Speech at the Convention

Thursday, March 18, 2021

Agenda

1. Speech at the Convetion = 4MP

OBJECTIVE: SWBAT analyze Benjamin Franklin’s “Speech at the Convention” by identifying the most important word, sentence, and idea of each paragraph.

LT1A: I can mark the text to show comprehension and meaningful analysis, making specific references to passages and events to prove what the text says directly as well as the meaning I can infer indirectly.

Guiding Question: What is the meaning of freedom?

INSTRUCTIONS: Write your name in one of the boxes below followed by an X or an O, e.g. Sally X or Charlie O. Then write your answer to the guiding question. Get three in a row to win.

Tic-Tac-Toe Table #1

About the Author

Benjamin Franklin

From his teen years until his retirement at age forty-two, Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) worked as a printer. He got his start as an apprentice to his brother James Franklin, a Boston printer. By the time he was sixteen, Ben was not only printing, but writing parts of his brother’s newspaper. Using the name “Silence Dogood,” he wrote letters satirizing daily life and politics in Boston. When he was seventeen, Franklin moved to Philadelphia to open his own print shop. This move gave birth to one of his most enduring contributions to American culture, Poor Richard’s Almanack. This annual publication, which was published from 1732 to 1752, contained information, observations, and advice and was a colonial bestseller.

The “Write” Reputation

Just as he had signed “Silence Dogood” to the letters he wrote for his brother’s paper, Franklin created a fictitious author/editor for the Almanack. The chatty Richard Saunders, or Poor Richard, first appeared as a dull and foolish astronomer. However, over the years his character developed, becoming more thoughtful, pious, and funny.

Like most almanacs, Poor Richard’s Almanack contained practical information about the calendar, the sun and moon, and the weather. It also featured a wealth of homespun sayings and observations, or aphorisms, many of which are still quoted today. It was these aphorisms that made the Almanack so popular. Franklin included an aphorism at the top or bottom of most of the Almanack’s pages. The wit and brevity of these sayings allowed him to weave in many moral messages, while also entertaining his readers.

Inventor and Scientist

When Franklin was forty-two, he retired from the printing business to devote himself to science. He proved to be as successful a scientist as he had been a printer. Over the course of his life, Franklin was responsible for inventing the lightning rod, bifocals, and a new type of stove. He confirmed the laws of electricity, charted the Gulf Stream, and contributed to the scientific understanding of earthquakes and ocean currents. In spite of all these achievements, Franklin is best remembered for his career in politics.

Statesman and Diplomat

Franklin played an important role in drafting the Declaration of Independence, enlisting French support during the Revolutionary War, negotiating a peace treaty with Britain, and drafting the United States Constitution. In his later years, he was the United States ambassador to England and then to France. Even before George Washington earned the title, Franklin was considered to be “the father of his country.”

American Success Story

Perhaps it is no surprise that a person of Franklin’s accomplishments, longevity, and historic importance would write the story of his life. Franklin’s The Autobiography remains a classic of the genre as well as a prototype for the American success story. Franklin wrote the first section of the work in 1771, when he was sixty-five years old. At the urging of friends, he wrote three more sections—the last shortly before his death—but succeeded in bringing the account of his life only to the year 1759. Though never completed, his autobiography, filled with his opinions and advice, provides not only a record of his achievements, but also an understanding of his extraordinary character.

BACKGROUND

After the American Revolution, each of the newly independent states created its own constitution. While Congress was able to pass limited laws, it had no power to tax the states or regulate issues, such as trade, that were affected by state boundaries. These problems led to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. Representatives from twelve states met to approve a national constitution. The argument was lively and often contentious. At the age of eighty-one, Benjamin Franklin—representing Pennsylvania—brought his diplomatic skills to the debate.

Mr. President,

I confess, that I do not entirely approve of this Constitution at present; but, Sir, I am not sure I shall never approve it; for, having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change my opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that, the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment of others. Most men, indeed, as well as most sects in religion, think themselves in possession of all truth, and that wherever others differ from them, it is so far error. . . . Though many private persons think almost as highly of their own infallibility as of that of their sect, few express it so naturally as a certain French lady, who, in a little dispute with her sister, said, “But I meet with nobody but myself that is always in the right.” “Je ne trouve que moi qui aie toujours raison.”

In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution, with all its faults,—if they are such; because I think a general government necessary for us, and there is no form of government but what may be a blessing to the people, if well administered; and I believe, farther, that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other. I doubt, too, whether any other convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better constitution; for, when you assemble a number of men, to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear, that our councils are confounded like those of the builders of Babel, and that our states are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another’s throats. Thus I consent, Sir, to this Constitution, because I expect no better, and because I am not sure that it is not the best. The opinions I have had of its errors I sacrifice to the public good. I have never whispered a syllable of them abroad. Within these walls they were born, and here they shall die. If every one of us, in returning to our constituents, were to report the objections he has had to it, and endeavor to gain partisans in support of them, we might prevent its being generally received, and thereby lose all the salutary effects and great advantages resulting naturally in our favor among foreign nations, as well as among ourselves, from our real or apparent unanimity. Much of the strength and efficiency of any government, in procuring and securing happiness to the people, depends on opinion, on the general opinion of the goodness of that government, as well as of the wisdom and integrity of its governors. I hope, therefore, for our own sakes, as a part of the people, and for the sake of our posterity, that we shall act heartily and unanimously in recommending this Constitution, wherever our influence may extend, and turn our future thoughts and endeavors to the means of having it well administered.

On the whole, Sir, I cannot help expressing a wish, that every member of the convention who may still have objections to it, would with me on this occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility, and, to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this instrument.

DMU Timestamp: February 27, 2021 01:26