LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Benjamin Franklin (Franklin, Benjamin - Scientist): United States
built 448 days ago
Benjamin Franklin (Franklin, Benjamin - Scientist) also shows up in the Retriever categories:
Benjamin Franklin (Franklin, Benjamin - Early) , and more.
Benjamin Franklin (Franklin, Benjamin - Early) , and more.
[T]he record seems to indicate that Benjamin Franklin’s diplomatic genius was indispensable in the American Revolution. Washington may have won the war at home, but Franklin won the war abroad. Without his brilliant diplomacy, the French might never have provided the military and financial aid - over one billion dollars! - essential to achieve American independence from the British. Finally, Franklin was played a vital role in fashioning the compromises necessary in creating the new constitution of the United State in 1787.
Source:
In the celebration of the treaty at the royal palace Franklin was the outstanding figure. There King Louis XVI told all the world that France was the friend of the American Colonies and would help them in their fight for independence. Franklin was hailed as the champion of liberty. Jacques Turgot, the French statesman, said of him, "He snatched the lightning from the sky and the scepter from tyrants."
Source:
Franklin, with his quick wit and keen ability to appeal to all kinds of people, was probably able to win the favor of the elder scholar very quickly. In appreciation for Logan's sage advice about initial purchases for the Library Company, a document founding the Company states that subscribers would have to pay a fee, “Mr. James Logan only excepted.”
Source:
Recognizing the tyranny and corruption of rule by few, Franklin and his contemporaries George Washington and Thomas Jefferson rejected the European model of aristocratic rule and crafted a system based on representational democracy. Franklin was a member of the Continental Congress which crafted the Articles of Confederation and he helped draft the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. These documents elevated the importance of the individual in the political process, promising the state's protection of citizens' natural, inalienable rights.
Source:
Franklin returned in 1785 to the United States and was made president of the Pennsylvania executive council. The last great service rendered to his country by this “wisest American,” as he is sometimes called, was his part in the Federal Constitutional Convention of 1787. Although his proposals for a single-chamber congress and a weak executive council were rejected, he helped to direct the compromise that brought the Constitution of the United States into being. Though not completely satisfied with the finished product, he worked earnestly for its ratification.
Source:
According to Rothbard, Franklin was a warmonger, a Tory imperialist, and a speculator with his "cronies" who engaged in a "pattern of plunder of the American taxpayer" during the war. His Albany Plan was far more than an innocent way to unify the nation; it was a deliberate attempt to create a "central super government." Franklin comes off almost as badly as the "deep-dyed conservative" Washington, who is characterized as a fumbling, inept general who sought to "crush liberty and individualism" among his soldiers and impose a "statist" army.10
Source:
MORE ABOUT
United States