HARPER’S
NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.
No. XX—JANUARY, 1852—Vol. IV.
EARLY AND PRIVATE LIFE OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.
BY JACOB ABBOTT.
It is generally true in respect to great statesmen that they owe theircelebrity almost entirely to their public and official career. Theypromote the welfare of mankind by directing legislation, foundinginstitutions, negotiating treaties of peace or of commerce between rivalstates, and guiding, in various other ways, the course of public andnational affairs, while their individual and personal influence attractsvery little regard. With Benjamin Franklin, however, the reverse of thisis true. He did indeed, while he lived, take a very active part, withother leading men of his time, in the performance of great publicfunctions; but his claim to the extraordinary degree of respect andveneration which is so freely awarded to his name and memory by theAmerican people, rests not chiefly upon this, but upon the extendedinfluence which he has exerted, and which he still continues to exertupon the national mind, through the power of his private and personalcharacter. The prevalence of habits of industry and economy, offoresight and thrift, of cautious calculation in the formation of plans,and energy and perseverance in the execution of them, and of thedisposition to invest what is earned in substantial and enduringpossessions, rather than to expend it in brief pleasures or for purposesof idle show—the prevalence of these traits, so far as they exist aselements of the national character in this country—is due in anincalculable degree to the doings and sayings and history of this greatexemplar. Thus it is to his life and to his counsels that is to beattributed, in a very high degree, the formation of that great publicsentiment prevailing so extensively among us, which makes it morehonorable to be industrious than to be idle, and to be economical andprudent rather than extravagant and vain; which places substantial andunpretending prosperity above empty pretension, and real comfort andabundance before genteel and expensive display.
A very considerable portion of the effect which Franklin has producedupon the national character is due to the picturesque and almostromantic interest which attaches itself to the incidents of his personalhistory. In his autobiography he has given us a very full and a verygraphic narrative of these incidents, and as the anniversary of hisbirth-day occurs during the present month, we can not occupy theattention of our readers at this time, in a more appropriate manner thanby a brief review of the principal events of his life—so far as such areview can be comprised within the limits of a single article.
The ancestors of Franklin lived for many generations on a small estatein Northamptonshire, one of the central counties in England. The head ofthe family during all this time followed the business of a smith, theeldest son from generation to generation, being brought up to thatemployment.
The Franklin family were Protestants, and at one time when the Catholicswere in power, during the reign of Mary, the common people wereforbidden to possess or to read the English Bible. Nevertheless theFranklin fam