53,040
by excluding all Blacks and Tawneys,

1190
01:04:53,210 --> 01:04:56,630
of increasing the lovely
White and Red.

1191
01:04:56,790 --> 01:05:00,510
But perhaps I am partial to
the Complexion of my Country,

1192
01:05:00,670 --> 01:05:04,760
for such Kind of Partiality
is natural to Mankind.

1193
01:05:06,140 --> 01:05:08,850
In the middle decades
of the 18th century,

1194
01:05:09,010 --> 01:05:12,690
notions of racial inferiority
were so deeply embedded

1195
01:05:12,850 --> 01:05:16,020
that the unusual fact
of this document, actually,

1196
01:05:16,190 --> 01:05:19,980
is how he says, at the end,
"Or maybe I'm just biased

1197
01:05:20,150 --> 01:05:23,070
in favor of people like myself."

1198
01:05:23,240 --> 01:05:27,160
Franklin doesn't deserve
particular praise for that.

1199
01:05:27,320 --> 01:05:31,660
But it is unusual in the sense of

1200
01:05:31,830 --> 01:05:34,830
he's being self-reflective
about his own prejudices.

1201
01:05:35,000 --> 01:05:38,000
It's the self-reflective part
which is slightly unusual.

1202
01:05:38,170 --> 01:05:39,880
The prejudices are not.

1203
01:05:44,470 --> 01:05:47,760
In 1754, increased white settlement

1204
01:05:47,930 --> 01:05:49,390
in the Ohio River Valley

1205
01:05:49,560 --> 01:05:52,270
ignited another struggle with France

1206
01:05:52,430 --> 01:05:54,600
for control of Native lands--

1207
01:05:54,770 --> 01:05:59,110
what would come to be called
the French and Indian War.

1208
01:05:59,270 --> 01:06:02,780
Franklin was chosen as one of
4 Pennsylvania delegates

1209
01:06:02,940 --> 01:06:06,280
to meet with representatives
from 6 other colonies

1210
01:06:06,450 --> 01:06:10,660
in Albany, New York, to
negotiate with Native Americans

1211
01:06:10,830 --> 01:06:14,830
they hoped would side with
England in the conflict.

1212
01:06:15,000 --> 01:06:17,670
He was familiar with
the way the Iroquois nations

1213
01:06:17,830 --> 01:06:21,340
had formed a confederation,
the Haudenosaunee,

1214
01:06:21,500 --> 01:06:23,260
more than a century earlier

1215
01:06:23,420 --> 01:06:25,760
that promoted unity through consensus

1216
01:06:25,930 --> 01:06:28,890
on matters that affected them all.

1217
01:06:29,050 --> 01:06:32,060
It gave him an idea.

1218
01:06:32,220 --> 01:06:34,350
It would be a very strange thing,

1219
01:06:34,520 --> 01:06:36,730
if 6 nations of ignorant
savages should be

1220
01:06:36,890 --> 01:06:39,810
capable of forming a scheme
for such a union,

1221
01:06:39,980 --> 01:06:42,320
and be able to execute it
in such a manner

1222
01:06:42,480 --> 01:06:45,150
as that it has subsisted for ages,

1223
01:06:45,320 --> 01:06:47,820
and appears indissoluble;

1224
01:06:47,990 --> 01:06:51,490
and yet that a like union
should be impracticable

1225
01:06:51,660 --> 01:06:54,580
for 10 or a dozen English colonies,

1226
01:06:54,750 --> 01:06:57,580
to whom it is more necessary,

1227
01:06:57,750 --> 01:07:00,580
and must be more advantageous.

1228
01:07:01,790 --> 01:07:03,550
Franklin urged his fellow delegates

1229
01:07:03,710 --> 01:07:06,630
to consider creating their own charter

1230
01:07:06,800 --> 01:07:09,800
to encourage the colonies
to work together.

1231
01:07:09,970 --> 01:07:13,890
He and Thomas Hutchinson,
an ally from Massachusetts,

1232
01:07:14,060 --> 01:07:17,270
spearheaded a committee
that drew up what was called

1233
01:07:17,430 --> 01:07:20,600
the Albany Plan of Union.

1234
01:07:20,770 --> 01:07:23,900
It proposed a Grand Council
for the Colonies,

1235
01:07:24,070 --> 01:07:26,990
empowered to make treaties
with Indians,

1236
01:07:27,150 --> 01:07:31,910
regulate trade, oversee
land sales on the frontier,

1237
01:07:32,070 --> 01:07:35,540
build forts and raise troops
for common defense,

1238
01:07:35,700 --> 01:07:38,250
and enact whatever taxes and duties

1239
01:07:38,410 --> 01:07:40,790
were needed for it all.

1240
01:07:40,960 --> 01:07:43,840
Individual colonies would
keep their own authority

1241
01:07:44,000 --> 01:07:48,630
over everything else
under their own constitutions.

1242
01:07:48,800 --> 01:07:51,260
In an article in
the "Gazette," he attached

1243
01:07:51,430 --> 01:07:54,260
a drawing showing a dismembered snake

1244
01:07:54,430 --> 01:07:56,430
representing the colonies.

1245
01:07:56,600 --> 01:07:59,850
At the bottom was a dire warning.

1246
01:08:00,020 --> 01:08:02,860
It says,
"Join or die."

1247
01:08:03,020 --> 01:08:06,570
And it's his way of saying
that we have to come together

1248
01:08:06,730 --> 01:08:10,110
to have one national sensibility.

1249
01:08:10,280 --> 01:08:11,820
So, he's the great visionary

1250
01:08:11,990 --> 01:08:13,490
that sees that we have to

1251
01:08:13,660 --> 01:08:16,080
knit the Colonies together,

1252
01:08:16,240 --> 01:08:18,910
rather than have each of
the Colonies think of themselves

1253
01:08:19,080 --> 01:08:22,670
as sort of a separate entity
reporting back to London.

1254
01:08:22,830 --> 01:08:25,040
On both sides of the Atlantic,

1255
01:08:25,210 --> 01:08:29,590
the Albany Plan
was considered too radical.

1256
01:08:29,760 --> 01:08:31,470
Its Fate was singular.

1257
01:08:31,630 --> 01:08:33,430
The Assemblies did not adopt it,

1258
01:08:33,590 --> 01:08:36,890
as they all thought there was
too much Prerogative in it;

1259
01:08:37,060 --> 01:08:41,690
and in England it was judg'd to
have too much of the democratic.

1260
01:08:41,850 --> 01:08:43,270
Despite all the failure, and it was

1261
01:08:43,440 --> 01:08:45,940
a total failure,

1262
01:08:46,110 --> 01:08:49,740
it did possibly plant
some kind of seed

1263
01:08:49,900 --> 01:08:54,450
for future organization
among the Colonies.

1264
01:08:57,740 --> 01:09:00,580
In 1755, Franklin met with

1265
01:09:00,750 --> 01:09:02,670
Major General Edward Braddock,

1266
01:09:02,830 --> 01:09:05,170
who had arrived in America boasting

1267
01:09:05,330 --> 01:09:09,130
that he and his British redcoats
would have little trouble

1268
01:09:09,300 --> 01:09:13,010
defeating the French and their
Native American allies.

1269
01:09:13,180 --> 01:09:16,970
Franklin warned the general
against overconfidence.

1270
01:09:17,140 --> 01:09:20,520
On July 9, 1755,

1271
01:09:20,680 --> 01:09:22,850
8 miles from Fort Duquesne,

1272
01:09:23,020 --> 01:09:25,480
where the Monongahela
and Allegheny rivers

1273
01:09:25,650 --> 01:09:27,900
join to form the Ohio,

1274
01:09:28,070 --> 01:09:30,860
Braddock's forces
stumbled into an ambush

1275
01:09:31,030 --> 01:09:35,160
and were routed by
French and Indian soldiers.

1276
01:09:35,320 --> 01:09:39,030
Nearly 1,000 of the British
were killed or wounded;

1277
01:09:39,200 --> 01:09:43,870
most of the officers died,
including Braddock.

1278
01:09:44,040 --> 01:09:47,420
In the battle, two horses
were shot out from underneath

1279
01:09:47,580 --> 01:09:49,040
a young lieutenant colonel

1280
01:09:49,210 --> 01:09:51,800
and land speculator from Virginia,

1281
01:09:51,960 --> 01:09:54,970
and 4 bullets pierced his coat.

1282
01:09:55,130 --> 01:10:00,760
But somehow, 23-year-old
George Washington survived.

1283
01:10:02,520 --> 01:10:04,180
The French and Indians soon pushed

1284
01:10:04,350 --> 01:10:05,980
farther into Pennsylvania,

1285
01:10:06,150 --> 01:10:09,900
burning houses,
killing and capturing settlers,

1286
01:10:10,070 --> 01:10:12,740
spreading panic across the colony.

1287
01:10:12,900 --> 01:10:16,160
In Philadelphia,
the Assembly seemed paralyzed.

1288
01:10:16,320 --> 01:10:21,240
Dominated by Quaker pacifists,
it resisted raising an army.

1289
01:10:22,700 --> 01:10:24,290
Meanwhile, the governor, appointed by

1290
01:10:24,460 --> 01:10:26,460
William Penn's sons in England,

1291
01:10:26,620 --> 01:10:28,790
steadfastly rejected any tax

1292
01:10:28,960 --> 01:10:31,550
on the family's lands in Pennsylvania

1293
01:10:31,710 --> 01:10:35,010
to help defend the colony.

1294
01:10:35,170 --> 01:10:37,680
Vassals fight at their lord's expense;

1295
01:10:37,840 --> 01:10:39,970
but our lord would have us
defend his estate

1296
01:10:40,140 --> 01:10:41,890
at our own expense!

1297
01:10:42,060 --> 01:10:45,350
It is even more slavish
than slavery itself.

1298
01:10:47,100 --> 01:10:48,690
When a raiding party
struck a settlement

1299
01:10:48,850 --> 01:10:51,730
only 75 miles north of Philadelphia,

1300
01:10:51,900 --> 01:10:54,230
Franklin led a force of militiamen,

1301
01:10:54,400 --> 01:10:58,660
including his son William,
over rough terrain to the scene,

1302
01:10:58,820 --> 01:11:00,370
where they buried the dead

1303
01:11:00,530 --> 01:11:01,950
and began to build

1304
01:11:02,120 --> 01:11:03,540
a series of forts.

1305
01:11:04,910 --> 01:11:07,410
The winter weather was cold and wet.

1306
01:11:07,580 --> 01:11:09,710
Franklin spent his 50th birthday

1307
01:11:09,880 --> 01:11:12,590
encamped at Lehigh Gap.

1308
01:11:14,960 --> 01:11:17,880
But the immediate crisis had been met.

1309
01:11:18,050 --> 01:11:22,180
In Philadelphia,
Franklin was hailed as a hero.

1310
01:11:22,350 --> 01:11:26,480
"The people," he wrote
a friend, "happen to love me."

1311
01:11:30,150 --> 01:11:33,690
In June of 1757, Franklin once more

1312
01:11:33,860 --> 01:11:37,360
found himself on a ship
bound for England.

1313
01:11:37,530 --> 01:11:40,910
The Assembly had sent him on
a mission to try to negotiate

1314
01:11:41,070 --> 01:11:43,490
with the Penn family in person

1315
01:11:43,660 --> 01:11:46,160
about their refusal to be taxed.

1316
01:11:47,660 --> 01:11:50,620
He brought his son William
along as his assistant,

1317
01:11:50,790 --> 01:11:53,840
but Deborah and Sally stayed behind.

1318
01:11:54,000 --> 01:11:55,920
Deborah worried that
her husband's ship

1319
01:11:56,090 --> 01:11:58,340
might be attacked by the French

1320
01:11:58,510 --> 01:12:02,010
or go down in the dangerous
waters of the North Atlantic.

1321
01:12:04,220 --> 01:12:05,510
I have been in much pain

1322
01:12:05,680 --> 01:12:08,230
for some days on account
of my Husband,

1323
01:12:08,390 --> 01:12:11,480
for by this time he is, as I suppose,

1324
01:12:11,650 --> 01:12:14,230
near the Land's End of England,

1325
01:12:14,400 --> 01:12:17,280
and of course in danger of
being taken,

1326
01:12:17,440 --> 01:12:20,490
which I pray God prevent.

1327
01:12:20,650 --> 01:12:23,820
I am not able to bear
the least thing in the world

1328
01:12:23,990 --> 01:12:26,990
and I find myself very weak indeed.

1329
01:12:30,120 --> 01:12:31,500
Approaching the coast of England,

1330
01:12:31,670 --> 01:12:34,080
Franklin's ship was nearly

1331
01:12:34,250 --> 01:12:35,250
wrecked on the rocks,

1332
01:12:35,420 --> 01:12:37,420
just as his wife had feared,

1333
01:12:37,590 --> 01:12:41,130
but finally landed safely.

1334
01:12:41,300 --> 01:12:43,760
"Were I a Roman Catholic,"
he wrote Deborah,

1335
01:12:43,930 --> 01:12:46,810
"perhaps I should on this occasion

1336
01:12:46,970 --> 01:12:49,810
"vow to build a chapel to some saint;

1337
01:12:49,980 --> 01:12:53,150
"but as I am not,
if I were to vow at all,

1338
01:12:53,310 --> 01:12:55,900
it should be to build
a lighthouse."

1339
01:12:57,610 --> 01:13:01,450
In London, he found lodging
at a home on Craven Street,

1340
01:13:01,610 --> 01:13:04,450
a short walk from
the British government offices

1341
01:13:04,620 --> 01:13:06,280
at Whitehall.

1342
01:13:06,450 --> 01:13:08,540
When he gets to
London, Franklin tries to

1343
01:13:08,700 --> 01:13:11,200
recreate his family life.

1344
01:13:11,370 --> 01:13:13,960
And, so, he finds a landlady
who's quite like

1345
01:13:14,120 --> 01:13:16,840
Deborah Franklin,
named Margaret Stevenson,

1346
01:13:17,000 --> 01:13:19,170
who has a daughter named Polly.

1347
01:13:19,340 --> 01:13:21,880
And they set up
on Craven Street a replica

1348
01:13:22,050 --> 01:13:24,760
of what he had back in Philadelphia.

1349
01:13:27,220 --> 01:13:29,310
Franklin and William had brought along

1350
01:13:29,470 --> 01:13:35,940
two enslaved men, known only as
Peter and King, as servants.

1351
01:13:36,100 --> 01:13:38,820
"Peter behaves very well
to me in general,"

1352
01:13:38,980 --> 01:13:40,730
Franklin wrote home to Deborah,

1353
01:13:40,900 --> 01:13:46,160
"and begins to know the town so
as to go anywhere on errands."

1354
01:13:46,320 --> 01:13:49,030
But King, sensing
an opportunity for freedom

1355
01:13:49,200 --> 01:13:53,620
in his new surroundings, ran away.

1356
01:13:53,790 --> 01:13:56,250
What we know about these men

1357
01:13:56,420 --> 01:13:58,130
is relatively little.

1358
01:13:58,290 --> 01:14:02,130
What we do know is that,
while Ben Franklin's

1359
01:14:02,300 --> 01:14:05,340
feelings or opinions about slavery

1360
01:14:05,510 --> 01:14:07,930
may have changed over time,

1361
01:14:08,100 --> 01:14:14,270
he doesn't set his slaves free, ever.

1362
01:14:14,430 --> 01:14:17,230
They run off and he doesn't
necessarily pursue them,

1363
01:14:17,400 --> 01:14:20,730
perhaps, with as much
vigor as he might have.

1364
01:14:20,900 --> 01:14:22,690
And they die off.

1365
01:14:22,860 --> 01:14:26,860
But at no moment do we really
see Franklin step out front

1366
01:14:27,030 --> 01:14:29,530
and say, "I am setting an example

1367
01:14:29,700 --> 01:14:31,620
by setting my slaves free."

1368
01:14:34,250 --> 01:14:36,210
When Franklin
met with the Penn family,

1369
01:14:36,370 --> 01:14:39,210
they categorically dismissed
the notion that they should

1370
01:14:39,380 --> 01:14:41,800
pay any taxes at all.

1371
01:14:41,960 --> 01:14:43,710
They saw the colony solely as

1372
01:14:43,880 --> 01:14:47,010
a source of wealth and power for them,

1373
01:14:47,180 --> 01:14:50,180
and declared Franklin
a malicious villain.

1374
01:14:51,760 --> 01:14:54,060
Franklin decided to change tactics.

1375
01:14:54,220 --> 01:14:56,350
He thought he might be
able to persuade

1376
01:14:56,520 --> 01:14:59,060
King George II and his ministers

1377
01:14:59,230 --> 01:15:02,820
to declare Pennsylvania
a Crown colony,

1378
01:15:02,980 --> 01:15:05,150
like most of the others in America,

1379
01:15:05,320 --> 01:15:08,570
where governors were appointed
by the King.

1380
01:15:10,620 --> 01:15:13,120
He let Deborah know he would
not be returning as quickly

1381
01:15:13,290 --> 01:15:15,870
as the two of them had planned.

1382
01:15:16,040 --> 01:15:19,170
Franklin was enjoying London.

1383
01:15:23,300 --> 01:15:25,340
London was
the greatest city in the world

1384
01:15:25,510 --> 01:15:26,670
at the time.

1385
01:15:26,840 --> 01:15:28,180
It was filled with coffee shops

1386
01:15:28,340 --> 01:15:33,180
and had a thriving
intellectual middle class.

1387
01:15:33,350 --> 01:15:34,990
And Franklin goes around
with his friends,

1388
01:15:35,020 --> 01:15:37,140
mainly scientists and writers,

1389
01:15:37,310 --> 01:15:39,600
and they spend their afternoons
in the coffee shops

1390
01:15:39,770 --> 01:15:41,770
discussing new ideas.

1391
01:15:41,940 --> 01:15:43,860
That glittering, sophisticated world

1392
01:15:44,020 --> 01:15:46,150
was made for Ben Franklin.

1393
01:15:46,320 --> 01:15:49,320
He was made for a dinner party
and conversation.

1394
01:15:49,490 --> 01:15:51,450
Philadelphia might have
been extraordinary

1395
01:15:51,620 --> 01:15:54,450
for the New World,
but it couldn't compare

1396
01:15:54,620 --> 01:15:59,620
to the absolute sophistication
of the Old World.

1397
01:15:59,790 --> 01:16:02,500
There were people who
shared his views on science;

1398
01:16:02,670 --> 01:16:04,960
there were people who shared
his broadminded view

1399
01:16:05,130 --> 01:16:07,880
of all sorts of human institutions.

1400
01:16:08,050 --> 01:16:10,630
He made friends very easily.

1401
01:16:10,800 --> 01:16:13,430
In fact, if Debbie

1402
01:16:13,600 --> 01:16:18,270
had been willing to relocate
from Philadelphia to London,

1403
01:16:18,430 --> 01:16:19,940
Franklin might very well

1404
01:16:20,100 --> 01:16:22,440
have become a permanent
resident of London.

1405
01:16:22,600 --> 01:16:25,690
In England, as he had in America,

1406
01:16:25,860 --> 01:16:29,530
Franklin forged intellectual
and affectionate relationships

1407
01:16:29,690 --> 01:16:31,150
with a number of young women

1408
01:16:31,320 --> 01:16:34,030
whose intelligence he appreciated--

1409
01:16:34,200 --> 01:16:36,990
exchanging letters, providing advice,

1410
01:16:37,160 --> 01:16:39,910
and encouraging their ambitions;

1411
01:16:40,080 --> 01:16:42,040
the kind of attention
he neglected to give

1412
01:16:42,210 --> 01:16:44,170
his own daughter Sally.

1413
01:16:46,380 --> 01:16:49,420
Sally was born at a bad time, I think,

1414
01:16:49,590 --> 01:16:52,760
just as Benjamin Franklin
became involved in politics

1415
01:16:52,930 --> 01:16:54,850
and was away most of the time.

1416
01:16:55,010 --> 01:16:56,030
And, so, I don't think she ever really

1417
01:16:56,050 --> 01:16:57,680
got to know her father.

1418
01:16:57,850 --> 01:16:59,980
And her father didn't
seem particularly interested

1419
01:17:00,140 --> 01:17:03,270
in knowing her in those days.

1420
01:17:03,440 --> 01:17:04,960
She wanted the education
that her brother had

1421
01:17:04,980 --> 01:17:06,230
and never got it.

1422
01:17:06,400 --> 01:17:07,790
She wanted to go to England with him;

1423
01:17:07,820 --> 01:17:09,940
that never happened.

1424
01:17:10,110 --> 01:17:11,490
With William by his side,

1425
01:17:11,650 --> 01:17:15,700
Franklin traveled beyond London
whenever possible.

1426
01:17:15,870 --> 01:17:18,030
A friend reported to Deborah that

1427
01:17:18,200 --> 01:17:21,330
"William is daily
in the company of his father,

1428
01:17:21,500 --> 01:17:25,080
"who is at the same time
his friend, his brother,

1429
01:17:25,250 --> 01:17:28,210
his intimate,
and easy companion."

1430
01:17:32,050 --> 01:17:34,010
In Edinburgh, they socialized with

1431
01:17:34,180 --> 01:17:36,600
two of the Enlightenment's
leading thinkers,

1432
01:17:36,760 --> 01:17:42,350
the economist Adam Smith
and the philosopher David Hume.

1433
01:17:42,520 --> 01:17:44,940
At St. Andrews,
the university placed

1434
01:17:45,100 --> 01:17:48,020
a crimson and white robe
over Franklin's shoulder

1435
01:17:48,190 --> 01:17:50,070
and presented him, a man with

1436
01:17:50,230 --> 01:17:53,070
only two years of formal education,

1437
01:17:53,240 --> 01:17:55,530
with an honorary doctorate.

1438
01:17:55,700 --> 01:17:59,030
From that moment on,
most people referred to him

1439
01:17:59,200 --> 01:18:01,240
as Doctor Franklin.

1440
01:18:05,460 --> 01:18:07,420
One evening in Cambridge, he attended

1441
01:18:07,580 --> 01:18:08,960
a concert of sorts,

1442
01:18:09,130 --> 01:18:11,340
where the rims of wine glasses

1443
01:18:11,500 --> 01:18:14,300
were rubbed to produce musical notes.

1444
01:18:16,300 --> 01:18:17,840
Franklin looked at that
and he thought,

1445
01:18:18,010 --> 01:18:21,510
"Now, that's just inefficient."

1446
01:18:21,680 --> 01:18:25,600
Why move your arms to that degree?

1447
01:18:25,770 --> 01:18:28,860
Why not take the glasses
and have them move

1448
01:18:29,020 --> 01:18:31,650
and your hand stay still?

1449
01:18:31,820 --> 01:18:33,780
He hired a London
glassblower to create

1450
01:18:33,940 --> 01:18:40,280
a series of 36 glass bowls, to
specific thicknesses and sizes.

1451
01:18:42,910 --> 01:18:45,830
And rather than having your fingers

1452
01:18:46,000 --> 01:18:47,540
move around the glass,

1453
01:18:47,710 --> 01:18:49,040
the glasses rotated,

1454
01:18:49,210 --> 01:18:50,960
and he wet his fingers

1455
01:18:51,130 --> 01:18:52,460
and played it like a keyboard.

1456
01:18:59,970 --> 01:19:02,470
He named his
new invention the armonica,

1457
01:19:02,640 --> 01:19:05,350
after the Italian word for harmony,

1458
01:19:05,520 --> 01:19:09,230
and charmed visitors
with performances on it.

1459
01:19:09,400 --> 01:19:11,560
Soon, more of the instruments
were being

1460
01:19:11,730 --> 01:19:15,440
manufactured and sold,
though Franklin again refused

1461
01:19:15,610 --> 01:19:18,360
to patent or profit
from his invention.

1462
01:19:20,410 --> 01:19:22,080
What pleased him most was that,

1463
01:19:22,240 --> 01:19:23,910
in musical circles throughout

1464
01:19:24,080 --> 01:19:25,700
England and Europe,

1465
01:19:25,870 --> 01:19:26,870
the armonica

1466
01:19:27,040 --> 01:19:28,420
created a sensation.

1467
01:19:31,840 --> 01:19:33,340
In Austria, Franklin's invention

1468
01:19:33,500 --> 01:19:36,590
provided the music
for a royal wedding.

1469
01:19:36,760 --> 01:19:38,550
Even Mozart and Beethoven

1470
01:19:38,720 --> 01:19:42,100
would compose chamber pieces for it.

1471
01:19:44,140 --> 01:19:48,020
The sound it made was described as

1472
01:19:48,180 --> 01:19:50,440
celestial ravishment.

1473
01:20:04,990 --> 01:20:06,700
I have long been of the opinion

1474
01:20:06,870 --> 01:20:08,200
that the foundations of

1475
01:20:08,370 --> 01:20:10,120
the future grandeur and stability

1476
01:20:10,290 --> 01:20:13,630
of the British Empire lie in America,

1477
01:20:13,790 --> 01:20:17,420
broad and strong enough
to support the greatest

1478
01:20:17,590 --> 01:20:21,260
political structure
human wisdom ever yet erected.

1479
01:20:24,930 --> 01:20:29,640
By 1761, the French
and Indian War had exploded

1480
01:20:29,810 --> 01:20:33,440
into a global conflict
called the Seven Years' War,

1481
01:20:33,610 --> 01:20:36,690
involving all the European powers.

1482
01:20:36,860 --> 01:20:40,530
In North America, England
had won a decisive victory

1483
01:20:40,700 --> 01:20:44,240
against the French
by capturing Quebec.

1484
01:20:45,620 --> 01:20:47,790
No one can rejoice more sincerely

1485
01:20:47,950 --> 01:20:52,080
than I do on the possible
addition of Canada;

1486
01:20:52,250 --> 01:20:54,880
and this not
merely as I am a colonist,

1487
01:20:55,040 --> 01:20:58,340
but as I am a Briton.

1488
01:21:00,380 --> 01:21:02,300
Franklin is one of
the earliest to say,

1489
01:21:02,470 --> 01:21:05,220
"Look, the weight of the British world

1490
01:21:05,390 --> 01:21:08,100
is going to be
in North America."

1491
01:21:08,260 --> 01:21:11,180
And he put himself
at the center of it.

1492
01:21:11,350 --> 01:21:15,690
He imagined himself as being
the kind of linchpin between

1493
01:21:15,860 --> 01:21:20,280
these--this emerging empire
in North America

1494
01:21:20,440 --> 01:21:23,030
and the seat of power in London.

1495
01:21:23,200 --> 01:21:26,700
By this time,
William Franklin had completed

1496
01:21:26,870 --> 01:21:28,120
his legal studies

1497
01:21:28,280 --> 01:21:30,540
and enjoyed socializing with

1498
01:21:30,700 --> 01:21:33,830
wealthy friends in the upper class.

1499
01:21:34,000 --> 01:21:36,130
William also took up with

1500
01:21:36,290 --> 01:21:39,210
women from London's high society,

1501
01:21:39,380 --> 01:21:43,550
and others with
less sterling reputations.

1502
01:21:43,720 --> 01:21:47,720
Just like his own father,
he sired a son out of wedlock.

1503
01:21:47,890 --> 01:21:51,390
Unlike his father, William
arranged for the baby boy

1504
01:21:51,560 --> 01:21:55,690
to be secretly placed
in a foster home.

1505
01:21:58,860 --> 01:22:01,690
On September 22, 1761,

1506
01:22:01,860 --> 01:22:05,200
hundreds of England's
well-born and well-connected

1507
01:22:05,360 --> 01:22:07,200
gathered in Westminster Hall

1508
01:22:07,370 --> 01:22:09,620
for the coronation of a new monarch:

1509
01:22:09,780 --> 01:22:12,500
King George III.

1510
01:22:12,660 --> 01:22:14,790
Among those present for the occasion

1511
01:22:14,960 --> 01:22:18,210
were two staunch defenders
of the Empire--

1512
01:22:18,380 --> 01:22:21,050
Benjamin and William Franklin.

1513
01:22:22,670 --> 01:22:26,300
From the balcony, Benjamin
watched the lavish ritual.

1514
01:22:27,590 --> 01:22:29,930
On the hall's floor, his son William

1515
01:22:30,100 --> 01:22:31,890
stood with a more privileged crowd

1516
01:22:32,060 --> 01:22:34,520
of nobles and high officials.

1517
01:22:36,560 --> 01:22:38,690
Then William marched
in a small procession

1518
01:22:38,860 --> 01:22:41,110
into Westminster Abbey,
where the crown

1519
01:22:41,270 --> 01:22:44,530
was to be placed on George's head.

1520
01:22:52,410 --> 01:22:54,620
Benjamin, not part of
that select group,

1521
01:22:54,790 --> 01:22:58,210
walked back to Craven Street alone.

1522
01:23:00,840 --> 01:23:03,510
Franklin's efforts to
elevate his son's station

1523
01:23:03,670 --> 01:23:05,550
were paying off.

1524
01:23:05,720 --> 01:23:07,480
William had caught
the attention of ministers

1525
01:23:07,630 --> 01:23:09,720
in the new king's government

1526
01:23:09,890 --> 01:23:13,140
who decided that he, though
barely into his early thirties,

1527
01:23:13,310 --> 01:23:15,680
was a natural leader.

1528
01:23:15,850 --> 01:23:17,940
With their support, William Franklin

1529
01:23:18,100 --> 01:23:23,150
was chosen to be the next
royal governor of New Jersey.

1530
01:23:23,320 --> 01:23:25,570
And there was other good news.

1531
01:23:25,740 --> 01:23:28,660
William had fallen in love
with Elizabeth Downes,

1532
01:23:28,820 --> 01:23:30,490
the daughter of a wealthy owner of

1533
01:23:30,660 --> 01:23:33,200
sugar plantations in Barbados,

1534
01:23:33,370 --> 01:23:35,950
and they were now engaged.

1535
01:23:36,120 --> 01:23:38,960
Benjamin Franklin had been
gone from Philadelphia

1536
01:23:39,120 --> 01:23:41,000
for 5 years.

1537
01:23:41,170 --> 01:23:47,420
He was now 56, and still
captivated by life in England.

1538
01:23:47,590 --> 01:23:49,340
Why should this island,

1539
01:23:49,510 --> 01:23:51,890
which compared to America is but like

1540
01:23:52,050 --> 01:23:54,220
a stepping stone in a brook,

1541
01:23:54,390 --> 01:23:57,270
enjoy in almost every neighborhood

1542
01:23:57,430 --> 01:24:01,310
more sensible, virtuous,
and elegant minds

1543
01:24:01,480 --> 01:24:07,610
than we can collect in ranging
100 leagues of our vast forests?

1544
01:24:09,570 --> 01:24:11,410
In the summer of 1762,

1545
01:24:11,570 --> 01:24:14,160
he booked passage for Philadelphia,

1546
01:24:14,330 --> 01:24:17,620
determined to convince Deborah
to come back with him,

1547
01:24:17,790 --> 01:24:19,660
and promising his English friends

1548
01:24:19,830 --> 01:24:23,710
he intended to return
to London permanently.

1549
01:24:25,340 --> 01:24:26,920
In two Years at farthest

1550
01:24:27,090 --> 01:24:29,920
I hope to settle all my Affairs
in such a Manner,

1551
01:24:30,090 --> 01:24:33,930
as that I may then conveniently
remove to England,

1552
01:24:34,100 --> 01:24:37,890
provided we can persuade the
good Woman to cross the Seas.

1553
01:24:38,060 --> 01:24:40,690
That will be the great Difficulty.

1554
01:24:42,440 --> 01:24:43,190
Franklin would be at sea

1555
01:24:43,350 --> 01:24:44,770
when William was married

1556
01:24:44,940 --> 01:24:48,110
in St. George's Church
in London,

1557
01:24:48,280 --> 01:24:50,190
and when he bowed to George III

1558
01:24:50,360 --> 01:24:52,320
in St. James's Palace,

1559
01:24:52,490 --> 01:24:54,740
kissed the new king's ring,

1560
01:24:54,910 --> 01:24:59,250
and swore his eternal allegiance
to the crown.

1561
01:25:04,790 --> 01:25:07,500
On November 1, 1762,

1562
01:25:07,670 --> 01:25:11,090
Benjamin Franklin arrived
back in Philadelphia.

1563
01:25:11,260 --> 01:25:13,800
It wasn't a teeming
metropolis like London,

1564
01:25:13,970 --> 01:25:17,510
but with a population
of nearly 25,000,

1565
01:25:17,680 --> 01:25:20,020
it had surpassed Boston and New York

1566
01:25:20,180 --> 01:25:23,850
as the largest city
in the American colonies.

1567
01:25:24,020 --> 01:25:28,570
Deborah and 19-year-old Sally
welcomed him home.

1568
01:25:28,730 --> 01:25:31,490
A few months later,
William arrived from England

1569
01:25:31,650 --> 01:25:33,660
with his new wife Elizabeth,

1570
01:25:33,820 --> 01:25:36,910
and Franklin accompanied them
across the Delaware River

1571
01:25:37,080 --> 01:25:39,950
to New Jersey, where Benjamin
watched proudly

1572
01:25:40,120 --> 01:25:43,750
as his son became that colony's
ninth governor.

1573
01:25:46,000 --> 01:25:48,210
As deputy postmaster of His Majesty's

1574
01:25:48,380 --> 01:25:49,960
colonies in North America,

1575
01:25:50,130 --> 01:25:53,380
Franklin embarked on another
inspection tour

1576
01:25:53,550 --> 01:25:55,680
that took him through 6 colonies,

1577
01:25:55,840 --> 01:25:58,430
all the way to New Hampshire.

1578
01:25:58,600 --> 01:26:02,600
The trip lasted 5 months.

1579
01:26:02,770 --> 01:26:04,850
Franklin sees the many different

1580
01:26:05,020 --> 01:26:06,690
American styles.

1581
01:26:06,850 --> 01:26:08,610
There's a Northern community;

1582
01:26:08,770 --> 01:26:09,610
there's a New England community;

1583
01:26:09,770 --> 01:26:11,190
there are the Middle Colonies;

1584
01:26:11,360 --> 01:26:12,900
the Upper South;
the Lower South.

1585
01:26:13,070 --> 01:26:16,410
He begins to understand
the vast complexity

1586
01:26:16,570 --> 01:26:18,070
of the Colonial situation.

1587
01:26:18,240 --> 01:26:19,740
And nobody else did.

1588
01:26:19,910 --> 01:26:22,950
He was the best-informed
person in the New World

1589
01:26:23,120 --> 01:26:25,960
about the diversity of
geography, of economy,

1590
01:26:26,120 --> 01:26:31,090
of social structure, and he
also saw discontentments.

1591
01:26:31,250 --> 01:26:34,300
There was concern
about representation;

1592
01:26:34,470 --> 01:26:37,640
there was concern about
arbitrary economic tariffs

1593
01:26:37,800 --> 01:26:39,930
that were being imposed by Britain,

1594
01:26:40,100 --> 01:26:42,100
and the increasing sense
that the British

1595
01:26:42,270 --> 01:26:44,890
don't really understand us

1596
01:26:45,060 --> 01:26:48,900
and they're also using us
as an extraction machine

1597
01:26:49,060 --> 01:26:50,270
for British wealth.

1598
01:26:50,440 --> 01:26:51,570
And, even though they will

1599
01:26:51,730 --> 01:26:53,530
say we're British citizens,

1600
01:26:53,690 --> 01:26:55,610
they're not treating us
with full respect

1601
01:26:55,780 --> 01:26:58,110
that an Englishman deserves.

1602
01:27:02,080 --> 01:27:05,000
I went to hear the Negro
children at Church.

1603
01:27:06,250 --> 01:27:10,330
There were 17 that answered
very prettily indeed,

1604
01:27:10,500 --> 01:27:16,340
and 5 or 6 that were too little,
but all behaved very decently.

1605
01:27:16,510 --> 01:27:20,220
It gave me a great deal of
Pleasure, and I shall send

1606
01:27:20,390 --> 01:27:21,800
Othello to the School.

1607
01:27:23,260 --> 01:27:25,890
Deborah Franklin had enrolled Othello,

1608
01:27:26,060 --> 01:27:28,600
an enslaved child
in the Franklin household,

1609
01:27:28,770 --> 01:27:31,270
in a new school in Philadelphia,

1610
01:27:31,440 --> 01:27:35,150
part of an effort to educate
Black children in North America

1611
01:27:35,320 --> 01:27:38,530
that Benjamin Franklin had endorsed.

1612
01:27:38,700 --> 01:27:40,950
At Deborah's urging, her husband

1613
01:27:41,120 --> 01:27:44,330
made a personal visit to the school.

1614
01:27:44,490 --> 01:27:47,120
I was on the whole much pleas'd,

1615
01:27:47,290 --> 01:27:50,790
and from what I then saw, have
conceiv'd a higher Opinion

1616
01:27:50,960 --> 01:27:53,630
of the natural Capacities
of the black Race,

1617
01:27:53,800 --> 01:27:56,920
than I had ever before entertained.

1618
01:27:57,090 --> 01:28:01,430
Their Apprehension seems as
quick, their Memory as strong,

1619
01:28:01,590 --> 01:28:03,720
and their Docility in every Respect

1620
01:28:03,890 --> 01:28:06,810
equal to that of white Children.

1621
01:28:08,600 --> 01:28:12,360
You will wonder perhaps
that I should ever doubt it,

1622
01:28:12,520 --> 01:28:16,320
and I will not undertake
to justify all my Prejudices,

1623
01:28:16,480 --> 01:28:18,150
nor to account for them.

1624
01:28:19,570 --> 01:28:22,570
I think a major
turning point in Franklin's life

1625
01:28:22,740 --> 01:28:27,410
was when he visited that classroom.

1626
01:28:27,580 --> 01:28:31,500
He did not like Black people
when he was a young man.

1627
01:28:31,670 --> 01:28:33,060
There's no way of getting around that.

1628
01:28:33,080 --> 01:28:37,420
It's very distasteful
to say, but it's true.

1629
01:28:37,590 --> 01:28:43,180
He had once written that the
hardest thing for a man to do

1630
01:28:43,340 --> 01:28:48,890
is to change long-standing
prejudices of belief.

1631
01:28:49,060 --> 01:28:53,730
But to succeed in doing it
is a test of one's humanity.

1632
01:29:05,450 --> 01:29:08,120
If an Indian
injures me, does it follow

1633
01:29:08,290 --> 01:29:13,000
that I may revenge that
injury on all Indians?

1634
01:29:13,170 --> 01:29:16,790
These poor People have
been always our Friends.

1635
01:29:16,960 --> 01:29:19,670
Their Fathers received ours,
when Strangers here,

1636
01:29:19,840 --> 01:29:22,760
with Kindness and Hospitality.

1637
01:29:22,930 --> 01:29:25,680
Behold the Return we have made them!

1638
01:29:27,180 --> 01:29:28,390
Native Americans

1639
01:29:28,560 --> 01:29:30,270
had been completely left out

1640
01:29:30,430 --> 01:29:33,810
of the treaty negotiations
between France and Britain

1641
01:29:33,980 --> 01:29:36,480
that ended the Seven Years' War.

1642
01:29:36,650 --> 01:29:40,480
As white settlements continued
to push onto their homelands,

1643
01:29:40,650 --> 01:29:44,110
Indians from the Great Lakes
to Western Pennsylvania

1644
01:29:44,280 --> 01:29:45,820
fought back.

1645
01:29:45,990 --> 01:29:50,830
On December 14, 1763, 50 frontiersmen

1646
01:29:51,000 --> 01:29:53,750
from the town of Paxton, Pennsylvania

1647
01:29:53,920 --> 01:29:56,830
swarmed into the small village
of Conestoga

1648
01:29:57,000 --> 01:29:58,960
and slaughtered the 6 unarmed

1649
01:29:59,130 --> 01:30:02,420
Susquehannock Indians
they found there.

1650
01:30:02,590 --> 01:30:06,140
The mob moved on to Lancaster,
where they murdered 14 more

1651
01:30:06,300 --> 01:30:09,850
defenseless men, women, and children.

1652
01:30:11,310 --> 01:30:13,980
Though the Susquehannocks
were known to be friendly,

1653
01:30:14,140 --> 01:30:18,190
the so-called Paxton Boys
had killed them anyway.

1654
01:30:18,360 --> 01:30:21,400
Public opinion about
the massacre was split--

1655
01:30:21,570 --> 01:30:24,610
between the Quakers, guided by
William Penn's advice

1656
01:30:24,780 --> 01:30:27,410
to be friends of the Indians,

1657
01:30:27,570 --> 01:30:29,120
and the newer immigrants, mostly

1658
01:30:29,280 --> 01:30:31,950
Scots-Irish and Germans
from the backcountry,

1659
01:30:32,120 --> 01:30:34,620
who accused the Quaker-led assembly

1660
01:30:34,790 --> 01:30:37,750
of coddling native peoples.

1661
01:30:37,920 --> 01:30:40,420
Benjamin Franklin
called the perpetrators

1662
01:30:40,590 --> 01:30:42,000
"barbarous Men"

1663
01:30:42,170 --> 01:30:44,300
who had brought "eternal disgrace"

1664
01:30:44,470 --> 01:30:46,590
to their race and religion.

1665
01:30:48,260 --> 01:30:50,850
The Paxton Boys then marched
on Philadelphia,

1666
01:30:51,010 --> 01:30:55,520
where more than 100 Indians had
been brought for their safety.

1667
01:30:55,690 --> 01:30:58,690
Franklin helped
raise a militia to stop them

1668
01:30:58,850 --> 01:31:02,020
and negotiated an end to the crisis.

1669
01:31:02,190 --> 01:31:05,280
But his outspokenness
created a backlash,

1670
01:31:05,440 --> 01:31:08,320
especially among the settlers
of the backcountry,

1671
01:31:08,490 --> 01:31:11,490
which the Penn family exploited.

1672
01:31:11,660 --> 01:31:15,330
They slandered Franklin's
son William as illegitimate,

1673
01:31:15,500 --> 01:31:17,670
falsely claiming that his birth mother

1674
01:31:17,830 --> 01:31:20,210
had starved to death,
and that Benjamin

1675
01:31:20,380 --> 01:31:24,050
had hidden her body
in an unmarked grave.

1676
01:31:25,970 --> 01:31:26,720
In all the controversy,

1677
01:31:26,880 --> 01:31:29,180
Franklin lost his Assembly seat.

1678
01:31:29,340 --> 01:31:32,300
But the legislature now
adopted his position

1679
01:31:32,470 --> 01:31:35,470
that Pennsylvania should be
a Crown colony

1680
01:31:35,640 --> 01:31:39,900
and reappointed him
as their agent in London.

1681
01:31:40,060 --> 01:31:43,150
After only two years in Philadelphia,

1682
01:31:43,320 --> 01:31:46,030
Franklin was going back to England.

1683
01:31:47,490 --> 01:31:50,320
Deborah had made it clear
she intended to stay;

1684
01:31:50,490 --> 01:31:54,120
they were building a new home
just off Market Street.

1685
01:31:54,290 --> 01:31:57,660
He promised he wouldn't be gone long.

1686
01:32:05,340 --> 01:32:06,840
Coming out of the Seven Years' War,

1687
01:32:07,010 --> 01:32:10,380
Britain is on top of the world.

1688
01:32:10,550 --> 01:32:12,310
They had acquired a huge
amount of territory,

1689
01:32:12,340 --> 01:32:15,810
all the territory up to
the Mississippi River.

1690
01:32:15,970 --> 01:32:17,430
It was expensive to maintain

1691
01:32:17,600 --> 01:32:19,190
and, so, you needed to tax it.

1692
01:32:19,350 --> 01:32:21,270
Franklin certainly went along with it.

1693
01:32:21,440 --> 01:32:23,730
And he said,
"Well, empires cost money."

1694
01:32:23,900 --> 01:32:25,730
And, much to his chagrin,

1695
01:32:25,900 --> 01:32:28,150
he found himself going the wrong way,

1696
01:32:28,320 --> 01:32:30,740
out of touch with
American public opinion.

1697
01:32:30,910 --> 01:32:32,910
The recent war with France

1698
01:32:33,070 --> 01:32:37,950
had expanded England's empire,
but left its treasury depleted.

1699
01:32:39,080 --> 01:32:41,170
In the spring of 1765,

1700
01:32:41,330 --> 01:32:43,580
the king's ministers and Parliament

1701
01:32:43,750 --> 01:32:46,000
came up with
a new way to raise more money

1702
01:32:46,170 --> 01:32:48,260
from the American colonies.

1703
01:32:50,630 --> 01:32:55,720
Now all legal documents,
newspapers, books, almanacs,

1704
01:32:55,890 --> 01:33:00,770
even decks of playing cards,
would need official stamps,

1705
01:33:00,940 --> 01:33:03,310
purchased from the government.

1706
01:33:03,480 --> 01:33:06,070
In Virginia, Patrick Henry
denounced the act

1707
01:33:06,230 --> 01:33:10,240
as taxation without representation.

1708
01:33:10,400 --> 01:33:13,820
Riots broke out in New York;
New London, Connecticut;

1709
01:33:13,990 --> 01:33:16,330
Annapolis, Maryland.

1710
01:33:16,490 --> 01:33:20,290
In Boston, a group calling
themselves the Sons of Liberty

1711
01:33:20,450 --> 01:33:25,080
hanged and burned the stamp
commissioner in effigy.

1712
01:33:25,250 --> 01:33:27,130
Then the mob destroyed the mansion

1713
01:33:27,290 --> 01:33:29,420
of Lieutenant Governor
Thomas Hutchinson,

1714
01:33:29,590 --> 01:33:33,970
who had worked with Franklin
back in 1754

1715
01:33:34,140 --> 01:33:37,220
to propose the Albany Plan of Union.

1716
01:33:37,390 --> 01:33:40,560
The leaders of the protests
had appropriated the motto

1717
01:33:40,720 --> 01:33:42,640
Franklin had used at the time

1718
01:33:42,810 --> 01:33:48,360
to encourage the colonies to act
TOGETHER: "join or die."

1719
01:33:48,520 --> 01:33:51,860
Franklin didn't like
the Stamp Act either,

1720
01:33:52,030 --> 01:33:54,740
but from London advised Pennsylvanians

1721
01:33:54,910 --> 01:33:57,160
against over-reacting.

1722
01:33:59,740 --> 01:34:03,500
His political enemies back home
now spread false rumors

1723
01:34:03,660 --> 01:34:05,960
that he helped write the Stamp Act

1724
01:34:06,130 --> 01:34:11,260
and had been bribed by promises
of a higher royal appointment.

1725
01:34:11,420 --> 01:34:13,170
When a mob threatened to attack

1726
01:34:13,340 --> 01:34:15,800
the Franklin home in Philadelphia,

1727
01:34:15,970 --> 01:34:18,260
Deborah wouldn't budge.

1728
01:34:19,890 --> 01:34:20,930
I said when I was advised

1729
01:34:21,100 --> 01:34:23,100
to remove that I was very sure

1730
01:34:23,270 --> 01:34:25,810
you had done nothing to hurt anybody,

1731
01:34:25,980 --> 01:34:30,270
and I had not given any offense
to any person at all.

1732
01:34:30,440 --> 01:34:35,240
I sent to ask my brother
to come and bring his gun.

1733
01:34:35,400 --> 01:34:37,910
If any one came to disturb me,

1734
01:34:38,070 --> 01:34:40,530
I would show a proper resentment.

1735
01:34:42,160 --> 01:34:45,370
Shocked at the reports
of mob violence in the colonies,

1736
01:34:45,540 --> 01:34:47,830
Franklin wrote William that unless

1737
01:34:48,000 --> 01:34:49,880
some compromise could be found

1738
01:34:50,040 --> 01:34:51,550
to ease the tensions,

1739
01:34:51,710 --> 01:34:53,920
events were "laying the Foundation

1740
01:34:54,090 --> 01:34:57,300
of a future total Separation."

1741
01:34:57,470 --> 01:35:00,010
He flooded London newspapers
with letters

1742
01:35:00,180 --> 01:35:03,180
arguing that the Stamp Act was unfair,

1743
01:35:03,350 --> 01:35:05,480
that the recent riots
did not represent

1744
01:35:05,640 --> 01:35:09,360
the attitude of
a majority of the colonists.

1745
01:35:09,520 --> 01:35:12,940
He circulated a political
cartoon illustrating that,

1746
01:35:13,110 --> 01:35:15,030
if the crisis escalated,

1747
01:35:15,190 --> 01:35:18,700
the Empire would be dismembered.

1748
01:35:18,860 --> 01:35:24,540
On February 13, 1766, Franklin
appeared before Parliament,

1749
01:35:24,700 --> 01:35:29,080
patiently answering questions
posed by its members.

1750
01:35:29,250 --> 01:35:31,250
Could an army make
the colonists comply,

1751
01:35:31,420 --> 01:35:34,130
he was asked.

1752
01:35:34,300 --> 01:35:35,300
Suppose a military force

1753
01:35:35,340 --> 01:35:37,680
is sent into America.

1754
01:35:37,840 --> 01:35:39,970
What are they then to do?

1755
01:35:40,140 --> 01:35:42,010
They cannot force a man to take stamps

1756
01:35:42,180 --> 01:35:45,100
who chooses to do without them.

1757
01:35:45,270 --> 01:35:47,770
They will not find a rebellion;

1758
01:35:47,940 --> 01:35:50,100
they may indeed make one.

1759
01:35:51,860 --> 01:35:54,400
The Stamp Act was repealed.

1760
01:35:54,570 --> 01:35:57,400
But the Privy Council,
the King's top advisors,

1761
01:35:57,570 --> 01:36:00,360
had refused to act on
Franklin's petition

1762
01:36:00,530 --> 01:36:04,370
to make Pennsylvania a Crown colony.

1763
01:36:04,540 --> 01:36:08,410
Franklin decided to remain
in England anyway.

1764
01:36:08,580 --> 01:36:11,380
There were hints that he might
be in line for a high post

1765
01:36:11,540 --> 01:36:16,210
in the ministry responsible
for the American provinces.

1766
01:36:16,380 --> 01:36:18,510
And he used his connections
to begin lobbying

1767
01:36:18,670 --> 01:36:22,180
on behalf of William
and a group of speculators

1768
01:36:22,340 --> 01:36:25,510
to acquire millions of acres
of Indian land

1769
01:36:25,680 --> 01:36:27,770
along the Ohio River,

1770
01:36:27,930 --> 01:36:32,690
then sell it in small parcels to
settlers for an immense profit--

1771
01:36:32,860 --> 01:36:34,860
and create a new colony.

1772
01:36:36,940 --> 01:36:39,950
Meanwhile, Franklin put his
scientific skills

1773
01:36:40,110 --> 01:36:42,160
to work for the empire.

1774
01:36:42,320 --> 01:36:43,990
He helped install lightning rods

1775
01:36:44,160 --> 01:36:46,450
on St. Paul's Cathedral;

1776
01:36:46,620 --> 01:36:49,080
came up with a hot-water piping system

1777
01:36:49,250 --> 01:36:52,080
to keep the House of Commons warm;

1778
01:36:52,250 --> 01:36:54,040
and, working with a cousin,

1779
01:36:54,210 --> 01:36:56,250
a whaling captain from Nantucket,

1780
01:36:56,420 --> 01:36:58,380
he created the first chart

1781
01:36:58,550 --> 01:37:01,130
of what was called the Gulph Stream,

1782
01:37:01,300 --> 01:37:05,470
which helped explain why ships
going from London to America

1783
01:37:05,640 --> 01:37:08,810
took longer than those
going the other way.

1784
01:37:12,060 --> 01:37:13,120
Yesterday I had the pleasure

1785
01:37:13,150 --> 01:37:15,110
to receive your letter.

1786
01:37:15,270 --> 01:37:17,150
I had not heard one word about you

1787
01:37:17,320 --> 01:37:19,860
since the latter end of August,

1788
01:37:20,030 --> 01:37:23,200
which was near 5 months,

1789
01:37:23,360 --> 01:37:26,370
but I shall not dwell on that
at this time.

1790
01:37:28,790 --> 01:37:30,450
Back in Philadelphia, as she had

1791
01:37:30,620 --> 01:37:33,750
always done during
Benjamin's long absences,

1792
01:37:33,920 --> 01:37:37,290
Deborah Franklin took care
of everything.

1793
01:37:37,460 --> 01:37:40,550
She managed her husband's
many business enterprises

1794
01:37:40,710 --> 01:37:43,130
and supervised the myriad details

1795
01:37:43,300 --> 01:37:45,680
of the new home they were building.

1796
01:37:45,840 --> 01:37:49,350
All the while, she waited
for his promised return.

1797
01:37:51,560 --> 01:37:55,230
In the fall of 1767,
their daughter Sally married

1798
01:37:55,400 --> 01:37:58,480
a Philadelphia merchant,
Richard Bache,

1799
01:37:58,650 --> 01:38:02,690
and in 1769 she gave birth
to a baby boy,

1800
01:38:02,860 --> 01:38:06,070
whom she named after his grandfather.

1801
01:38:06,240 --> 01:38:08,490
They called him Benny.

1802
01:38:10,660 --> 01:38:13,210
That same year,
Deborah suffered a stroke

1803
01:38:13,370 --> 01:38:16,540
that left her incapacitated
for months.

1804
01:38:16,710 --> 01:38:19,130
As she recovered,
she wrote her husband

1805
01:38:19,290 --> 01:38:21,380
that her worries about him

1806
01:38:21,550 --> 01:38:24,510
had been at least partly responsible.

1807
01:38:26,510 --> 01:38:29,510
I often tell my friends
I was not sick,

1808
01:38:29,680 --> 01:38:32,430
it was only more than I could bear.

1809
01:38:32,600 --> 01:38:37,100
And so I fell down
and could not get up again.

1810
01:38:37,270 --> 01:38:39,060
But I had taken up a resolution

1811
01:38:39,230 --> 01:38:41,110
never to make any complaint to you

1812
01:38:41,280 --> 01:38:43,610
or give you any disquiet.

1813
01:38:48,070 --> 01:38:50,200
Even though the
Stamp Act had been repealed,

1814
01:38:50,370 --> 01:38:52,080
the colonies were still expected

1815
01:38:52,240 --> 01:38:55,120
to help pay off war debts;

1816
01:38:55,290 --> 01:38:57,540
Parliament now imposed import duties

1817
01:38:57,710 --> 01:39:02,800
on glass and china, paint and tea.

1818
01:39:02,960 --> 01:39:05,510
When the Massachusetts
Assembly passed a resolution

1819
01:39:05,670 --> 01:39:07,890
objecting to the new measures--

1820
01:39:08,050 --> 01:39:12,010
and called on other colonial
legislatures to do the same--

1821
01:39:12,180 --> 01:39:17,600
Britain sent 15 warships
and 1,000 troops to Boston.

1822
01:39:17,770 --> 01:39:19,940
Their presence,
Franklin wrote from London,

1823
01:39:20,110 --> 01:39:23,190
"seems like setting up
a blacksmith's forge

1824
01:39:23,360 --> 01:39:25,940
in a magazine of gunpowder."

1825
01:39:26,110 --> 01:39:29,450
He redoubled his efforts
to find a compromise between

1826
01:39:29,620 --> 01:39:33,830
the hard-liners on
both sides of the Atlantic.

1827
01:39:33,990 --> 01:39:38,040
He sees the issue as one of respect.

1828
01:39:38,210 --> 01:39:43,380
What holds an empire together
is a sense of common feeling.

1829
01:39:43,550 --> 01:39:45,590
Right? Of common
economic interest,

1830
01:39:45,760 --> 01:39:49,590
of interdependence, of identification.

1831
01:39:49,760 --> 01:39:51,760
The power doesn't reside
in the capacity

1832
01:39:51,930 --> 01:39:54,640
to make people do what
you want them to do.

1833
01:39:57,730 --> 01:39:59,250
Benjamin Franklin keeps trying to hold

1834
01:39:59,390 --> 01:40:01,310
the British Empire together.

1835
01:40:01,480 --> 01:40:03,730
Trying to figure out
some middle ground

1836
01:40:03,900 --> 01:40:06,650
in which the Colonies
get to control themselves

1837
01:40:06,820 --> 01:40:09,740
through their own
assemblies and legislatures,

1838
01:40:09,910 --> 01:40:12,910
but still loyal to
the Crown of England.

1839
01:40:13,080 --> 01:40:15,620
And that was Franklin's hope,
that somehow

1840
01:40:15,790 --> 01:40:17,370
he could keep together what he called

1841
01:40:17,540 --> 01:40:20,620
this "fragile, noble vase."

1842
01:40:20,790 --> 01:40:22,750
'Cause he said, "Once it gets broken,

1843
01:40:22,920 --> 01:40:25,460
you're not going to put it
back together."

1844
01:40:25,630 --> 01:40:26,300
Being born and bred

1845
01:40:26,460 --> 01:40:28,420
in one of the countries,

1846
01:40:28,590 --> 01:40:30,550
and having lived long in the other,

1847
01:40:30,720 --> 01:40:33,760
I wish all prosperity to both.

1848
01:40:33,930 --> 01:40:35,930
But I do not find that I have gained

1849
01:40:36,100 --> 01:40:38,430
any point in either country,

1850
01:40:38,600 --> 01:40:43,400
except that of rendering myself
suspected by my impartiality:

1851
01:40:43,560 --> 01:40:46,020
in England of being
too much an American,

1852
01:40:46,190 --> 01:40:50,490
and in America of being
too much an Englishman.

1853
01:40:52,160 --> 01:40:54,700
As the political
crisis continued to build,

1854
01:40:54,870 --> 01:40:59,410
Franklin spent part of
the summer of 1771

1855
01:40:59,580 --> 01:41:02,210
at a friend's estate
southwest of London.

1856
01:41:03,880 --> 01:41:06,250
He was 65 years old
and decided to make

1857
01:41:06,420 --> 01:41:08,630
an accounting of his life,

1858
01:41:08,800 --> 01:41:12,630
something, he wrote,
"my posterity may like to know."

1859
01:41:14,010 --> 01:41:16,720
It was filled with stories
of how, in his words,

1860
01:41:16,890 --> 01:41:19,560
"I emerged from
the poverty and obscurity

1861
01:41:19,730 --> 01:41:21,810
"in which I was born and bred,

1862
01:41:21,980 --> 01:41:25,020
"to a state of affluence
and some degree

1863
01:41:25,190 --> 01:41:27,520
of reputation in the world."

1864
01:41:29,030 --> 01:41:30,860
It was the beginning
of what would become

1865
01:41:31,030 --> 01:41:33,450
one of the most-read and influential

1866
01:41:33,610 --> 01:41:36,910
autobiographies ever written.

1867
01:41:37,080 --> 01:41:39,910
He begins with
two very interesting words:

1868
01:41:40,080 --> 01:41:42,830
"Dear Son."

1869
01:41:43,000 --> 01:41:44,800
And he's addressing it
to William, or at least

1870
01:41:44,960 --> 01:41:46,960
pretending he's
addressing it to William.

1871
01:41:47,130 --> 01:41:50,760
'Cause he's trying to say,
"Remember where we come from.

1872
01:41:50,920 --> 01:41:52,630
"We're working class and middle class.

1873
01:41:52,800 --> 01:41:56,430
We're not trying
to be aristocratic."

1874
01:41:56,600 --> 01:41:59,220
But he soon put his memoir aside;

1875
01:41:59,390 --> 01:42:03,100
world affairs were overtaking
both Benjamin Franklin--

1876
01:42:03,270 --> 01:42:08,230
now the agent representing
several colonies in England--

1877
01:42:08,400 --> 01:42:12,570
and William Franklin--the royal
governor of New Jersey.

1878
01:42:14,200 --> 01:42:15,450
It is very uncertain what Turn

1879
01:42:15,610 --> 01:42:18,200
American Affairs will take here.

1880
01:42:18,370 --> 01:42:23,120
The Friends of both Countries
wish a reconciliation;

1881
01:42:23,290 --> 01:42:27,000
the Enemies of either,
endeavor to widen the Breach;

1882
01:42:27,170 --> 01:42:29,000
God knows how it will end.

1883
01:42:35,550 --> 01:42:36,640
He was never thinking,

1884
01:42:36,800 --> 01:42:39,050
we need to be independent.

1885
01:42:39,220 --> 01:42:41,680
He was always thinking, if we can just

1886
01:42:41,850 --> 01:42:43,850
work out a few fundamental problems

1887
01:42:44,020 --> 01:42:46,400
between us and the British Ministry,

1888
01:42:46,560 --> 01:42:48,060
that things are going to be fine.

1889
01:42:48,230 --> 01:42:51,320
He probably could have been
won over to the British side

1890
01:42:51,480 --> 01:42:52,730
as a Loyalist, like his son,

1891
01:42:52,900 --> 01:42:55,950
if things had gone
slightly differently.

1892
01:42:56,110 --> 01:42:58,990
Tensions between England
and the colonies worsened,

1893
01:42:59,160 --> 01:43:02,120
especially after
British soldiers fired on

1894
01:43:02,290 --> 01:43:04,830
a Massachusetts mob in 1770,

1895
01:43:05,000 --> 01:43:09,000
killing 5 Americans--
the Boston Massacre.

1896
01:43:10,420 --> 01:43:14,300
Franklin's position was becoming
increasingly untenable.

1897
01:43:14,460 --> 01:43:17,220
He was trying to represent
the interests of Massachusetts,

1898
01:43:17,380 --> 01:43:22,140
New Jersey, and Georgia,
in addition to Pennsylvania.

1899
01:43:22,310 --> 01:43:26,770
In 1772, Franklin was shown
confidential letters

1900
01:43:26,940 --> 01:43:30,190
written by his old ally
Thomas Hutchinson,

1901
01:43:30,360 --> 01:43:32,860
now the governor of Massachusetts.

1902
01:43:33,020 --> 01:43:35,650
The only way to quell colonial unrest,

1903
01:43:35,820 --> 01:43:38,110
Hutchinson had advised London,

1904
01:43:38,280 --> 01:43:41,660
was through harsher measures,
including, he suggested,

1905
01:43:41,830 --> 01:43:44,950
"an abridgment of liberties."

1906
01:43:45,120 --> 01:43:48,000
Franklin surreptitiously
sent copies of the letters

1907
01:43:48,170 --> 01:43:51,500
to the leaders of
the Massachusetts Assembly.

1908
01:43:51,670 --> 01:43:53,960
He hoped that the firebrands in Boston

1909
01:43:54,130 --> 01:43:57,220
would turn their anger from
Parliament to Hutchinson,

1910
01:43:57,380 --> 01:44:00,430
blaming his bad advice
for the crisis with Britain,

1911
01:44:00,590 --> 01:44:05,560
making room for cooler heads
to broker a reconciliation.

1912
01:44:05,720 --> 01:44:09,390
Instead, it only inflamed passions.

1913
01:44:10,900 --> 01:44:13,110
The letters were leaked to newspapers,

1914
01:44:13,270 --> 01:44:17,570
sparking an uproar
throughout the colonies.

1915
01:44:17,740 --> 01:44:19,200
The Massachusetts Assembly drafted

1916
01:44:19,360 --> 01:44:21,490
an angry petition to the king,

1917
01:44:21,660 --> 01:44:24,950
demanding that Hutchinson be removed.

1918
01:44:25,120 --> 01:44:28,160
As the Assembly's agent,
Franklin would have to be

1919
01:44:28,330 --> 01:44:30,290
the one to present that petition

1920
01:44:30,460 --> 01:44:32,790
before the King's Privy Council.

1921
01:44:32,960 --> 01:44:35,960
To make matters worse,
Franklin had felt

1922
01:44:36,130 --> 01:44:38,720
obligated to admit that he was the one

1923
01:44:38,880 --> 01:44:42,970
who had originally shared
Hutchinson's letters.

1924
01:44:43,140 --> 01:44:45,600
And, so, Franklin was
seen as this person who

1925
01:44:45,760 --> 01:44:48,640
stole other people's mail,

1926
01:44:48,810 --> 01:44:51,480
which was quite an egregious offense

1927
01:44:51,650 --> 01:44:53,900
for someone who was a postmaster.

1928
01:44:55,570 --> 01:44:58,070
Just a few days
before Franklin was scheduled

1929
01:44:58,240 --> 01:45:02,990
to appear before the Privy
Council in January of 1774,

1930
01:45:03,160 --> 01:45:06,910
news arrived from America
that changed everything.

1931
01:45:08,370 --> 01:45:10,750
The Sons of Liberty,
dressed as Indians,

1932
01:45:10,910 --> 01:45:13,880
had boarded 3 ships in Boston Harbor

1933
01:45:14,040 --> 01:45:18,340
and dumped 46 tons-- 342 crates--

1934
01:45:18,510 --> 01:45:20,920
of English tea into the sea.

1935
01:45:22,220 --> 01:45:24,340
Officials in London
were still seething

1936
01:45:24,510 --> 01:45:26,140
at that act of defiance

1937
01:45:26,300 --> 01:45:29,850
when, on January 29, Franklin entered

1938
01:45:30,020 --> 01:45:33,310
a meeting room at Whitehall
called the Cockpit,

1939
01:45:33,480 --> 01:45:37,940
where Henry VIII had once
staged cockfights.

1940
01:45:38,110 --> 01:45:40,860
To the Privy Council,
and the crowd of spectators

1941
01:45:41,030 --> 01:45:43,860
gathered there, Franklin was
now the face

1942
01:45:44,030 --> 01:45:46,780
of an insolent American uprising,

1943
01:45:46,950 --> 01:45:50,000
although Franklin considered
the Boston Tea Party

1944
01:45:50,160 --> 01:45:53,250
an "act of violent injustice
on our part"--

1945
01:45:53,420 --> 01:45:57,880
the very kind of provocation
he had always counseled against.

1946
01:45:59,920 --> 01:46:02,260
Alexander Wedderburn,
the sharp-tongued

1947
01:46:02,420 --> 01:46:04,930
and politically ambitious
solicitor general,

1948
01:46:05,090 --> 01:46:08,560
who considered the recent
events in Boston treasonous,

1949
01:46:08,720 --> 01:46:11,020
made clear from the start
that the hearing

1950
01:46:11,180 --> 01:46:14,270
would be an attack
on Franklin's character.

1951
01:46:15,650 --> 01:46:17,400
Your Lordships will not wonder

1952
01:46:17,560 --> 01:46:21,280
that I consider Dr. Franklin not
so much in the light of an agent

1953
01:46:21,440 --> 01:46:25,360
for the Assembly's purpose,
as in that of a first mover

1954
01:46:25,530 --> 01:46:29,080
and prime conductor of it
for his own as the actor...

1955
01:46:29,240 --> 01:46:31,240
Wedderburn spoke for a solid hour,

1956
01:46:31,410 --> 01:46:34,870
sometimes pounding on the table
as he berated Franklin

1957
01:46:35,040 --> 01:46:38,630
with one denunciation after another,

1958
01:46:38,790 --> 01:46:41,380
sometimes using sarcasm that prompted

1959
01:46:41,550 --> 01:46:43,920
the nobles and high
officials in the audience

1960
01:46:44,090 --> 01:46:48,010
to snicker and jeer
as they urged him on.

1961
01:46:48,180 --> 01:46:50,970
Throughout it all,
Franklin stood stock still,

1962
01:46:51,140 --> 01:46:53,270
refusing to show any emotion.

1963
01:46:53,430 --> 01:46:55,310
...answerable to the law.

1964
01:46:55,480 --> 01:46:57,660
The good men of Boston have
lately held their meetings...

1965
01:46:57,690 --> 01:46:59,770
They're accusing Benjamin Franklin of

1966
01:46:59,940 --> 01:47:03,610
fomenting this Revolution

1967
01:47:03,780 --> 01:47:05,900
and he just stays there, silent,

1968
01:47:06,070 --> 01:47:09,120
and treats them with silent contempt.

1969
01:47:09,280 --> 01:47:11,990
When Wedderburn
finally finished his diatribe,

1970
01:47:12,160 --> 01:47:14,620
he asked if Franklin had
a statement to make

1971
01:47:14,790 --> 01:47:17,000
or would take questions.

1972
01:47:17,170 --> 01:47:19,290
Franklin refused.

1973
01:47:19,460 --> 01:47:21,250
The hearing was over.

1974
01:47:28,720 --> 01:47:31,850
London newspapers now
referred to Franklin as

1975
01:47:32,010 --> 01:47:35,730
"old Doubleface,"
a "grand incendiary,"

1976
01:47:35,890 --> 01:47:39,230
and a "gray-headed traitor."

1977
01:47:39,400 --> 01:47:42,940
Americans, the essayist
Samuel Johnson wrote,

1978
01:47:43,110 --> 01:47:46,240
"have been taught by
some master of mischief

1979
01:47:46,400 --> 01:47:50,950
how to put in motion the engine
of political electricity."

1980
01:47:53,410 --> 01:47:56,250
Two days after his humiliation
in the Cockpit,

1981
01:47:56,410 --> 01:47:59,210
Franklin was informed
that he had been dismissed

1982
01:47:59,370 --> 01:48:03,380
as deputy postmaster
for North America.

1983
01:48:03,550 --> 01:48:07,380
Any hopes he had for
a higher post also evaporated,

1984
01:48:07,550 --> 01:48:12,800
as did his dreams for the vast
land scheme along the Ohio.

1985
01:48:12,970 --> 01:48:15,890
Franklin walked into
the Cockpit an Englishman

1986
01:48:16,060 --> 01:48:18,350
and walked out of the Cockpit
an American

1987
01:48:18,520 --> 01:48:21,400
because it became
very clear to Franklin

1988
01:48:21,560 --> 01:48:24,980
that he, as an American,
would never receive

1989
01:48:25,150 --> 01:48:28,450
the respect that
he believed he was due.

1990
01:48:28,610 --> 01:48:31,450
At that point, Franklin
realized there is no future

1991
01:48:31,610 --> 01:48:35,830
for me or for people like me
within the British Empire.

1992
01:48:39,330 --> 01:48:42,130
On December 14, 1774,

1993
01:48:42,290 --> 01:48:45,000
Deborah Franklin had another stroke,

1994
01:48:45,170 --> 01:48:48,670
more massive than
the one 5 years earlier.

1995
01:48:48,840 --> 01:48:50,840
She lingered on for a few days,

1996
01:48:51,010 --> 01:48:53,090
then died on the 19th,

1997
01:48:53,260 --> 01:48:55,220
still waiting for her husband,

1998
01:48:55,390 --> 01:48:59,180
who had been away for 15
of the last 17 years,

1999
01:48:59,350 --> 01:49:02,520
to return to her and the new
house on Market Street

2000
01:49:02,690 --> 01:49:04,810
he had never seen.

2001
01:49:06,070 --> 01:49:08,090
He's away from Deborah
for the last 10 years of her life.

2002
01:49:08,110 --> 01:49:09,610
He knows she's ill.

2003
01:49:09,780 --> 01:49:12,030
And he doesn't come back.

2004
01:49:12,200 --> 01:49:13,840
If Franklin gets
failing grades in any subject,

2005
01:49:13,870 --> 01:49:16,700
it's the family relations,
both in terms of the marriage

2006
01:49:16,870 --> 01:49:18,830
and in terms of his son.

2007
01:49:21,620 --> 01:49:26,170
Philadelphia, December 24, 1774.

2008
01:49:26,340 --> 01:49:30,380
Honored Father,
I came here on Thursday last

2009
01:49:30,550 --> 01:49:34,220
to attend the Funeral
of my poor old Mother.

2010
01:49:34,390 --> 01:49:36,300
I heartily wish you had
happened to have

2011
01:49:36,470 --> 01:49:38,010
come over in the Fall,

2012
01:49:38,180 --> 01:49:40,140
as I think her Disappointment
in that respect

2013
01:49:40,310 --> 01:49:43,230
preyed a good deal on her Spirits.

2014
01:49:45,400 --> 01:49:47,360
I cannot help being
concerned to find that

2015
01:49:47,520 --> 01:49:51,070
you postpone your
Return to your Family.

2016
01:49:52,450 --> 01:49:54,660
You have had by this Time
pretty strong Proofs

2017
01:49:54,820 --> 01:49:57,910
that you are look'd upon with
an evil Eye in that Country.

2018
01:49:58,080 --> 01:49:59,910
You had certainly better return

2019
01:50:00,080 --> 01:50:02,500
to a Country where
the People revere you,

2020
01:50:02,660 --> 01:50:06,960
and are inclined to pay
a Deference to your Opinions.

2021
01:50:07,130 --> 01:50:12,840
I am ever, Honored Sir,
Your dutiful Son William.

2022
01:50:14,720 --> 01:50:17,300
For Franklin, his breach with England

2023
01:50:17,470 --> 01:50:18,970
was complete.

2024
01:50:19,140 --> 01:50:21,890
Now a political rift
seemed to be growing

2025
01:50:22,060 --> 01:50:24,310
between him and his son.

2026
01:50:26,730 --> 01:50:31,030
In the coming year,
a revolution would begin,

2027
01:50:31,190 --> 01:50:33,900
unlikely alliances would be forged,

2028
01:50:34,070 --> 01:50:36,240
loyalties would be tested,

2029
01:50:36,410 --> 01:50:39,530
families would be torn apart,

2030
01:50:39,700 --> 01:50:44,460
and Benjamin Franklin would be
in the middle of it all.

2031
01:53:44,310 --> 01:53:46,640
Being now in my last Act,

2032
01:53:46,810 --> 01:53:51,100
I begin to cast about
for something fit to end with.

2033
01:53:51,270 --> 01:53:55,320
Or if mine be more properly
compar'd to an Epigram,

2034
01:53:55,480 --> 01:53:57,820
I am very desirous of concluding

2035
01:53:57,990 --> 01:53:59,820
with a bright Point.

2036
01:53:59,990 --> 01:54:02,490
Benjamin Franklin.

2037
01:54:02,660 --> 01:54:04,120
The thing about Franklin is,

2038
01:54:04,280 --> 01:54:06,000
whatever you say about him,
on the one hand,

2039
01:54:06,040 --> 01:54:07,950
you can always say
the opposite, as well.

2040
01:54:08,120 --> 01:54:10,790
I mean, this is a man who is
very much pro-temperance

2041
01:54:10,960 --> 01:54:13,130
and he writes bawdy drinking songs.

2042
01:54:13,290 --> 01:54:14,670
He founds a fire company,

2043
01:54:14,840 --> 01:54:16,800
and he founds a fire
insurance company.

2044
01:54:16,960 --> 01:54:18,880
He does play all sides.

2045
01:54:19,050 --> 01:54:21,680
But during those British
years, he very much plays

2046
01:54:21,840 --> 01:54:23,300
the British gentleman.

2047
01:54:23,470 --> 01:54:27,020
He has a--a crest on the
door of his carriage.

2048
01:54:27,180 --> 01:54:30,270
And, yet, by the time he
becomes an American rebel,

2049
01:54:30,440 --> 01:54:33,360
so to speak, he is
entirely an American.

2050
01:54:42,280 --> 01:54:48,790
In January of 1775,
Benjamin Franklin turned 69.

2051
01:54:48,950 --> 01:54:51,920
He had already achieved
extraordinary success

2052
01:54:52,080 --> 01:54:55,420
as a printer and publisher
in his adopted hometown

2053
01:54:55,590 --> 01:54:59,590
of Philadelphia, where
a library, a college,

2054
01:54:59,760 --> 01:55:02,180
and countless civic improvements

2055
01:55:02,340 --> 01:55:05,720
testified to his belief
that his highest calling

2056
01:55:05,890 --> 01:55:07,720
lay not in making money,

2057
01:55:07,890 --> 01:55:11,640
but in improving
the lives of everyday people.

2058
01:55:11,810 --> 01:55:14,440
And his revolutionary breakthroughs

2059
01:55:14,600 --> 01:55:17,520
in unraveling
the mysteries of electricity

2060
01:55:17,690 --> 01:55:22,950
had made him the most famous
American in the world.

2061
01:55:23,110 --> 01:55:24,910
He is every man,

2062
01:55:25,070 --> 01:55:28,240
but he's a very
extraordinary every man.

2063
01:55:28,410 --> 01:55:32,370
He was a Nobel Prize-winning
caliber scientist,

2064
01:55:32,540 --> 01:55:35,920
probably the great--greatest
prose stylist of his generation,

2065
01:55:36,080 --> 01:55:38,170
and he's probably
the greatest diplomat

2066
01:55:38,340 --> 01:55:40,420
in American history.

2067
01:55:40,590 --> 01:55:43,880
Franklin had been in
England for the last decade,

2068
01:55:44,050 --> 01:55:46,720
trying desperately to bridge
the growing gulf

2069
01:55:46,890 --> 01:55:50,850
between Parliament
and the American colonies.

2070
01:55:51,020 --> 01:55:54,140
Only a year earlier,
the future he had envisioned

2071
01:55:54,310 --> 01:55:58,020
for himself and his family
seemed bright and tethered

2072
01:55:58,190 --> 01:56:01,110
inextricably to the British Empire.

2073
01:56:01,280 --> 01:56:04,990
Now that dream was in ruins.

2074
01:56:05,160 --> 01:56:07,660
During his long absence from home,

2075
01:56:07,820 --> 01:56:12,620
he had missed his wife
Deborah's death and funeral.

2076
01:56:12,790 --> 01:56:16,250
In London, in a government
chamber called the Cockpit,

2077
01:56:16,420 --> 01:56:18,790
he had been publicly humiliated,

2078
01:56:18,960 --> 01:56:23,300
accused of inciting the colonial
crisis he had, in fact,

2079
01:56:23,470 --> 01:56:26,180
worked so hard to prevent.

2080
01:56:26,340 --> 01:56:30,510
And as that crisis
intensified, his son William,

2081
01:56:30,680 --> 01:56:33,390
now the royal governor of New Jersey,

2082
01:56:33,560 --> 01:56:37,310
seemed to be choosing the wrong side.

2083
01:56:37,480 --> 01:56:40,570
The longer William
stayed in New Jersey,

2084
01:56:40,730 --> 01:56:44,150
the more corrupt
and rebellious and selfish

2085
01:56:44,320 --> 01:56:46,360
the colonies started to look to him

2086
01:56:46,530 --> 01:56:51,450
and the more wonderful and
inspiring the Crown looked.

2087
01:56:51,620 --> 01:56:54,910
I think that the longer that
Benjamin Franklin stayed

2088
01:56:55,080 --> 01:57:00,130
in England, the more he
idealized the colonies and saw

2089
01:57:00,290 --> 01:57:03,630
the corruption and venality
around him in England.

2090
01:57:03,800 --> 01:57:05,800
And so, they began to see things

2091
01:57:05,970 --> 01:57:08,340
kind of as a mirror
image of one another.

2092
01:57:10,260 --> 01:57:12,140
For years, Franklin had reveled

2093
01:57:12,310 --> 01:57:14,640
in the intellectual life of Britain.

2094
01:57:14,810 --> 01:57:17,690
But increasingly, he dwelled
more on the differences

2095
01:57:17,850 --> 01:57:20,310
between the Old World and the New,

2096
01:57:20,480 --> 01:57:23,610
rather than what they
shared in common.

2097
01:57:23,780 --> 01:57:25,280
In America,

2098
01:57:25,440 --> 01:57:27,900
People do not enquire,
concerning a stranger,

2099
01:57:28,070 --> 01:57:31,660
"What is he?"
but "What can he do?"

2100
01:57:33,080 --> 01:57:35,080
The people have a saying,

2101
01:57:35,250 --> 01:57:38,620
that God Almighty is himself
a mechanic,

2102
01:57:38,790 --> 01:57:41,250
the greatest in the universe;

2103
01:57:41,420 --> 01:57:46,130
and he is respected more
for the variety, ingenuity,

2104
01:57:46,300 --> 01:57:48,470
and utility of his handiworks

2105
01:57:48,630 --> 01:57:52,550
than for the antiquity of his family.

2106
01:57:54,510 --> 01:57:58,230
"Life," he once said,
"is like chess."

2107
01:57:58,390 --> 01:58:02,230
And in the turbulent years
ahead, as his country and his

2108
01:58:02,400 --> 01:58:06,230
family would be challenged as
never before, Benjamin Franklin

2109
01:58:06,400 --> 01:58:11,280
would need every skill
the game had taught him.

2110
01:58:11,450 --> 01:58:12,820
The game of chess

2111
01:58:12,990 --> 01:58:16,120
is not merely an idle amusement.

2112
01:58:16,290 --> 01:58:19,710
By playing at chess,
we may learn, Foresight,

2113
01:58:19,870 --> 01:58:22,960
Circumspection, Caution.

2114
01:58:23,130 --> 01:58:25,340
The habit of not being
discouraged by present

2115
01:58:25,500 --> 01:58:28,590
bad appearances in the state
of our affairs,

2116
01:58:28,760 --> 01:58:32,760
the habit of hoping for
a favorable change,

2117
01:58:32,930 --> 01:58:36,140
and that of persevering.

2118
01:58:36,310 --> 01:58:38,270
He's different from
the other Founders,

2119
01:58:38,430 --> 01:58:40,230
from a Washington, from a Jefferson.

2120
01:58:40,390 --> 01:58:43,940
He's older.
And so he brought a past,

2121
01:58:44,110 --> 01:58:48,490
a past in which he created
himself as a man.

2122
01:58:48,650 --> 01:58:51,110
He brought his wisdom, his experience,

2123
01:58:51,280 --> 01:58:54,120
his travel abroad to make,

2124
01:58:54,280 --> 01:58:57,660
I think, a much more
cosmopolitan and urbane

2125
01:58:57,830 --> 01:59:00,080
understanding of what
America could be.

2126
01:59:02,540 --> 01:59:05,170
Franklin was born an
Englishman, like everybody else

2127
01:59:05,340 --> 01:59:07,380
in the American Colonies
of his generation.

2128
01:59:07,550 --> 01:59:09,340
He died an American.

2129
01:59:09,510 --> 01:59:14,260
He is made to realize that he
will never be allowed to be

2130
01:59:14,430 --> 01:59:18,010
sort of a--a fully recognized,
respected Briton.

2131
01:59:18,180 --> 01:59:20,230
And, for that reason,
he decides he has to

2132
01:59:20,390 --> 01:59:21,430
become an American.

2133
01:59:36,570 --> 01:59:38,080
Dear Father,

2134
01:59:38,240 --> 01:59:40,330
The Measure of Sending
Troops to Boston

2135
01:59:40,500 --> 01:59:43,040
is putting a Stop to the Riots.

2136
01:59:43,210 --> 01:59:45,960
The same Spirit however,
still prevails

2137
01:59:46,130 --> 01:59:49,500
in the Colonies, and nothing
can make them acknowledge

2138
01:59:49,670 --> 01:59:52,590
the Right of the Parliament
to tax them.

2139
01:59:52,760 --> 01:59:55,930
Your dutiful son, William.

2140
01:59:57,890 --> 01:59:59,810
The repercussions of
the Boston Tea Party

2141
01:59:59,970 --> 02:00:03,890
had created a tinderbox
in the American colonies.

2142
02:00:04,060 --> 02:00:06,310
King George III ordered a crackdown

2143
02:00:06,480 --> 02:00:08,770
on the American upstarts.

2144
02:00:08,940 --> 02:00:12,070
"The New England governments
are in a state of rebellion,"

2145
02:00:12,240 --> 02:00:13,820
he declared.

2146
02:00:13,990 --> 02:00:16,870
"Blows must decide whether
they are to be subject

2147
02:00:17,030 --> 02:00:19,950
to this country
or independent."

2148
02:00:20,120 --> 02:00:23,910
Parliament quickly passed
a flurry of new laws.

2149
02:00:24,080 --> 02:00:28,380
Until the East India Company was
compensated for its lost tea,

2150
02:00:28,540 --> 02:00:30,920
Boston Harbor was to be closed.

2151
02:00:32,630 --> 02:00:35,930
Massachusetts was placed
under martial law,

2152
02:00:36,090 --> 02:00:39,140
the colonial charter was suspended,

2153
02:00:39,300 --> 02:00:41,510
the elected assembly outlawed,

2154
02:00:41,680 --> 02:00:44,890
and most public meetings banned.

2155
02:00:45,060 --> 02:00:47,900
Communities were required
to provide quarters

2156
02:00:48,060 --> 02:00:50,270
for British troops.

2157
02:00:50,440 --> 02:00:55,030
Americans called the new
laws the Intolerable Acts.

2158
02:00:55,200 --> 02:00:58,950
Protests sprang up in every colony.

2159
02:00:59,120 --> 02:01:02,620
Committees of correspondence
were established.

2160
02:01:02,790 --> 02:01:06,660
They urged colonists "not to
purchase any goods which shall

2161
02:01:06,830 --> 02:01:09,210
be imported from
Great Britain."

2162
02:01:09,380 --> 02:01:12,210
Each colony was asked
to send delegates

2163
02:01:12,380 --> 02:01:14,130
to a Continental Congress

2164
02:01:14,300 --> 02:01:17,720
that could propose a united response.

2165
02:01:17,880 --> 02:01:21,640
In New Jersey, Governor
William Franklin wrote to his

2166
02:01:21,800 --> 02:01:23,930
superiors in London.

2167
02:01:25,680 --> 02:01:27,100
My Lord,

2168
02:01:27,270 --> 02:01:29,810
His Majesty
may be assured that I shall

2169
02:01:29,980 --> 02:01:34,030
omit nothing in my Power to
keep this Province quiet,

2170
02:01:34,190 --> 02:01:37,450
no Attachments or Connexions
shall ever make me swerve

2171
02:01:37,610 --> 02:01:39,700
from the Duty of my Station.

2172
02:01:39,860 --> 02:01:41,950
Your Lordship's most obedient

2173
02:01:42,120 --> 02:01:44,540
and humble Servant.

2174
02:01:44,700 --> 02:01:47,500
For more than
a decade, William Franklin

2175
02:01:47,660 --> 02:01:50,330
had managed better
than other colonial governors

2176
02:01:50,500 --> 02:01:53,710
to work with his assembly
and steer it toward a more

2177
02:01:53,880 --> 02:01:55,880
moderate course.

2178
02:01:56,050 --> 02:01:59,630
"The most despotic and worst
of all Tyrannies," he told them,

2179
02:01:59,800 --> 02:02:01,640
is "the Tyranny of the Mob,

2180
02:02:01,800 --> 02:02:04,470
"which must at length involve us all

2181
02:02:04,640 --> 02:02:07,020
in one common ruin."

2182
02:02:07,180 --> 02:02:10,310
William wrote to his father
in London suggesting that

2183
02:02:10,480 --> 02:02:15,570
the necessary first step was for
Boston to "do justice" and pay

2184
02:02:15,730 --> 02:02:18,740
for the tons of tea that
had been destroyed.

2185
02:02:18,900 --> 02:02:20,990
Dear Son,

2186
02:02:21,160 --> 02:02:23,780
As to "doing Justice,"

2187
02:02:23,950 --> 02:02:25,950
that should have been
thought of by Parliament

2188
02:02:26,120 --> 02:02:29,660
before they demanded it
of the Bostonians.

2189
02:02:29,830 --> 02:02:33,130
They have extorted many
Thousand Pounds from America

2190
02:02:33,290 --> 02:02:37,510
unconstitutionally
and with an armed Force.

2191
02:02:37,670 --> 02:02:42,340
Of this Money, they ought
to make Restitution.

2192
02:02:42,510 --> 02:02:47,470
But you, who are a thorough
Courtier, see everything

2193
02:02:47,640 --> 02:02:49,850
with Government Eyes.

2194
02:02:51,890 --> 02:02:53,600
The Franklins were coming to

2195
02:02:53,770 --> 02:02:57,190
different conclusions about
which side was to blame,

2196
02:02:57,360 --> 02:03:01,030
but both men still hoped that
a complete split between

2197
02:03:01,200 --> 02:03:05,330
Britain and her colonies
might be avoided.

2198
02:03:05,490 --> 02:03:07,410
The British government
was never a monolith.

2199
02:03:07,580 --> 02:03:10,790
There were always dissenters,
sympathizers with America,

2200
02:03:10,960 --> 02:03:13,420
people who thought that
Americans were justified

2201
02:03:13,580 --> 02:03:15,420
in their opposition.

2202
02:03:15,590 --> 02:03:18,170
There were people, well-placed
within the British Government,

2203
02:03:18,340 --> 02:03:20,260
who believed, with Franklin,

2204
02:03:20,420 --> 02:03:23,380
that the future of the
British Empire could be great

2205
02:03:23,550 --> 02:03:26,050
and could be bright if
the British government

2206
02:03:26,220 --> 02:03:29,680
recognized that America could be
this second pillar

2207
02:03:29,850 --> 02:03:32,640
of a transatlantic empire.

2208
02:03:32,810 --> 02:03:34,980
Working behind the scenes,

2209
02:03:35,150 --> 02:03:37,020
because his public image in England

2210
02:03:37,190 --> 02:03:39,480
was now so badly tarnished,

2211
02:03:39,650 --> 02:03:42,530
Franklin and sympathetic
members of Parliament

2212
02:03:42,700 --> 02:03:44,990
struggled to find some compromise

2213
02:03:45,160 --> 02:03:47,200
that could avert a war.

2214
02:03:47,370 --> 02:03:49,910
But nothing came of it.

2215
02:03:50,080 --> 02:03:52,330
Franklin knows exactly
what's going on.

2216
02:03:52,500 --> 02:03:55,880
And what's going on
leads him to despair.

2217
02:03:56,040 --> 02:03:59,380
I'm not sure there were many
who were more disappointed

2218
02:03:59,550 --> 02:04:02,420
by the separation than Franklin.

2219
02:04:02,590 --> 02:04:04,070
In part, because I think
he really thought it

2220
02:04:04,090 --> 02:04:05,340
was avoidable.

2221
02:04:06,680 --> 02:04:07,680
Gentlemen,

2222
02:04:07,850 --> 02:04:09,760
You have now two roads--

2223
02:04:09,930 --> 02:04:13,680
one evidently leading to peace,
happiness, and a restoration

2224
02:04:13,850 --> 02:04:15,940
of the public tranquility--

2225
02:04:16,100 --> 02:04:18,820
the other inevitably conducting you

2226
02:04:18,980 --> 02:04:22,530
to anarchy, misery,
and all the horrors

2227
02:04:22,690 --> 02:04:25,450
of a civil war.

2228
02:04:28,030 --> 02:04:30,540
In New Jersey, William had refused to

2229
02:04:30,700 --> 02:04:34,000
convene the colonial assembly
in order to prevent them from

2230
02:04:34,160 --> 02:04:37,670
sending delegates to
the Continental Congress.

2231
02:04:37,830 --> 02:04:41,380
They chose representatives anyway.

2232
02:04:41,550 --> 02:04:44,260
When the Congress met in Philadelphia

2233
02:04:44,420 --> 02:04:48,220
in the fall of 1774,
it had asserted that only

2234
02:04:48,390 --> 02:04:52,520
elected colonial legislatures
had the right of taxation

2235
02:04:52,680 --> 02:04:54,270
within their borders.

2236
02:04:54,430 --> 02:04:56,940
It banned all imports from Britain

2237
02:04:57,100 --> 02:05:00,190
until the Intolerable
Acts were repealed

2238
02:05:00,360 --> 02:05:03,690
and set a deadline
for Parliament to do it.

2239
02:05:03,860 --> 02:05:08,070
Otherwise, American exports
to England would cease

2240
02:05:08,240 --> 02:05:12,950
and a Second Continental
Congress would convene in 1775

2241
02:05:13,120 --> 02:05:16,040
to consider further steps.

2242
02:05:16,210 --> 02:05:20,130
If only his father had been
there, William wrote, he might

2243
02:05:20,290 --> 02:05:22,750
have been able to steer the
Congress toward something

2244
02:05:22,920 --> 02:05:25,050
less confrontational.

2245
02:05:26,800 --> 02:05:28,890
However mad you may think the Measures

2246
02:05:29,050 --> 02:05:32,310
of the Ministry are, yet I
trust you have Candor enough

2247
02:05:32,470 --> 02:05:36,140
to acknowledge that we are no
ways behind hand with them

2248
02:05:36,310 --> 02:05:40,230
in Instances of Madness
on this Side of the Water.

2249
02:05:42,860 --> 02:05:44,940
Benjamin Franklin now believed

2250
02:05:45,110 --> 02:05:49,160
any chances of averting war
were unlikely; but he was

2251
02:05:49,320 --> 02:05:52,410
growing more and more worried
that he and William

2252
02:05:52,580 --> 02:05:55,870
were ending up on opposing sides.

2253
02:05:56,040 --> 02:05:58,790
He was ready to head for home.

2254
02:05:58,960 --> 02:06:02,040
If he couldn't keep the
colonies and England together,

2255
02:06:02,210 --> 02:06:06,210
at least he might be
able to keep his son.

2256
02:06:08,010 --> 02:06:12,600
On March 21, 1775,
Franklin finally set sail

2257
02:06:12,760 --> 02:06:14,560
for Philadelphia.

2258
02:06:14,720 --> 02:06:18,980
With him was William's own son,
Temple, who had been born

2259
02:06:19,140 --> 02:06:22,610
out of wedlock 15 years
earlier in England

2260
02:06:22,770 --> 02:06:26,780
and discreetly given over
to a foster family.

2261
02:06:26,940 --> 02:06:30,150
In London, Benjamin had
decided to take custody

2262
02:06:30,320 --> 02:06:33,030
of the boy and enrolled him in school

2263
02:06:33,200 --> 02:06:36,540
but did not tell him
he was his grandfather.

2264
02:06:36,700 --> 02:06:40,790
Now, he was bringing Temple to
America, where he would meet

2265
02:06:40,960 --> 02:06:43,880
the father he had never known.

2266
02:06:44,040 --> 02:06:48,300
When Benjamin Franklin
sails home in 1775,

2267
02:06:48,460 --> 02:06:50,630
he's estranged from William.

2268
02:06:50,800 --> 02:06:52,640
His wife Deborah has died.

2269
02:06:52,800 --> 02:06:56,350
He feels this enormous
sense of failure.

2270
02:06:56,510 --> 02:07:00,270
His whole mission had been
to try to hold the Colonies

2271
02:07:00,430 --> 02:07:01,940
and Britain together.

2272
02:07:02,100 --> 02:07:03,730
And that has failed.

2273
02:07:07,400 --> 02:07:08,730
But being at sea

2274
02:07:08,900 --> 02:07:11,530
always revived Franklin's spirits

2275
02:07:11,700 --> 02:07:15,320
and ignited his scientific curiosity.

2276
02:07:15,490 --> 02:07:18,410
He still wants to
chart the Gulf Stream.

2277
02:07:18,580 --> 02:07:23,170
He still is curious
about natural phenomenon.

2278
02:07:23,330 --> 02:07:26,040
And, so, there's
Temple Franklin helping

2279
02:07:26,210 --> 02:07:30,720
his grandfather Benjamin as they
lower barrels into the ocean

2280
02:07:30,880 --> 02:07:32,720
to take the temperature of the water,

2281
02:07:32,880 --> 02:07:35,680
to see where the Gulf Stream could be,

2282
02:07:35,850 --> 02:07:38,180
and he's almost replicating
those moments

2283
02:07:38,350 --> 02:07:41,140
with William Franklin,
where Ben Franklin and William

2284
02:07:41,310 --> 02:07:45,100
flew the kite in the rain
to discover electricity.

2285
02:07:45,270 --> 02:07:47,820
When he and Temple
arrived in Philadelphia

2286
02:07:47,980 --> 02:07:53,150
on May 5, 1775, Franklin
learned startling news.

2287
02:07:53,320 --> 02:07:57,490
While he was at sea, the war he
had once hoped to prevent

2288
02:07:57,660 --> 02:08:00,540
had already started in Massachusetts.

2289
02:08:02,870 --> 02:08:08,040
On April 19th, 700 British
troops had marched from Boston

2290
02:08:08,210 --> 02:08:10,960
to capture munitions
stockpiled in Concord.

2291
02:08:11,130 --> 02:08:14,050
A skirmish on the Lexington town green

2292
02:08:14,220 --> 02:08:15,930
left 8 Americans dead...

2293
02:08:16,090 --> 02:08:19,010
but a larger fight broke out

2294
02:08:19,180 --> 02:08:22,430
at Concord's North Bridge
that sent British redcoats

2295
02:08:22,600 --> 02:08:26,190
retreating back toward Boston.

2296
02:08:26,350 --> 02:08:32,150
The Revolutionary energy
in Philadelphia was palpable.

2297
02:08:32,320 --> 02:08:36,280
Regular people were talking
about "revolution,"

2298
02:08:36,450 --> 02:08:40,530
were talking about "power," were
talking about "human rights,"

2299
02:08:40,700 --> 02:08:44,500
were talking about
"freedom" and "democracy."

2300
02:08:44,660 --> 02:08:48,750
These were the things that
Franklin came home to.

2301
02:08:50,840 --> 02:08:53,420
A week after Franklin got back home,

2302
02:08:53,590 --> 02:08:56,680
delegates to the Second
Continental Congress were

2303
02:08:56,840 --> 02:09:00,390
gathering in Philadelphia,
and the Pennsylvania Assembly

2304
02:09:00,550 --> 02:09:04,770
elected him as one of
their representatives.

2305
02:09:04,930 --> 02:09:07,020
I can inform you that some delegates

2306
02:09:07,190 --> 02:09:10,520
begin to entertain a great
suspicion that Dr. Franklin

2307
02:09:10,690 --> 02:09:14,360
came rather as a spy than as
a friend, and that he means to

2308
02:09:14,530 --> 02:09:16,860
discover our weak side.

2309
02:09:17,030 --> 02:09:19,450
William Bradford.

2310
02:09:19,620 --> 02:09:23,450
In the early meetings,
Franklin remained quiet,

2311
02:09:23,620 --> 02:09:27,040
so quiet, John Adams
of Massachusetts complained

2312
02:09:27,210 --> 02:09:30,250
that he seemed to spend
"a great part of the time

2313
02:09:30,420 --> 02:09:33,300
fast asleep in his chair."

2314
02:09:33,460 --> 02:09:36,590
In the evenings, while other
delegates congregated

2315
02:09:36,760 --> 02:09:39,430
in taverns and debated whether
the Congress

2316
02:09:39,590 --> 02:09:41,680
should declare independence,

2317
02:09:41,850 --> 02:09:44,430
he preferred to stay at his new house,

2318
02:09:44,600 --> 02:09:47,770
with his daughter
Sally and her family.

2319
02:09:47,940 --> 02:09:51,480
By this time, Franklin had
confessed to Temple

2320
02:09:51,650 --> 02:09:54,530
that he was the boy's grandfather.

2321
02:09:56,030 --> 02:09:59,740
When Governor William Franklin
visited from New Jersey,

2322
02:09:59,910 --> 02:10:04,540
Temple met his
father for the first time.

2323
02:10:04,700 --> 02:10:08,370
And later, when Benjamin
and William met privately,

2324
02:10:08,540 --> 02:10:13,090
Benjamin made it clear he wanted
his son to join the cause.

2325
02:10:13,250 --> 02:10:17,300
William wanted his father to
stay neutral. He still thought

2326
02:10:17,470 --> 02:10:21,970
a reconciliation with
England might be possible.

2327
02:10:22,140 --> 02:10:24,140
They argued all night.

2328
02:10:24,310 --> 02:10:28,890
At another meeting, neighbors
could hear them shouting.

2329
02:10:29,060 --> 02:10:32,610
Father and son went
their separate ways.

2330
02:10:32,770 --> 02:10:35,570
William would remain a Loyalist.

2331
02:10:35,730 --> 02:10:39,400
Benjamin had become
a fervent revolutionary--

2332
02:10:39,570 --> 02:10:42,740
what was called a Patriot.

2333
02:10:42,910 --> 02:10:44,330
Of the major leaders,

2334
02:10:44,490 --> 02:10:46,660
he came to the Revolution very late.

2335
02:10:46,830 --> 02:10:48,830
In fact, it's hard to
understand why he even joined

2336
02:10:48,950 --> 02:10:50,460
the Revolution, uh...

2337
02:10:50,620 --> 02:10:53,790
He was already successful.
He was an old man.

2338
02:10:53,960 --> 02:10:56,300
Revolution is a young man's game,

2339
02:10:56,460 --> 02:10:59,970
but Franklin decided this
is what needs to be done.

2340
02:11:01,680 --> 02:11:04,890
At age 69, he was the oldest delegate.

2341
02:11:05,050 --> 02:11:09,390
Many of the 62 other delegates
had not even been born when he

2342
02:11:09,560 --> 02:11:12,520
first entered political life
40 years earlier

2343
02:11:12,690 --> 02:11:16,270
and knew Franklin only by
his reputation.

2344
02:11:16,440 --> 02:11:19,030
John Adams was 39;

2345
02:11:19,190 --> 02:11:22,740
Patrick Henry and John Hancock, 38;

2346
02:11:22,910 --> 02:11:26,580
Virginia's Thomas Jefferson
was only 32--

2347
02:11:26,740 --> 02:11:30,750
all younger than Franklin's
son William.

2348
02:11:30,910 --> 02:11:34,000
He's the "old" one.
He's the sage one.

2349
02:11:34,170 --> 02:11:38,500
And he talks in
parables and metaphors.

2350
02:11:38,670 --> 02:11:41,470
And a lot of people don't quite
know what to make of him.

2351
02:11:41,630 --> 02:11:44,390
Here's Franklin, coming with
a worldwide reputation,

2352
02:11:44,550 --> 02:11:47,810
certainly the most famous
American in the world,

2353
02:11:47,970 --> 02:11:50,980
and yet, they're not
fully trusting him.

2354
02:11:51,140 --> 02:11:55,150
Who is this guy?
We don't really know him.

2355
02:11:55,310 --> 02:11:57,770
Franklin had
traveled more extensively than

2356
02:11:57,940 --> 02:12:01,740
any of the others--throughout
Europe, but also through most

2357
02:12:01,900 --> 02:12:04,820
of the colonies that were
only now beginning to think

2358
02:12:04,990 --> 02:12:07,700
of themselves as something
more than individual

2359
02:12:07,870 --> 02:12:09,740
English provinces.

2360
02:12:09,910 --> 02:12:15,040
It was an idea he had proposed
more than 2 decades before.

2361
02:12:16,880 --> 02:12:19,250
The delegates unanimously elected him

2362
02:12:19,420 --> 02:12:21,300
as postmaster general,

2363
02:12:21,460 --> 02:12:25,340
and he donated his salary
to help wounded soldiers.

2364
02:12:25,510 --> 02:12:29,600
They assigned him to important
committees, creating a system

2365
02:12:29,760 --> 02:12:32,520
for paper currency,
raising money for weapons

2366
02:12:32,680 --> 02:12:34,890
and manufacturing gunpowder,

2367
02:12:35,060 --> 02:12:38,400
and negotiating with Indian
nations in the hope

2368
02:12:38,560 --> 02:12:42,280
they would not side with the British.

2369
02:12:42,440 --> 02:12:45,450
Following the battles of
Lexington and Concord,

2370
02:12:45,610 --> 02:12:48,620
Franklin heard
from his favorite sister Jane,

2371
02:12:48,780 --> 02:12:53,540
who witnessed the chaos in
Boston, the town of his birth.

2372
02:12:53,700 --> 02:12:55,870
"The distress it has occasioned

2373
02:12:56,040 --> 02:12:58,420
is past my description," she wrote.

2374
02:12:58,580 --> 02:13:02,170
"The commotion the town was in
after the battle, bringing in

2375
02:13:02,340 --> 02:13:06,220
"their wounded men, caused
such an agitation of mind,

2376
02:13:06,380 --> 02:13:09,300
I believe none
had much sleep."

2377
02:13:09,470 --> 02:13:12,220
Colonial militia had
surrounded the city

2378
02:13:12,390 --> 02:13:15,060
and the occupying
British forces there.

2379
02:13:15,230 --> 02:13:20,480
12,000 of Boston's 15,000
residents, including Jane,

2380
02:13:20,650 --> 02:13:22,980
evacuated in panic.

2381
02:13:23,150 --> 02:13:27,200
British soldiers then
ransacked the nearly empty town.

2382
02:13:27,360 --> 02:13:29,450
They would use the pews and pulpit

2383
02:13:29,620 --> 02:13:32,910
from the Old South
Meeting House as firewood.

2384
02:13:34,790 --> 02:13:38,330
On June 17th, in the Battle
of Bunker Hill,

2385
02:13:38,500 --> 02:13:42,710
British forces attacked the
militiamen in nearby Charlestown

2386
02:13:42,880 --> 02:13:44,670
and were repulsed twice,

2387
02:13:44,840 --> 02:13:48,220
until the defenders'
ammunition ran out.

2388
02:13:48,380 --> 02:13:50,930
At the end of the day,
the British had taken

2389
02:13:51,100 --> 02:13:55,220
the heights, but suffered
more than 1,000 casualties

2390
02:13:55,390 --> 02:13:58,270
to fewer than
half that by the Patriots.

2391
02:13:58,440 --> 02:14:01,730
Much of Charlestown had been
burned by the British

2392
02:14:01,900 --> 02:14:04,940
to rid it of American snipers.

2393
02:14:05,110 --> 02:14:10,320
Jane's son, Josiah, fought
for the Patriots and died.

2394
02:14:10,490 --> 02:14:14,030
One of her in-laws died
fighting for the British.

2395
02:14:14,200 --> 02:14:16,910
"O how horrible is our
situation," she wrote

2396
02:14:17,080 --> 02:14:20,580
to Benjamin, "that relations
seek the destruction

2397
02:14:20,750 --> 02:14:22,000
of each other."

2398
02:14:23,790 --> 02:14:27,380
Enraged by what the British
had done, Franklin sent

2399
02:14:27,550 --> 02:14:29,380
a letter to a friend in England,

2400
02:14:29,550 --> 02:14:33,760
intended for publication there.

2401
02:14:33,930 --> 02:14:35,810
Britain, at the expense

2402
02:14:35,970 --> 02:14:38,850
of three millions,
has killed 150 Americans

2403
02:14:39,020 --> 02:14:44,110
this campaign, which is
20,000 pounds a head;

2404
02:14:44,270 --> 02:14:48,940
and at Bunker's Hill she
gained a mile of ground.

2405
02:14:49,110 --> 02:14:51,910
During the same time
60,000 children have been

2406
02:14:52,070 --> 02:14:53,570
born in America.

2407
02:14:53,740 --> 02:14:56,450
From these data,
calculate the time and expense

2408
02:14:56,620 --> 02:14:58,540
necessary to kill us all,

2409
02:14:58,700 --> 02:15:01,500
and conquer our whole territory.

2410
02:15:03,040 --> 02:15:05,250
And he had written a second letter

2411
02:15:05,420 --> 02:15:08,170
to another English friend,
which he shared

2412
02:15:08,340 --> 02:15:12,590
with colleagues in America
but never sent.

2413
02:15:12,760 --> 02:15:15,470
You have begun to burn our towns,

2414
02:15:15,640 --> 02:15:17,850
and murder our people.

2415
02:15:18,020 --> 02:15:19,810
Look upon your hands!

2416
02:15:19,980 --> 02:15:23,730
They are stained with the
blood of your relations!

2417
02:15:23,900 --> 02:15:28,980
YOU AND I WERE LONG FRIENDS:
You are now my enemy,

2418
02:15:29,150 --> 02:15:30,820
and I am Yours.

2419
02:15:32,150 --> 02:15:33,910
The
suspicions against Dr. Franklin

2420
02:15:34,070 --> 02:15:35,820
have died away.

2421
02:15:35,990 --> 02:15:39,290
Whatever was his design at
coming over here, I believe he

2422
02:15:39,450 --> 02:15:43,920
has now chosen his side
and favors our cause.

2423
02:15:44,080 --> 02:15:45,630
Dr. Franklin

2424
02:15:45,790 --> 02:15:49,670
has discovered a disposition
entirely American.

2425
02:15:49,840 --> 02:15:52,970
He is a great and good man.

2426
02:15:53,130 --> 02:15:55,180
John Adams.

2427
02:15:59,970 --> 02:16:02,770
In October 1775,

2428
02:16:02,940 --> 02:16:05,730
Franklin traveled to
Massachusetts to confer

2429
02:16:05,900 --> 02:16:08,860
with General George
Washington, who desperately

2430
02:16:09,020 --> 02:16:12,860
needed more money from
Congress to fight the British.

2431
02:16:13,030 --> 02:16:16,530
He was trying to cobble
together a Continental Army

2432
02:16:16,700 --> 02:16:20,700
that would eventually include
fishermen, frontiersmen

2433
02:16:20,870 --> 02:16:24,670
and farm laborers; recent
immigrants, vagrants

2434
02:16:24,830 --> 02:16:28,420
and teen-aged boys with few prospects;

2435
02:16:28,590 --> 02:16:32,510
Native Americans,
free African Americans

2436
02:16:32,670 --> 02:16:37,800
and enslaved men, hoping to be
freed when the war ended.

2437
02:16:37,970 --> 02:16:40,970
Franklin promised
Washington he would do what he

2438
02:16:41,140 --> 02:16:43,730
could to help.

2439
02:16:43,890 --> 02:16:47,690
On his way back, Franklin
reunited with his sister Jane

2440
02:16:47,860 --> 02:16:49,270
in Rhode Island.

2441
02:16:49,440 --> 02:16:53,320
She was still a refugee from
occupied Boston.

2442
02:16:53,490 --> 02:16:57,320
He persuaded her to come with
him to Philadelphia, and they

2443
02:16:57,490 --> 02:17:00,990
stopped briefly in New Jersey,
so she could see her nephew

2444
02:17:01,160 --> 02:17:04,200
William at the governor's mansion.

2445
02:17:04,370 --> 02:17:08,920
Franklin hoped her description
of the carnage in Boston might

2446
02:17:09,080 --> 02:17:13,880
prompt his son to reconsider
his loyalty to the Crown.

2447
02:17:14,050 --> 02:17:16,130
She was unsuccessful.

2448
02:17:16,300 --> 02:17:20,050
William would be the last royal
governor trying to carry on

2449
02:17:20,220 --> 02:17:23,350
the king's affairs in America.

2450
02:17:23,520 --> 02:17:26,190
People always ask, why
were people Loyalists.

2451
02:17:26,350 --> 02:17:27,850
And I think the question to ask is,

2452
02:17:28,020 --> 02:17:29,860
"Why were people Patriots?"

2453
02:17:30,020 --> 02:17:32,270
Uh, to be loyal is not to change.

2454
02:17:32,440 --> 02:17:34,900
It's simply to go on believing
what you've always believed

2455
02:17:35,070 --> 02:17:36,820
your entire life.

2456
02:17:36,990 --> 02:17:39,530
His father taught him
to be principled.

2457
02:17:39,700 --> 02:17:41,780
He was doing exactly what
his father had always

2458
02:17:41,950 --> 02:17:43,830
taught him to do.

2459
02:17:43,990 --> 02:17:46,250
For King and Country was the Motto

2460
02:17:46,410 --> 02:17:49,880
I assumed when I first commenced
my Political Life,

2461
02:17:50,040 --> 02:17:52,460
and I am resolved to
retain it till Death

2462
02:17:52,630 --> 02:17:56,970
shall put an end
to my mortal Existence.

2463
02:17:57,130 --> 02:17:59,050
William Franklin had assured his

2464
02:17:59,220 --> 02:18:03,510
superiors in London he did
not intend to leave his post.

2465
02:18:03,680 --> 02:18:07,020
He had advised his wife
Elizabeth to seek refuge

2466
02:18:07,180 --> 02:18:10,980
with relatives in Barbados,
but she insisted on staying

2467
02:18:11,150 --> 02:18:13,940
with him in New Jersey.

2468
02:18:14,110 --> 02:18:17,440
Benjamin Franklin would
not see his son again

2469
02:18:17,610 --> 02:18:19,360
for 10 years.

2470
02:18:29,710 --> 02:18:31,330
March!

2471
02:18:31,500 --> 02:18:34,130
One day in
Philadelphia, Franklin noticed

2472
02:18:34,290 --> 02:18:38,010
a drummer who had painted
a rattlesnake on his drum

2473
02:18:38,170 --> 02:18:42,300
along with the words
"Don't Tread on Me."

2474
02:18:42,470 --> 02:18:43,970
It occurred to me

2475
02:18:44,140 --> 02:18:45,890
that the Rattle-Snake is found

2476
02:18:46,060 --> 02:18:49,890
in no other quarter of the
world besides America, and may

2477
02:18:50,060 --> 02:18:54,020
therefore be chosen, on that
account, to represent her.

2478
02:18:54,190 --> 02:18:58,360
She never begins an attack,
nor, when once engaged,

2479
02:19:00,700 --> 02:19:03,740
I confess
I was wholly at a loss what to

2480
02:19:03,910 --> 02:19:07,700
make of the rattles, 'till I
went back and counted them

2481
02:19:07,870 --> 02:19:11,290
and found them just thirteen,
exactly the number

2482
02:19:11,460 --> 02:19:14,710
of the Colonies united in America;

2483
02:19:14,880 --> 02:19:17,090
One of those rattles singly,

2484
02:19:17,250 --> 02:19:19,970
is incapable of producing sound,

2485
02:19:20,130 --> 02:19:24,390
but the ringing of thirteen
together, is sufficient to

2486
02:19:24,550 --> 02:19:26,680
alarm the boldest man living.

2487
02:19:28,560 --> 02:19:30,640
A delegate from South Carolina

2488
02:19:30,810 --> 02:19:33,850
created a bright yellow flag,
which was flown from the

2489
02:19:34,020 --> 02:19:38,400
flagship of America's first
deployment of Marines.

2490
02:19:41,320 --> 02:19:46,240
In March of 1776, Franklin
was on his way overland to

2491
02:19:46,410 --> 02:19:50,160
Montreal, to try to convince
the Canadians to join

2492
02:19:50,330 --> 02:19:52,370
the colonial cause.

2493
02:19:52,540 --> 02:19:55,330
Learning of the mission,
William Franklin wrote

2494
02:19:55,500 --> 02:19:58,090
immediately to London, betraying his

2495
02:19:58,250 --> 02:20:00,050
father's movements.

2496
02:20:00,210 --> 02:20:03,010
It was an arduous 9-week trip.

2497
02:20:03,180 --> 02:20:05,760
Benjamin Franklin's efforts failed.

2498
02:20:05,930 --> 02:20:08,180
Canada would remain loyal.

2499
02:20:08,350 --> 02:20:11,850
And when he returned to
Philadelphia, he was so sick

2500
02:20:12,020 --> 02:20:15,900
he was unable to attend
the proceedings in Congress.

2501
02:20:16,060 --> 02:20:19,900
All he had to show for his
troubles was a soft cap

2502
02:20:20,070 --> 02:20:24,070
of marten fur that had
kept his head warm.

2503
02:20:27,280 --> 02:20:31,870
In June of 1776, William was arrested

2504
02:20:32,040 --> 02:20:35,670
at the governor's mansion
by Patriot soldiers.

2505
02:20:35,830 --> 02:20:38,250
His secret reports about proceedings

2506
02:20:38,420 --> 02:20:41,800
in the Continental Congress
had been intercepted.

2507
02:20:41,960 --> 02:20:44,800
He was declared
an "enemy to this country."

2508
02:20:44,970 --> 02:20:49,680
Congress voted unanimously that
he be transported under guard

2509
02:20:49,850 --> 02:20:52,060
out of New Jersey to Connecticut.

2510
02:20:54,020 --> 02:20:58,110
His father, still housebound
after his trip to Canada,

2511
02:20:58,270 --> 02:21:02,780
was spared having to cast
a vote against his son.

2512
02:21:09,370 --> 02:21:14,700
On June 21, 1776, a packet
arrived at Franklin's

2513
02:21:14,870 --> 02:21:16,750
Market Street home.

2514
02:21:16,920 --> 02:21:21,800
It was from Thomas Jefferson,
who with Franklin, John Adams,

2515
02:21:21,960 --> 02:21:25,220
and two other delegates,
had been assigned to draft

2516
02:21:25,380 --> 02:21:29,050
a declaration of independence.

2517
02:21:29,220 --> 02:21:32,850
Working in a rented second-
floor room of a house a few

2518
02:21:33,010 --> 02:21:36,390
blocks from Franklin's
and attended by his enslaved

2519
02:21:36,560 --> 02:21:38,400
servant Robert Hemings,

2520
02:21:38,560 --> 02:21:42,650
Jefferson completed a first draft.

2521
02:21:42,820 --> 02:21:46,530
He asked Franklin to "suggest
such alterations as your

2522
02:21:46,700 --> 02:21:50,660
more enlarged view of
the subject will dictate."

2523
02:21:50,820 --> 02:21:54,370
The old editor and writer
recognized the elegance

2524
02:21:54,540 --> 02:21:57,870
of Jefferson's prose and made
only a few changes

2525
02:21:58,040 --> 02:22:00,540
before returning it.

2526
02:22:00,710 --> 02:22:03,460
Franklin sits back
and ponders it a little

2527
02:22:03,630 --> 02:22:05,130
and he makes a few

2528
02:22:05,300 --> 02:22:08,510
really extraordinary
suggestions to Jefferson.

2529
02:22:08,680 --> 02:22:11,550
And one of them is world class.

2530
02:22:11,720 --> 02:22:15,140
Jefferson had written,
"We hold these truths to be

2531
02:22:15,310 --> 02:22:18,140
sacred and undeniable."

2532
02:22:18,310 --> 02:22:20,600
And Franklin said, "No, no.

2533
02:22:20,770 --> 02:22:23,440
'We hold these truths to be
self-evident.'"

2534
02:22:23,610 --> 02:22:28,780
Just as 2 plus 2 is 4 and
the sun rises in the morning,

2535
02:22:28,950 --> 02:22:34,490
it is self-evident that we have
a right to revolution.

2536
02:22:34,660 --> 02:22:37,500
Franklin is saying, "We're
trying to create a new type

2537
02:22:37,660 --> 02:22:40,920
"of nation in which our
rights come from rationality

2538
02:22:41,080 --> 02:22:44,750
"and the consent of the
governed, not the dictates or

2539
02:22:44,920 --> 02:22:47,300
dogma of a religion."

2540
02:22:47,460 --> 02:22:51,760
They were doing something
very radical and very scary.

2541
02:22:51,930 --> 02:22:54,180
To say something is "self
evident," to say that it's

2542
02:22:54,350 --> 02:22:59,270
common sense, is to say that
there is no other way to think

2543
02:22:59,430 --> 02:23:04,400
about this, that only an
irrational person, who's not

2544
02:23:04,560 --> 02:23:09,780
using their mind correctly
could contend with this thing,

2545
02:23:09,950 --> 02:23:12,360
which is, in fact, really contentious.

2546
02:23:12,530 --> 02:23:15,490
It's a classic lawyer's trick to say,

2547
02:23:15,660 --> 02:23:17,870
"We all agree to this thing."

2548
02:23:18,040 --> 02:23:22,620
Who is "we?"
The "we" is presumptuous.

2549
02:23:22,790 --> 02:23:26,210
They were not talking
about liberating women in any

2550
02:23:26,380 --> 02:23:30,010
particular way
or certainly not slaves.

2551
02:23:30,170 --> 02:23:35,140
But in incremental ways, it
grew and grew because if you

2552
02:23:35,300 --> 02:23:39,890
talk about liberty for the
individual, of you and me, uh,

2553
02:23:40,060 --> 02:23:43,100
you're talking about a greater
liberty that can be applied

2554
02:23:43,270 --> 02:23:45,480
to other people.

2555
02:23:45,650 --> 02:23:48,690
On July 2, the Continental Congress

2556
02:23:48,860 --> 02:23:51,780
unanimously approved
the central clause

2557
02:23:51,950 --> 02:23:53,990
of the declaration, proclaiming

2558
02:23:54,160 --> 02:23:57,330
American independence.

2559
02:23:57,490 --> 02:24:04,210
Two days later, July 4, 1776,
12 of the 13 former

2560
02:24:04,370 --> 02:24:08,380
colonies approved
the entire declaration.

2561
02:24:08,550 --> 02:24:13,170
New York would take a few
more days to make up its mind.

2562
02:24:13,340 --> 02:24:14,550
And for the support

2563
02:24:14,720 --> 02:24:16,470
of this declaration,

2564
02:24:16,640 --> 02:24:21,060
we mutually pledge to each
other our lives, our fortunes,

2565
02:24:21,220 --> 02:24:23,350
and our sacred honor.

2566
02:24:24,730 --> 02:24:26,690
On the same day Benjamin Franklin

2567
02:24:26,860 --> 02:24:30,610
was voting to approve the
Declaration, his son William

2568
02:24:30,780 --> 02:24:33,950
arrived in Connecticut,
where he was told he was now

2569
02:24:34,110 --> 02:24:36,660
officially a prisoner of the brand-new

2570
02:24:36,820 --> 02:24:39,370
United States of America.

2571
02:24:49,380 --> 02:24:51,590
At this point, what are the odds?

2572
02:24:51,760 --> 02:24:55,220
If you were making a book on
this, who would you bet on?

2573
02:24:55,380 --> 02:24:58,640
There was the greatest
military power in Europe,

2574
02:24:58,800 --> 02:25:01,120
arguably the greatest military
power in the world, and then

2575
02:25:01,180 --> 02:25:02,970
there are these 13 Colonies.

2576
02:25:03,140 --> 02:25:06,270
So, it was a longshot,
to put it mildly.

2577
02:25:06,440 --> 02:25:08,520
And then there are significant numbers

2578
02:25:08,690 --> 02:25:11,070
of enslaved men and women who
were eying the situation,

2579
02:25:11,230 --> 02:25:13,900
trying to figure out, is there
some way that this conflict

2580
02:25:14,070 --> 02:25:16,610
could serve my interests personally,

2581
02:25:16,780 --> 02:25:20,030
serve people like me collectively.

2582
02:25:20,200 --> 02:25:22,700
And then you have, both within
the Colonies, at the borders

2583
02:25:22,870 --> 02:25:25,710
of the Colonies, Native
nations who are trying to

2584
02:25:25,870 --> 02:25:31,170
understand what this emerging
divide might mean for control

2585
02:25:31,340 --> 02:25:34,010
of their land or access to trade.

2586
02:25:34,170 --> 02:25:35,970
We know how it turned out.

2587
02:25:36,130 --> 02:25:38,640
But nobody in 1775 or 1776
has any idea how this is

2588
02:25:38,800 --> 02:25:40,430
going to turn out.

2589
02:25:40,600 --> 02:25:43,560
And, so, choosing sides
also means choosing fates.

2590
02:25:45,430 --> 02:25:46,980
The Revolution, as it emerges

2591
02:25:47,140 --> 02:25:50,060
and becomes a war, is a civil war.

2592
02:25:50,230 --> 02:25:52,150
Families are divided, uh,

2593
02:25:52,320 --> 02:25:55,070
friends are divided,
neighborhoods are divided.

2594
02:25:55,240 --> 02:25:58,030
Almost everyone involved
in the Revolution has family

2595
02:25:58,200 --> 02:25:59,990
members who are on the other side,

2596
02:26:00,160 --> 02:26:02,530
often, very vitriolically
on the other side.

2597
02:26:02,700 --> 02:26:06,120
So, this really does
tear families apart.

2598
02:26:06,290 --> 02:26:10,080
In Franklin's case, um,
it comes as a complete break

2599
02:26:10,250 --> 02:26:11,960
with his son.

2600
02:26:12,130 --> 02:26:15,090
By now, hundreds
of British ships had arrived

2601
02:26:15,260 --> 02:26:18,970
in New York Harbor with
35,000 British soldiers

2602
02:26:19,130 --> 02:26:22,720
and sailors and Hessian
mercenaries, the greatest

2603
02:26:22,890 --> 02:26:24,970
and best-equipped expeditionary force

2604
02:26:25,140 --> 02:26:27,390
of the 18th century.

2605
02:26:27,560 --> 02:26:31,150
Washington's army would be
overmatched and easily routed

2606
02:26:31,310 --> 02:26:33,060
from Long Island.

2607
02:26:33,230 --> 02:26:37,110
British Admiral Lord Richard
Howe sent Franklin a letter

2608
02:26:37,280 --> 02:26:41,160
offering a truce, with pardons
for the rebels, and rewards

2609
02:26:41,320 --> 02:26:44,660
for any Americans who
helped restore peace.

2610
02:26:44,830 --> 02:26:47,950
Franklin and a small
delegation met with Howe

2611
02:26:48,120 --> 02:26:51,670
on Staten Island on September 11.

2612
02:26:51,830 --> 02:26:55,040
Howe now suggested that the
colonies might also have

2613
02:26:55,210 --> 02:26:58,630
control of their own
legislatures and taxes,

2614
02:26:58,800 --> 02:27:01,760
yet still be part of the empire.

2615
02:27:01,930 --> 02:27:04,220
The Americans said it was too late.

2616
02:27:04,390 --> 02:27:07,220
He should ask the king for
permission to negotiate

2617
02:27:07,390 --> 02:27:09,640
with an independent nation.

2618
02:27:09,810 --> 02:27:12,520
Howe urged them to reconsider.

2619
02:27:12,690 --> 02:27:16,320
"When an American falls,
England feels it," he said.

2620
02:27:16,480 --> 02:27:20,070
And if America were to fall,
he added, "I should feel

2621
02:27:20,240 --> 02:27:23,110
and lament it like
the loss of a brother."

2622
02:27:23,280 --> 02:27:26,790
"We will do our utmost,"
Franklin responded, "to save

2623
02:27:26,950 --> 02:27:30,500
your Lordship
that mortification."

2624
02:27:30,660 --> 02:27:34,250
"They met, they talked,
they parted," Howe's secretary

2625
02:27:34,420 --> 02:27:36,170
wrote of the 3-hour meeting.

2626
02:27:36,340 --> 02:27:40,170
"And now, nothing remains
but to fight it out."

2627
02:27:41,880 --> 02:27:45,050
Two weeks after the meeting
with Lord Howe, Congress

2628
02:27:45,220 --> 02:27:49,640
secretly chose Franklin to be
one of 3 envoys to France

2629
02:27:49,810 --> 02:27:54,310
to seek King Louis XVI's help
in the fight with England.

2630
02:27:54,480 --> 02:27:55,940
He is the perfect choice.

2631
02:27:56,110 --> 02:27:58,230
First of all, there's no other
person who knows

2632
02:27:58,400 --> 02:28:01,320
the, uh, the European world
as Franklin does.

2633
02:28:01,490 --> 02:28:04,530
And he is the most
celebrated American in Europe.

2634
02:28:04,700 --> 02:28:07,030
And he's a natural for the job.

2635
02:28:07,200 --> 02:28:11,080
On October 27,
he was on board the "Reprisal,"

2636
02:28:11,250 --> 02:28:15,040
a swift but cramped
American 2-masted brig.

2637
02:28:15,210 --> 02:28:19,750
With him were two grandsons--
16-year-old Temple

2638
02:28:19,920 --> 02:28:23,340
and Sally's 7-year-old son Benny.

2639
02:28:23,510 --> 02:28:25,930
14 years earlier,
when France and Britain

2640
02:28:26,090 --> 02:28:28,970
were at war, Franklin had
sailed from England

2641
02:28:29,140 --> 02:28:31,930
under the protection
of the Royal Navy.

2642
02:28:32,100 --> 02:28:36,900
Now it was imperative he avoid
British ships at all costs.

2643
02:28:40,780 --> 02:28:43,610
The rough voyage
across the wintry Atlantic

2644
02:28:43,780 --> 02:28:45,820
"almost demolished me," he wrote.

2645
02:28:45,990 --> 02:28:49,990
The diet on board of salted
beef had ruined his digestion

2646
02:28:50,160 --> 02:28:54,290
and caused boils, scabs,
and rashes all over his body,

2647
02:28:54,460 --> 02:28:56,420
including his scalp.

2648
02:28:56,580 --> 02:29:00,840
They reached the west coast
of France in early December.

2649
02:29:01,000 --> 02:29:05,220
A fisherman agreed to row him
and his two grandsons to shore

2650
02:29:05,380 --> 02:29:10,890
at the hamlet of Auray in
Brittany, 300 miles from Paris.

2651
02:29:11,060 --> 02:29:15,180
Franklin had intended to keep
a low profile, but news of his

2652
02:29:15,350 --> 02:29:18,270
arrival spread quickly
and reached the capital

2653
02:29:18,440 --> 02:29:20,480
long before he did.

2654
02:29:20,650 --> 02:29:24,860
The real purpose of his visit,
securing a formal alliance

2655
02:29:25,030 --> 02:29:28,240
with France, remained secret.

2656
02:29:28,410 --> 02:29:33,910
But everywhere he went,
he was a sensation.

2657
02:29:34,080 --> 02:29:38,750
In 1776, people in France had never

2658
02:29:38,920 --> 02:29:43,090
heard of any American
except for Benjamin Franklin.

2659
02:29:43,250 --> 02:29:45,010
From the French point of view,

2660
02:29:45,170 --> 02:29:47,590
they have sent the
greatest celebrity on Earth,

2661
02:29:47,760 --> 02:29:49,840
this side of Voltaire, to Paris.

2662
02:29:50,010 --> 02:29:53,430
He is like Newton or
Galileo reincarnated.

2663
02:29:53,600 --> 02:29:56,810
The city of Nantes
celebrated the renowned

2664
02:29:56,980 --> 02:30:00,650
Docteur Franklin, tamer of
lightning, and crowds

2665
02:30:00,810 --> 02:30:04,110
cheered him on his carriage
ride into Paris.

2666
02:30:04,280 --> 02:30:07,780
They were fascinated by
his soft hat of marten fur,

2667
02:30:07,950 --> 02:30:11,030
which resembled the famous
cap worn by the philosopher

2668
02:30:11,200 --> 02:30:14,040
Rousseau, in contrast
to the powdered wigs

2669
02:30:14,200 --> 02:30:17,160
of the Parisian elite.

2670
02:30:17,330 --> 02:30:21,130
Franklin was wearing it to
keep his head warm and to hide

2671
02:30:21,290 --> 02:30:25,000
the unsightly sores
on his balding head.

2672
02:30:25,170 --> 02:30:28,680
It's such a great costume and prop,

2673
02:30:28,840 --> 02:30:33,510
immediately announcing himself
as a man of science.

2674
02:30:33,680 --> 02:30:36,720
I am the famous Benjamin Franklin--

2675
02:30:36,890 --> 02:30:38,690
the "Prometheus of the Modern Age,"

2676
02:30:38,850 --> 02:30:41,060
don't forget it-- here on business.

2677
02:30:42,650 --> 02:30:45,480
French admirers
hung portraits of him over the

2678
02:30:45,650 --> 02:30:48,030
mantelpieces in their homes.

2679
02:30:48,190 --> 02:30:51,410
Poems were written about
the great American scientist

2680
02:30:51,570 --> 02:30:54,580
and philosopher who had
miraculously arrived

2681
02:30:54,740 --> 02:30:56,700
in their midst.

2682
02:30:56,870 --> 02:30:59,540
A collection of
"Poor Richard's" aphorisms

2683
02:30:59,710 --> 02:31:01,960
was translated into French as

2684
02:31:02,130 --> 02:31:04,670
"La Science du
Bonhomme Richard."

2685
02:31:04,840 --> 02:31:07,380
Franklin loved it.

2686
02:31:07,550 --> 02:31:08,880
Dear Sally,

2687
02:31:09,050 --> 02:31:10,760
The clay medallion of me

2688
02:31:10,930 --> 02:31:13,590
was the first of
the kind made in France

2689
02:31:13,760 --> 02:31:17,430
and the numbers sold are incredible.

2690
02:31:17,600 --> 02:31:21,890
These, with the pictures,
busts, and prints, of which

2691
02:31:22,060 --> 02:31:25,770
copies upon copies are spread
everywhere, have made your

2692
02:31:25,940 --> 02:31:30,780
father's face as well known
as that of the moon.

2693
02:31:30,950 --> 02:31:33,490
The King, Louis XVI, became sort of

2694
02:31:33,660 --> 02:31:36,780
slightly annoyed and amused
by the Cult of Franklin.

2695
02:31:36,950 --> 02:31:39,750
He had a chamber pot with
an image of Franklin put

2696
02:31:39,910 --> 02:31:42,670
on the inside of it just
as a way of saying,

2697
02:31:42,830 --> 02:31:44,790
"Enough, already."

2698
02:31:44,960 --> 02:31:50,090
Franklin had serious
and vital business to attend to.

2699
02:31:50,260 --> 02:31:53,720
Without France's money,
supplies, and, ideally,

2700
02:31:53,890 --> 02:31:58,350
military assistance, America's
fight for independence might

2701
02:31:58,510 --> 02:32:01,560
be lost and lost quickly.

2702
02:32:01,730 --> 02:32:03,940
There's no question that
someone is going to have to

2703
02:32:04,100 --> 02:32:06,770
step in to underwrite this Revolution.

2704
02:32:06,940 --> 02:32:09,730
There is no gunpowder in the
Colonies; there is no materiel;

2705
02:32:09,900 --> 02:32:11,990
there are very few guns;
there are no uniforms.

2706
02:32:12,150 --> 02:32:14,660
There's very little
common purpose, in fact.

2707
02:32:14,820 --> 02:32:19,200
The obvious candidate, um,
for that alliance is France.

2708
02:32:19,370 --> 02:32:22,830
Franklin had a terribly
difficult assignment.

2709
02:32:23,000 --> 02:32:28,130
He had to convince one
monarch to help the Americans

2710
02:32:28,290 --> 02:32:31,170
overthrow another monarch.

2711
02:32:31,340 --> 02:32:34,050
The French had reasons
to oppose Britain.

2712
02:32:34,220 --> 02:32:36,090
They wanted to weaken Britain.

2713
02:32:36,260 --> 02:32:40,350
But, King Louis XVI didn't
want to underwrite this

2714
02:32:40,520 --> 02:32:42,730
overthrow of monarchies.

2715
02:32:42,890 --> 02:32:45,980
The French people might get ideas.

2716
02:32:46,150 --> 02:32:49,690
Persuading France's
king and his ministers to

2717
02:32:49,860 --> 02:32:53,440
provide any assistance at
all would require delicacy

2718
02:32:53,610 --> 02:32:58,240
and discretion, persistence
and shrewd calculation.

2719
02:32:58,410 --> 02:33:01,330
Franklin had taken on the
most momentous chess match

2720
02:33:01,490 --> 02:33:03,290
of his life.

2721
02:33:03,450 --> 02:33:08,040
And playing it would require
him, on his own, to improvise

2722
02:33:08,210 --> 02:33:11,550
his strategy again and again.

2723
02:33:11,710 --> 02:33:14,300
Franklin understood
they're not committed

2724
02:33:14,470 --> 02:33:17,470
to our people's
republican revolution here.

2725
02:33:17,640 --> 02:33:19,850
They want to get back at the British.

2726
02:33:20,010 --> 02:33:23,470
They side with the
colonials and allow us each

2727
02:33:23,640 --> 02:33:26,600
to spend ourselves down
in this protracted fight,

2728
02:33:26,770 --> 02:33:30,360
that this improves France's
position in the European

2729
02:33:30,520 --> 02:33:33,230
balance of power and maybe
gives it a chance to reassert

2730
02:33:33,400 --> 02:33:35,530
itself a little bit in the New World.

2731
02:33:35,700 --> 02:33:38,240
And, so, everyone's operating
out of self-interest.

2732
02:33:38,410 --> 02:33:41,620
But, Franklin, and Franklin
alone, knows how to negotiate

2733
02:33:41,780 --> 02:33:48,330
this slowly, with suavity
and humor and patience.

2734
02:33:48,500 --> 02:33:52,130
He met frequently
and always surreptitiously

2735
02:33:52,300 --> 02:33:55,760
with the Comte de Vergennes,
France's foreign minister,

2736
02:33:55,920 --> 02:33:59,840
who found Franklin tactful,
smart, and unassuming.

2737
02:34:00,010 --> 02:34:04,220
Vergennes arranged for several
million livres, French pounds,

2738
02:34:04,390 --> 02:34:06,600
to be secretly advanced
for the Americans

2739
02:34:06,770 --> 02:34:08,560
to purchase supplies.

2740
02:34:08,730 --> 02:34:12,270
But he would go no further,
unless the Patriots' military

2741
02:34:12,440 --> 02:34:14,900
situation improved.

2742
02:34:16,530 --> 02:34:20,070
At the moment,
that didn't appear likely.

2743
02:34:20,240 --> 02:34:24,080
George Washington's army had
been chased out of Manhattan,

2744
02:34:24,240 --> 02:34:27,540
across New Jersey
and into Pennsylvania.

2745
02:34:27,710 --> 02:34:31,080
A large British force
moving south from Canada

2746
02:34:31,250 --> 02:34:33,420
had captured Fort Ticonderoga.

2747
02:34:33,590 --> 02:34:35,550
Its general, John Burgoyne,

2748
02:34:35,710 --> 02:34:40,260
boasted that he would be home
in England by Christmas.

2749
02:34:40,430 --> 02:34:43,930
British soldiers also
threatened Philadelphia.

2750
02:34:44,100 --> 02:34:48,560
Congress abandoned the city,
as did many of its residents.

2751
02:34:48,730 --> 02:34:52,190
Only a few days earlier,
Franklin's daughter, Sally,

2752
02:34:52,360 --> 02:34:54,610
had given birth to a baby girl.

2753
02:34:54,770 --> 02:34:58,650
Now the whole family, including
Franklin's sister Jane,

2754
02:34:58,820 --> 02:35:00,990
were refugees.

2755
02:35:01,160 --> 02:35:05,370
After an American defeat at
Brandywine Creek, Philadelphia

2756
02:35:05,530 --> 02:35:07,700
fell without a fight.

2757
02:35:07,870 --> 02:35:11,670
A British officer commandeered
Franklin's home and stole his

2758
02:35:11,830 --> 02:35:14,920
books and papers, musical instruments,

2759
02:35:15,090 --> 02:35:17,510
and scientific equipment.

2760
02:35:17,670 --> 02:35:21,260
In France, Franklin strove
to appear upbeat,

2761
02:35:21,430 --> 02:35:23,510
despite the setbacks.

2762
02:35:23,680 --> 02:35:26,100
The Americans could
hold out for 30 years,

2763
02:35:26,260 --> 02:35:28,310
he bravely declared.

2764
02:35:28,470 --> 02:35:32,060
Franklin is, first and
foremost, a man of the press.

2765
02:35:32,230 --> 02:35:34,480
And he plays that role to the hilt

2766
02:35:34,650 --> 02:35:35,930
in those first months in France.

2767
02:35:36,070 --> 02:35:37,400
He is essentially engaged

2768
02:35:37,570 --> 02:35:40,240
in a thorough disinformation campaign.

2769
02:35:40,400 --> 02:35:42,990
Washington's men are almost
without uniforms.

2770
02:35:43,160 --> 02:35:45,240
There's a wonderful quote
in which someone says,

2771
02:35:45,410 --> 02:35:46,930
"They could have scared
the British away

2772
02:35:46,950 --> 02:35:49,410
by their nakedness."
They have nothing.

2773
02:35:49,580 --> 02:35:51,910
And Washington, during
this time, is in despair.

2774
02:35:52,080 --> 02:35:54,380
While Washington is struggling
all over, Franklin is

2775
02:35:54,540 --> 02:35:57,130
in France saying, "It's
victory after victory."

2776
02:35:57,300 --> 02:36:00,880
Um..."He, like, he has
an army of 80,000," um...

2777
02:36:01,050 --> 02:36:03,150
"Yes, the--the British may
take Philadelphia, but they

2778
02:36:03,180 --> 02:36:05,140
"will be trapped there,
the river will freeze,

2779
02:36:05,300 --> 02:36:06,930
"they won't be able to reach
their ships.

2780
02:36:07,100 --> 02:36:08,470
Washington will
surround them."

2781
02:36:08,640 --> 02:36:10,350
He's utterly making this up.

2782
02:36:10,520 --> 02:36:12,940
He's promoting a war that
isn't really happening.

2783
02:36:13,100 --> 02:36:17,150
And he doesn't, for a moment,
in public, drop that mask.

2784
02:36:18,730 --> 02:36:21,740
Benjamin Franklin also
realizes he has to win

2785
02:36:21,900 --> 02:36:24,610
the hearts and minds of
the French people.

2786
02:36:24,780 --> 02:36:28,240
He knows that within the
French population, there's

2787
02:36:28,410 --> 02:36:32,000
welling up this sentiment
for liberty and fraternity

2788
02:36:32,160 --> 02:36:33,960
and equality.

2789
02:36:34,120 --> 02:36:39,090
And he taps into that by being
a public diplomat, not just

2790
02:36:39,250 --> 02:36:41,550
a private diplomat.

2791
02:36:41,710 --> 02:36:45,380
Franklin moved from
a hotel in crowded Paris to

2792
02:36:45,550 --> 02:36:48,350
the village of Passy,
2 miles west, where

2793
02:36:48,510 --> 02:36:51,270
a wealthy merchant offered
the use of a wing

2794
02:36:51,430 --> 02:36:54,390
of his sprawling estate rent-free.

2795
02:36:54,560 --> 02:36:58,440
Soon, a lightning rod
sprouted from its roof.

2796
02:36:58,610 --> 02:37:01,730
Franklin sent his grandson
Benny to a boarding school

2797
02:37:01,900 --> 02:37:04,780
in Switzerland and assigned
Temple to help with

2798
02:37:04,950 --> 02:37:09,120
the diplomatic paperwork--
there were mountains of it--

2799
02:37:09,280 --> 02:37:11,370
and the steady stream of visitors

2800
02:37:11,540 --> 02:37:14,460
who began arriving once
they knew the famous

2801
02:37:14,620 --> 02:37:17,670
Doctor Franklin was living there.

2802
02:37:17,830 --> 02:37:19,670
You can have no Conception

2803
02:37:19,840 --> 02:37:21,420
how I am harass'd.

2804
02:37:21,590 --> 02:37:25,010
The Noise of Every Coach
now that enters my Court

2805
02:37:25,170 --> 02:37:27,590
terrifies me.

2806
02:37:27,760 --> 02:37:29,550
Besides his constant efforts

2807
02:37:29,720 --> 02:37:33,140
to get more money from the
French, much of Franklin's

2808
02:37:33,310 --> 02:37:36,850
time was consumed handling
requests from individual

2809
02:37:37,020 --> 02:37:43,190
Europeans eager to fight
the hated English in America.

2810
02:37:43,360 --> 02:37:45,820
Frequently if a Man has

2811
02:37:45,990 --> 02:37:49,990
no useful Talents, is good
for nothing, and burdensome

2812
02:37:50,160 --> 02:37:51,780
to his Relations,

2813
02:37:51,950 --> 02:37:55,450
they are glad to get rid of
him by sending him to

2814
02:37:55,620 --> 02:37:58,330
the other End of the World.

2815
02:37:58,500 --> 02:38:01,590
They came from every corner of Europe.

2816
02:38:01,750 --> 02:38:05,420
All of them, regardless of
their talents and experience,

2817
02:38:05,590 --> 02:38:09,300
expected to be
commissioned as officers.

2818
02:38:09,470 --> 02:38:13,470
General Washington finally
begged Franklin not to send

2819
02:38:13,640 --> 02:38:15,770
anyone else.

2820
02:38:15,930 --> 02:38:19,150
But 3 of the men Franklin
recommended would

2821
02:38:19,310 --> 02:38:22,690
prove invaluable to the Revolution:

2822
02:38:22,860 --> 02:38:25,650
Count Casimir Pulaski of Poland

2823
02:38:25,820 --> 02:38:28,110
would organize the American cavalry

2824
02:38:28,280 --> 02:38:31,530
and serve with bravery
and distinction before being

2825
02:38:31,700 --> 02:38:35,700
killed in action at Savannah, Georgia.

2826
02:38:35,870 --> 02:38:39,870
Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von
Steuben would develop a system

2827
02:38:40,040 --> 02:38:42,840
of military discipline
and drilling and impressed

2828
02:38:43,000 --> 02:38:46,260
the Continental soldiers with
his ability to swear

2829
02:38:46,420 --> 02:38:48,760
in multiple languages.

2830
02:38:48,920 --> 02:38:52,680
And the Marquis de Lafayette
of France, whose father had

2831
02:38:52,850 --> 02:38:56,390
been killed by the British in
the Seven Years' War, believed

2832
02:38:56,560 --> 02:39:00,640
that "To injure England is
to serve my country."

2833
02:39:00,810 --> 02:39:04,020
Only 19 years old when
he went to America, he would

2834
02:39:04,190 --> 02:39:07,740
become a surrogate son to
General Washington and one

2835
02:39:07,900 --> 02:39:11,530
of the most ardent champions
of the Revolution.

2836
02:39:15,740 --> 02:39:19,580
Early into his diplomatic
mission, Franklin was warned,

2837
02:39:19,750 --> 02:39:22,830
"You are surrounded with
spies who watch your every

2838
02:39:23,000 --> 02:39:27,420
movement, who you Visit
and by whom you are visited."

2839
02:39:27,590 --> 02:39:31,470
He said he didn't care.

2840
02:39:31,630 --> 02:39:33,010
As it is impossible

2841
02:39:33,180 --> 02:39:35,470
to prevent being watched by Spies,

2842
02:39:35,640 --> 02:39:38,180
I have long observed one Rule:

2843
02:39:38,350 --> 02:39:41,270
to be concerned in no affairs
that I should blush to have

2844
02:39:41,440 --> 02:39:43,020
made public.

2845
02:39:43,190 --> 02:39:45,860
If I was sure, therefore,
that my valet

2846
02:39:46,020 --> 02:39:50,740
was a spy, as probably he is,
I think I should probably not

2847
02:39:50,900 --> 02:39:55,200
discharge him for that, if in
other respects I liked him.

2848
02:39:56,660 --> 02:39:59,200
The chief spy in Franklin's midst

2849
02:39:59,370 --> 02:40:01,080
was not his valet.

2850
02:40:01,250 --> 02:40:05,130
It was Edward Bancroft,
a Massachusetts-born scientist

2851
02:40:05,290 --> 02:40:08,050
now serving as
the secretary to the American

2852
02:40:08,210 --> 02:40:12,010
delegation in France,
with access to every document

2853
02:40:12,170 --> 02:40:14,130
and letter.

2854
02:40:14,300 --> 02:40:18,060
Every week, Bancroft wrote
seemingly personal letters

2855
02:40:18,220 --> 02:40:21,890
and then, in invisible ink,
provided his clandestine

2856
02:40:22,060 --> 02:40:24,730
reports in the margins.

2857
02:40:24,900 --> 02:40:28,400
Each Tuesday night, he dropped
them into the hollow of a tree

2858
02:40:28,570 --> 02:40:31,190
in the Tuileries Garden,
where they were retrieved

2859
02:40:31,360 --> 02:40:35,160
and taken to
the British embassy in Paris.

2860
02:40:35,320 --> 02:40:38,780
For his work as a secret
agent, England paid him

2861
02:40:38,950 --> 02:40:42,750
£1,000 a year, the same
amount the Americans were

2862
02:40:42,910 --> 02:40:45,960
giving him to be their secretary.

2863
02:40:46,130 --> 02:40:48,710
His double-dealing would
not come to light

2864
02:40:48,880 --> 02:40:50,960
for a hundred years.

2865
02:40:52,550 --> 02:40:54,010
Franklin is encircled

2866
02:40:54,170 --> 02:40:57,720
by two sets of
extremely effective spies--

2867
02:40:57,890 --> 02:40:59,640
a set of French spies,
who are, themselves,

2868
02:40:59,810 --> 02:41:02,140
surrounded by a set of British spies.

2869
02:41:02,310 --> 02:41:05,810
And every piece of paper that,
essentially, moves off

2870
02:41:05,980 --> 02:41:07,940
of Franklin's desk will
end up in the wrong place,

2871
02:41:08,110 --> 02:41:10,150
will end up either at
Versailles or in London,

2872
02:41:10,320 --> 02:41:12,900
but very rarely in the colonies.

2873
02:41:13,070 --> 02:41:16,160
Franklin was no fool.

2874
02:41:16,320 --> 02:41:19,030
He knew what was happening.

2875
02:41:19,200 --> 02:41:23,540
He knew the spying that was
going on was to America's

2876
02:41:23,700 --> 02:41:28,750
advantage because the Brits
got the sense that America was

2877
02:41:28,920 --> 02:41:31,460
really quite close to France.

2878
02:41:31,630 --> 02:41:33,130
And, uh, Franklin did nothing.

2879
02:41:33,300 --> 02:41:37,050
I mean, he just
sat there and let it happen.

2880
02:41:45,140 --> 02:41:49,360
On December 4, 1777,
a messenger rode into

2881
02:41:49,520 --> 02:41:53,780
Franklin's courtyard at
Passy with startling news.

2882
02:41:55,400 --> 02:41:58,660
After two battles near
Saratoga, New York,

2883
02:41:58,820 --> 02:42:01,410
British General Burgoyne
had found himself

2884
02:42:01,580 --> 02:42:04,700
surrounded by a larger American force,

2885
02:42:04,870 --> 02:42:08,750
and on October 17,
he surrendered, along with

2886
02:42:08,920 --> 02:42:13,710
his entire army, nearly 6,000 troops.

2887
02:42:13,880 --> 02:42:15,630
Saratoga changes everything.

2888
02:42:15,800 --> 02:42:18,010
This is the moment Franklin
has been waiting for.

2889
02:42:18,180 --> 02:42:21,300
There is no reason for
the French to enter into any

2890
02:42:21,470 --> 02:42:23,760
serious alliance until the
Americans have proved that

2891
02:42:23,930 --> 02:42:26,640
they can actually win this war,
or at least put up a fight.

2892
02:42:26,810 --> 02:42:29,270
So, this is the news that he
needs to take to Vergennes,

2893
02:42:29,440 --> 02:42:31,200
the French foreign minister,
and to the Court

2894
02:42:31,360 --> 02:42:33,820
to be able to say, "OK, now,
will you take us seriously?

2895
02:42:33,980 --> 02:42:36,440
Now, will you officially--"
because until this point,

2896
02:42:36,610 --> 02:42:38,780
the help has been unofficial--
"Will you officially

2897
02:42:38,950 --> 02:42:40,860
underwrite our Revolution?"

2898
02:42:41,030 --> 02:42:44,280
Franklin sprang
into action, writing reports

2899
02:42:44,450 --> 02:42:46,500
of the American victory that
would be spread

2900
02:42:46,660 --> 02:42:48,370
throughout Paris,

2901
02:42:48,540 --> 02:42:52,670
praising valiant French officers
now serving in America,

2902
02:42:52,840 --> 02:42:56,510
like Lafayette, and
leading the British ambassador

2903
02:42:56,670 --> 02:43:01,760
to realize he had completely
underestimated Franklin.

2904
02:43:01,930 --> 02:43:03,570
MAN AS AMBASSADOR LORD STORMONT:
They play us off

2905
02:43:03,600 --> 02:43:05,350
against one another.

2906
02:43:05,510 --> 02:43:08,230
Franklin's natural subtlety
gives him a great advantage

2907
02:43:08,390 --> 02:43:10,060
in such a game.

2908
02:43:10,230 --> 02:43:13,860
It is easy to see that in
such a situation peace between

2909
02:43:14,020 --> 02:43:17,650
England and the House of
Bourbon hangs by the slightest

2910
02:43:17,820 --> 02:43:19,740
of all threads.

2911
02:43:23,200 --> 02:43:27,120
On February 6, 1778, Franklin

2912
02:43:27,290 --> 02:43:31,460
met with Vergennes
and signed 2 treaties.

2913
02:43:31,620 --> 02:43:35,750
One, a treaty of friendship
and commerce, meant French aid

2914
02:43:35,920 --> 02:43:38,960
would flow in greater
quantities and no longer

2915
02:43:39,130 --> 02:43:40,630
in secret.

2916
02:43:40,800 --> 02:43:44,090
The other, the most
important, was a treaty

2917
02:43:44,260 --> 02:43:46,100
of military alliance.

2918
02:43:46,260 --> 02:43:51,390
France had officially joined
the American Revolution.

2919
02:43:51,560 --> 02:43:54,610
When they signed the
treaty, he wears this old,

2920
02:43:54,770 --> 02:43:56,770
frayed suit.

2921
02:43:56,940 --> 02:44:00,650
And it's the one he had worn
in the Cockpit, when he had

2922
02:44:00,820 --> 02:44:05,200
been berated by the British
lords for what he was doing.

2923
02:44:05,370 --> 02:44:08,160
And he was asked why
he wore that coat.

2924
02:44:08,330 --> 02:44:11,460
And he said, "To give it
a little revenge."

2925
02:44:11,620 --> 02:44:16,170
A month later, he was
presented to King Louis XVI

2926
02:44:16,340 --> 02:44:18,500
at Versailles.

2927
02:44:18,670 --> 02:44:20,840
And he meets the king,
who congratulates him

2928
02:44:21,010 --> 02:44:22,530
and says, "I hope this is for the good

2929
02:44:22,590 --> 02:44:24,380
of both countries."

2930
02:44:24,550 --> 02:44:27,260
And Franklin utters a line,
which is almost astonishing

2931
02:44:27,430 --> 02:44:29,600
in its treachery, which is,
basically, he--he says to

2932
02:44:29,770 --> 02:44:33,600
the king, um, "If all rulers
ruled with your benevolence,

2933
02:44:33,770 --> 02:44:36,190
republics would
never be formed."

2934
02:44:36,360 --> 02:44:39,940
Franklin,
a French statesman proclaimed,

2935
02:44:40,110 --> 02:44:43,740
has "seized the lightning
from the heavens and now

2936
02:44:43,900 --> 02:44:46,780
the scepter from the tyrants."

2937
02:44:57,710 --> 02:44:59,250
This is the civilest nation

2938
02:44:59,420 --> 02:45:01,050
upon Earth.

2939
02:45:01,210 --> 02:45:02,920
Your first Acquaintances endeavor

2940
02:45:03,090 --> 02:45:06,720
to find out what you like,
and they tell others.

2941
02:45:06,890 --> 02:45:12,140
Somebody, it seems, gave it
out that I lov'd Ladies.

2942
02:45:12,310 --> 02:45:15,940
So everybody presented me their Ladies

2943
02:45:16,100 --> 02:45:21,400
or the Ladies presented
themselves to be embraced,

2944
02:45:21,570 --> 02:45:23,690
that is to have their Necks kissed.

2945
02:45:23,860 --> 02:45:28,490
For as to kissing of Lips or
Cheeks, it is not the Mode here;

2946
02:45:28,660 --> 02:45:32,330
the first, is reckoned rude,
and the other may

2947
02:45:32,490 --> 02:45:34,080
rub off the Paint.

2948
02:45:34,250 --> 02:45:37,500
'Tis a delightful People to live with.

2949
02:45:38,830 --> 02:45:40,880
All the while he was negotiating

2950
02:45:41,040 --> 02:45:44,170
and maneuvering for the
alliance with France, Franklin

2951
02:45:44,340 --> 02:45:46,970
immersed himself in
the intellectual circles

2952
02:45:47,130 --> 02:45:50,050
and social salons of Paris.

2953
02:45:50,220 --> 02:45:56,060
He considered it part of his
diplomacy and very enjoyable.

2954
02:45:56,230 --> 02:46:00,610
He had loved London,
but he adored Paris.

2955
02:46:00,770 --> 02:46:03,530
In France, you can flirt at
a very high level

2956
02:46:03,690 --> 02:46:07,070
of sophistication and it's
all a beautiful game

2957
02:46:07,240 --> 02:46:08,780
of sexual ballet.

2958
02:46:08,950 --> 02:46:11,160
And it has nothing to do
with carnality, really.

2959
02:46:11,330 --> 02:46:14,620
It's more about, nuance
and just the right touch

2960
02:46:14,790 --> 02:46:16,790
of flirtation.

2961
02:46:16,960 --> 02:46:21,080
he found personal happiness in
France that he had never found

2962
02:46:21,250 --> 02:46:23,090
in the course of his life.

2963
02:46:23,250 --> 02:46:26,420
I don't think you can
find anyone, anyone except his

2964
02:46:26,590 --> 02:46:28,930
colleagues, who fails to
fall under the charms

2965
02:46:29,090 --> 02:46:30,720
of Benjamin Franklin.

2966
02:46:32,140 --> 02:46:35,390
Franklin is everywhere adored
and everywhere cossetted

2967
02:46:35,560 --> 02:46:39,140
in Paris, by no one more so,
than by the women of France.

2968
02:46:39,310 --> 02:46:42,440
Every word that drops from his
lips, they think is a gem.

2969
02:46:42,610 --> 02:46:45,150
And Franklin just adores
the fact that these women are

2970
02:46:45,320 --> 02:46:48,200
essentially hanging
about him at all times.

2971
02:46:48,360 --> 02:46:50,860
Franklin became particularly enchanted

2972
02:46:51,030 --> 02:46:55,910
with a neighbor of his in Passy,
Madame Brillon de Jouy.

2973
02:46:56,080 --> 02:47:00,210
She was beautiful and well-
educated and, at age 33,

2974
02:47:00,370 --> 02:47:04,090
a year younger than
Franklin's daughter Sally.

2975
02:47:04,250 --> 02:47:07,970
He went to her home twice
a week for tea and music;

2976
02:47:08,130 --> 02:47:12,260
composed essays in her honor;
and once played a late-night

2977
02:47:12,430 --> 02:47:15,010
game of chess while
she watched from her

2978
02:47:15,180 --> 02:47:17,930
covered bathtub.

2979
02:47:18,100 --> 02:47:20,890
I think that Franklin's relationships

2980
02:47:21,060 --> 02:47:25,980
with women were more in the mind
than in the flesh.

2981
02:47:26,150 --> 02:47:29,820
He loved being flirtatious,
loved being around them,

2982
02:47:29,990 --> 02:47:33,570
but I don't think he pursued
a truly passionate romance

2983
02:47:33,740 --> 02:47:35,990
with any of them.

2984
02:47:36,160 --> 02:47:38,080
We'll never know what happened.

2985
02:47:38,250 --> 02:47:40,960
I think Madame Brillon pointed
out to Franklin that she was

2986
02:47:41,120 --> 02:47:44,790
a married woman, that any kind
of hanky-panky was simply

2987
02:47:44,960 --> 02:47:46,750
out of the question.

2988
02:47:46,920 --> 02:47:50,380
I believe Franklin must
have been disappointed,

2989
02:47:50,550 --> 02:47:54,800
but he took it very gracefully
and from that point forward,

2990
02:47:54,970 --> 02:47:59,430
they agreed that he would
be "Papa" and she would be

2991
02:47:59,600 --> 02:48:01,180
his daughter.

2992
02:48:03,060 --> 02:48:05,900
Franklin's attentions
turned to another woman

2993
02:48:06,060 --> 02:48:08,360
a little closer to his own age.

2994
02:48:08,530 --> 02:48:13,240
Anne-Catherine Helvétius was
nearly 60, a widow who lived

2995
02:48:13,410 --> 02:48:15,870
on a grand estate near Passy.

2996
02:48:16,030 --> 02:48:19,540
Eccentric and free-spirited,
she hosted one of the most

2997
02:48:19,700 --> 02:48:23,790
renowned salons in France,
attended by intellectuals

2998
02:48:23,960 --> 02:48:25,630
and artists.

2999
02:48:25,790 --> 02:48:29,550
Franklin became a regular
visitor, sometimes playing his

3000
02:48:29,710 --> 02:48:32,760
glass armonica while people
sang his favorite

3001
02:48:32,920 --> 02:48:36,430
Scottish ballads in French.

3002
02:48:36,600 --> 02:48:40,060
She's a philosopher's
widow and very Bohemian.

3003
02:48:40,220 --> 02:48:43,690
She had this fleet of
cats whom she would dress

3004
02:48:43,850 --> 02:48:46,860
in brocades and silks, and who
would--who would, basically,

3005
02:48:47,020 --> 02:48:49,440
wander around her house and
eat their meals off china.

3006
02:48:49,610 --> 02:48:53,820
Um, and into that menagerie,
um, walks Benjamin Franklin,

3007
02:48:53,990 --> 02:48:55,780
who's immediately smitten.

3008
02:48:55,950 --> 02:48:58,030
If this lady is pleased to spend

3009
02:48:58,200 --> 02:49:00,490
her days with Monsieur Franklin,

3010
02:49:00,660 --> 02:49:06,370
he would be just as pleased
to spend his nights with her.

3011
02:49:06,540 --> 02:49:09,630
She declined,
but never discouraged him

3012
02:49:09,800 --> 02:49:12,210
from showering her with affection.

3013
02:49:12,380 --> 02:49:14,220
There is a moment there
where he essentially

3014
02:49:14,380 --> 02:49:17,800
says to her, "I would stay in
France, if you would have me."

3015
02:49:17,970 --> 02:49:19,640
And she's not interested.

3016
02:49:19,810 --> 02:49:22,310
But I would say that that
was probably the most serious

3017
02:49:22,470 --> 02:49:25,850
of the relationships with--
with any--with the French women.

3018
02:49:26,020 --> 02:49:28,730
Meanwhile,
Franklin's social calendar was

3019
02:49:28,900 --> 02:49:33,690
always filled with lunches,
teas, and lavish dinners.

3020
02:49:33,860 --> 02:49:37,240
He didn't speak or
understand French all that well.

3021
02:49:37,410 --> 02:49:39,570
He wanted to be able to see
the meal in front of him

3022
02:49:39,740 --> 02:49:42,180
at a dinner party, but, also, at
the same time, he needed to see

3023
02:49:42,200 --> 02:49:45,160
the lips of the people speaking
to him across the table.

3024
02:49:45,330 --> 02:49:47,750
So, he became frustrated
that his glasses couldn't do

3025
02:49:47,920 --> 02:49:49,380
both things.

3026
02:49:49,540 --> 02:49:53,210
This is typical Franklin.
He analyzed the problem.

3027
02:49:53,380 --> 02:49:56,380
He sawed his existing glasses
in half, and glued them

3028
02:49:56,550 --> 02:49:59,140
together so that one top--
one side did one function,

3029
02:49:59,300 --> 02:50:00,640
the other, the other.

3030
02:50:00,800 --> 02:50:03,010
He called his newest invention

3031
02:50:03,180 --> 02:50:06,810
"double-spectacles"-- bifocals.

3032
02:50:06,980 --> 02:50:10,310
And Franklin was always
ready for a game of chess

3033
02:50:10,480 --> 02:50:12,400
with anyone.

3034
02:50:12,570 --> 02:50:16,360
In one case, he was
having this chess match with

3035
02:50:16,530 --> 02:50:20,490
the Duchess of Bourbon and
Franklin professed to forget

3036
02:50:20,660 --> 02:50:23,830
the rules and he captured the king.

3037
02:50:23,990 --> 02:50:26,580
His opponent, the Duchess
says, "Well, in--in France,

3038
02:50:26,750 --> 02:50:28,120
"we don't capture kings.

3039
02:50:28,290 --> 02:50:30,040
That's not the way
the game is played."

3040
02:50:30,210 --> 02:50:32,670
He said, "Ah, but
in America, we do."

3041
02:50:37,170 --> 02:50:39,550
It was late when he breakfasted,

3042
02:50:39,720 --> 02:50:41,550
and as soon as breakfast was over,

3043
02:50:41,720 --> 02:50:44,600
a crowd of carriages came.

3044
02:50:44,760 --> 02:50:47,560
By far the greater part were
women and children, come to

3045
02:50:47,730 --> 02:50:50,810
have the honor to see the
great Franklin, and to have

3046
02:50:50,980 --> 02:50:52,860
the pleasure of telling
stories about his

3047
02:50:53,020 --> 02:50:56,030
simplicity and his bald head.

3048
02:50:56,190 --> 02:50:59,700
He was invited to dine every day
and never declined

3049
02:50:59,860 --> 02:51:04,280
and it was the only thing
in which he was punctual.

3050
02:51:04,450 --> 02:51:06,790
John Adams.

3051
02:51:06,950 --> 02:51:08,790
In April, while the treaties

3052
02:51:08,960 --> 02:51:10,670
were crossing the Atlantic,

3053
02:51:10,830 --> 02:51:13,340
John Adams arrived in Paris.

3054
02:51:13,500 --> 02:51:16,710
He had been sent by Congress
to push more vigorously

3055
02:51:16,880 --> 02:51:20,300
for a French alliance and was
chagrined to learn that

3056
02:51:20,470 --> 02:51:24,510
Franklin had already
secured two treaties.

3057
02:51:24,680 --> 02:51:28,640
Even more aggravating to him
was how Franklin seemed to be

3058
02:51:28,810 --> 02:51:30,560
conducting himself.

3059
02:51:30,730 --> 02:51:34,900
Adams called it "a scene
of continual dissipation."

3060
02:51:35,070 --> 02:51:38,110
He was absolutely horrified.

3061
02:51:38,280 --> 02:51:39,900
Franklin's desk was a mess.

3062
02:51:40,070 --> 02:51:42,240
There were papers all over the place.

3063
02:51:42,410 --> 02:51:45,200
And there was no security.

3064
02:51:45,370 --> 02:51:46,910
Adams said,
"Where's 'Poor Richard?'"

3065
02:51:47,080 --> 02:51:48,540
"Early to bed, early to rise

3066
02:51:48,700 --> 02:51:50,620
"makes a man
healthy, wealthy, and wise.

3067
02:51:50,790 --> 02:51:52,560
"Where's--where's the--
the Franklin that we're all--

3068
02:51:52,580 --> 02:51:54,830
that's famous
for his discipline?"

3069
02:51:55,000 --> 02:51:59,670
It's hard to imagine
2 such talented people, 2 men

3070
02:51:59,840 --> 02:52:02,470
with so much in common,
who are of absolutely

3071
02:52:02,630 --> 02:52:04,470
opposite temperaments.

3072
02:52:04,640 --> 02:52:08,770
One of them is very rigid
and dogmatic and brilliant.

3073
02:52:08,930 --> 02:52:11,390
And the other one is very
flexible and easy-going

3074
02:52:11,560 --> 02:52:12,890
and affable and brilliant.

3075
02:52:13,060 --> 02:52:15,440
And they got on each other's nerves.

3076
02:52:15,610 --> 02:52:20,110
Adams is quite wary of
the French, quite Puritanical.

3077
02:52:20,280 --> 02:52:24,450
Adams learned French by
memorizing funeral orations,

3078
02:52:24,610 --> 02:52:27,580
and Franklin learned French
by writing poetry

3079
02:52:27,740 --> 02:52:29,870
and letters to women.

3080
02:52:30,040 --> 02:52:32,580
Franklin knew how to be
popular and Adams had no idea

3081
02:52:32,750 --> 02:52:34,120
how to be popular.

3082
02:52:34,290 --> 02:52:36,080
In fact, Adams
per-perceived popularity

3083
02:52:36,250 --> 02:52:38,250
as a sign that he
was not doing the right thing.

3084
02:52:38,420 --> 02:52:42,170
Franklin's popularity
drives Adams to distraction.

3085
02:52:42,340 --> 02:52:44,280
He's--he feels he's being--
he feels that Franklin is being

3086
02:52:44,300 --> 02:52:48,930
ineffective and utterly given
over to Old World luxury,

3087
02:52:49,100 --> 02:52:51,120
and, moreover, people are
throwing themselves at him

3088
02:52:51,140 --> 02:52:52,770
left and right.

3089
02:52:52,930 --> 02:52:54,660
He can't stand these
celebrations of what he sees

3090
02:52:54,690 --> 02:52:57,400
as this utterly
irresponsible colleague.

3091
02:52:57,560 --> 02:53:00,610
Shortly after his
arrival, Adams accompanied

3092
02:53:00,780 --> 02:53:04,650
Franklin to the Academy of
Sciences to see Voltaire,

3093
02:53:04,820 --> 02:53:07,320
France's greatest Enlightenment writer

3094
02:53:07,490 --> 02:53:09,200
and philosopher.

3095
02:53:09,370 --> 02:53:14,620
He was 83 and in poor health,
a month away from dying.

3096
02:53:14,790 --> 02:53:18,960
When the crowd demanded that
the two great men embrace,

3097
02:53:19,130 --> 02:53:22,920
Adams had to watch from the sidelines.

3098
02:53:23,090 --> 02:53:26,840
Adams is an impatient
man, he's a brittle man.

3099
02:53:27,010 --> 02:53:29,680
And he doesn't understand
the channels of diplomacy.

3100
02:53:29,850 --> 02:53:31,280
And he certainly doesn't
understand the way

3101
02:53:31,310 --> 02:53:33,100
the French Court works.

3102
02:53:33,270 --> 02:53:36,730
He doesn't see that the secret
to Franklin's success is,

3103
02:53:36,900 --> 02:53:39,940
in large part, his inactivity,
the fact that he is...

3104
02:53:40,110 --> 02:53:42,900
essentially being polite and genteel

3105
02:53:43,070 --> 02:53:45,650
and is expressing gratitude
toward these people who are

3106
02:53:45,820 --> 02:53:47,990
underwriting our-- our Revolution.

3107
02:53:48,160 --> 02:53:50,580
Adams wants to be demanding
things at all times and,

3108
02:53:50,740 --> 02:53:52,260
essentially, makes himself
very unwelcome

3109
02:53:52,290 --> 02:53:53,870
at the French Court.

3110
02:53:54,040 --> 02:53:56,540
It's the "good cop"
and the "bad cop."

3111
02:53:56,710 --> 02:53:58,500
And Franklin is the good cop.

3112
02:53:58,670 --> 02:54:01,090
I think they become
an effective team and instead

3113
02:54:01,250 --> 02:54:04,010
of seeing one as right and the
other as wrong, um, it works

3114
02:54:04,170 --> 02:54:05,800
for the American cause.

3115
02:54:05,970 --> 02:54:07,780
This is probably the greatest
assemblage of diplomatic

3116
02:54:07,800 --> 02:54:10,470
talent in American
history--two people.

3117
02:54:10,640 --> 02:54:14,850
But Adams is perceived by the
French, especially Vergennes,

3118
02:54:15,020 --> 02:54:19,520
the French foreign minister,
as this impossible creature.

3119
02:54:19,690 --> 02:54:23,480
In February 1779,

3120
02:54:23,650 --> 02:54:26,860
Adams learned that,
at Vergennes' insistence,

3121
02:54:27,030 --> 02:54:29,490
Congress had named Benjamin Franklin

3122
02:54:29,660 --> 02:54:33,450
the United States'
sole representative in France.

3123
02:54:35,700 --> 02:54:38,620
John Adams left for home.

3124
02:54:53,140 --> 02:54:56,720
This was a war that was
not a sectional war.

3125
02:54:56,890 --> 02:54:59,810
This was not North versus South.

3126
02:54:59,980 --> 02:55:03,110
Americans were fighting
against Americans.

3127
02:55:03,270 --> 02:55:07,490
This was a Continental war
where every single person had

3128
02:55:07,650 --> 02:55:11,200
to decide which side they were on.

3129
02:55:11,360 --> 02:55:13,200
After being taken to Connecticut as

3130
02:55:13,370 --> 02:55:17,290
a prisoner in 1776,
William Franklin had been

3131
02:55:17,450 --> 02:55:20,670
persuaded to sign a paper
promising not to attempt

3132
02:55:20,830 --> 02:55:24,790
an escape or to work against
the Patriots so he could be

3133
02:55:24,960 --> 02:55:28,380
placed under house arrest
in a comfortable home.

3134
02:55:28,550 --> 02:55:32,050
It didn't last long.

3135
02:55:32,220 --> 02:55:35,100
He began secretly
corresponding with British

3136
02:55:35,260 --> 02:55:38,520
officials in New York,
advising them about Loyalists

3137
02:55:38,680 --> 02:55:41,480
in Connecticut and New Jersey.

3138
02:55:41,640 --> 02:55:44,810
Congress learned what William
was doing and ordered him

3139
02:55:44,980 --> 02:55:48,610
taken to the infamous Litchfield jail.

3140
02:55:48,780 --> 02:55:52,660
He was kept there in solitary
confinement for 8 months,

3141
02:55:52,820 --> 02:55:55,990
with nothing but a chamber
pot and a straw pallet

3142
02:55:56,160 --> 02:55:57,990
on the floor.

3143
02:55:58,160 --> 02:56:02,710
It was, he wrote, as if "I have
been buried alive."

3144
02:56:02,870 --> 02:56:06,710
His wife, Elizabeth, had moved
to British-held New York City,

3145
02:56:06,880 --> 02:56:10,170
where her already
fragile health worsened.

3146
02:56:10,340 --> 02:56:13,470
William appealed to
General Washington, begging

3147
02:56:13,640 --> 02:56:16,390
for permission to see her.

3148
02:56:16,550 --> 02:56:18,810
I am certain that an indulgence

3149
02:56:18,970 --> 02:56:21,060
in my present request will be

3150
02:56:21,230 --> 02:56:23,520
thankfully acknowledged by my father,

3151
02:56:23,690 --> 02:56:26,560
for he has great esteem for my wife,

3152
02:56:26,730 --> 02:56:28,860
and I believe that though we differ

3153
02:56:29,030 --> 02:56:30,740
in our political sentiments,

3154
02:56:30,900 --> 02:56:34,450
yet it has not lessened his
natural affection for me,

3155
02:56:34,610 --> 02:56:38,700
any more than it has mine for him.

3156
02:56:38,870 --> 02:56:40,700
Washington passed his request

3157
02:56:40,870 --> 02:56:44,710
on to Congress, which
refused to intervene.

3158
02:56:44,870 --> 02:56:50,050
The same day,
Elizabeth died at age 43.

3159
02:56:50,210 --> 02:56:53,050
In his jail cell, William's own health

3160
02:56:53,220 --> 02:56:56,430
began deteriorating.

3161
02:56:56,590 --> 02:56:59,760
My Life
has become quite a burden to me.

3162
02:56:59,930 --> 02:57:02,810
In short, I suffer so much

3163
02:57:02,980 --> 02:57:06,060
that I should deem it
a Favour to be immediately

3164
02:57:06,230 --> 02:57:08,860
taken out and shot.

3165
02:57:11,030 --> 02:57:12,650
Franklin's daughter Sally

3166
02:57:12,820 --> 02:57:15,910
and her husband appealed
to Congress to move him.

3167
02:57:16,070 --> 02:57:20,030
So did many of Franklin's
Philadelphia friends.

3168
02:57:20,200 --> 02:57:24,330
In France, Benjamin Franklin
himself did nothing

3169
02:57:24,500 --> 02:57:27,750
on his son's behalf.

3170
02:57:27,920 --> 02:57:32,170
In September of 1778,
Congress approved an exchange

3171
02:57:32,340 --> 02:57:34,010
of prisoners.

3172
02:57:34,170 --> 02:57:38,220
The British released the
Patriot governor of Delaware.

3173
02:57:38,390 --> 02:57:41,260
William Franklin was
taken to New York City.

3174
02:57:41,430 --> 02:57:44,480
It was assumed he
would sail to England.

3175
02:57:44,640 --> 02:57:49,230
Instead, he stayed to help the
British, establishing a network

3176
02:57:49,400 --> 02:57:54,530
of spies that operated behind
American lines and organizing

3177
02:57:54,690 --> 02:57:58,240
guerrilla units that conducted
raids along the coast

3178
02:57:58,410 --> 02:58:01,830
of Connecticut and Rhode
Island and up the Hudson River

3179
02:58:01,990 --> 02:58:04,200
in New York.

3180
02:58:04,370 --> 02:58:07,420
He came out of that
jail time experience

3181
02:58:07,580 --> 02:58:10,920
in the same way that Benjamin
came out of the Cockpit.

3182
02:58:11,090 --> 02:58:14,840
He was angry, and he wanted to
do everything that he could

3183
02:58:15,010 --> 02:58:16,760
to defeat the Patriots.

3184
02:58:16,920 --> 02:58:20,220
He became head of something
called the "Associate Board

3185
02:58:20,390 --> 02:58:23,350
of Loyalists," which was
a terrorist organization,

3186
02:58:23,510 --> 02:58:25,060
pure and simple.

3187
02:58:25,220 --> 02:58:28,350
In New Jersey, Patriots were routinely

3188
02:58:28,520 --> 02:58:30,480
murdering Loyalists.

3189
02:58:30,650 --> 02:58:35,230
In response, William's
group issued a warning.

3190
02:58:35,400 --> 02:58:38,030
A Warning to Rebels:

3191
02:58:38,200 --> 02:58:41,870
If you continue in your murder
and cruelties,

3192
02:58:42,030 --> 02:58:45,450
we Loyalists
do Solemnly Declare that we

3193
02:58:45,620 --> 02:58:49,290
will Hang Six for One,
which shall be Inflicted

3194
02:58:49,460 --> 02:58:52,290
on your Headmen and Leaders.

3195
02:58:56,670 --> 02:58:59,300
Word of the alliance with France had

3196
02:58:59,470 --> 02:59:02,220
prompted the British
to abandon Philadelphia

3197
02:59:02,390 --> 02:59:05,640
and bolster their
defenses in New York.

3198
02:59:05,810 --> 02:59:09,890
Franklin's family moved back
into their Market Street home.

3199
02:59:10,060 --> 02:59:13,860
Sally organized women who went
door-to-door to raise money

3200
02:59:14,020 --> 02:59:16,690
for the Continental Army
and knitted shirts

3201
02:59:16,860 --> 02:59:18,860
for Washington's men.

3202
02:59:19,030 --> 02:59:23,620
But elsewhere in America,
the war was not going well.

3203
02:59:23,780 --> 02:59:27,160
The first joint American-
French military operation,

3204
02:59:27,330 --> 02:59:30,040
in Rhode Island, had failed
to take Newport

3205
02:59:30,210 --> 02:59:31,790
back from the British,

3206
02:59:31,960 --> 02:59:35,460
who opened up their
own offensive in the South.

3207
02:59:35,630 --> 02:59:38,420
They captured Savannah,
Georgia, and later,

3208
02:59:38,590 --> 02:59:43,090
Charleston, South Carolina,
where 5,000 American troops,

3209
02:59:43,260 --> 02:59:48,560
4 ships, and 300 pieces of
artillery were surrendered.

3210
02:59:48,730 --> 02:59:52,600
Soon, a British army, under
General Lord Cornwallis,

3211
02:59:52,770 --> 02:59:55,860
would begin marching toward Virginia.

3212
02:59:56,020 --> 03:00:01,070
"Our present situation makes one
of two things essential to us,"

3213
03:00:01,240 --> 03:00:03,570
George Washington wrote to Franklin.

3214
03:00:03,740 --> 03:00:07,700
"A peace or the most
vigorous aid of our allies,

3215
03:00:07,870 --> 03:00:11,080
particularly in
the article of money."

3216
03:00:11,250 --> 03:00:16,630
Lafayette reported to Franklin
how dire things had become.

3217
03:00:16,790 --> 03:00:20,050
My dear friend, You have no idea

3218
03:00:20,210 --> 03:00:22,720
of the shocking situation
the Army is in.

3219
03:00:22,880 --> 03:00:26,220
We are naked, shockingly
naked, and worse off on that

3220
03:00:26,390 --> 03:00:28,510
respect than we have ever been.

3221
03:00:28,680 --> 03:00:29,970
For God's sake let us have

3222
03:00:30,140 --> 03:00:32,310
fifteen or twenty thousand uniforms

3223
03:00:32,480 --> 03:00:34,980
and let it be done in such
a way as will insure their

3224
03:00:35,150 --> 03:00:38,020
timely departure from France.

3225
03:00:38,190 --> 03:00:40,490
In France, managing the purchase

3226
03:00:40,650 --> 03:00:45,030
and shipment of supplies
proved frustratingly slow.

3227
03:00:45,200 --> 03:00:48,700
Franklin did what he could
to speed things up, but some

3228
03:00:48,870 --> 03:00:52,910
in Congress blamed him for the
delays anyway and discussed

3229
03:00:53,080 --> 03:00:55,500
having him replaced.

3230
03:00:55,670 --> 03:00:58,750
Vergennes was angered at the news.

3231
03:00:58,920 --> 03:01:03,220
He approved an outright gift,
not a loan, the largest

3232
03:01:03,380 --> 03:01:07,140
of the war to the United
States, and wrote Congress

3233
03:01:07,300 --> 03:01:10,310
that it had been granted
specifically because

3234
03:01:10,470 --> 03:01:13,640
of Franklin's persistence.

3235
03:01:13,810 --> 03:01:16,770
Franklin, meanwhile, wrote Congress,

3236
03:01:16,940 --> 03:01:19,730
asking to be replaced.

3237
03:01:19,900 --> 03:01:22,780
I have pass'd my 75th Year.

3238
03:01:22,940 --> 03:01:27,740
I have been engag'd in publick
Affairs, and enjoy'd public

3239
03:01:27,910 --> 03:01:32,080
Confidence in some Shape or
other, during the long Term

3240
03:01:32,250 --> 03:01:36,620
of fifty Years, an Honor
sufficient to satisfy any

3241
03:01:36,790 --> 03:01:41,050
reasonable Ambition, and I
have no other left, but that

3242
03:01:41,210 --> 03:01:45,970
of Repose, which I hope
the Congress will grant me,

3243
03:01:46,130 --> 03:01:50,850
by sending some Person
to supply my Place.

3244
03:01:53,470 --> 03:01:58,440
On November 19, 1781,
a young American merchant

3245
03:01:58,600 --> 03:02:02,070
named Elkanah Watson
paid a visit to Passy

3246
03:02:02,230 --> 03:02:05,490
and found the old man lost in thought.

3247
03:02:05,650 --> 03:02:09,200
Franklin invited him in for
dinner, played a Scottish

3248
03:02:09,370 --> 03:02:13,580
pastoral tune for him on the
armonica, and then they talked

3249
03:02:13,740 --> 03:02:19,330
late into the night about
the state of the war.

3250
03:02:19,500 --> 03:02:22,300
We weighed probabilities, balanc'd

3251
03:02:22,460 --> 03:02:27,090
vicissitudes, dissected the
best Maps; and finally it

3252
03:02:27,260 --> 03:02:30,300
resulted in a disheartening
foreboding,

3253
03:02:30,470 --> 03:02:32,260
that the English Fleet wou'd intercept

3254
03:02:32,430 --> 03:02:36,520
& destroy the French Fleet,
Land their Army & brake up

3255
03:02:36,680 --> 03:02:38,980
Washington's quarters.

3256
03:02:39,150 --> 03:02:43,520
Thus our unhappy Country would
again bleed at every vein

3257
03:02:43,690 --> 03:02:45,860
& the war commence with fresh vigor

3258
03:02:46,030 --> 03:02:48,860
on the part of our implacable enemy.

3259
03:02:50,660 --> 03:02:54,120
Franklin was extremely discouraged.

3260
03:02:54,290 --> 03:02:58,620
He was working night and day
to supply the Americans

3261
03:02:58,790 --> 03:03:01,920
with everything they needed.

3262
03:03:02,080 --> 03:03:07,720
But the war was dragging
on and on and on.

3263
03:03:07,880 --> 03:03:13,050
So, when, at midnight,
a courier came galloping into

3264
03:03:13,220 --> 03:03:16,720
Franklin's courtyard with
the news of the victory

3265
03:03:16,890 --> 03:03:20,850
at Yorktown, it transformed him.

3266
03:03:21,020 --> 03:03:23,650
A month earlier, Washington's army

3267
03:03:23,810 --> 03:03:28,190
of 9,000 Americans and nearly
as many French troops

3268
03:03:28,360 --> 03:03:31,860
had trapped British General
Cornwallis at Yorktown

3269
03:03:32,030 --> 03:03:33,910
on the Virginia Peninsula.

3270
03:03:34,080 --> 03:03:37,750
The French fleet offshore
had cut off any chance of his

3271
03:03:37,910 --> 03:03:41,500
being resupplied or reinforced.

3272
03:03:41,670 --> 03:03:45,420
After 9 days of heavy
bombardment, Cornwallis

3273
03:03:45,590 --> 03:03:52,130
surrendered his 8,000 troops
on October 19, 1781.

3274
03:03:52,300 --> 03:03:56,220
Lafayette, a division
commander of American forces,

3275
03:03:56,390 --> 03:03:59,520
was at Washington's side.

3276
03:03:59,680 --> 03:04:02,770
If France had not supplied the ships,

3277
03:04:02,940 --> 03:04:05,020
if Lafayette hadn't come over,

3278
03:04:05,190 --> 03:04:08,530
if Vergennes and others
hadn't done what they did,

3279
03:04:08,690 --> 03:04:11,950
if we hadn't had
the French Navy helping by

3280
03:04:12,110 --> 03:04:16,120
the time we got to Yorktown,
I do not think that

3281
03:04:16,280 --> 03:04:20,120
the American Colonies would
have won the Revolution.

3282
03:04:20,290 --> 03:04:23,750
I think Benjamin Franklin,
by sealing the alliance

3283
03:04:23,920 --> 03:04:28,420
with France, did as much to
win the Revolution as anybody

3284
03:04:28,590 --> 03:04:31,130
with the possible exception
of George Washington.

3285
03:04:32,970 --> 03:04:36,010
The Americans had won a great victory,

3286
03:04:36,180 --> 03:04:40,350
but the British still had
26,000 troops in North America,

3287
03:04:40,520 --> 03:04:43,560
and the war with England was not over.

3288
03:04:43,730 --> 03:04:46,610
Neither were Franklin's duties.

3289
03:04:46,770 --> 03:04:51,530
Congress refused to accept his
resignation and instead gave him

3290
03:04:51,690 --> 03:04:53,450
an additional mission.

3291
03:04:53,610 --> 03:04:56,320
He was now part of
a delegation to begin peace

3292
03:04:56,490 --> 03:04:59,790
negotiations with England.

3293
03:04:59,950 --> 03:05:04,500
Franklin drew up a list of
4 non-negotiable demands

3294
03:05:04,670 --> 03:05:07,960
during informal talks with
the British and rebuffed their

3295
03:05:08,130 --> 03:05:10,960
suggestions that the
Americans cut the French

3296
03:05:11,130 --> 03:05:14,220
out of the deliberations.

3297
03:05:14,380 --> 03:05:18,550
To complicate things, when
two other American negotiators

3298
03:05:18,720 --> 03:05:21,600
arrived in Paris, they had
their own opinions

3299
03:05:21,770 --> 03:05:23,810
on the best way forward.

3300
03:05:23,980 --> 03:05:28,560
One was John Jay,
a brilliant New York lawyer.

3301
03:05:28,730 --> 03:05:32,650
The other was John Adams.

3302
03:05:32,820 --> 03:05:34,320
That I have no friendship

3303
03:05:34,490 --> 03:05:36,530
for Franklin, I avow.

3304
03:05:36,700 --> 03:05:39,580
That I am incapable of having
any with a man of his moral

3305
03:05:39,740 --> 03:05:42,330
sentiments, I avow.

3306
03:05:42,500 --> 03:05:45,040
His whole Life has been one
continued Insult

3307
03:05:45,210 --> 03:05:47,630
to good Manners and to Decency.

3308
03:05:47,790 --> 03:05:50,210
I can have no Dependence on his Word.

3309
03:05:50,380 --> 03:05:54,090
I never know when he speaks
the Truth, and when not.

3310
03:05:54,260 --> 03:05:57,380
I wish with all my Soul he
was out of public Service,

3311
03:05:57,550 --> 03:06:00,470
and in Retirement,
repenting of his past Life,

3312
03:06:00,640 --> 03:06:05,270
and preparing, as he ought
to be, for another World.

3313
03:06:05,430 --> 03:06:07,810
Franklin was
the kind of man put on Earth

3314
03:06:07,980 --> 03:06:11,110
to drive a man like
Adams absolutely crazy.

3315
03:06:11,270 --> 03:06:13,570
Franklin, himself, writes back
to the Congress during

3316
03:06:13,730 --> 03:06:16,110
the time they're both Ministers
in France and says,

3317
03:06:16,280 --> 03:06:19,160
"John Adams is an honest man;
sometimes, a great one.

3318
03:06:19,320 --> 03:06:22,080
"But, in some ways and some
things, absolutely out

3319
03:06:22,240 --> 03:06:23,870
of his senses."

3320
03:06:24,040 --> 03:06:26,000
Despite their
differences, the Americans

3321
03:06:26,160 --> 03:06:27,920
settled down to work.

3322
03:06:28,080 --> 03:06:29,670
John Jay agreed with Adams,

3323
03:06:29,830 --> 03:06:32,670
that they should not consult
with Vergennes,

3324
03:06:32,840 --> 03:06:36,170
even though the alliance with
France required it.

3325
03:06:36,340 --> 03:06:41,220
For the sake of unanimity,
Franklin reluctantly consented.

3326
03:06:41,390 --> 03:06:46,140
By November of 1782, more
than a year after Yorktown,

3327
03:06:46,310 --> 03:06:50,310
a preliminary agreement
seemed within reach.

3328
03:06:50,480 --> 03:06:53,900
England would recognize
American independence,

3329
03:06:54,070 --> 03:06:56,780
remove its troops
from the United States,

3330
03:06:56,940 --> 03:07:00,450
allow American fishing rights
off the coast of Newfoundland,

3331
03:07:00,610 --> 03:07:04,910
and relinquish any claims
south of the Great Lakes.

3332
03:07:05,080 --> 03:07:07,040
But there was a sticking point.

3333
03:07:07,200 --> 03:07:10,250
The British wanted a provision
that would compensate

3334
03:07:10,420 --> 03:07:13,920
American Loyalists for their
losses during the war.

3335
03:07:14,090 --> 03:07:16,960
Adams and Jay wavered on the issue.

3336
03:07:17,130 --> 03:07:20,260
Franklin wouldn't budge.

3337
03:07:20,430 --> 03:07:21,970
And Franklin got angry.

3338
03:07:22,140 --> 03:07:23,660
He didn't very often
get angry, and he said,

3339
03:07:23,680 --> 03:07:26,720
"Wait a minute.
You ruined our crops.

3340
03:07:26,890 --> 03:07:29,140
"You burned our cities.

3341
03:07:29,310 --> 03:07:31,810
"You took our citizens
across the Atlantic

3342
03:07:31,980 --> 03:07:33,610
"and tortured them.

3343
03:07:33,770 --> 03:07:36,860
"You engaged in state
terror against the citizens

3344
03:07:37,030 --> 03:07:38,940
"of the United States.

3345
03:07:39,110 --> 03:07:41,660
"Don't talk to me about
recompensing Loyalists unless

3346
03:07:41,820 --> 03:07:45,240
"you want to pay for Norfolk
and all the cities you burned

3347
03:07:45,410 --> 03:07:47,390
"and trashed, and the houses
that you ruined, and the lives

3348
03:07:47,410 --> 03:07:49,080
that you shattered."

3349
03:07:49,250 --> 03:07:51,870
Even Adams was
struck by Franklin's vehemence

3350
03:07:52,040 --> 03:07:53,790
on the issue.

3351
03:07:53,960 --> 03:07:57,590
His fury came in part from
reports of his son William's

3352
03:07:57,760 --> 03:08:00,510
conduct back in the United States.

3353
03:08:00,670 --> 03:08:04,260
Intent on keeping the war
going, despite the British

3354
03:08:04,430 --> 03:08:08,470
defeat at Yorktown, William's
group of guerrilla marauders

3355
03:08:08,640 --> 03:08:10,850
had pressed forward with their raids.

3356
03:08:11,020 --> 03:08:15,150
In one notorious incident,
they hanged a Patriot leader

3357
03:08:15,310 --> 03:08:17,900
in the midst of what was
supposed to be a peaceful

3358
03:08:18,070 --> 03:08:20,030
exchange of prisoners.

3359
03:08:20,190 --> 03:08:23,740
It was an outrage that
threatened to mushroom into

3360
03:08:23,910 --> 03:08:27,280
an international crisis,
complicating Franklin's

3361
03:08:27,450 --> 03:08:31,210
diplomacy in Paris at
precisely the wrong time.

3362
03:08:33,420 --> 03:08:37,040
At the end of 1782,
a preliminary agreement

3363
03:08:37,210 --> 03:08:40,550
of peace was signed and sent
to London and Philadelphia

3364
03:08:40,710 --> 03:08:42,590
for approval.

3365
03:08:42,760 --> 03:08:46,470
It did not require reparations
to Americans who had remained

3366
03:08:46,640 --> 03:08:48,350
loyal to England.

3367
03:08:48,510 --> 03:08:52,230
And France, which had given
so much to the new nation,

3368
03:08:52,390 --> 03:08:55,230
had been excluded altogether.

3369
03:08:55,400 --> 03:08:58,980
Franklin was assigned the
task of smoothing things over

3370
03:08:59,150 --> 03:09:00,900
with Vergennes.

3371
03:09:01,070 --> 03:09:03,030
Franklin writes one
of the greatest letters

3372
03:09:03,200 --> 03:09:04,780
he ever wrote to Vergennes,

3373
03:09:04,950 --> 03:09:07,530
apologizing for
this in a beautiful way and--

3374
03:09:07,700 --> 03:09:10,160
and really disarming the--
what could have been a huge

3375
03:09:10,330 --> 03:09:13,750
international crisis, that we
had not fulfilled our promise

3376
03:09:13,910 --> 03:09:16,460
to work out the diplomatic
aspects of the end of the war

3377
03:09:16,630 --> 03:09:19,090
with France and not separately.

3378
03:09:19,250 --> 03:09:22,090
But he also, in that same letter
of apology to Vergennes,

3379
03:09:22,260 --> 03:09:24,260
this masterpiece, said,
"And, by the way,

3380
03:09:24,430 --> 03:09:27,970
we need some more money, too,"
and he got it!

3381
03:09:28,140 --> 03:09:31,970
Finally, on September 3, 1783,

3382
03:09:32,140 --> 03:09:34,890
the Treaty of Paris was signed.

3383
03:09:35,060 --> 03:09:38,480
England officially recognized
its former colonies

3384
03:09:38,650 --> 03:09:41,070
as the United States of America.

3385
03:09:41,230 --> 03:09:44,450
The Revolutionary War was over.

3386
03:09:45,900 --> 03:09:48,620
Members of the British
delegation refused to pose

3387
03:09:48,780 --> 03:09:51,450
for the portrait meant to
commemorate the moment.

3388
03:09:51,620 --> 03:09:55,080
In the unfinished painting,
Franklin sits in the middle,

3389
03:09:55,250 --> 03:09:58,460
with his grandson Temple,
the delegation's secretary,

3390
03:09:58,630 --> 03:10:00,670
sitting to his left.

3391
03:10:00,840 --> 03:10:04,630
On Franklin's right sits
John Adams, already worried

3392
03:10:04,800 --> 03:10:08,800
about how history would
remember the Revolution.

3393
03:10:08,970 --> 03:10:11,220
The history of our revolution will be

3394
03:10:11,390 --> 03:10:15,310
one continued lie
from one end to the other.

3395
03:10:15,480 --> 03:10:18,400
And the essence of the whole
will be that Dr. Franklin's

3396
03:10:18,560 --> 03:10:21,980
electrical rod smote the Earth,
and out sprang

3397
03:10:22,150 --> 03:10:24,070
General Washington.

3398
03:10:24,230 --> 03:10:28,360
That Franklin electrified him
with his rod and thence forward

3399
03:10:28,530 --> 03:10:31,660
these two conducted
all the policy, negotiations,

3400
03:10:31,830 --> 03:10:34,540
legislation and war.

3401
03:10:39,880 --> 03:10:42,040
The Treaty of 1783 is one of the most

3402
03:10:42,210 --> 03:10:45,260
lopsided treaties in
American diplomatic history.

3403
03:10:45,420 --> 03:10:48,880
It's a total victory
for the United States.

3404
03:10:49,050 --> 03:10:51,680
Its independence is recognized
by France and the rest

3405
03:10:51,850 --> 03:10:53,560
of Europe and England.

3406
03:10:53,720 --> 03:10:56,270
And we get a third of
a continent, everything from the

3407
03:10:56,430 --> 03:10:58,620
Mississippi to the Atlantic,
and from the Canadian border

3408
03:10:58,640 --> 03:11:00,350
to Florida.

3409
03:11:00,520 --> 03:11:03,270
We now become a nation
larger than France, England,

3410
03:11:03,440 --> 03:11:05,280
and Spain put together.

3411
03:11:05,440 --> 03:11:09,450
There is a consensus, at the
end, uh, among the negotiators,

3412
03:11:09,610 --> 03:11:12,240
including the Brits,
that we're witnessing

3413
03:11:12,410 --> 03:11:14,450
the creation of an American empire.

3414
03:11:17,080 --> 03:11:19,370
By the end of the war,
France's coffers were

3415
03:11:19,540 --> 03:11:21,960
more or less depleted.

3416
03:11:22,130 --> 03:11:26,340
France had the satisfaction
in triumphing over their

3417
03:11:26,510 --> 03:11:28,720
arch enemy Great Britain,

3418
03:11:28,880 --> 03:11:33,800
but they hadn't counted on
bankrupting, uh, their own

3419
03:11:33,970 --> 03:11:36,100
country in the process.

3420
03:11:36,270 --> 03:11:40,890
So, Franklin extracted,
in a way, the lifeblood

3421
03:11:41,060 --> 03:11:47,320
out of the royal coffers and he
gave in return something

3422
03:11:47,480 --> 03:11:50,110
that the monarchy was not counting on.

3423
03:11:52,740 --> 03:11:56,740
He lit a fire, not only in France,

3424
03:11:56,910 --> 03:12:01,790
but in all of Europe,
promoting the democratic ideals

3425
03:12:01,960 --> 03:12:04,920
that the United States stood for.

3426
03:12:05,090 --> 03:12:10,260
To put down tyranny was
something that all

3427
03:12:10,420 --> 03:12:12,890
the peasants could understand.

3428
03:12:17,680 --> 03:12:21,940
For Native Americans,
the treaty was devastating.

3429
03:12:22,100 --> 03:12:25,610
Many Nations had decided that
they would be better off by

3430
03:12:25,770 --> 03:12:29,320
allying with the British, not
the colonists, who for nearly

3431
03:12:29,490 --> 03:12:33,910
2 centuries had been
encroaching on their lands.

3432
03:12:34,070 --> 03:12:36,620
Now the United States was claiming

3433
03:12:36,780 --> 03:12:38,990
an even vaster territory,

3434
03:12:39,160 --> 03:12:42,620
and as its white citizens
pushed farther west,

3435
03:12:42,790 --> 03:12:46,540
more and more Native people
would be dispossessed,

3436
03:12:46,710 --> 03:12:51,590
regardless of whose side they
had taken during the war.

3437
03:12:58,890 --> 03:13:03,480
In the summer and fall of 1783,
huge balloons suddenly

3438
03:13:03,640 --> 03:13:06,900
appeared in the skies over Paris.

3439
03:13:07,060 --> 03:13:09,860
Hundreds of thousands of
people turned out to see

3440
03:13:10,030 --> 03:13:13,820
human beings flying for
the first time.

3441
03:13:13,990 --> 03:13:17,070
And Franklin is watching this,
with his usual spirit of,

3442
03:13:17,240 --> 03:13:19,620
you know, what does this
portend and what are

3443
03:13:19,790 --> 03:13:24,710
the applications for war,
for travel, for recreation.

3444
03:13:24,870 --> 03:13:28,000
And a man that was standing
next to him, uh, watched all

3445
03:13:28,170 --> 03:13:33,510
this and said, "Interesting,
but what's the use of it?"

3446
03:13:33,670 --> 03:13:36,390
And Franklin turned to him and said,

3447
03:13:36,550 --> 03:13:39,100
"What's the use
of a newborn baby?"

3448
03:13:40,560 --> 03:13:44,230
In early 1785, another balloon crossed

3449
03:13:44,390 --> 03:13:47,060
the English Channel
and landed in France.

3450
03:13:47,230 --> 03:13:51,070
It carried the world's first
airmail letter addressed to

3451
03:13:51,230 --> 03:13:54,990
Temple Franklin at Passy.

3452
03:13:55,150 --> 03:13:58,910
It came from his father,
William, who was now in London.

3453
03:13:59,070 --> 03:14:02,120
He had reestablished his
relationship with Temple

3454
03:14:02,290 --> 03:14:06,250
and was hoping to do
the same with his father.

3455
03:14:06,420 --> 03:14:09,170
Dear and Honored Father,

3456
03:14:09,330 --> 03:14:11,130
Ever since the termination

3457
03:14:11,300 --> 03:14:14,880
of the unhappy contest between
Great Britain and America,

3458
03:14:15,050 --> 03:14:17,760
I have been anxious to write to you,

3459
03:14:17,930 --> 03:14:20,890
and to endeavor to revive
that affectionate connection

3460
03:14:21,050 --> 03:14:23,600
which till the commencement
of the late troubles

3461
03:14:23,770 --> 03:14:28,270
had been the pride
and happiness of my life.

3462
03:14:29,480 --> 03:14:33,480
Dear Son, I received your letter.

3463
03:14:33,650 --> 03:14:37,360
Nothing has ever hurt me so
much and affected me with such

3464
03:14:37,530 --> 03:14:42,740
keen sensations as to find
myself deserted in my old age

3465
03:14:42,910 --> 03:14:47,870
by my only son; and not only
deserted, but to find him

3466
03:14:48,040 --> 03:14:50,630
taking up arms against me.

3467
03:14:50,790 --> 03:14:55,130
There are natural duties
which precede political ones,

3468
03:14:55,300 --> 03:14:59,260
and cannot be extinguished by them.

3469
03:14:59,430 --> 03:15:03,310
You may confide to your son
the family affairs you wished

3470
03:15:03,470 --> 03:15:05,770
to confer upon with me.

3471
03:15:05,930 --> 03:15:09,690
I shall hear from you by him.

3472
03:15:09,850 --> 03:15:11,650
Benjamin Franklin was estranged from

3473
03:15:11,810 --> 03:15:15,230
many of his British associates
and friends during the war.

3474
03:15:15,400 --> 03:15:18,610
But after the war, he was
able to repair all those

3475
03:15:18,780 --> 03:15:22,070
relationships, except with William.

3476
03:15:22,240 --> 03:15:25,240
And I'm not sure
I can say exactly why.

3477
03:15:25,410 --> 03:15:29,370
William is willing to make up,
but Benjamin is not.

3478
03:15:29,540 --> 03:15:32,540
And I just sort of imagine
that William is--is holding out

3479
03:15:32,710 --> 03:15:35,800
his hand to his father and
his father just won't take it.

3480
03:15:35,960 --> 03:15:38,050
I guess the hurt went too deep.

3481
03:15:40,180 --> 03:15:44,010
By May of 1785,
Thomas Jefferson had arrived

3482
03:15:44,180 --> 03:15:47,810
as the new ambassador to
France, and Franklin learned

3483
03:15:47,970 --> 03:15:52,100
that Congress had finally
accepted his resignation.

3484
03:15:52,270 --> 03:15:56,020
By July, with his grandsons
Temple and Benny,

3485
03:15:56,190 --> 03:15:58,780
he was ready to leave.

3486
03:15:58,940 --> 03:16:02,950
They crossed the Channel
and lingered for several days

3487
03:16:03,120 --> 03:16:06,330
in the port at Southampton,
where Franklin visited

3488
03:16:06,490 --> 03:16:10,370
with some of his
oldest English friends.

3489
03:16:10,540 --> 03:16:13,290
Then William arrived.

3490
03:16:13,460 --> 03:16:17,800
He and his father had not
seen each other in a decade.

3491
03:16:20,670 --> 03:16:24,590
Whatever expectations
William held for the reunion,

3492
03:16:24,760 --> 03:16:28,350
his father treated it as
a business negotiation.

3493
03:16:28,520 --> 03:16:31,310
He insisted that the deeds
to William's properties

3494
03:16:31,480 --> 03:16:34,900
in America be turned over to Temple.

3495
03:16:35,060 --> 03:16:39,690
Franklin also made clear that
Temple, William's own son,

3496
03:16:39,860 --> 03:16:44,030
would be returning to
the United States with him.

3497
03:16:44,200 --> 03:16:46,950
Legal documents were drawn up.

3498
03:16:47,120 --> 03:16:50,700
William signed them all.

3499
03:16:50,870 --> 03:16:53,830
They would never see each other again.

3500
03:16:58,840 --> 03:17:02,720
On July 27, Franklin's ship set sail

3501
03:17:02,880 --> 03:17:06,140
for his 8th crossing of the Atlantic.

3502
03:17:06,300 --> 03:17:09,850
On board, he soon immersed
himself in the most sustained

3503
03:17:10,020 --> 03:17:13,690
scientific work since his
experiments with electricity

3504
03:17:13,850 --> 03:17:17,310
back in 1752.

3505
03:17:17,480 --> 03:17:21,280
Most of his time was focused
on observations and theories

3506
03:17:21,440 --> 03:17:26,030
about the ocean and ships--
from more efficient designs

3507
03:17:26,200 --> 03:17:29,740
for hulls and sails, to thoughts
on the outrigger boats

3508
03:17:29,910 --> 03:17:34,540
of Pacific Islanders and the
canoes of Native Americans,

3509
03:17:34,710 --> 03:17:38,880
from proposals for better
anchors to a better soup bowl

3510
03:17:39,040 --> 03:17:43,340
that would be less likely to
spill when the ship tilted.

3511
03:17:43,510 --> 03:17:45,180
And with Temple and Benny's help,

3512
03:17:45,340 --> 03:17:48,970
he continued gathering details
about the Gulf Stream-

3513
03:17:49,140 --> 03:17:51,680
taking the temperature
of the air and water

3514
03:17:51,850 --> 03:17:56,020
3 times a day for more than 40 days.

3515
03:17:58,150 --> 03:18:02,070
Finally, his ship docked at
the wharf in Philadelphia,

3516
03:18:02,230 --> 03:18:06,780
62 years after his first
arrival as a teenage runaway.

3517
03:18:09,780 --> 03:18:13,120
Back then, no one had heard of him.

3518
03:18:13,290 --> 03:18:16,830
This time, he was greeted
by booming cannons,

3519
03:18:17,000 --> 03:18:18,580
ringing church bells,

3520
03:18:18,750 --> 03:18:22,590
and the cheers
of his fellow Americans.

3521
03:18:22,750 --> 03:18:25,220
He's been away for 8 1/2 years.

3522
03:18:25,380 --> 03:18:27,180
He's about to see
a country that he's created.

3523
03:18:27,340 --> 03:18:28,930
It didn't exist when he'd left.

3524
03:18:29,090 --> 03:18:32,560
It's a really, um, rather
extraordinary return.

3525
03:18:32,720 --> 03:18:35,350
He's greeted at the pier
in Philadelphia by crowds

3526
03:18:35,520 --> 03:18:37,310
and acclamations.

3527
03:18:37,480 --> 03:18:40,310
The crowd carried
him to his Market Street home,

3528
03:18:40,480 --> 03:18:42,980
where his daughter Sally
introduced him to

3529
03:18:43,150 --> 03:18:48,030
4 new grandchildren who had been
born while he was away.

3530
03:18:50,120 --> 03:18:53,450
I am now in the Bosom of my Family,

3531
03:18:53,620 --> 03:18:56,710
and find four new little Prattlers,

3532
03:18:56,870 --> 03:18:58,500
who cling about the Knees

3533
03:18:58,670 --> 03:19:03,840
of their Grand Papa,
and afford me great Pleasure.

3534
03:19:12,890 --> 03:19:15,970
In May of 1787, delegates from

3535
03:19:16,140 --> 03:19:19,520
all the former colonies
began converging again

3536
03:19:19,690 --> 03:19:21,730
on Philadelphia.

3537
03:19:21,900 --> 03:19:25,070
The Articles of Confederation
that had been drawn up after

3538
03:19:25,230 --> 03:19:28,400
the Declaration of Independence
had proved inadequate

3539
03:19:28,570 --> 03:19:32,070
for the new nation
during the Revolution.

3540
03:19:32,240 --> 03:19:34,240
When the Constitutional Convention

3541
03:19:34,410 --> 03:19:35,700
is called,

3542
03:19:35,870 --> 03:19:37,620
it's really a last chance for America

3543
03:19:37,790 --> 03:19:39,500
to get its act together.

3544
03:19:39,660 --> 03:19:42,750
The Articles of Confederation
really did not do what

3545
03:19:42,920 --> 03:19:44,420
Franklin had asked for,

3546
03:19:44,590 --> 03:19:48,880
which is unite the Colonies
into one nation.

3547
03:19:49,050 --> 03:19:51,510
When George Washington arrived

3548
03:19:51,680 --> 03:19:54,550
in Philadelphia,
his first stop was to pay

3549
03:19:54,720 --> 03:19:57,060
Franklin a visit.

3550
03:19:57,220 --> 03:20:00,060
At the Constitutional Convention,

3551
03:20:00,230 --> 03:20:03,690
he was one of the two great figures.

3552
03:20:03,860 --> 03:20:05,480
There was George Washington
and there was

3553
03:20:05,650 --> 03:20:10,110
Benjamin Franklin,
and nobody else came third.

3554
03:20:10,280 --> 03:20:12,610
Up until the end of the War,

3555
03:20:12,780 --> 03:20:15,160
if you were trying to rate
American leaders,

3556
03:20:15,330 --> 03:20:17,330
Washington would be behind him

3557
03:20:17,490 --> 03:20:19,660
and Franklin would be at the head.

3558
03:20:19,830 --> 03:20:21,670
Franklin's the great man.

3559
03:20:21,830 --> 03:20:25,290
By the end of the War,
Washington has gone ahead,

3560
03:20:25,460 --> 03:20:29,260
and in his will, Franklin says,
"I leave him my crab-tree

3561
03:20:29,420 --> 03:20:32,800
walking stick for his
stroll towards destiny."

3562
03:20:32,970 --> 03:20:36,930
On May 25, 1787, when the convention

3563
03:20:37,100 --> 03:20:41,430
gathered for its first day,
Washington was unanimously

3564
03:20:41,600 --> 03:20:43,900
elected to preside.

3565
03:20:44,060 --> 03:20:47,690
Benjamin Franklin's
health is starting to fade.

3566
03:20:47,860 --> 03:20:50,320
Prisoners from the Walnut
Street Jail, they have to

3567
03:20:50,490 --> 03:20:52,990
carry him from his home on
Market Street

3568
03:20:53,150 --> 03:20:54,660
for the 2 or 3 blocks

3569
03:20:54,820 --> 03:20:58,240
to get to what is
now called Independence Hall.

3570
03:20:58,410 --> 03:21:02,290
Franklin was 81,
nearly crippled by gout

3571
03:21:02,460 --> 03:21:04,170
and kidney stones.

3572
03:21:04,330 --> 03:21:08,630
Still, he would attend
every session but one.

3573
03:21:10,210 --> 03:21:14,050
From the start, it was clear
that the 55 delegates did not

3574
03:21:14,220 --> 03:21:16,300
agree on the details of how to fix

3575
03:21:16,470 --> 03:21:18,850
the Articles of Confederation.

3576
03:21:19,010 --> 03:21:23,270
Franklin favored a single-body
Congress and a 3-member

3577
03:21:23,440 --> 03:21:26,860
executive council instead
of a president.

3578
03:21:27,020 --> 03:21:30,530
Virginians proposed
2 legislative bodies--

3579
03:21:30,690 --> 03:21:32,150
a House of Representatives

3580
03:21:32,320 --> 03:21:35,200
that would select the members
of an upper body

3581
03:21:35,360 --> 03:21:36,870
to be called the Senate

3582
03:21:37,030 --> 03:21:40,580
and also name the president
and judiciary.

3583
03:21:40,740 --> 03:21:44,160
Alexander Hamilton of New York
thought the president should

3584
03:21:44,330 --> 03:21:47,250
be elected--for life.

3585
03:21:47,420 --> 03:21:51,130
Fierce debates on
all the issues raged for days

3586
03:21:51,300 --> 03:21:54,220
during a sweltering
Philadelphia summer.

3587
03:21:56,840 --> 03:21:58,180
We must not expect

3588
03:21:58,340 --> 03:22:00,640
that a new government may be formed,

3589
03:22:00,810 --> 03:22:04,810
as a game of chess may
be played, by a skillful hand,

3590
03:22:04,980 --> 03:22:07,400
without a fault.

3591
03:22:07,560 --> 03:22:11,730
We are making experiments in politics.

3592
03:22:11,900 --> 03:22:15,820
The players of our game
are so many, their ideas

3593
03:22:15,990 --> 03:22:19,120
so different, their
prejudices so strong

3594
03:22:19,280 --> 03:22:20,950
and so various,

3595
03:22:21,120 --> 03:22:25,330
that not a move can be
made that is not contested.

3596
03:22:28,920 --> 03:22:31,710
The convention adopted many provisions

3597
03:22:31,880 --> 03:22:34,630
that Franklin did
not initially support--

3598
03:22:34,800 --> 03:22:40,100
a 2-body legislature, a single
executive who could veto laws--

3599
03:22:40,260 --> 03:22:44,180
and others that he did--
a 4-year presidential term,

3600
03:22:44,350 --> 03:22:47,190
the legislature's power
of impeachment,

3601
03:22:47,350 --> 03:22:50,610
and no requirement of property
ownership for voting

3602
03:22:50,770 --> 03:22:53,150
or holding office.

3603
03:22:53,320 --> 03:22:56,240
One of the thorniest issues
was how Congress

3604
03:22:56,400 --> 03:22:58,070
would be apportioned.

3605
03:22:58,240 --> 03:23:01,570
Under the Articles of
Confederation, each state had

3606
03:23:01,740 --> 03:23:05,700
an equal vote, and delegates
from smaller states demanded

3607
03:23:05,870 --> 03:23:07,830
that it stay that way.

3608
03:23:08,000 --> 03:23:11,710
Larger states, which would be
contributing more in taxes,

3609
03:23:11,880 --> 03:23:15,380
wanted Congress to be
based on population.

3610
03:23:15,550 --> 03:23:18,380
Franklin was placed on
a committee to find

3611
03:23:18,550 --> 03:23:20,760
a workable compromise.

3612
03:23:20,930 --> 03:23:24,760
And, finally, Franklin
gets up and he says,

3613
03:23:24,930 --> 03:23:27,430
"When we were young tradesmen
here in Philadelphia,

3614
03:23:27,600 --> 03:23:30,560
"we had a joint of wood
that didn't quite fit,

3615
03:23:30,730 --> 03:23:33,150
"we'd take a little from one
side and shave from the other

3616
03:23:33,310 --> 03:23:36,480
until we had a joint that would
hold together for centuries."

3617
03:23:36,650 --> 03:23:40,360
And his point was that
compromises may not make

3618
03:23:40,530 --> 03:23:43,830
great heroes, but they do
make great democracies.

3619
03:23:43,990 --> 03:23:47,000
As the impasse over
apportionment threatened to

3620
03:23:47,160 --> 03:23:50,120
derail the convention,
Franklin began inviting

3621
03:23:50,290 --> 03:23:53,170
important delegates to
his home, where they could

3622
03:23:53,330 --> 03:23:56,250
socialize in the late
afternoon, under the branches

3623
03:23:56,420 --> 03:24:02,260
of his mulberry tree,
and try to find common ground.

3624
03:24:02,430 --> 03:24:05,220
They discuss science,
they discuss the things

3625
03:24:05,390 --> 03:24:08,020
they're talking about that they
have to compromise on.

3626
03:24:08,180 --> 03:24:11,560
And he helps cool the passions
of that hot summer

3627
03:24:11,730 --> 03:24:14,310
under the shade of his mulberry tree.

3628
03:24:17,190 --> 03:24:20,450
In the end, a compromise was reached.

3629
03:24:20,610 --> 03:24:24,530
Each state would have the same
number of senators, 2,

3630
03:24:24,700 --> 03:24:27,370
chosen by their legislatures.

3631
03:24:27,540 --> 03:24:30,290
The members of the House
of Representatives would be

3632
03:24:30,460 --> 03:24:35,130
elected by voters, white men
only, and each state's share

3633
03:24:35,290 --> 03:24:38,710
would be based on its population.

3634
03:24:38,880 --> 03:24:42,300
To mollify the southern
states, their populations

3635
03:24:42,470 --> 03:24:46,100
would include their number
of enslaved people,

3636
03:24:46,260 --> 03:24:49,140
but each of those human beings
would be counted

3637
03:24:49,310 --> 03:24:52,890
as only three-fifths of a person.

3638
03:24:53,060 --> 03:24:55,100
They can't talk about
slavery directly, and the word

3639
03:24:55,230 --> 03:24:59,900
"slavery" is never mentioned
in the document itself.

3640
03:25:00,070 --> 03:25:05,030
The difficult fact to accept
is that the Union is only

3641
03:25:05,200 --> 03:25:07,990
possible if it includes the South.

3642
03:25:08,160 --> 03:25:11,790
And the states south of the
Chesapeake are committed

3643
03:25:11,960 --> 03:25:15,420
to slavery, especially
Virginia and South Carolina.

3644
03:25:15,580 --> 03:25:20,800
If you did the moral thing in
the summer of 1787 and took

3645
03:25:20,960 --> 03:25:24,590
a clear stand and insisted
on it, the Constitution would

3646
03:25:24,760 --> 03:25:26,390
have never passed.

3647
03:25:27,930 --> 03:25:30,470
It was a tragic
compromise, obviously, for many

3648
03:25:30,640 --> 03:25:33,060
populations in the United
States who had no party

3649
03:25:33,230 --> 03:25:34,810
to this agreement.

3650
03:25:34,980 --> 03:25:36,620
They had never agreed that
they would be represented

3651
03:25:36,650 --> 03:25:38,310
in this way.

3652
03:25:38,480 --> 03:25:41,230
And, so, the compromise
looks especially compromised

3653
03:25:41,400 --> 03:25:42,990
in those terms.

3654
03:25:43,150 --> 03:25:48,120
This is America's original sin,
and they know it.

3655
03:25:48,280 --> 03:25:52,000
Nobody in the Convention
or at that moment

3656
03:25:52,160 --> 03:25:55,920
talks about slavery as anything
other than a necessary evil.

3657
03:25:56,080 --> 03:25:58,250
The original sin of slavery

3658
03:25:58,420 --> 03:26:03,720
was more than just
simply compromising.

3659
03:26:03,880 --> 03:26:06,470
The original
sin of slavery began, at least

3660
03:26:06,630 --> 03:26:10,010
for these colonists, years before.

3661
03:26:11,470 --> 03:26:16,560
For Franklin, unity and
compromise was the only thing

3662
03:26:16,730 --> 03:26:19,900
that could make this new
nation move forward.

3663
03:26:20,060 --> 03:26:23,740
Without it, it would be
a failed journey.

3664
03:26:23,900 --> 03:26:27,700
American democracy would not
develop without it.

3665
03:26:27,860 --> 03:26:32,160
And for that reason,
Franklin, as well as others,

3666
03:26:32,330 --> 03:26:35,540
sidestepped the issue of slavery.

3667
03:26:35,710 --> 03:26:40,710
On September 17, 1787,
the delegates gathered

3668
03:26:40,880 --> 03:26:44,010
to vote on the proposed Constitution.

3669
03:26:44,170 --> 03:26:48,840
Benjamin Franklin made
the motion for its adoption.

3670
03:26:49,010 --> 03:26:51,140
I agree to this Constitution

3671
03:26:51,300 --> 03:26:54,140
with all its faults, if they are such,

3672
03:26:54,310 --> 03:26:58,770
because I think a general
government necessary for us.

3673
03:26:58,940 --> 03:27:02,360
I doubt, too, whether any
other convention we can obtain

3674
03:27:02,520 --> 03:27:05,740
may be able to make
a better Constitution.

3675
03:27:05,900 --> 03:27:08,650
For, when you assemble
a number of men, to have

3676
03:27:08,820 --> 03:27:12,080
the advantage of their joint
wisdom, you inevitably

3677
03:27:12,240 --> 03:27:15,370
assemble with those men
all their prejudices,

3678
03:27:15,540 --> 03:27:17,870
their passions,
their errors of opinion,

3679
03:27:18,040 --> 03:27:21,170
their local interests,
and their selfish views.

3680
03:27:21,330 --> 03:27:24,340
From such an assembly can
a perfect production

3681
03:27:24,500 --> 03:27:27,170
be expected?

3682
03:27:27,340 --> 03:27:31,050
It therefore astonishes me,
sir, to find this system

3683
03:27:31,220 --> 03:27:35,260
approaching so near to
perfection as it does;

3684
03:27:35,430 --> 03:27:38,980
and I think it will astonish our
enemies, who are waiting

3685
03:27:39,140 --> 03:27:42,610
with confidence to hear that
our councils are confounded,

3686
03:27:42,770 --> 03:27:46,730
like those of the builders of
Babel, and that our States are

3687
03:27:46,900 --> 03:27:49,780
on the point of separation,
only to meet hereafter

3688
03:27:49,950 --> 03:27:53,200
for the purpose of cutting
one another's throats.

3689
03:27:53,370 --> 03:27:58,330
Thus I consent, sir, to this
Constitution because I expect

3690
03:27:58,500 --> 03:28:02,420
no better, and because I
am not sure that it is

3691
03:28:02,580 --> 03:28:05,460
not the best.

3692
03:28:09,920 --> 03:28:13,680
Franklin's motion was approved.

3693
03:28:13,850 --> 03:28:17,810
One by one, the delegates
signed the new Constitution,

3694
03:28:17,970 --> 03:28:21,480
so it could be sent to the
states for ratification.

3695
03:28:21,640 --> 03:28:23,440
He signed it.

3696
03:28:23,600 --> 03:28:29,400
And I think he was relieved that
it brought Americans together.

3697
03:28:29,570 --> 03:28:31,780
And that was something that
he had wanted ever since

3698
03:28:31,950 --> 03:28:33,740
the Albany Conference.

3699
03:28:33,910 --> 03:28:38,830
He had wanted Americans to
be a part of one grand whole.

3700
03:28:39,000 --> 03:28:40,410
This might not be the best,

3701
03:28:40,580 --> 03:28:42,100
but it was the best
that you could get,

3702
03:28:42,170 --> 03:28:43,750
and he recognized that.

3703
03:28:43,920 --> 03:28:47,000
The Constitution is
the framework for an ongoing

3704
03:28:47,170 --> 03:28:49,340
argument about who we are as a people

3705
03:28:49,510 --> 03:28:51,220
and where power resides.

3706
03:28:51,380 --> 03:28:54,260
And it's presumed that each
generation will be engaged

3707
03:28:54,430 --> 03:28:56,760
in an argument and take
it in new directions.

3708
03:28:56,930 --> 03:28:59,220
What do we mean by, "We the people"?

3709
03:28:59,390 --> 03:29:01,030
And certainly,
we mean a lot more people now

3710
03:29:01,060 --> 03:29:03,140
than we did then.

3711
03:29:03,310 --> 03:29:05,020
With the work done,

3712
03:29:05,190 --> 03:29:08,520
the doors to Independence Hall
were thrown open.

3713
03:29:08,690 --> 03:29:10,940
Franklin was approached
by one of the city's

3714
03:29:11,110 --> 03:29:14,910
most prominent citizens,
Elizabeth Willing Powel,

3715
03:29:15,070 --> 03:29:17,870
whose own rights had
not been considered.

3716
03:29:18,030 --> 03:29:21,750
She asked him, "Well, Doctor,
what have we got,

3717
03:29:21,910 --> 03:29:25,120
a republic or a monarchy?"

3718
03:29:25,290 --> 03:29:29,590
"A republic," he answered,
"if you can keep it."

3719
03:29:29,750 --> 03:29:33,010
"A republic, if you can keep it,"

3720
03:29:33,170 --> 03:29:34,840
which turns out to be

3721
03:29:35,010 --> 03:29:37,550
maybe the most prophetic
sentence of all.

3722
03:29:37,720 --> 03:29:39,390
Everyone who cares about this country

3723
03:29:39,560 --> 03:29:41,640
has to ask that question every day.

3724
03:29:41,810 --> 03:29:45,560
"A republic,
if you can keep it."

3725
03:29:48,400 --> 03:29:50,900
Hitherto, this long life

3726
03:29:51,070 --> 03:29:53,280
has been tolerably happy,

3727
03:29:53,440 --> 03:29:56,990
so that if I were allowed to
live it over again, I should

3728
03:29:57,160 --> 03:30:01,160
make no objection, only
wishing for leave to do what

3729
03:30:01,330 --> 03:30:06,040
authors do in a second edition
OF THEIR WORKS: correct some

3730
03:30:06,210 --> 03:30:08,290
of my Errata.

3731
03:30:16,130 --> 03:30:19,260
By early 1790, the Constitution

3732
03:30:19,430 --> 03:30:23,810
had been ratified, and Franklin
was now 84 years old.

3733
03:30:23,980 --> 03:30:27,900
His kidney stones put him in
such pain, he took regular

3734
03:30:28,060 --> 03:30:30,770
doses of laudanum,
a tincture of opium,

3735
03:30:30,940 --> 03:30:32,860
to get through the day.

3736
03:30:33,030 --> 03:30:36,150
"I should have died 2 years
ago," he wrote to Washington,

3737
03:30:36,320 --> 03:30:39,160
who had been elected as
the nation's first president,

3738
03:30:39,320 --> 03:30:41,700
"but I am pleased that
I have lived them,

3739
03:30:41,870 --> 03:30:46,580
since they have brought me to
see our present Situation."

3740
03:30:46,750 --> 03:30:48,830
Our grand machine has at length

3741
03:30:49,000 --> 03:30:50,670
begun to work.

3742
03:30:50,840 --> 03:30:54,880
I pray God to bless
and guide its operations.

3743
03:30:55,050 --> 03:30:59,220
If any form of government is
capable of making a nation happy

3744
03:30:59,390 --> 03:31:03,720
ours I think bids fair
for producing that effect.

3745
03:31:03,890 --> 03:31:07,230
But after all, much depends
upon the people

3746
03:31:07,390 --> 03:31:09,730
who are to be governed.

3747
03:31:09,900 --> 03:31:13,900
Our new Constitution is now
established, everything seems

3748
03:31:14,070 --> 03:31:18,610
to promise it will be durable;
but, in this world, nothing is

3749
03:31:18,780 --> 03:31:22,780
certain except death and taxes.

3750
03:31:25,410 --> 03:31:28,120
As an Enlightenment
scientist and inventor,

3751
03:31:28,290 --> 03:31:32,000
he considered America's
new democracy an experiment.

3752
03:31:32,170 --> 03:31:34,590
It should be tested and tinkered with,

3753
03:31:34,750 --> 03:31:37,260
if improvements were needed.

3754
03:31:37,420 --> 03:31:40,760
As a man who had once
constructed an elaborate chart

3755
03:31:40,930 --> 03:31:43,800
and checklist to help him
better himself,

3756
03:31:43,970 --> 03:31:47,680
he still believed in keeping
track of his failings.

3757
03:31:47,850 --> 03:31:51,400
Now Benjamin Franklin felt
there was still one more

3758
03:31:51,560 --> 03:31:56,730
public duty to carry out,
one more of his life's "errata"

3759
03:31:56,900 --> 03:31:58,820
to correct.

3760
03:32:00,240 --> 03:32:02,030
During his time as a delegate

3761
03:32:02,200 --> 03:32:04,280
to the Constitutional Convention,

3762
03:32:04,450 --> 03:32:06,790
Franklin, a former slave owner,

3763
03:32:06,950 --> 03:32:08,870
had accepted the presidency

3764
03:32:09,040 --> 03:32:11,960
of the Pennsylvania Society
for Promoting

3765
03:32:12,120 --> 03:32:13,920
the Abolition of Slavery,

3766
03:32:14,090 --> 03:32:17,090
a Quaker group in Philadelphia.

3767
03:32:17,250 --> 03:32:21,090
He had considered introducing
a statement of principle

3768
03:32:21,260 --> 03:32:22,640
into the Constitution,

3769
03:32:22,800 --> 03:32:25,810
condemning slavery
and the slave trade,

3770
03:32:25,970 --> 03:32:29,640
but several delegates had
persuaded him to drop it.

3771
03:32:29,810 --> 03:32:34,190
The question of anti-slavery,
pro-slavery, was not

3772
03:32:34,360 --> 03:32:38,030
an important issue for
the vast majority of people

3773
03:32:38,190 --> 03:32:41,240
who wrote or thought about
or argued about

3774
03:32:41,400 --> 03:32:43,110
the American Revolution.

3775
03:32:43,280 --> 03:32:47,830
On the other hand, given the
fact that it is the daily

3776
03:32:47,990 --> 03:32:52,870
reality for enslaved men and
women, in some ways, that was

3777
03:32:53,040 --> 03:32:55,790
the key question every day.

3778
03:32:55,960 --> 03:33:02,550
The gross hypocrisy in
fighting a war for liberty,

3779
03:33:02,720 --> 03:33:07,720
liberty of people,
and not including everybody

3780
03:33:07,890 --> 03:33:09,850
was obvious.

3781
03:33:10,020 --> 03:33:14,020
If you're talking about liberty,
you're talking about liberty.

3782
03:33:14,190 --> 03:33:17,060
With the Constitution in place,

3783
03:33:17,230 --> 03:33:21,820
Franklin felt free to
address the issue head-on.

3784
03:33:21,990 --> 03:33:23,650
To the Senate

3785
03:33:23,820 --> 03:33:26,910
and House of Representatives
of the United States.

3786
03:33:27,070 --> 03:33:29,120
From a persuasion that equal liberty

3787
03:33:29,290 --> 03:33:31,540
is still the Birthright of all Men,

3788
03:33:31,700 --> 03:33:35,920
we earnestly entreat your
serious attention to the subject

3789
03:33:36,080 --> 03:33:39,670
of Slavery; that you will be
pleased to countenance

3790
03:33:39,840 --> 03:33:43,920
the Restoration of liberty to
those unhappy Men, who alone

3791
03:33:44,090 --> 03:33:46,010
in this land of Freedom

3792
03:33:46,180 --> 03:33:49,470
are degraded into perpetual Bondage,

3793
03:33:49,640 --> 03:33:54,100
that you will devise means for
removing this Inconsistency

3794
03:33:54,270 --> 03:33:57,060
from the Character of
the American People.

3795
03:33:58,650 --> 03:34:00,980
The first real act of Franklin's life,

3796
03:34:01,150 --> 03:34:02,740
or the first public act, I guess,

3797
03:34:02,900 --> 03:34:04,740
is his running away from home.

3798
03:34:04,900 --> 03:34:08,240
So, here you have a young
man in quest of freedom.

3799
03:34:08,410 --> 03:34:11,490
And the last real act of--
the last public act

3800
03:34:11,660 --> 03:34:14,790
of Franklin's life, um,
is a treatise against slavery.

3801
03:34:14,960 --> 03:34:19,710
So, the end--the life is
largely bookended in a way, um,

3802
03:34:19,880 --> 03:34:23,460
by these two, um, endorsements,
in some way, of freedom.

3803
03:34:23,630 --> 03:34:27,760
Benjamin Franklin evolved
as far as his understanding

3804
03:34:27,930 --> 03:34:31,390
of race relations
and slavery were concerned.

3805
03:34:31,560 --> 03:34:33,180
He had owned slaves.

3806
03:34:33,350 --> 03:34:35,430
He didn't see anything wrong with it

3807
03:34:35,600 --> 03:34:37,270
until very late in the game.

3808
03:34:37,440 --> 03:34:41,860
But in his last years,
he started to change his mind.

3809
03:34:43,360 --> 03:34:47,660
Philadelphia became
a leader in abolition

3810
03:34:47,820 --> 03:34:52,030
and the emancipation of enslaved
people of African descent.

3811
03:34:52,200 --> 03:34:56,960
There were laws on the books
that began the dismantling

3812
03:34:57,120 --> 03:34:59,120
of slavery.

3813
03:34:59,290 --> 03:35:03,840
It was a train that
could not be stopped.

3814
03:35:04,000 --> 03:35:09,550
And, so, we see someone
who understands the tide

3815
03:35:09,720 --> 03:35:11,890
of the city, of the state,

3816
03:35:12,050 --> 03:35:16,600
looks at the laws, understands
that slavery is going to end,

3817
03:35:16,770 --> 03:35:19,310
at least in Pennsylvania,

3818
03:35:19,480 --> 03:35:22,650
and he got on the right side
of that conversation.

3819
03:35:22,820 --> 03:35:25,570
If this were a petition
coming from anybody else,

3820
03:35:25,730 --> 03:35:27,650
the Congress would have
never even considered it,

3821
03:35:27,820 --> 03:35:29,530
but because of Franklin's signature,

3822
03:35:29,700 --> 03:35:31,570
they're forced to consider it.

3823
03:35:31,740 --> 03:35:36,000
And it's the first outspoken,
in public, debate

3824
03:35:36,160 --> 03:35:38,710
in the American history on--
under the new nation

3825
03:35:38,870 --> 03:35:40,670
on slavery.

3826
03:35:40,830 --> 03:35:43,210
In Congress,
the petition was immediately

3827
03:35:43,380 --> 03:35:45,710
attacked by southerners.

3828
03:35:45,880 --> 03:35:49,590
Representative James Jackson
of Georgia warned that if

3829
03:35:49,760 --> 03:35:52,930
Congress tried to abolish
slavery, it would "light up

3830
03:35:53,100 --> 03:35:56,640
the flame of civil discord"
and the southern states

3831
03:35:56,810 --> 03:36:00,520
"will never suffer themselves to
be divested of their property

3832
03:36:00,690 --> 03:36:02,480
without a struggle."

3833
03:36:02,650 --> 03:36:06,900
Another congressman claimed that
the South's sweltering climate

3834
03:36:07,070 --> 03:36:10,400
prohibited whites
from working the soil.

3835
03:36:10,570 --> 03:36:13,910
For that, he said, they needed slaves.

3836
03:36:14,070 --> 03:36:18,160
And Franklin goes back
to a device he had used as

3837
03:36:18,330 --> 03:36:22,120
a teenager, which is to
write a parody in the voice

3838
03:36:22,290 --> 03:36:24,080
of somebody else.

3839
03:36:24,250 --> 03:36:29,170
So he writes a sermon that
he pretends has been given by

3840
03:36:29,340 --> 03:36:32,930
a Muslim from North Africa
about why they have to keep

3841
03:36:33,090 --> 03:36:35,970
white Europeans in slavery.

3842
03:36:36,140 --> 03:36:40,680
And it parodies the entire
argument of all those who are

3843
03:36:40,850 --> 03:36:44,610
opposing abolition in
the United States.

3844
03:36:44,770 --> 03:36:47,070
"If we forbear to make slaves

3845
03:36:47,230 --> 03:36:50,690
of the Christians,"
Franklin's character asks,

3846
03:36:50,860 --> 03:36:56,870
who, in this hot climate,
are to cultivate our lands?"

3847
03:36:57,030 --> 03:36:59,830
And if we set our slaves free,

3848
03:37:00,000 --> 03:37:02,620
what is to be done with them?

3849
03:37:02,790 --> 03:37:05,790
For men accustomed to
slavery, will not work

3850
03:37:05,960 --> 03:37:10,590
for a livelihood when not compelled.

3851
03:37:10,760 --> 03:37:16,430
Here they are brought into a
land where the sun of Islam

3852
03:37:16,600 --> 03:37:19,220
gives forth its light

3853
03:37:19,390 --> 03:37:21,980
and they have an opportunity of making

3854
03:37:22,140 --> 03:37:26,860
themselves acquainted with
the true doctrine, and thereby

3855
03:37:27,020 --> 03:37:30,900
saving their immortal souls.

3856
03:37:32,320 --> 03:37:34,240
And, so,
of course, the reader realizes

3857
03:37:34,410 --> 03:37:37,570
that Franklin is using
precisely the same arguments

3858
03:37:37,740 --> 03:37:40,660
of James Jackson of Georgia,
which immediately proves to you,

3859
03:37:40,830 --> 03:37:44,420
without question, the absurdity
of the arguments.

3860
03:37:44,580 --> 03:37:47,290
This is the genius of Franklin,
to--to take something

3861
03:37:47,460 --> 03:37:49,500
and just turn it around,
to switch the lens and say,

3862
03:37:49,670 --> 03:37:51,670
"So, how would you like it
if it looked like that?"

3863
03:37:53,590 --> 03:37:57,090
The House of
Representatives voted 29-25

3864
03:37:57,260 --> 03:38:00,180
that "Congress has
no authority to interfere"

3865
03:38:00,350 --> 03:38:02,140
on the issue of slavery.

3866
03:38:02,310 --> 03:38:07,560
In the Senate, the petition
was tabled without discussion.

3867
03:38:07,730 --> 03:38:10,150
What they agree on,
more than anything else,

3868
03:38:10,320 --> 03:38:12,400
is we're not talking about this.

3869
03:38:12,570 --> 03:38:14,950
The Federal Government is
not talking about this.

3870
03:38:15,110 --> 03:38:17,170
This is not the forum to deal
with the national question

3871
03:38:17,200 --> 03:38:19,700
of slavery, because there is
no national question.

3872
03:38:19,870 --> 03:38:21,790
It's a state question.

3873
03:38:21,950 --> 03:38:25,370
The question of the future
of slavery is really left

3874
03:38:25,540 --> 03:38:27,670
for the individual States to decide.

3875
03:38:27,830 --> 03:38:30,960
That's how we end up with
the North-South division.

3876
03:38:31,130 --> 03:38:33,300
I would put it this way.

3877
03:38:33,460 --> 03:38:41,060
Before the Revolution, slavery
was never a major public issue.

3878
03:38:41,220 --> 03:38:44,810
There were people who spoke,
before the Revolution,

3879
03:38:44,980 --> 03:38:50,110
who spoke against it and gave
good reasons to what evil

3880
03:38:50,270 --> 03:38:55,650
it was, but it was not
a major public issue.

3881
03:38:55,820 --> 03:39:02,120
After the Revolution, there
never was a time when it wasn't.

3882
03:39:10,500 --> 03:39:12,630
Here is my creed:

3883
03:39:12,800 --> 03:39:17,380
I believe in one God,
creator of the universe.

3884
03:39:17,550 --> 03:39:20,470
That he governs it by his providence.

3885
03:39:20,640 --> 03:39:22,430
That he ought to be worshipped.

3886
03:39:22,600 --> 03:39:25,350
That the most acceptable
service we render to him

3887
03:39:25,520 --> 03:39:28,940
is doing good to his other children.

3888
03:39:29,100 --> 03:39:33,070
That the soul of man is immortal
and will be treated

3889
03:39:33,230 --> 03:39:38,950
with justice in another life
respecting its conduct in this.

3890
03:39:39,110 --> 03:39:42,490
These I take to be the
fundamental principles of all

3891
03:39:42,660 --> 03:39:45,790
sound religion, and I regard them

3892
03:39:45,950 --> 03:39:48,540
in whatever sect I meet with them.

3893
03:39:50,500 --> 03:39:54,130
Franklin's worsening
health kept him housebound.

3894
03:39:54,290 --> 03:39:57,210
"People who live long,
who will drink from the cup

3895
03:39:57,380 --> 03:40:00,220
of Life to the very bottom,"
he wrote a friend,

3896
03:40:00,380 --> 03:40:04,260
"must expect to meet with some
of the usual dregs."

3897
03:40:05,930 --> 03:40:09,890
In the spring of 1790,
he suffered chest pains

3898
03:40:10,060 --> 03:40:12,600
and a fever that confined him
to his bed,

3899
03:40:12,770 --> 03:40:14,980
surrounded by his family.

3900
03:40:15,150 --> 03:40:18,780
He asked his daughter Sally
to arrange things so he could

3901
03:40:18,940 --> 03:40:20,820
"die in a decent manner."

3902
03:40:20,990 --> 03:40:26,200
She told him everyone hoped
he would live many more years.

3903
03:40:26,370 --> 03:40:29,120
"I hope not," he replied.

3904
03:40:32,040 --> 03:40:37,800
On April 17, 1790,
an abscess in his lung burst,

3905
03:40:37,960 --> 03:40:41,220
and he slipped into unconsciousness.

3906
03:40:41,380 --> 03:40:46,010
At 11:00 that night,
Benjamin Franklin died.

3907
03:40:46,180 --> 03:40:50,060
He was 84 years old.

3908
03:40:50,230 --> 03:40:52,520
More than 20,000 people,

3909
03:40:52,690 --> 03:40:56,150
the largest crowd Philadelphia
had ever seen,

3910
03:40:56,320 --> 03:40:59,190
turned out for his funeral procession.

3911
03:40:59,360 --> 03:41:01,450
Leading it from his house
on Market Street

3912
03:41:01,610 --> 03:41:04,360
to the burial ground at Christ Church

3913
03:41:04,530 --> 03:41:09,410
were the clergy of every church
of every sect in the city,

3914
03:41:09,580 --> 03:41:12,540
walking arm in arm.

3915
03:41:12,710 --> 03:41:15,130
When he was 22 years old,

3916
03:41:15,290 --> 03:41:18,670
Franklin had composed
an epitaph for his grave.

3917
03:41:18,840 --> 03:41:21,840
"The Body of B. Franklin,
Printer,

3918
03:41:22,010 --> 03:41:24,340
"Like the Cover of an old Book,

3919
03:41:24,510 --> 03:41:28,260
"Its contents torn out,
And Stript of its Lettering

3920
03:41:28,430 --> 03:41:32,850
"and Gilding,
"Lies here, Food for Worms.

3921
03:41:33,020 --> 03:41:35,980
"But the Work shall not be
wholly lost,

3922
03:41:36,150 --> 03:41:39,730
"For it will, as he believed,
appear once more,

3923
03:41:39,900 --> 03:41:42,690
"In a new & more perfect Edition

3924
03:41:42,860 --> 03:41:46,320
Corrected and amended
By the Author."

3925
03:41:47,780 --> 03:41:52,330
As he aged, however, the old
printer had, of course,

3926
03:41:52,500 --> 03:41:54,500
edited it down.

3927
03:41:54,670 --> 03:41:57,420
The gravestone's epitaph became,

3928
03:41:57,580 --> 03:42:00,300
"BENJAMIN
And DEBORAH FRANKLIN."

3929
03:42:02,920 --> 03:42:06,220
He had never completed
the autobiography he started

3930
03:42:06,390 --> 03:42:09,600
back in 1771.

3931
03:42:09,760 --> 03:42:14,640
His grandson Temple eventually
published the manuscript.

3932
03:42:14,810 --> 03:42:17,560
The book would go through
hundreds of editions

3933
03:42:17,730 --> 03:42:20,110
in dozens of languages,

3934
03:42:20,270 --> 03:42:24,280
inspiring generations of
ambitious strivers

3935
03:42:24,440 --> 03:42:28,200
wanting to get ahead in life.

3936
03:42:28,370 --> 03:42:30,580
There's nothing dreamy
or romantic about Franklin.

3937
03:42:30,740 --> 03:42:36,160
But in that self-improving,
marvelously protean way,

3938
03:42:36,330 --> 03:42:39,290
there's something about him
that so much becomes what we

3939
03:42:39,460 --> 03:42:42,670
all quest for, what we think
of as the sort of, American

3940
03:42:42,840 --> 03:42:44,670
ingenuity, that American
feeling that we can

3941
03:42:44,840 --> 03:42:46,470
accomplish anything.

3942
03:42:51,970 --> 03:42:55,230
In his will, Franklin
left most of his wealth

3943
03:42:55,390 --> 03:42:58,020
and possessions to
members of his family,

3944
03:42:58,190 --> 03:43:00,730
except to his son William.

3945
03:43:02,520 --> 03:43:06,490
But in memory of his start as
a lowly printer's apprentice,

3946
03:43:06,650 --> 03:43:10,620
he created a trust fund,
still active today,

3947
03:43:10,780 --> 03:43:14,040
to help young people with
ambition and talent

3948
03:43:14,200 --> 03:43:20,630
from his two hometowns
of Boston and Philadelphia.

3949
03:43:20,790 --> 03:43:22,880
I begin to be almost sorry

3950
03:43:23,050 --> 03:43:24,880
I was born so soon,

3951
03:43:25,050 --> 03:43:28,470
since I cannot have the
Happiness of knowing what will

3952
03:43:28,630 --> 03:43:31,430
be known 100 Years hence.

3953
03:43:34,930 --> 03:43:37,850
But it is the will of God
and Nature that these mortal

3954
03:43:38,020 --> 03:43:40,770
bodies be laid aside.

3955
03:43:40,940 --> 03:43:44,570
Whether I have been doing
good or mischief is for time

3956
03:43:44,730 --> 03:43:46,280
to discover.

3957
03:43:46,440 --> 03:43:49,200
I only know that I intended well,

3958
03:43:49,360 --> 03:43:53,330
and I hope all will end well.

3959
03:43:53,490 --> 03:43:55,660
Adieu.

3960
03:43:55,830 --> 03:43:57,330
Benjamin Franklin.