British Scholar: Morgan

Benjamin Franklin
Edmund S. Morgan (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002), 340 pages

Edmund S. Morgan takes on the difficult task of summarizing the brilliant and long life of Benjamin Franklin
in just over three hundred pages. While this hardly seems adequate for such a larger-than-life man,
Morgan’s portrait acts as a primer for further study.

Morgan concentrates on the theme of public service as the cornerstone of Franklin’s entire life. Franklin’s
public service commences with his founding of the Junto at the age of twenty-one. The Junto, Morgan
explains, acted as a “school of good manners and good works,” where young men like Franklin would
congregate on Friday nights in search of the truth. Following from the idea-inspiring meetings of the
Junto, Franklin launched himself fully into a public life that would see numerous changes in his eighty-four
years. He fulfilled his desire to help the people of the city of Philadelphia, the colony of Pennsylvania, and
eventually the American states as they strove for independence because of his early success in business
as a printer. In fact, as Morgan points out, his achievements allowed him to retire from the business world
at age forty-two and pursue humanitarian goals such as founding the Library Company, the first volunteer
fire company and free hospital for the city, and the Academy of Philadelphia (later known as the University
of Pennsylvania). But this proved to be only the beginning of his public life, which he valued more than
business, scientific pursuits, or even family.

Although Franklin viewed America as an “empire of Englishmen,” his dealings with the King and the British
Government to acknowledge the rights of the colonists proved excessively frustrating. As Morgan
illustrates, Franklin, acting as the first united ambassador of the colonies, did everything in his power to
achieve parliamentary representation for them and avoid war. With seats in the House of Commons
confirmed as impossible, Franklin turned his efforts to eliciting an alliance with France for the troops and
financing essential for the revolution. According to Morgan, although he did not like the fact that the
United States needed to form alliances, he performed remarkably well in lieu of the malfeasance of his
American colleagues and provided the means necessary to enable independence. In the end, Morgan
paints a strong portrait of Franklin by refraining from deifying a man defined, in part, by extraordinary
circumstances. By humanizing Franklin, Morgan gives the reader what his subject would approve of: a
portrait of the ideal public servant.