1 00:00:08,384 --> 00:00:10,894 Being now in my last Act, 2 00:00:11,053 --> 00:00:15,353 I begin to cast about for something fit to end with. 3 00:00:15,516 --> 00:00:19,556 Or if mine be more properly compar'd to an Epigram, 4 00:00:19,729 --> 00:00:22,059 I am very desirous of concluding 5 00:00:22,231 --> 00:00:24,071 with a bright Point. 6 00:00:24,233 --> 00:00:26,743 Benjamin Franklin. 7 00:00:26,902 --> 00:00:28,362 The thing about Franklin is, 8 00:00:28,529 --> 00:00:30,249 whatever you say about him, on the one hand, 9 00:00:30,281 --> 00:00:32,201 you can always say the opposite, as well. 10 00:00:32,366 --> 00:00:35,036 I mean, this is a man who is very much pro-temperance 11 00:00:35,202 --> 00:00:37,372 and he writes bawdy drinking songs. 12 00:00:37,538 --> 00:00:38,908 He founds a fire company, 13 00:00:39,081 --> 00:00:41,041 and he founds a fire insurance company. 14 00:00:41,208 --> 00:00:43,128 He does play all sides. 15 00:00:43,294 --> 00:00:45,924 But during those British years, he very much plays 16 00:00:46,088 --> 00:00:47,548 the British gentleman. 17 00:00:47,715 --> 00:00:51,255 He has a--a crest on the door of his carriage. 18 00:00:51,427 --> 00:00:54,507 And, yet, by the time he becomes an American rebel, 19 00:00:54,680 --> 00:00:57,600 so to speak, he is entirely an American. 20 00:01:06,525 --> 00:01:13,025 In January of 1775, Benjamin Franklin turned 69. 21 00:01:13,199 --> 00:01:16,159 He had already achieved extraordinary success 22 00:01:16,327 --> 00:01:19,657 as a printer and publisher in his adopted hometown 23 00:01:19,830 --> 00:01:23,830 of Philadelphia, where a library, a college, 24 00:01:24,001 --> 00:01:26,421 and countless civic improvements 25 00:01:26,587 --> 00:01:29,967 testified to his belief that his highest calling 26 00:01:30,132 --> 00:01:31,972 lay not in making money, 27 00:01:32,134 --> 00:01:35,894 but in improving the lives of everyday people. 28 00:01:36,055 --> 00:01:38,675 And his revolutionary breakthroughs 29 00:01:38,849 --> 00:01:41,769 in unraveling the mysteries of electricity 30 00:01:41,936 --> 00:01:47,186 had made him the most famous American in the world. 31 00:01:47,358 --> 00:01:49,148 He is every man, 32 00:01:49,318 --> 00:01:52,488 but he's a very extraordinary every man. 33 00:01:52,655 --> 00:01:56,615 He was a Nobel Prize-winning caliber scientist, 34 00:01:56,784 --> 00:02:00,164 probably the great--greatest prose stylist of his generation, 35 00:02:00,329 --> 00:02:02,409 and he's probably the greatest diplomat 36 00:02:02,581 --> 00:02:04,671 in American history. 37 00:02:04,834 --> 00:02:08,134 Franklin had been in England for the last decade, 38 00:02:08,295 --> 00:02:10,965 trying desperately to bridge the growing gulf 39 00:02:11,132 --> 00:02:15,092 between Parliament and the American colonies. 40 00:02:15,261 --> 00:02:18,391 Only a year earlier, the future he had envisioned 41 00:02:18,556 --> 00:02:22,266 for himself and his family seemed bright and tethered 42 00:02:22,434 --> 00:02:25,354 inextricably to the British Empire. 43 00:02:25,521 --> 00:02:29,231 Now that dream was in ruins. 44 00:02:29,400 --> 00:02:31,900 During his long absence from home, 45 00:02:32,069 --> 00:02:36,869 he had missed his wife Deborah's death and funeral. 46 00:02:37,032 --> 00:02:40,492 In London, in a government chamber called the Cockpit, 47 00:02:40,661 --> 00:02:43,041 he had been publicly humiliated, 48 00:02:43,205 --> 00:02:47,535 accused of inciting the colonial crisis he had, in fact, 49 00:02:47,710 --> 00:02:50,420 worked so hard to prevent. 50 00:02:50,588 --> 00:02:54,758 And as that crisis intensified, his son William, 51 00:02:54,925 --> 00:02:57,635 now the royal governor of New Jersey, 52 00:02:57,803 --> 00:03:01,563 seemed to be choosing the wrong side. 53 00:03:01,724 --> 00:03:04,814 The longer William stayed in New Jersey, 54 00:03:04,977 --> 00:03:08,397 the more corrupt and rebellious and selfish 55 00:03:08,564 --> 00:03:10,614 the colonies started to look to him 56 00:03:10,774 --> 00:03:15,704 and the more wonderful and inspiring the Crown looked. 57 00:03:15,863 --> 00:03:19,163 I think that the longer that Benjamin Franklin stayed 58 00:03:19,325 --> 00:03:24,365 in England, the more he idealized the colonies and saw 59 00:03:24,538 --> 00:03:27,878 the corruption and venality around him in England. 60 00:03:28,042 --> 00:03:30,042 And so, they began to see things 61 00:03:30,211 --> 00:03:32,591 kind of as a mirror image of one another. 62 00:03:34,506 --> 00:03:36,376 For years, Franklin had reveled 63 00:03:36,550 --> 00:03:38,890 in the intellectual life of Britain. 64 00:03:39,053 --> 00:03:41,933 But increasingly, he dwelled more on the differences 65 00:03:42,097 --> 00:03:44,557 between the Old World and the New, 66 00:03:44,725 --> 00:03:47,845 rather than what they shared in common. 67 00:03:48,020 --> 00:03:49,520 In America, 68 00:03:49,688 --> 00:03:52,148 People do not enquire, concerning a stranger, 69 00:03:52,316 --> 00:03:55,896 "What is he?" but "What can he do?" 70 00:03:57,321 --> 00:03:59,321 The people have a saying, 71 00:03:59,490 --> 00:04:02,870 that God Almighty is himself a mechanic, 72 00:04:03,035 --> 00:04:05,495 the greatest in the universe; 73 00:04:05,663 --> 00:04:10,383 and he is respected more for the variety, ingenuity, 74 00:04:10,542 --> 00:04:12,712 and utility of his handiworks 75 00:04:12,878 --> 00:04:16,798 than for the antiquity of his family. 76 00:04:18,759 --> 00:04:22,469 "Life," he once said, "is like chess." 77 00:04:22,638 --> 00:04:26,478 And in the turbulent years ahead, as his country and his 78 00:04:26,642 --> 00:04:30,482 family would be challenged as never before, Benjamin Franklin 79 00:04:30,646 --> 00:04:35,526 would need every skill the game had taught him. 80 00:04:35,693 --> 00:04:37,073 The game of chess 81 00:04:37,236 --> 00:04:40,356 is not merely an idle amusement. 82 00:04:40,531 --> 00:04:43,951 By playing at chess, we may learn, Foresight, 83 00:04:44,118 --> 00:04:47,198 Circumspection, Caution. 84 00:04:47,371 --> 00:04:49,581 The habit of not being discouraged by present 85 00:04:49,748 --> 00:04:52,838 bad appearances in the state of our affairs, 86 00:04:53,002 --> 00:04:57,012 the habit of hoping for a favorable change, 87 00:04:57,172 --> 00:05:00,382 and that of persevering. 88 00:05:00,551 --> 00:05:02,511 He's different from the other Founders, 89 00:05:02,678 --> 00:05:04,468 from a Washington, from a Jefferson. 90 00:05:04,638 --> 00:05:08,178 He's older. And so he brought a past, 91 00:05:08,350 --> 00:05:12,730 a past in which he created himself as a man. 92 00:05:12,896 --> 00:05:15,356 He brought his wisdom, his experience, 93 00:05:15,524 --> 00:05:18,364 his travel abroad to make, 94 00:05:18,527 --> 00:05:21,907 I think, a much more cosmopolitan and urbane 95 00:05:22,072 --> 00:05:24,332 understanding of what America could be. 96 00:05:26,785 --> 00:05:29,405 Franklin was born an Englishman, like everybody else 97 00:05:29,580 --> 00:05:31,620 in the American Colonies of his generation. 98 00:05:31,790 --> 00:05:33,580 He died an American. 99 00:05:33,751 --> 00:05:38,511 He is made to realize that he will never be allowed to be 100 00:05:38,672 --> 00:05:42,262 sort of a--a fully recognized, respected Briton. 101 00:05:42,426 --> 00:05:44,466 And, for that reason, he decides he has to 102 00:05:44,636 --> 00:05:45,676 become an American. 103 00:06:00,819 --> 00:06:02,319 Dear Father, 104 00:06:02,488 --> 00:06:04,568 The Measure of Sending Troops to Boston 105 00:06:04,740 --> 00:06:07,280 is putting a Stop to the Riots. 106 00:06:07,451 --> 00:06:10,201 The same Spirit however, still prevails 107 00:06:10,371 --> 00:06:13,751 in the Colonies, and nothing can make them acknowledge 108 00:06:13,916 --> 00:06:16,836 the Right of the Parliament to tax them. 109 00:06:17,002 --> 00:06:20,172 Your dutiful son, William. 110 00:06:22,132 --> 00:06:24,052 The repercussions of the Boston Tea Party 111 00:06:24,218 --> 00:06:28,138 had created a tinderbox in the American colonies. 112 00:06:28,305 --> 00:06:30,555 King George III ordered a crackdown 113 00:06:30,724 --> 00:06:33,024 on the American upstarts. 114 00:06:33,185 --> 00:06:36,305 "The New England governments are in a state of rebellion," 115 00:06:36,480 --> 00:06:38,070 he declared. 116 00:06:38,232 --> 00:06:41,112 "Blows must decide whether they are to be subject 117 00:06:41,276 --> 00:06:44,196 to this country or independent." 118 00:06:44,363 --> 00:06:48,163 Parliament quickly passed a flurry of new laws. 119 00:06:48,325 --> 00:06:52,615 Until the East India Company was compensated for its lost tea, 120 00:06:52,788 --> 00:06:55,168 Boston Harbor was to be closed. 121 00:06:56,875 --> 00:07:00,165 Massachusetts was placed under martial law, 122 00:07:00,337 --> 00:07:03,377 the colonial charter was suspended, 123 00:07:03,549 --> 00:07:05,759 the elected assembly outlawed, 124 00:07:05,926 --> 00:07:09,136 and most public meetings banned. 125 00:07:09,304 --> 00:07:12,144 Communities were required to provide quarters 126 00:07:12,307 --> 00:07:14,517 for British troops. 127 00:07:14,685 --> 00:07:19,265 Americans called the new laws the Intolerable Acts. 128 00:07:19,440 --> 00:07:23,190 Protests sprang up in every colony. 129 00:07:23,360 --> 00:07:26,860 Committees of correspondence were established. 130 00:07:27,030 --> 00:07:30,910 They urged colonists "not to purchase any goods which shall 131 00:07:31,076 --> 00:07:33,446 be imported from Great Britain." 132 00:07:33,620 --> 00:07:36,460 Each colony was asked to send delegates 133 00:07:36,623 --> 00:07:38,383 to a Continental Congress 134 00:07:38,542 --> 00:07:41,962 that could propose a united response. 135 00:07:42,129 --> 00:07:45,879 In New Jersey, Governor William Franklin wrote to his 136 00:07:46,049 --> 00:07:48,179 superiors in London. 137 00:07:49,928 --> 00:07:51,348 My Lord, 138 00:07:51,513 --> 00:07:54,063 His Majesty may be assured that I shall 139 00:07:54,224 --> 00:07:58,274 omit nothing in my Power to keep this Province quiet, 140 00:07:58,437 --> 00:08:01,687 no Attachments or Connexions shall ever make me swerve 141 00:08:01,857 --> 00:08:03,937 from the Duty of my Station. 142 00:08:04,109 --> 00:08:06,199 Your Lordship's most obedient 143 00:08:06,361 --> 00:08:08,781 and humble Servant. 144 00:08:08,947 --> 00:08:11,737 For more than a decade, William Franklin 145 00:08:11,909 --> 00:08:14,579 had managed better than other colonial governors 146 00:08:14,745 --> 00:08:17,955 to work with his assembly and steer it toward a more 147 00:08:18,123 --> 00:08:20,133 moderate course. 148 00:08:20,292 --> 00:08:23,882 "The most despotic and worst of all Tyrannies," he told them, 149 00:08:24,046 --> 00:08:25,876 is "the Tyranny of the Mob, 150 00:08:26,048 --> 00:08:28,718 "which must at length involve us all 151 00:08:28,884 --> 00:08:31,264 in one common ruin." 152 00:08:31,428 --> 00:08:34,558 William wrote to his father in London suggesting that 153 00:08:34,723 --> 00:08:39,813 the necessary first step was for Boston to "do justice" and pay 154 00:08:39,978 --> 00:08:42,978 for the tons of tea that had been destroyed. 155 00:08:43,148 --> 00:08:45,228 Dear Son, 156 00:08:45,400 --> 00:08:48,030 As to "doing Justice," 157 00:08:48,195 --> 00:08:50,195 that should have been thought of by Parliament 158 00:08:50,364 --> 00:08:53,914 before they demanded it of the Bostonians. 159 00:08:54,076 --> 00:08:57,366 They have extorted many Thousand Pounds from America 160 00:08:57,538 --> 00:09:01,748 unconstitutionally and with an armed Force. 161 00:09:01,917 --> 00:09:06,587 Of this Money, they ought to make Restitution. 162 00:09:06,755 --> 00:09:11,715 But you, who are a thorough Courtier, see everything 163 00:09:11,885 --> 00:09:14,095 with Government Eyes. 164 00:09:16,139 --> 00:09:17,849 The Franklins were coming to 165 00:09:18,016 --> 00:09:21,436 different conclusions about which side was to blame, 166 00:09:21,603 --> 00:09:25,273 but both men still hoped that a complete split between 167 00:09:25,440 --> 00:09:29,570 Britain and her colonies might be avoided. 168 00:09:29,736 --> 00:09:31,656 The British government was never a monolith. 169 00:09:31,822 --> 00:09:35,032 There were always dissenters, sympathizers with America, 170 00:09:35,200 --> 00:09:37,660 people who thought that Americans were justified 171 00:09:37,828 --> 00:09:39,658 in their opposition. 172 00:09:39,830 --> 00:09:42,420 There were people, well-placed within the British Government, 173 00:09:42,583 --> 00:09:44,503 who believed, with Franklin, 174 00:09:44,668 --> 00:09:47,628 that the future of the British Empire could be great 175 00:09:47,796 --> 00:09:50,296 and could be bright if the British government 176 00:09:50,465 --> 00:09:53,925 recognized that America could be this second pillar 177 00:09:54,094 --> 00:09:56,894 of a transatlantic empire. 178 00:09:57,055 --> 00:09:59,215 Working behind the scenes, 179 00:09:59,391 --> 00:10:01,271 because his public image in England 180 00:10:01,435 --> 00:10:03,725 was now so badly tarnished, 181 00:10:03,895 --> 00:10:06,765 Franklin and sympathetic members of Parliament 182 00:10:06,940 --> 00:10:09,230 struggled to find some compromise 183 00:10:09,401 --> 00:10:11,451 that could avert a war. 184 00:10:11,612 --> 00:10:14,162 But nothing came of it. 185 00:10:14,323 --> 00:10:16,583 Franklin knows exactly what's going on. 186 00:10:16,742 --> 00:10:20,122 And what's going on leads him to despair. 187 00:10:20,287 --> 00:10:23,617 I'm not sure there were many who were more disappointed 188 00:10:23,790 --> 00:10:26,670 by the separation than Franklin. 189 00:10:26,835 --> 00:10:28,305 In part, because I think he really thought it 190 00:10:28,337 --> 00:10:29,587 was avoidable. 191 00:10:30,922 --> 00:10:31,922 Gentlemen, 192 00:10:32,090 --> 00:10:34,010 You have now two roads-- 193 00:10:34,176 --> 00:10:37,926 one evidently leading to peace, happiness, and a restoration 194 00:10:38,096 --> 00:10:40,176 of the public tranquility-- 195 00:10:40,349 --> 00:10:43,059 the other inevitably conducting you 196 00:10:43,226 --> 00:10:46,766 to anarchy, misery, and all the horrors 197 00:10:46,938 --> 00:10:49,688 of a civil war. 198 00:10:52,277 --> 00:10:54,777 In New Jersey, William had refused to 199 00:10:54,946 --> 00:10:58,236 convene the colonial assembly in order to prevent them from 200 00:10:58,408 --> 00:11:01,908 sending delegates to the Continental Congress. 201 00:11:02,079 --> 00:11:05,619 They chose representatives anyway. 202 00:11:05,791 --> 00:11:08,501 When the Congress met in Philadelphia 203 00:11:08,669 --> 00:11:12,459 in the fall of 1774, it had asserted that only 204 00:11:12,631 --> 00:11:16,761 elected colonial legislatures had the right of taxation 205 00:11:16,927 --> 00:11:18,507 within their borders. 206 00:11:18,679 --> 00:11:21,179 It banned all imports from Britain 207 00:11:21,348 --> 00:11:24,428 until the Intolerable Acts were repealed 208 00:11:24,601 --> 00:11:27,941 and set a deadline for Parliament to do it. 209 00:11:28,105 --> 00:11:32,315 Otherwise, American exports to England would cease 210 00:11:32,484 --> 00:11:37,204 and a Second Continental Congress would convene in 1775 211 00:11:37,364 --> 00:11:40,284 to consider further steps. 212 00:11:40,450 --> 00:11:44,370 If only his father had been there, William wrote, he might 213 00:11:44,538 --> 00:11:46,998 have been able to steer the Congress toward something 214 00:11:47,165 --> 00:11:49,285 less confrontational. 215 00:11:51,044 --> 00:11:53,134 However mad you may think the Measures 216 00:11:53,296 --> 00:11:56,546 of the Ministry are, yet I trust you have Candor enough 217 00:11:56,717 --> 00:12:00,387 to acknowledge that we are no ways behind hand with them 218 00:12:00,554 --> 00:12:04,474 in Instances of Madness on this Side of the Water. 219 00:12:07,102 --> 00:12:09,192 Benjamin Franklin now believed 220 00:12:09,354 --> 00:12:13,404 any chances of averting war were unlikely; but he was 221 00:12:13,567 --> 00:12:16,647 growing more and more worried that he and William 222 00:12:16,820 --> 00:12:20,120 were ending up on opposing sides. 223 00:12:20,282 --> 00:12:23,032 He was ready to head for home. 224 00:12:23,201 --> 00:12:26,291 If he couldn't keep the colonies and England together, 225 00:12:26,455 --> 00:12:30,455 at least he might be able to keep his son. 226 00:12:32,252 --> 00:12:36,842 On March 21, 1775, Franklin finally set sail 227 00:12:37,007 --> 00:12:38,797 for Philadelphia. 228 00:12:38,967 --> 00:12:43,217 With him was William's own son, Temple, who had been born 229 00:12:43,388 --> 00:12:46,848 out of wedlock 15 years earlier in England 230 00:12:47,017 --> 00:12:51,017 and discreetly given over to a foster family. 231 00:12:51,188 --> 00:12:54,398 In London, Benjamin had decided to take custody 232 00:12:54,566 --> 00:12:57,276 of the boy and enrolled him in school 233 00:12:57,444 --> 00:13:00,784 but did not tell him he was his grandfather. 234 00:13:00,947 --> 00:13:05,037 Now, he was bringing Temple to America, where he would meet 235 00:13:05,202 --> 00:13:08,122 the father he had never known. 236 00:13:08,288 --> 00:13:12,538 When Benjamin Franklin sails home in 1775, 237 00:13:12,709 --> 00:13:14,879 he's estranged from William. 238 00:13:15,045 --> 00:13:16,875 His wife Deborah has died. 239 00:13:17,047 --> 00:13:20,587 He feels this enormous sense of failure. 240 00:13:20,759 --> 00:13:24,509 His whole mission had been to try to hold the Colonies 241 00:13:24,679 --> 00:13:26,179 and Britain together. 242 00:13:26,348 --> 00:13:27,968 And that has failed. 243 00:13:31,645 --> 00:13:32,975 But being at sea 244 00:13:33,146 --> 00:13:35,766 always revived Franklin's spirits 245 00:13:35,941 --> 00:13:39,571 and ignited his scientific curiosity. 246 00:13:39,736 --> 00:13:42,656 He still wants to chart the Gulf Stream. 247 00:13:42,823 --> 00:13:47,413 He still is curious about natural phenomenon. 248 00:13:47,577 --> 00:13:50,287 And, so, there's Temple Franklin helping 249 00:13:50,455 --> 00:13:54,955 his grandfather Benjamin as they lower barrels into the ocean 250 00:13:55,126 --> 00:13:56,956 to take the temperature of the water, 251 00:13:57,128 --> 00:13:59,918 to see where the Gulf Stream could be, 252 00:14:00,090 --> 00:14:02,430 and he's almost replicating those moments 253 00:14:02,592 --> 00:14:05,392 with William Franklin, where Ben Franklin and William 254 00:14:05,554 --> 00:14:09,354 flew the kite in the rain to discover electricity. 255 00:14:09,516 --> 00:14:12,056 When he and Temple arrived in Philadelphia 256 00:14:12,227 --> 00:14:17,397 on May 5, 1775, Franklin learned startling news. 257 00:14:17,566 --> 00:14:21,736 While he was at sea, the war he had once hoped to prevent 258 00:14:21,903 --> 00:14:24,783 had already started in Massachusetts. 259 00:14:27,117 --> 00:14:32,287 On April 19th, 700 British troops had marched from Boston 260 00:14:32,455 --> 00:14:35,205 to capture munitions stockpiled in Concord. 261 00:14:35,375 --> 00:14:38,295 A skirmish on the Lexington town green 262 00:14:38,461 --> 00:14:40,171 left 8 Americans dead... 263 00:14:40,338 --> 00:14:43,258 but a larger fight broke out 264 00:14:43,425 --> 00:14:46,675 at Concord's North Bridge that sent British redcoats 265 00:14:46,845 --> 00:14:50,425 retreating back toward Boston. 266 00:14:50,599 --> 00:14:56,399 The Revolutionary energy in Philadelphia was palpable. 267 00:14:56,563 --> 00:15:00,533 Regular people were talking about "revolution," 268 00:15:00,692 --> 00:15:04,782 were talking about "power," were talking about "human rights," 269 00:15:04,946 --> 00:15:08,736 were talking about "freedom" and "democracy." 270 00:15:08,909 --> 00:15:12,999 These were the things that Franklin came home to. 271 00:15:15,081 --> 00:15:17,671 A week after Franklin got back home, 272 00:15:17,834 --> 00:15:20,924 delegates to the Second Continental Congress were 273 00:15:21,087 --> 00:15:24,627 gathering in Philadelphia, and the Pennsylvania Assembly 274 00:15:24,799 --> 00:15:29,009 elected him as one of their representatives. 275 00:15:29,179 --> 00:15:31,259 I can inform you that some delegates 276 00:15:31,431 --> 00:15:34,771 begin to entertain a great suspicion that Dr. Franklin 277 00:15:34,935 --> 00:15:38,605 came rather as a spy than as a friend, and that he means to 278 00:15:38,772 --> 00:15:41,112 discover our weak side. 279 00:15:41,274 --> 00:15:43,694 William Bradford. 280 00:15:43,860 --> 00:15:47,700 In the early meetings, Franklin remained quiet, 281 00:15:47,864 --> 00:15:51,284 so quiet, John Adams of Massachusetts complained 282 00:15:51,451 --> 00:15:54,501 that he seemed to spend "a great part of the time 283 00:15:54,663 --> 00:15:57,543 fast asleep in his chair." 284 00:15:57,707 --> 00:16:00,837 In the evenings, while other delegates congregated 285 00:16:01,002 --> 00:16:03,672 in taverns and debated whether the Congress 286 00:16:03,838 --> 00:16:05,918 should declare independence, 287 00:16:06,091 --> 00:16:08,681 he preferred to stay at his new house, 288 00:16:08,843 --> 00:16:12,013 with his daughter Sally and her family. 289 00:16:12,180 --> 00:16:15,730 By this time, Franklin had confessed to Temple 290 00:16:15,892 --> 00:16:18,772 that he was the boy's grandfather. 291 00:16:20,271 --> 00:16:23,981 When Governor William Franklin visited from New Jersey, 292 00:16:24,150 --> 00:16:28,780 Temple met his father for the first time. 293 00:16:28,947 --> 00:16:32,617 And later, when Benjamin and William met privately, 294 00:16:32,784 --> 00:16:37,334 Benjamin made it clear he wanted his son to join the cause. 295 00:16:37,497 --> 00:16:41,537 William wanted his father to stay neutral. He still thought 296 00:16:41,710 --> 00:16:46,210 a reconciliation with England might be possible. 297 00:16:46,381 --> 00:16:48,381 They argued all night. 298 00:16:48,550 --> 00:16:53,140 At another meeting, neighbors could hear them shouting. 299 00:16:53,304 --> 00:16:56,854 Father and son went their separate ways. 300 00:16:57,017 --> 00:16:59,807 William would remain a Loyalist. 301 00:16:59,978 --> 00:17:03,648 Benjamin had become a fervent revolutionary-- 302 00:17:03,815 --> 00:17:06,985 what was called a Patriot. 303 00:17:07,152 --> 00:17:08,572 Of the major leaders, 304 00:17:08,737 --> 00:17:10,907 he came to the Revolution very late. 305 00:17:11,072 --> 00:17:13,072 In fact, it's hard to understand why he even joined 306 00:17:13,199 --> 00:17:14,699 the Revolution, uh... 307 00:17:14,868 --> 00:17:18,038 He was already successful. He was an old man. 308 00:17:18,204 --> 00:17:20,544 Revolution is a young man's game, 309 00:17:20,707 --> 00:17:24,207 but Franklin decided this is what needs to be done. 310 00:17:25,920 --> 00:17:29,130 At age 69, he was the oldest delegate. 311 00:17:29,299 --> 00:17:33,639 Many of the 62 other delegates had not even been born when he 312 00:17:33,803 --> 00:17:36,773 first entered political life 40 years earlier 313 00:17:36,931 --> 00:17:40,521 and knew Franklin only by his reputation. 314 00:17:40,685 --> 00:17:43,265 John Adams was 39; 315 00:17:43,438 --> 00:17:46,978 Patrick Henry and John Hancock, 38; 316 00:17:47,150 --> 00:17:50,820 Virginia's Thomas Jefferson was only 32-- 317 00:17:50,987 --> 00:17:54,987 all younger than Franklin's son William. 318 00:17:55,158 --> 00:17:58,238 He's the "old" one. He's the sage one. 319 00:17:58,411 --> 00:18:02,751 And he talks in parables and metaphors. 320 00:18:02,916 --> 00:18:05,706 And a lot of people don't quite know what to make of him. 321 00:18:05,877 --> 00:18:08,627 Here's Franklin, coming with a worldwide reputation, 322 00:18:08,797 --> 00:18:12,047 certainly the most famous American in the world, 323 00:18:12,217 --> 00:18:15,217 and yet, they're not fully trusting him. 324 00:18:15,386 --> 00:18:19,386 Who is this guy? We don't really know him. 325 00:18:19,557 --> 00:18:22,017 Franklin had traveled more extensively than 326 00:18:22,185 --> 00:18:25,975 any of the others--throughout Europe, but also through most 327 00:18:26,147 --> 00:18:29,067 of the colonies that were only now beginning to think 328 00:18:29,234 --> 00:18:31,954 of themselves as something more than individual 329 00:18:32,112 --> 00:18:33,992 English provinces. 330 00:18:34,155 --> 00:18:39,285 It was an idea he had proposed more than 2 decades before. 331 00:18:41,121 --> 00:18:43,501 The delegates unanimously elected him 332 00:18:43,665 --> 00:18:45,535 as postmaster general, 333 00:18:45,708 --> 00:18:49,588 and he donated his salary to help wounded soldiers. 334 00:18:49,754 --> 00:18:53,844 They assigned him to important committees, creating a system 335 00:18:54,008 --> 00:18:56,758 for paper currency, raising money for weapons 336 00:18:56,928 --> 00:18:59,138 and manufacturing gunpowder, 337 00:18:59,305 --> 00:19:02,635 and negotiating with Indian nations in the hope 338 00:19:02,809 --> 00:19:06,519 they would not side with the British. 339 00:19:06,688 --> 00:19:09,688 Following the battles of Lexington and Concord, 340 00:19:09,858 --> 00:19:12,858 Franklin heard from his favorite sister Jane, 341 00:19:13,027 --> 00:19:17,777 who witnessed the chaos in Boston, the town of his birth. 342 00:19:17,949 --> 00:19:20,119 "The distress it has occasioned 343 00:19:20,285 --> 00:19:22,655 is past my description," she wrote. 344 00:19:22,829 --> 00:19:26,419 "The commotion the town was in after the battle, bringing in 345 00:19:26,583 --> 00:19:30,463 "their wounded men, caused such an agitation of mind, 346 00:19:30,628 --> 00:19:33,548 I believe none had much sleep." 347 00:19:33,715 --> 00:19:36,465 Colonial militia had surrounded the city 348 00:19:36,634 --> 00:19:39,304 and the occupying British forces there. 349 00:19:39,470 --> 00:19:44,730 12,000 of Boston's 15,000 residents, including Jane, 350 00:19:44,893 --> 00:19:47,233 evacuated in panic. 351 00:19:47,395 --> 00:19:51,435 British soldiers then ransacked the nearly empty town. 352 00:19:51,608 --> 00:19:53,688 They would use the pews and pulpit 353 00:19:53,860 --> 00:19:57,160 from the Old South Meeting House as firewood. 354 00:19:59,032 --> 00:20:02,582 On June 17th, in the Battle of Bunker Hill, 355 00:20:02,744 --> 00:20:06,964 British forces attacked the militiamen in nearby Charlestown 356 00:20:07,123 --> 00:20:08,923 and were repulsed twice, 357 00:20:09,083 --> 00:20:12,463 until the defenders' ammunition ran out. 358 00:20:12,629 --> 00:20:15,169 At the end of the day, the British had taken 359 00:20:15,340 --> 00:20:19,470 the heights, but suffered more than 1,000 casualties 360 00:20:19,636 --> 00:20:22,506 to fewer than half that by the Patriots. 361 00:20:22,680 --> 00:20:25,980 Much of Charlestown had been burned by the British 362 00:20:26,142 --> 00:20:29,192 to rid it of American snipers. 363 00:20:29,354 --> 00:20:34,574 Jane's son, Josiah, fought for the Patriots and died. 364 00:20:34,734 --> 00:20:38,284 One of her in-laws died fighting for the British. 365 00:20:38,446 --> 00:20:41,156 "O how horrible is our situation," she wrote 366 00:20:41,324 --> 00:20:44,834 to Benjamin, "that relations seek the destruction 367 00:20:44,994 --> 00:20:46,254 of each other." 368 00:20:48,039 --> 00:20:51,629 Enraged by what the British had done, Franklin sent 369 00:20:51,793 --> 00:20:53,633 a letter to a friend in England, 370 00:20:53,795 --> 00:20:58,005 intended for publication there. 371 00:20:58,174 --> 00:21:00,054 Britain, at the expense 372 00:21:00,218 --> 00:21:03,098 of three millions, has killed 150 Americans 373 00:21:03,263 --> 00:21:08,353 this campaign, which is 20,000 pounds a head; 374 00:21:08,518 --> 00:21:13,188 and at Bunker's Hill she gained a mile of ground. 375 00:21:13,356 --> 00:21:16,146 During the same time 60,000 children have been 376 00:21:16,317 --> 00:21:17,817 born in America. 377 00:21:17,986 --> 00:21:20,696 From these data, calculate the time and expense 378 00:21:20,863 --> 00:21:22,783 necessary to kill us all, 379 00:21:22,949 --> 00:21:25,739 and conquer our whole territory. 380 00:21:27,287 --> 00:21:29,497 And he had written a second letter 381 00:21:29,664 --> 00:21:32,424 to another English friend, which he shared 382 00:21:32,583 --> 00:21:36,843 with colleagues in America but never sent. 383 00:21:37,005 --> 00:21:39,715 You have begun to burn our towns, 384 00:21:39,882 --> 00:21:42,092 and murder our people. 385 00:21:42,260 --> 00:21:44,050 Look upon your hands! 386 00:21:44,220 --> 00:21:47,970 They are stained with the blood of your relations! 387 00:21:48,141 --> 00:21:53,231 YOU AND I WERE LONG FRIENDS: You are now my enemy, 388 00:21:53,396 --> 00:21:55,056 and I am Yours. 389 00:21:56,399 --> 00:21:58,149 The suspicions against Dr. Franklin 390 00:21:58,318 --> 00:22:00,068 have died away. 391 00:22:00,236 --> 00:22:03,526 Whatever was his design at coming over here, I believe he 392 00:22:03,698 --> 00:22:08,158 has now chosen his side and favors our cause. 393 00:22:08,328 --> 00:22:09,868 Dr. Franklin 394 00:22:10,038 --> 00:22:13,918 has discovered a disposition entirely American. 395 00:22:14,083 --> 00:22:17,213 He is a great and good man. 396 00:22:17,378 --> 00:22:19,418 John Adams. 397 00:22:24,218 --> 00:22:27,008 In October 1775, 398 00:22:27,180 --> 00:22:29,970 Franklin traveled to Massachusetts to confer 399 00:22:30,141 --> 00:22:33,101 with General George Washington, who desperately 400 00:22:33,269 --> 00:22:37,109 needed more money from Congress to fight the British. 401 00:22:37,273 --> 00:22:40,783 He was trying to cobble together a Continental Army 402 00:22:40,943 --> 00:22:44,953 that would eventually include fishermen, frontiersmen 403 00:22:45,114 --> 00:22:48,914 and farm laborers; recent immigrants, vagrants 404 00:22:49,077 --> 00:22:52,657 and teen-aged boys with few prospects; 405 00:22:52,830 --> 00:22:56,750 Native Americans, free African Americans 406 00:22:56,918 --> 00:23:02,048 and enslaved men, hoping to be freed when the war ended. 407 00:23:02,215 --> 00:23:05,215 Franklin promised Washington he would do what he 408 00:23:05,385 --> 00:23:07,965 could to help. 409 00:23:08,137 --> 00:23:11,927 On his way back, Franklin reunited with his sister Jane 410 00:23:12,100 --> 00:23:13,520 in Rhode Island. 411 00:23:13,684 --> 00:23:17,564 She was still a refugee from occupied Boston. 412 00:23:17,730 --> 00:23:21,570 He persuaded her to come with him to Philadelphia, and they 413 00:23:21,734 --> 00:23:25,244 stopped briefly in New Jersey, so she could see her nephew 414 00:23:25,405 --> 00:23:28,445 William at the governor's mansion. 415 00:23:28,616 --> 00:23:33,156 Franklin hoped her description of the carnage in Boston might 416 00:23:33,329 --> 00:23:38,129 prompt his son to reconsider his loyalty to the Crown. 417 00:23:38,292 --> 00:23:40,382 She was unsuccessful. 418 00:23:40,545 --> 00:23:44,295 William would be the last royal governor trying to carry on 419 00:23:44,465 --> 00:23:47,585 the king's affairs in America. 420 00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:50,430 People always ask, why were people Loyalists. 421 00:23:50,596 --> 00:23:52,096 And I think the question to ask is, 422 00:23:52,265 --> 00:23:54,095 "Why were people Patriots?" 423 00:23:54,267 --> 00:23:56,517 Uh, to be loyal is not to change. 424 00:23:56,686 --> 00:23:59,146 It's simply to go on believing what you've always believed 425 00:23:59,313 --> 00:24:01,073 your entire life. 426 00:24:01,232 --> 00:24:03,782 His father taught him to be principled. 427 00:24:03,943 --> 00:24:06,033 He was doing exactly what his father had always 428 00:24:06,195 --> 00:24:08,065 taught him to do. 429 00:24:08,239 --> 00:24:10,489 For King and Country was the Motto 430 00:24:10,658 --> 00:24:14,118 I assumed when I first commenced my Political Life, 431 00:24:14,287 --> 00:24:16,707 and I am resolved to retain it till Death 432 00:24:16,873 --> 00:24:21,213 shall put an end to my mortal Existence. 433 00:24:21,377 --> 00:24:23,297 William Franklin had assured his 434 00:24:23,463 --> 00:24:27,763 superiors in London he did not intend to leave his post. 435 00:24:27,925 --> 00:24:31,255 He had advised his wife Elizabeth to seek refuge 436 00:24:31,429 --> 00:24:35,219 with relatives in Barbados, but she insisted on staying 437 00:24:35,391 --> 00:24:38,191 with him in New Jersey. 438 00:24:38,352 --> 00:24:41,692 Benjamin Franklin would not see his son again 439 00:24:41,856 --> 00:24:43,606 for 10 years. 440 00:24:53,951 --> 00:24:55,581 March! 441 00:24:55,745 --> 00:24:58,365 One day in Philadelphia, Franklin noticed 442 00:24:58,539 --> 00:25:02,249 a drummer who had painted a rattlesnake on his drum 443 00:25:02,418 --> 00:25:06,548 along with the words "Don't Tread on Me." 444 00:25:06,714 --> 00:25:08,224 It occurred to me 445 00:25:08,382 --> 00:25:10,132 that the Rattle-Snake is found 446 00:25:10,301 --> 00:25:14,141 in no other quarter of the world besides America, and may 447 00:25:14,305 --> 00:25:18,265 therefore be chosen, on that account, to represent her. 448 00:25:18,434 --> 00:25:22,614 She never begins an attack, nor, when once engaged, 449 00:25:24,941 --> 00:25:27,991 I confess I was wholly at a loss what to 450 00:25:28,152 --> 00:25:31,952 make of the rattles, 'till I went back and counted them 451 00:25:32,114 --> 00:25:35,544 and found them just thirteen, exactly the number 452 00:25:35,701 --> 00:25:38,961 of the Colonies united in America; 453 00:25:39,121 --> 00:25:41,331 One of those rattles singly, 454 00:25:41,499 --> 00:25:44,209 is incapable of producing sound, 455 00:25:44,377 --> 00:25:48,627 but the ringing of thirteen together, is sufficient to 456 00:25:48,798 --> 00:25:50,928 alarm the boldest man living. 457 00:25:52,802 --> 00:25:54,892 A delegate from South Carolina 458 00:25:55,054 --> 00:25:58,104 created a bright yellow flag, which was flown from the 459 00:25:58,266 --> 00:26:02,646 flagship of America's first deployment of Marines. 460 00:26:05,565 --> 00:26:10,485 In March of 1776, Franklin was on his way overland to 461 00:26:10,653 --> 00:26:14,413 Montreal, to try to convince the Canadians to join 462 00:26:14,574 --> 00:26:16,624 the colonial cause. 463 00:26:16,784 --> 00:26:19,584 Learning of the mission, William Franklin wrote 464 00:26:19,745 --> 00:26:22,325 immediately to London, betraying his 465 00:26:22,498 --> 00:26:24,288 father's movements. 466 00:26:24,458 --> 00:26:27,248 It was an arduous 9-week trip. 467 00:26:27,420 --> 00:26:30,010 Benjamin Franklin's efforts failed. 468 00:26:30,172 --> 00:26:32,432 Canada would remain loyal. 469 00:26:32,592 --> 00:26:36,102 And when he returned to Philadelphia, he was so sick 470 00:26:36,262 --> 00:26:40,142 he was unable to attend the proceedings in Congress. 471 00:26:40,308 --> 00:26:44,148 All he had to show for his troubles was a soft cap 472 00:26:44,312 --> 00:26:48,322 of marten fur that had kept his head warm. 473 00:26:51,527 --> 00:26:56,117 In June of 1776, William was arrested 474 00:26:56,282 --> 00:26:59,912 at the governor's mansion by Patriot soldiers. 475 00:27:00,077 --> 00:27:02,497 His secret reports about proceedings 476 00:27:02,663 --> 00:27:06,043 in the Continental Congress had been intercepted. 477 00:27:06,208 --> 00:27:09,048 He was declared an "enemy to this country." 478 00:27:09,211 --> 00:27:13,921 Congress voted unanimously that he be transported under guard 479 00:27:14,091 --> 00:27:16,301 out of New Jersey to Connecticut. 480 00:27:18,262 --> 00:27:22,352 His father, still housebound after his trip to Canada, 481 00:27:22,516 --> 00:27:27,016 was spared having to cast a vote against his son. 482 00:27:33,611 --> 00:27:38,951 On June 21, 1776, a packet arrived at Franklin's 483 00:27:39,116 --> 00:27:40,986 Market Street home. 484 00:27:41,160 --> 00:27:46,040 It was from Thomas Jefferson, who with Franklin, John Adams, 485 00:27:46,207 --> 00:27:49,457 and two other delegates, had been assigned to draft 486 00:27:49,627 --> 00:27:53,297 a declaration of independence. 487 00:27:53,464 --> 00:27:57,094 Working in a rented second- floor room of a house a few 488 00:27:57,259 --> 00:28:00,639 blocks from Franklin's and attended by his enslaved 489 00:28:00,805 --> 00:28:02,635 servant Robert Hemings, 490 00:28:02,807 --> 00:28:06,887 Jefferson completed a first draft. 491 00:28:07,061 --> 00:28:10,771 He asked Franklin to "suggest such alterations as your 492 00:28:10,940 --> 00:28:14,900 more enlarged view of the subject will dictate." 493 00:28:15,069 --> 00:28:18,609 The old editor and writer recognized the elegance 494 00:28:18,781 --> 00:28:22,121 of Jefferson's prose and made only a few changes 495 00:28:22,284 --> 00:28:24,794 before returning it. 496 00:28:24,954 --> 00:28:27,714 Franklin sits back and ponders it a little 497 00:28:27,873 --> 00:28:29,383 and he makes a few 498 00:28:29,542 --> 00:28:32,752 really extraordinary suggestions to Jefferson. 499 00:28:32,920 --> 00:28:35,800 And one of them is world class. 500 00:28:35,965 --> 00:28:39,385 Jefferson had written, "We hold these truths to be 501 00:28:39,552 --> 00:28:42,392 sacred and undeniable." 502 00:28:42,555 --> 00:28:44,845 And Franklin said, "No, no. 503 00:28:45,015 --> 00:28:47,685 'We hold these truths to be self-evident.'" 504 00:28:47,852 --> 00:28:53,022 Just as 2 plus 2 is 4 and the sun rises in the morning, 505 00:28:53,190 --> 00:28:58,740 it is self-evident that we have a right to revolution. 506 00:28:58,904 --> 00:29:01,744 Franklin is saying, "We're trying to create a new type 507 00:29:01,907 --> 00:29:05,157 "of nation in which our rights come from rationality 508 00:29:05,327 --> 00:29:08,997 "and the consent of the governed, not the dictates or 509 00:29:09,165 --> 00:29:11,535 dogma of a religion." 510 00:29:11,709 --> 00:29:16,009 They were doing something very radical and very scary. 511 00:29:16,172 --> 00:29:18,422 To say something is "self evident," to say that it's 512 00:29:18,591 --> 00:29:23,511 common sense, is to say that there is no other way to think 513 00:29:23,679 --> 00:29:28,639 about this, that only an irrational person, who's not 514 00:29:28,809 --> 00:29:34,019 using their mind correctly could contend with this thing, 515 00:29:34,190 --> 00:29:36,610 which is, in fact, really contentious. 516 00:29:36,776 --> 00:29:39,736 It's a classic lawyer's trick to say, 517 00:29:39,904 --> 00:29:42,114 "We all agree to this thing." 518 00:29:42,281 --> 00:29:46,871 Who is "we?" The "we" is presumptuous. 519 00:29:47,036 --> 00:29:50,456 They were not talking about liberating women in any 520 00:29:50,623 --> 00:29:54,253 particular way or certainly not slaves. 521 00:29:54,418 --> 00:29:59,378 But in incremental ways, it grew and grew because if you 522 00:29:59,548 --> 00:30:04,138 talk about liberty for the individual, of you and me, uh, 523 00:30:04,303 --> 00:30:07,353 you're talking about a greater liberty that can be applied 524 00:30:07,515 --> 00:30:09,725 to other people. 525 00:30:09,892 --> 00:30:12,942 On July 2, the Continental Congress 526 00:30:13,103 --> 00:30:16,023 unanimously approved the central clause 527 00:30:16,190 --> 00:30:18,230 of the declaration, proclaiming 528 00:30:18,400 --> 00:30:21,570 American independence. 529 00:30:21,737 --> 00:30:28,447 Two days later, July 4, 1776, 12 of the 13 former 530 00:30:28,619 --> 00:30:32,619 colonies approved the entire declaration. 531 00:30:32,790 --> 00:30:37,420 New York would take a few more days to make up its mind. 532 00:30:37,586 --> 00:30:38,796 And for the support 533 00:30:38,963 --> 00:30:40,713 of this declaration, 534 00:30:40,881 --> 00:30:45,301 we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, 535 00:30:45,469 --> 00:30:47,599 and our sacred honor. 536 00:30:48,973 --> 00:30:50,933 On the same day Benjamin Franklin 537 00:30:51,100 --> 00:30:54,850 was voting to approve the Declaration, his son William 538 00:30:55,020 --> 00:30:58,190 arrived in Connecticut, where he was told he was now 539 00:30:58,357 --> 00:31:00,897 officially a prisoner of the brand-new 540 00:31:01,068 --> 00:31:03,608 United States of America. 541 00:31:13,622 --> 00:31:15,832 At this point, what are the odds? 542 00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:19,460 If you were making a book on this, who would you bet on? 543 00:31:19,628 --> 00:31:22,878 There was the greatest military power in Europe, 544 00:31:23,048 --> 00:31:25,368 arguably the greatest military power in the world, and then 545 00:31:25,426 --> 00:31:27,216 there are these 13 Colonies. 546 00:31:27,386 --> 00:31:30,506 So, it was a longshot, to put it mildly. 547 00:31:30,681 --> 00:31:32,771 And then there are significant numbers 548 00:31:32,933 --> 00:31:35,313 of enslaved men and women who were eying the situation, 549 00:31:35,477 --> 00:31:38,147 trying to figure out, is there some way that this conflict 550 00:31:38,314 --> 00:31:40,864 could serve my interests personally, 551 00:31:41,025 --> 00:31:44,275 serve people like me collectively. 552 00:31:44,445 --> 00:31:46,945 And then you have, both within the Colonies, at the borders 553 00:31:47,114 --> 00:31:49,954 of the Colonies, Native nations who are trying to 554 00:31:50,117 --> 00:31:55,407 understand what this emerging divide might mean for control 555 00:31:55,581 --> 00:31:58,251 of their land or access to trade. 556 00:31:58,417 --> 00:32:00,207 We know how it turned out. 557 00:32:00,377 --> 00:32:02,877 But nobody in 1775 or 1776 has any idea how this is 558 00:32:03,047 --> 00:32:04,667 going to turn out. 559 00:32:04,840 --> 00:32:07,800 And, so, choosing sides also means choosing fates. 560 00:32:09,678 --> 00:32:11,218 The Revolution, as it emerges 561 00:32:11,388 --> 00:32:14,308 and becomes a war, is a civil war. 562 00:32:14,475 --> 00:32:16,385 Families are divided, uh, 563 00:32:16,560 --> 00:32:19,310 friends are divided, neighborhoods are divided. 564 00:32:19,480 --> 00:32:22,270 Almost everyone involved in the Revolution has family 565 00:32:22,441 --> 00:32:24,231 members who are on the other side, 566 00:32:24,401 --> 00:32:26,781 often, very vitriolically on the other side. 567 00:32:26,946 --> 00:32:30,366 So, this really does tear families apart. 568 00:32:30,532 --> 00:32:34,332 In Franklin's case, um, it comes as a complete break 569 00:32:34,495 --> 00:32:36,205 with his son. 570 00:32:36,372 --> 00:32:39,332 By now, hundreds of British ships had arrived 571 00:32:39,500 --> 00:32:43,210 in New York Harbor with 35,000 British soldiers 572 00:32:43,379 --> 00:32:46,969 and sailors and Hessian mercenaries, the greatest 573 00:32:47,132 --> 00:32:49,222 and best-equipped expeditionary force 574 00:32:49,385 --> 00:32:51,635 of the 18th century. 575 00:32:51,804 --> 00:32:55,394 Washington's army would be overmatched and easily routed 576 00:32:55,557 --> 00:32:57,307 from Long Island. 577 00:32:57,476 --> 00:33:01,356 British Admiral Lord Richard Howe sent Franklin a letter 578 00:33:01,522 --> 00:33:05,402 offering a truce, with pardons for the rebels, and rewards 579 00:33:05,567 --> 00:33:08,897 for any Americans who helped restore peace. 580 00:33:09,071 --> 00:33:12,201 Franklin and a small delegation met with Howe 581 00:33:12,366 --> 00:33:15,906 on Staten Island on September 11. 582 00:33:16,078 --> 00:33:19,288 Howe now suggested that the colonies might also have 583 00:33:19,456 --> 00:33:22,876 control of their own legislatures and taxes, 584 00:33:23,043 --> 00:33:26,013 yet still be part of the empire. 585 00:33:26,171 --> 00:33:28,471 The Americans said it was too late. 586 00:33:28,632 --> 00:33:31,472 He should ask the king for permission to negotiate 587 00:33:31,635 --> 00:33:33,885 with an independent nation. 588 00:33:34,054 --> 00:33:36,774 Howe urged them to reconsider. 589 00:33:36,932 --> 00:33:40,562 "When an American falls, England feels it," he said. 590 00:33:40,728 --> 00:33:44,308 And if America were to fall, he added, "I should feel 591 00:33:44,481 --> 00:33:47,361 and lament it like the loss of a brother." 592 00:33:47,526 --> 00:33:51,026 "We will do our utmost," Franklin responded, "to save 593 00:33:51,196 --> 00:33:54,736 your Lordship that mortification." 594 00:33:54,908 --> 00:33:58,498 "They met, they talked, they parted," Howe's secretary 595 00:33:58,662 --> 00:34:00,412 wrote of the 3-hour meeting. 596 00:34:00,581 --> 00:34:04,421 "And now, nothing remains but to fight it out." 597 00:34:06,128 --> 00:34:09,298 Two weeks after the meeting with Lord Howe, Congress 598 00:34:09,465 --> 00:34:13,885 secretly chose Franklin to be one of 3 envoys to France 599 00:34:14,053 --> 00:34:18,563 to seek King Louis XVI's help in the fight with England. 600 00:34:18,724 --> 00:34:20,184 He is the perfect choice. 601 00:34:20,350 --> 00:34:22,480 First of all, there's no other person who knows 602 00:34:22,644 --> 00:34:25,564 the, uh, the European world as Franklin does. 603 00:34:25,731 --> 00:34:28,781 And he is the most celebrated American in Europe. 604 00:34:28,942 --> 00:34:31,282 And he's a natural for the job. 605 00:34:31,445 --> 00:34:35,315 On October 27, he was on board the "Reprisal," 606 00:34:35,491 --> 00:34:39,291 a swift but cramped American 2-masted brig. 607 00:34:39,453 --> 00:34:44,003 With him were two grandsons-- 16-year-old Temple 608 00:34:44,166 --> 00:34:47,586 and Sally's 7-year-old son Benny. 609 00:34:47,753 --> 00:34:50,173 14 years earlier, when France and Britain 610 00:34:50,339 --> 00:34:53,219 were at war, Franklin had sailed from England 611 00:34:53,383 --> 00:34:56,183 under the protection of the Royal Navy. 612 00:34:56,345 --> 00:35:01,135 Now it was imperative he avoid British ships at all costs. 613 00:35:05,020 --> 00:35:07,860 The rough voyage across the wintry Atlantic 614 00:35:08,023 --> 00:35:10,073 "almost demolished me," he wrote. 615 00:35:10,234 --> 00:35:14,244 The diet on board of salted beef had ruined his digestion 616 00:35:14,404 --> 00:35:18,534 and caused boils, scabs, and rashes all over his body, 617 00:35:18,700 --> 00:35:20,660 including his scalp. 618 00:35:20,828 --> 00:35:25,078 They reached the west coast of France in early December. 619 00:35:25,249 --> 00:35:29,459 A fisherman agreed to row him and his two grandsons to shore 620 00:35:29,628 --> 00:35:35,128 at the hamlet of Auray in Brittany, 300 miles from Paris. 621 00:35:35,300 --> 00:35:39,430 Franklin had intended to keep a low profile, but news of his 622 00:35:39,596 --> 00:35:42,516 arrival spread quickly and reached the capital 623 00:35:42,683 --> 00:35:44,733 long before he did. 624 00:35:44,893 --> 00:35:49,113 The real purpose of his visit, securing a formal alliance 625 00:35:49,273 --> 00:35:52,483 with France, remained secret. 626 00:35:52,651 --> 00:35:58,161 But everywhere he went, he was a sensation. 627 00:35:58,323 --> 00:36:03,003 In 1776, people in France had never 628 00:36:03,162 --> 00:36:07,332 heard of any American except for Benjamin Franklin. 629 00:36:07,499 --> 00:36:09,249 From the French point of view, 630 00:36:09,418 --> 00:36:11,838 they have sent the greatest celebrity on Earth, 631 00:36:12,004 --> 00:36:14,094 this side of Voltaire, to Paris. 632 00:36:14,256 --> 00:36:17,676 He is like Newton or Galileo reincarnated. 633 00:36:17,843 --> 00:36:21,053 The city of Nantes celebrated the renowned 634 00:36:21,221 --> 00:36:24,891 Docteur Franklin, tamer of lightning, and crowds 635 00:36:25,058 --> 00:36:28,348 cheered him on his carriage ride into Paris. 636 00:36:28,520 --> 00:36:32,020 They were fascinated by his soft hat of marten fur, 637 00:36:32,191 --> 00:36:35,281 which resembled the famous cap worn by the philosopher 638 00:36:35,444 --> 00:36:38,284 Rousseau, in contrast to the powdered wigs 639 00:36:38,447 --> 00:36:41,407 of the Parisian elite. 640 00:36:41,575 --> 00:36:45,365 Franklin was wearing it to keep his head warm and to hide 641 00:36:45,537 --> 00:36:49,247 the unsightly sores on his balding head. 642 00:36:49,416 --> 00:36:52,916 It's such a great costume and prop, 643 00:36:53,086 --> 00:36:57,756 immediately announcing himself as a man of science. 644 00:36:57,925 --> 00:37:00,965 I am the famous Benjamin Franklin-- 645 00:37:01,136 --> 00:37:02,926 the "Prometheus of the Modern Age," 646 00:37:03,096 --> 00:37:05,306 don't forget it-- here on business. 647 00:37:06,892 --> 00:37:09,732 French admirers hung portraits of him over the 648 00:37:09,895 --> 00:37:12,265 mantelpieces in their homes. 649 00:37:12,439 --> 00:37:15,649 Poems were written about the great American scientist 650 00:37:15,817 --> 00:37:18,817 and philosopher who had miraculously arrived 651 00:37:18,987 --> 00:37:20,947 in their midst. 652 00:37:21,114 --> 00:37:23,784 A collection of "Poor Richard's" aphorisms 653 00:37:23,951 --> 00:37:26,201 was translated into French as 654 00:37:26,370 --> 00:37:28,910 "La Science du Bonhomme Richard." 655 00:37:29,081 --> 00:37:31,631 Franklin loved it. 656 00:37:31,792 --> 00:37:33,132 Dear Sally, 657 00:37:33,293 --> 00:37:35,003 The clay medallion of me 658 00:37:35,170 --> 00:37:37,840 was the first of the kind made in France 659 00:37:38,006 --> 00:37:41,676 and the numbers sold are incredible. 660 00:37:41,843 --> 00:37:46,143 These, with the pictures, busts, and prints, of which 661 00:37:46,306 --> 00:37:50,016 copies upon copies are spread everywhere, have made your 662 00:37:50,185 --> 00:37:55,015 father's face as well known as that of the moon. 663 00:37:55,190 --> 00:37:57,730 The King, Louis XVI, became sort of 664 00:37:57,901 --> 00:38:01,031 slightly annoyed and amused by the Cult of Franklin. 665 00:38:01,196 --> 00:38:03,986 He had a chamber pot with an image of Franklin put 666 00:38:04,157 --> 00:38:06,907 on the inside of it just as a way of saying, 667 00:38:07,077 --> 00:38:09,037 "Enough, already." 668 00:38:09,204 --> 00:38:14,334 Franklin had serious and vital business to attend to. 669 00:38:14,501 --> 00:38:17,961 Without France's money, supplies, and, ideally, 670 00:38:18,130 --> 00:38:22,590 military assistance, America's fight for independence might 671 00:38:22,759 --> 00:38:25,799 be lost and lost quickly. 672 00:38:25,971 --> 00:38:28,181 There's no question that someone is going to have to 673 00:38:28,348 --> 00:38:31,018 step in to underwrite this Revolution. 674 00:38:31,184 --> 00:38:33,984 There is no gunpowder in the Colonies; there is no materiel; 675 00:38:34,146 --> 00:38:36,226 there are very few guns; there are no uniforms. 676 00:38:36,398 --> 00:38:38,898 There's very little common purpose, in fact. 677 00:38:39,067 --> 00:38:43,447 The obvious candidate, um, for that alliance is France. 678 00:38:43,613 --> 00:38:47,083 Franklin had a terribly difficult assignment. 679 00:38:47,242 --> 00:38:52,372 He had to convince one monarch to help the Americans 680 00:38:52,539 --> 00:38:55,419 overthrow another monarch. 681 00:38:55,584 --> 00:38:58,304 The French had reasons to oppose Britain. 682 00:38:58,462 --> 00:39:00,342 They wanted to weaken Britain. 683 00:39:00,505 --> 00:39:04,585 But, King Louis XVI didn't want to underwrite this 684 00:39:04,760 --> 00:39:06,970 overthrow of monarchies. 685 00:39:07,137 --> 00:39:10,217 The French people might get ideas. 686 00:39:10,390 --> 00:39:13,940 Persuading France's king and his ministers to 687 00:39:14,102 --> 00:39:17,692 provide any assistance at all would require delicacy 688 00:39:17,856 --> 00:39:22,486 and discretion, persistence and shrewd calculation. 689 00:39:22,652 --> 00:39:25,572 Franklin had taken on the most momentous chess match 690 00:39:25,739 --> 00:39:27,529 of his life. 691 00:39:27,699 --> 00:39:32,289 And playing it would require him, on his own, to improvise 692 00:39:32,454 --> 00:39:35,794 his strategy again and again. 693 00:39:35,957 --> 00:39:38,537 Franklin understood they're not committed 694 00:39:38,710 --> 00:39:41,710 to our people's republican revolution here. 695 00:39:41,880 --> 00:39:44,090 They want to get back at the British. 696 00:39:44,257 --> 00:39:47,717 They side with the colonials and allow us each 697 00:39:47,886 --> 00:39:50,846 to spend ourselves down in this protracted fight, 698 00:39:51,014 --> 00:39:54,604 that this improves France's position in the European 699 00:39:54,768 --> 00:39:57,478 balance of power and maybe gives it a chance to reassert 700 00:39:57,646 --> 00:39:59,766 itself a little bit in the New World. 701 00:39:59,940 --> 00:40:02,480 And, so, everyone's operating out of self-interest. 702 00:40:02,651 --> 00:40:05,861 But, Franklin, and Franklin alone, knows how to negotiate 703 00:40:06,029 --> 00:40:12,579 this slowly, with suavity and humor and patience. 704 00:40:12,744 --> 00:40:16,374 He met frequently and always surreptitiously 705 00:40:16,540 --> 00:40:20,000 with the Comte de Vergennes, France's foreign minister, 706 00:40:20,168 --> 00:40:24,088 who found Franklin tactful, smart, and unassuming. 707 00:40:24,256 --> 00:40:28,466 Vergennes arranged for several million livres, French pounds, 708 00:40:28,635 --> 00:40:30,845 to be secretly advanced for the Americans 709 00:40:31,012 --> 00:40:32,812 to purchase supplies. 710 00:40:32,973 --> 00:40:36,523 But he would go no further, unless the Patriots' military 711 00:40:36,685 --> 00:40:39,145 situation improved. 712 00:40:40,772 --> 00:40:44,322 At the moment, that didn't appear likely. 713 00:40:44,484 --> 00:40:48,324 George Washington's army had been chased out of Manhattan, 714 00:40:48,488 --> 00:40:51,778 across New Jersey and into Pennsylvania. 715 00:40:51,950 --> 00:40:55,330 A large British force moving south from Canada 716 00:40:55,495 --> 00:40:57,655 had captured Fort Ticonderoga. 717 00:40:57,831 --> 00:40:59,791 Its general, John Burgoyne, 718 00:40:59,958 --> 00:41:04,498 boasted that he would be home in England by Christmas. 719 00:41:04,671 --> 00:41:08,181 British soldiers also threatened Philadelphia. 720 00:41:08,341 --> 00:41:12,801 Congress abandoned the city, as did many of its residents. 721 00:41:12,971 --> 00:41:16,431 Only a few days earlier, Franklin's daughter, Sally, 722 00:41:16,600 --> 00:41:18,850 had given birth to a baby girl. 723 00:41:19,019 --> 00:41:22,899 Now the whole family, including Franklin's sister Jane, 724 00:41:23,064 --> 00:41:25,234 were refugees. 725 00:41:25,400 --> 00:41:29,610 After an American defeat at Brandywine Creek, Philadelphia 726 00:41:29,779 --> 00:41:31,949 fell without a fight. 727 00:41:32,115 --> 00:41:35,905 A British officer commandeered Franklin's home and stole his 728 00:41:36,077 --> 00:41:39,157 books and papers, musical instruments, 729 00:41:39,331 --> 00:41:41,751 and scientific equipment. 730 00:41:41,917 --> 00:41:45,497 In France, Franklin strove to appear upbeat, 731 00:41:45,670 --> 00:41:47,760 despite the setbacks. 732 00:41:47,923 --> 00:41:50,343 The Americans could hold out for 30 years, 733 00:41:50,509 --> 00:41:52,549 he bravely declared. 734 00:41:52,719 --> 00:41:56,309 Franklin is, first and foremost, a man of the press. 735 00:41:56,473 --> 00:41:58,733 And he plays that role to the hilt 736 00:41:58,892 --> 00:42:00,172 in those first months in France. 737 00:42:00,310 --> 00:42:01,650 He is essentially engaged 738 00:42:01,811 --> 00:42:04,481 in a thorough disinformation campaign. 739 00:42:04,648 --> 00:42:07,228 Washington's men are almost without uniforms. 740 00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:09,490 There's a wonderful quote in which someone says, 741 00:42:09,653 --> 00:42:11,173 "They could have scared the British away 742 00:42:11,196 --> 00:42:13,656 by their nakedness." They have nothing. 743 00:42:13,823 --> 00:42:16,163 And Washington, during this time, is in despair. 744 00:42:16,326 --> 00:42:18,616 While Washington is struggling all over, Franklin is 745 00:42:18,787 --> 00:42:21,367 in France saying, "It's victory after victory." 746 00:42:21,540 --> 00:42:25,130 Um..."He, like, he has an army of 80,000," um... 747 00:42:25,293 --> 00:42:27,403 "Yes, the--the British may take Philadelphia, but they 748 00:42:27,420 --> 00:42:29,380 "will be trapped there, the river will freeze, 749 00:42:29,548 --> 00:42:31,168 "they won't be able to reach their ships. 750 00:42:31,341 --> 00:42:32,721 Washington will surround them." 751 00:42:32,884 --> 00:42:34,594 He's utterly making this up. 752 00:42:34,761 --> 00:42:37,181 He's promoting a war that isn't really happening. 753 00:42:37,347 --> 00:42:41,387 And he doesn't, for a moment, in public, drop that mask. 754 00:42:42,978 --> 00:42:45,978 Benjamin Franklin also realizes he has to win 755 00:42:46,147 --> 00:42:48,857 the hearts and minds of the French people. 756 00:42:49,025 --> 00:42:52,485 He knows that within the French population, there's 757 00:42:52,654 --> 00:42:56,244 welling up this sentiment for liberty and fraternity 758 00:42:56,408 --> 00:42:58,198 and equality. 759 00:42:58,368 --> 00:43:03,328 And he taps into that by being a public diplomat, not just 760 00:43:03,498 --> 00:43:05,788 a private diplomat. 761 00:43:05,959 --> 00:43:09,629 Franklin moved from a hotel in crowded Paris to 762 00:43:09,796 --> 00:43:12,586 the village of Passy, 2 miles west, where 763 00:43:12,757 --> 00:43:15,507 a wealthy merchant offered the use of a wing 764 00:43:15,677 --> 00:43:18,637 of his sprawling estate rent-free. 765 00:43:18,805 --> 00:43:22,675 Soon, a lightning rod sprouted from its roof. 766 00:43:22,851 --> 00:43:25,981 Franklin sent his grandson Benny to a boarding school 767 00:43:26,146 --> 00:43:29,016 in Switzerland and assigned Temple to help with 768 00:43:29,190 --> 00:43:33,360 the diplomatic paperwork-- there were mountains of it-- 769 00:43:33,528 --> 00:43:35,608 and the steady stream of visitors 770 00:43:35,780 --> 00:43:38,700 who began arriving once they knew the famous 771 00:43:38,867 --> 00:43:41,907 Doctor Franklin was living there. 772 00:43:42,078 --> 00:43:43,908 You can have no Conception 773 00:43:44,080 --> 00:43:45,670 how I am harass'd. 774 00:43:45,832 --> 00:43:49,252 The Noise of Every Coach now that enters my Court 775 00:43:49,419 --> 00:43:51,839 terrifies me. 776 00:43:52,005 --> 00:43:53,795 Besides his constant efforts 777 00:43:53,965 --> 00:43:57,385 to get more money from the French, much of Franklin's 778 00:43:57,552 --> 00:44:01,102 time was consumed handling requests from individual 779 00:44:01,264 --> 00:44:07,444 Europeans eager to fight the hated English in America. 780 00:44:07,604 --> 00:44:10,074 Frequently if a Man has 781 00:44:10,231 --> 00:44:14,241 no useful Talents, is good for nothing, and burdensome 782 00:44:14,402 --> 00:44:16,032 to his Relations, 783 00:44:16,196 --> 00:44:19,696 they are glad to get rid of him by sending him to 784 00:44:19,866 --> 00:44:22,576 the other End of the World. 785 00:44:22,744 --> 00:44:25,834 They came from every corner of Europe. 786 00:44:25,997 --> 00:44:29,667 All of them, regardless of their talents and experience, 787 00:44:29,834 --> 00:44:33,554 expected to be commissioned as officers. 788 00:44:33,713 --> 00:44:37,723 General Washington finally begged Franklin not to send 789 00:44:37,884 --> 00:44:40,014 anyone else. 790 00:44:40,178 --> 00:44:43,388 But 3 of the men Franklin recommended would 791 00:44:43,556 --> 00:44:46,936 prove invaluable to the Revolution: 792 00:44:47,102 --> 00:44:49,902 Count Casimir Pulaski of Poland 793 00:44:50,063 --> 00:44:52,363 would organize the American cavalry 794 00:44:52,524 --> 00:44:55,784 and serve with bravery and distinction before being 795 00:44:55,944 --> 00:44:59,954 killed in action at Savannah, Georgia. 796 00:45:00,115 --> 00:45:04,115 Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben would develop a system 797 00:45:04,285 --> 00:45:07,075 of military discipline and drilling and impressed 798 00:45:07,247 --> 00:45:10,497 the Continental soldiers with his ability to swear 799 00:45:10,667 --> 00:45:12,997 in multiple languages. 800 00:45:13,169 --> 00:45:16,919 And the Marquis de Lafayette of France, whose father had 801 00:45:17,090 --> 00:45:20,640 been killed by the British in the Seven Years' War, believed 802 00:45:20,802 --> 00:45:24,892 that "To injure England is to serve my country." 803 00:45:25,056 --> 00:45:28,266 Only 19 years old when he went to America, he would 804 00:45:28,435 --> 00:45:31,975 become a surrogate son to General Washington and one 805 00:45:32,147 --> 00:45:35,777 of the most ardent champions of the Revolution. 806 00:45:39,988 --> 00:45:43,828 Early into his diplomatic mission, Franklin was warned, 807 00:45:43,992 --> 00:45:47,082 "You are surrounded with spies who watch your every 808 00:45:47,245 --> 00:45:51,665 movement, who you Visit and by whom you are visited." 809 00:45:51,833 --> 00:45:55,713 He said he didn't care. 810 00:45:55,879 --> 00:45:57,259 As it is impossible 811 00:45:57,422 --> 00:45:59,722 to prevent being watched by Spies, 812 00:45:59,883 --> 00:46:02,433 I have long observed one Rule: 813 00:46:02,594 --> 00:46:05,514 to be concerned in no affairs that I should blush to have 814 00:46:05,680 --> 00:46:07,270 made public. 815 00:46:07,432 --> 00:46:10,102 If I was sure, therefore, that my valet 816 00:46:10,268 --> 00:46:14,978 was a spy, as probably he is, I think I should probably not 817 00:46:15,148 --> 00:46:19,438 discharge him for that, if in other respects I liked him. 818 00:46:20,904 --> 00:46:23,454 The chief spy in Franklin's midst 819 00:46:23,615 --> 00:46:25,325 was not his valet. 820 00:46:25,492 --> 00:46:29,372 It was Edward Bancroft, a Massachusetts-born scientist 821 00:46:29,537 --> 00:46:32,287 now serving as the secretary to the American 822 00:46:32,457 --> 00:46:36,247 delegation in France, with access to every document 823 00:46:36,419 --> 00:46:38,379 and letter. 824 00:46:38,546 --> 00:46:42,296 Every week, Bancroft wrote seemingly personal letters 825 00:46:42,467 --> 00:46:46,137 and then, in invisible ink, provided his clandestine 826 00:46:46,304 --> 00:46:48,974 reports in the margins. 827 00:46:49,140 --> 00:46:52,640 Each Tuesday night, he dropped them into the hollow of a tree 828 00:46:52,811 --> 00:46:55,441 in the Tuileries Garden, where they were retrieved 829 00:46:55,605 --> 00:46:59,395 and taken to the British embassy in Paris. 830 00:46:59,567 --> 00:47:03,027 For his work as a secret agent, England paid him 831 00:47:03,196 --> 00:47:06,986 £1,000 a year, the same amount the Americans were 832 00:47:07,158 --> 00:47:10,198 giving him to be their secretary. 833 00:47:10,370 --> 00:47:12,960 His double-dealing would not come to light 834 00:47:13,122 --> 00:47:15,212 for a hundred years. 835 00:47:16,793 --> 00:47:18,253 Franklin is encircled 836 00:47:18,419 --> 00:47:21,969 by two sets of extremely effective spies-- 837 00:47:22,131 --> 00:47:23,881 a set of French spies, who are, themselves, 838 00:47:24,050 --> 00:47:26,390 surrounded by a set of British spies. 839 00:47:26,553 --> 00:47:30,063 And every piece of paper that, essentially, moves off 840 00:47:30,223 --> 00:47:32,183 of Franklin's desk will end up in the wrong place, 841 00:47:32,350 --> 00:47:34,390 will end up either at Versailles or in London, 842 00:47:34,561 --> 00:47:37,151 but very rarely in the colonies. 843 00:47:37,313 --> 00:47:40,403 Franklin was no fool. 844 00:47:40,567 --> 00:47:43,277 He knew what was happening. 845 00:47:43,444 --> 00:47:47,784 He knew the spying that was going on was to America's 846 00:47:47,949 --> 00:47:52,999 advantage because the Brits got the sense that America was 847 00:47:53,162 --> 00:47:55,712 really quite close to France. 848 00:47:55,874 --> 00:47:57,384 And, uh, Franklin did nothing. 849 00:47:57,542 --> 00:48:01,302 I mean, he just sat there and let it happen. 850 00:48:09,387 --> 00:48:13,597 On December 4, 1777, a messenger rode into 851 00:48:13,766 --> 00:48:18,016 Franklin's courtyard at Passy with startling news. 852 00:48:19,647 --> 00:48:22,897 After two battles near Saratoga, New York, 853 00:48:23,067 --> 00:48:25,647 British General Burgoyne had found himself 854 00:48:25,820 --> 00:48:28,950 surrounded by a larger American force, 855 00:48:29,115 --> 00:48:32,985 and on October 17, he surrendered, along with 856 00:48:33,161 --> 00:48:37,961 his entire army, nearly 6,000 troops. 857 00:48:38,124 --> 00:48:39,884 Saratoga changes everything. 858 00:48:40,043 --> 00:48:42,253 This is the moment Franklin has been waiting for. 859 00:48:42,420 --> 00:48:45,550 There is no reason for the French to enter into any 860 00:48:45,715 --> 00:48:48,005 serious alliance until the Americans have proved that 861 00:48:48,176 --> 00:48:50,886 they can actually win this war, or at least put up a fight. 862 00:48:51,054 --> 00:48:53,514 So, this is the news that he needs to take to Vergennes, 863 00:48:53,681 --> 00:48:55,441 the French foreign minister, and to the Court 864 00:48:55,600 --> 00:48:58,060 to be able to say, "OK, now, will you take us seriously? 865 00:48:58,227 --> 00:49:00,687 Now, will you officially--" because until this point, 866 00:49:00,855 --> 00:49:03,015 the help has been unofficial-- "Will you officially 867 00:49:03,191 --> 00:49:05,111 underwrite our Revolution?" 868 00:49:05,276 --> 00:49:08,526 Franklin sprang into action, writing reports 869 00:49:08,696 --> 00:49:10,736 of the American victory that would be spread 870 00:49:10,907 --> 00:49:12,617 throughout Paris, 871 00:49:12,784 --> 00:49:16,914 praising valiant French officers now serving in America, 872 00:49:17,080 --> 00:49:20,750 like Lafayette, and leading the British ambassador 873 00:49:20,917 --> 00:49:26,007 to realize he had completely underestimated Franklin. 874 00:49:26,172 --> 00:49:27,822 MAN AS AMBASSADOR LORD STORMONT: They play us off 875 00:49:27,840 --> 00:49:29,590 against one another. 876 00:49:29,759 --> 00:49:32,469 Franklin's natural subtlety gives him a great advantage 877 00:49:32,637 --> 00:49:34,307 in such a game. 878 00:49:34,472 --> 00:49:38,102 It is easy to see that in such a situation peace between 879 00:49:38,267 --> 00:49:41,897 England and the House of Bourbon hangs by the slightest 880 00:49:42,063 --> 00:49:43,983 of all threads. 881 00:49:47,443 --> 00:49:51,363 On February 6, 1778, Franklin 882 00:49:51,531 --> 00:49:55,701 met with Vergennes and signed 2 treaties. 883 00:49:55,868 --> 00:49:59,998 One, a treaty of friendship and commerce, meant French aid 884 00:50:00,164 --> 00:50:03,214 would flow in greater quantities and no longer 885 00:50:03,376 --> 00:50:04,876 in secret. 886 00:50:05,044 --> 00:50:08,344 The other, the most important, was a treaty 887 00:50:08,506 --> 00:50:10,336 of military alliance. 888 00:50:10,508 --> 00:50:15,638 France had officially joined the American Revolution. 889 00:50:15,805 --> 00:50:18,845 When they signed the treaty, he wears this old, 890 00:50:19,017 --> 00:50:21,017 frayed suit. 891 00:50:21,185 --> 00:50:24,895 And it's the one he had worn in the Cockpit, when he had 892 00:50:25,064 --> 00:50:29,444 been berated by the British lords for what he was doing. 893 00:50:29,610 --> 00:50:32,410 And he was asked why he wore that coat. 894 00:50:32,572 --> 00:50:35,702 And he said, "To give it a little revenge." 895 00:50:35,867 --> 00:50:40,407 A month later, he was presented to King Louis XVI 896 00:50:40,580 --> 00:50:42,750 at Versailles. 897 00:50:42,915 --> 00:50:45,075 And he meets the king, who congratulates him 898 00:50:45,251 --> 00:50:46,771 and says, "I hope this is for the good 899 00:50:46,836 --> 00:50:48,626 of both countries." 900 00:50:48,796 --> 00:50:51,506 And Franklin utters a line, which is almost astonishing 901 00:50:51,674 --> 00:50:53,844 in its treachery, which is, basically, he--he says to 902 00:50:54,010 --> 00:50:57,850 the king, um, "If all rulers ruled with your benevolence, 903 00:50:58,014 --> 00:51:00,434 republics would never be formed." 904 00:51:00,600 --> 00:51:04,190 Franklin, a French statesman proclaimed, 905 00:51:04,353 --> 00:51:07,983 has "seized the lightning from the heavens and now 906 00:51:08,149 --> 00:51:11,029 the scepter from the tyrants." 907 00:51:21,954 --> 00:51:23,504 This is the civilest nation 908 00:51:23,664 --> 00:51:25,294 upon Earth. 909 00:51:25,458 --> 00:51:27,168 Your first Acquaintances endeavor 910 00:51:27,335 --> 00:51:30,955 to find out what you like, and they tell others. 911 00:51:31,130 --> 00:51:36,390 Somebody, it seems, gave it out that I lov'd Ladies. 912 00:51:36,552 --> 00:51:40,182 So everybody presented me their Ladies 913 00:51:40,348 --> 00:51:45,648 or the Ladies presented themselves to be embraced, 914 00:51:45,812 --> 00:51:47,942 that is to have their Necks kissed. 915 00:51:48,106 --> 00:51:52,736 For as to kissing of Lips or Cheeks, it is not the Mode here; 916 00:51:52,902 --> 00:51:56,572 the first, is reckoned rude, and the other may 917 00:51:56,739 --> 00:51:58,319 rub off the Paint. 918 00:51:58,491 --> 00:52:01,741 'Tis a delightful People to live with. 919 00:52:03,079 --> 00:52:05,119 All the while he was negotiating 920 00:52:05,289 --> 00:52:08,419 and maneuvering for the alliance with France, Franklin 921 00:52:08,584 --> 00:52:11,214 immersed himself in the intellectual circles 922 00:52:11,379 --> 00:52:14,299 and social salons of Paris. 923 00:52:14,465 --> 00:52:20,295 He considered it part of his diplomacy and very enjoyable. 924 00:52:20,471 --> 00:52:24,851 He had loved London, but he adored Paris. 925 00:52:25,017 --> 00:52:27,767 In France, you can flirt at a very high level 926 00:52:27,937 --> 00:52:31,317 of sophistication and it's all a beautiful game 927 00:52:31,482 --> 00:52:33,032 of sexual ballet. 928 00:52:33,192 --> 00:52:35,402 And it has nothing to do with carnality, really. 929 00:52:35,570 --> 00:52:38,870 It's more about, nuance and just the right touch 930 00:52:39,031 --> 00:52:41,031 of flirtation. 931 00:52:41,200 --> 00:52:45,330 he found personal happiness in France that he had never found 932 00:52:45,496 --> 00:52:47,326 in the course of his life. 933 00:52:47,498 --> 00:52:50,668 I don't think you can find anyone, anyone except his 934 00:52:50,835 --> 00:52:53,165 colleagues, who fails to fall under the charms 935 00:52:53,337 --> 00:52:54,957 of Benjamin Franklin. 936 00:52:56,382 --> 00:52:59,642 Franklin is everywhere adored and everywhere cossetted 937 00:52:59,802 --> 00:53:03,392 in Paris, by no one more so, than by the women of France. 938 00:53:03,556 --> 00:53:06,676 Every word that drops from his lips, they think is a gem. 939 00:53:06,851 --> 00:53:09,401 And Franklin just adores the fact that these women are 940 00:53:09,562 --> 00:53:12,442 essentially hanging about him at all times. 941 00:53:12,607 --> 00:53:15,107 Franklin became particularly enchanted 942 00:53:15,276 --> 00:53:20,156 with a neighbor of his in Passy, Madame Brillon de Jouy. 943 00:53:20,323 --> 00:53:24,453 She was beautiful and well- educated and, at age 33, 944 00:53:24,619 --> 00:53:28,329 a year younger than Franklin's daughter Sally. 945 00:53:28,497 --> 00:53:32,207 He went to her home twice a week for tea and music; 946 00:53:32,376 --> 00:53:36,506 composed essays in her honor; and once played a late-night 947 00:53:36,672 --> 00:53:39,262 game of chess while she watched from her 948 00:53:39,425 --> 00:53:42,175 covered bathtub. 949 00:53:42,345 --> 00:53:45,135 I think that Franklin's relationships 950 00:53:45,306 --> 00:53:50,226 with women were more in the mind than in the flesh. 951 00:53:50,394 --> 00:53:54,074 He loved being flirtatious, loved being around them, 952 00:53:54,232 --> 00:53:57,822 but I don't think he pursued a truly passionate romance 953 00:53:57,985 --> 00:54:00,235 with any of them. 954 00:54:00,404 --> 00:54:02,324 We'll never know what happened. 955 00:54:02,490 --> 00:54:05,200 I think Madame Brillon pointed out to Franklin that she was 956 00:54:05,368 --> 00:54:09,038 a married woman, that any kind of hanky-panky was simply 957 00:54:09,205 --> 00:54:10,995 out of the question. 958 00:54:11,165 --> 00:54:14,625 I believe Franklin must have been disappointed, 959 00:54:14,794 --> 00:54:19,054 but he took it very gracefully and from that point forward, 960 00:54:19,215 --> 00:54:23,675 they agreed that he would be "Papa" and she would be 961 00:54:23,844 --> 00:54:25,434 his daughter. 962 00:54:27,306 --> 00:54:30,136 Franklin's attentions turned to another woman 963 00:54:30,309 --> 00:54:32,599 a little closer to his own age. 964 00:54:32,770 --> 00:54:37,480 Anne-Catherine Helvétius was nearly 60, a widow who lived 965 00:54:37,650 --> 00:54:40,110 on a grand estate near Passy. 966 00:54:40,278 --> 00:54:43,778 Eccentric and free-spirited, she hosted one of the most 967 00:54:43,948 --> 00:54:48,038 renowned salons in France, attended by intellectuals 968 00:54:48,202 --> 00:54:49,872 and artists. 969 00:54:50,037 --> 00:54:53,787 Franklin became a regular visitor, sometimes playing his 970 00:54:53,958 --> 00:54:56,998 glass armonica while people sang his favorite 971 00:54:57,169 --> 00:55:00,669 Scottish ballads in French. 972 00:55:00,840 --> 00:55:04,300 She's a philosopher's widow and very Bohemian. 973 00:55:04,468 --> 00:55:07,928 She had this fleet of cats whom she would dress 974 00:55:08,097 --> 00:55:11,097 in brocades and silks, and who would--who would, basically, 975 00:55:11,267 --> 00:55:13,687 wander around her house and eat their meals off china. 976 00:55:13,853 --> 00:55:18,073 Um, and into that menagerie, um, walks Benjamin Franklin, 977 00:55:18,232 --> 00:55:20,032 who's immediately smitten. 978 00:55:20,192 --> 00:55:22,282 If this lady is pleased to spend 979 00:55:22,445 --> 00:55:24,735 her days with Monsieur Franklin, 980 00:55:24,905 --> 00:55:30,615 he would be just as pleased to spend his nights with her. 981 00:55:30,786 --> 00:55:33,866 She declined, but never discouraged him 982 00:55:34,040 --> 00:55:36,460 from showering her with affection. 983 00:55:36,625 --> 00:55:38,455 There is a moment there where he essentially 984 00:55:38,627 --> 00:55:42,047 says to her, "I would stay in France, if you would have me." 985 00:55:42,214 --> 00:55:43,884 And she's not interested. 986 00:55:44,050 --> 00:55:46,550 But I would say that that was probably the most serious 987 00:55:46,719 --> 00:55:50,099 of the relationships with-- with any--with the French women. 988 00:55:50,264 --> 00:55:52,984 Meanwhile, Franklin's social calendar was 989 00:55:53,142 --> 00:55:57,942 always filled with lunches, teas, and lavish dinners. 990 00:55:58,105 --> 00:56:01,475 He didn't speak or understand French all that well. 991 00:56:01,650 --> 00:56:03,820 He wanted to be able to see the meal in front of him 992 00:56:03,986 --> 00:56:06,416 at a dinner party, but, also, at the same time, he needed to see 993 00:56:06,447 --> 00:56:09,407 the lips of the people speaking to him across the table. 994 00:56:09,575 --> 00:56:11,985 So, he became frustrated that his glasses couldn't do 995 00:56:12,161 --> 00:56:13,621 both things. 996 00:56:13,788 --> 00:56:17,458 This is typical Franklin. He analyzed the problem. 997 00:56:17,625 --> 00:56:20,625 He sawed his existing glasses in half, and glued them 998 00:56:20,795 --> 00:56:23,375 together so that one top-- one side did one function, 999 00:56:23,547 --> 00:56:24,877 the other, the other. 1000 00:56:25,049 --> 00:56:27,259 He called his newest invention 1001 00:56:27,426 --> 00:56:31,056 "double-spectacles"-- bifocals. 1002 00:56:31,222 --> 00:56:34,562 And Franklin was always ready for a game of chess 1003 00:56:34,725 --> 00:56:36,635 with anyone. 1004 00:56:36,811 --> 00:56:40,611 In one case, he was having this chess match with 1005 00:56:40,773 --> 00:56:44,743 the Duchess of Bourbon and Franklin professed to forget 1006 00:56:44,902 --> 00:56:48,072 the rules and he captured the king. 1007 00:56:48,239 --> 00:56:50,829 His opponent, the Duchess says, "Well, in--in France, 1008 00:56:50,991 --> 00:56:52,371 "we don't capture kings. 1009 00:56:52,535 --> 00:56:54,285 That's not the way the game is played." 1010 00:56:54,453 --> 00:56:56,913 He said, "Ah, but in America, we do." 1011 00:57:01,419 --> 00:57:03,799 It was late when he breakfasted, 1012 00:57:03,963 --> 00:57:05,803 and as soon as breakfast was over, 1013 00:57:05,965 --> 00:57:08,835 a crowd of carriages came. 1014 00:57:09,009 --> 00:57:11,799 By far the greater part were women and children, come to 1015 00:57:11,971 --> 00:57:15,061 have the honor to see the great Franklin, and to have 1016 00:57:15,224 --> 00:57:17,104 the pleasure of telling stories about his 1017 00:57:17,268 --> 00:57:20,268 simplicity and his bald head. 1018 00:57:20,438 --> 00:57:23,938 He was invited to dine every day and never declined 1019 00:57:24,108 --> 00:57:28,528 and it was the only thing in which he was punctual. 1020 00:57:28,696 --> 00:57:31,026 John Adams. 1021 00:57:31,198 --> 00:57:33,028 In April, while the treaties 1022 00:57:33,200 --> 00:57:34,910 were crossing the Atlantic, 1023 00:57:35,077 --> 00:57:37,577 John Adams arrived in Paris. 1024 00:57:37,746 --> 00:57:40,956 He had been sent by Congress to push more vigorously 1025 00:57:41,125 --> 00:57:44,545 for a French alliance and was chagrined to learn that 1026 00:57:44,712 --> 00:57:48,762 Franklin had already secured two treaties. 1027 00:57:48,924 --> 00:57:52,894 Even more aggravating to him was how Franklin seemed to be 1028 00:57:53,053 --> 00:57:54,813 conducting himself. 1029 00:57:54,972 --> 00:57:59,142 Adams called it "a scene of continual dissipation." 1030 00:57:59,310 --> 00:58:02,350 He was absolutely horrified. 1031 00:58:02,521 --> 00:58:04,151 Franklin's desk was a mess. 1032 00:58:04,315 --> 00:58:06,475 There were papers all over the place. 1033 00:58:06,650 --> 00:58:09,450 And there was no security. 1034 00:58:09,612 --> 00:58:11,162 Adams said, "Where's 'Poor Richard?'" 1035 00:58:11,322 --> 00:58:12,782 "Early to bed, early to rise 1036 00:58:12,948 --> 00:58:14,868 "makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. 1037 00:58:15,034 --> 00:58:16,804 "Where's--where's the-- the Franklin that we're all-- 1038 00:58:16,827 --> 00:58:19,077 that's famous for his discipline?" 1039 00:58:19,246 --> 00:58:23,916 It's hard to imagine 2 such talented people, 2 men 1040 00:58:24,084 --> 00:58:26,714 with so much in common, who are of absolutely 1041 00:58:26,879 --> 00:58:28,709 opposite temperaments. 1042 00:58:28,881 --> 00:58:33,011 One of them is very rigid and dogmatic and brilliant. 1043 00:58:33,177 --> 00:58:35,637 And the other one is very flexible and easy-going 1044 00:58:35,804 --> 00:58:37,144 and affable and brilliant. 1045 00:58:37,306 --> 00:58:39,676 And they got on each other's nerves. 1046 00:58:39,850 --> 00:58:44,360 Adams is quite wary of the French, quite Puritanical. 1047 00:58:44,522 --> 00:58:48,692 Adams learned French by memorizing funeral orations, 1048 00:58:48,859 --> 00:58:51,819 and Franklin learned French by writing poetry 1049 00:58:51,987 --> 00:58:54,107 and letters to women. 1050 00:58:54,281 --> 00:58:56,831 Franklin knew how to be popular and Adams had no idea 1051 00:58:56,992 --> 00:58:58,372 how to be popular. 1052 00:58:58,536 --> 00:59:00,326 In fact, Adams per-perceived popularity 1053 00:59:00,496 --> 00:59:02,496 as a sign that he was not doing the right thing. 1054 00:59:02,665 --> 00:59:06,415 Franklin's popularity drives Adams to distraction. 1055 00:59:06,585 --> 00:59:08,515 He's--he feels he's being-- he feels that Franklin is being 1056 00:59:08,546 --> 00:59:13,176 ineffective and utterly given over to Old World luxury, 1057 00:59:13,342 --> 00:59:15,362 and, moreover, people are throwing themselves at him 1058 00:59:15,386 --> 00:59:17,006 left and right. 1059 00:59:17,179 --> 00:59:18,909 He can't stand these celebrations of what he sees 1060 00:59:18,931 --> 00:59:21,641 as this utterly irresponsible colleague. 1061 00:59:21,809 --> 00:59:24,849 Shortly after his arrival, Adams accompanied 1062 00:59:25,020 --> 00:59:28,900 Franklin to the Academy of Sciences to see Voltaire, 1063 00:59:29,066 --> 00:59:31,566 France's greatest Enlightenment writer 1064 00:59:31,735 --> 00:59:33,445 and philosopher. 1065 00:59:33,612 --> 00:59:38,872 He was 83 and in poor health, a month away from dying. 1066 00:59:39,034 --> 00:59:43,214 When the crowd demanded that the two great men embrace, 1067 00:59:43,372 --> 00:59:47,172 Adams had to watch from the sidelines. 1068 00:59:47,334 --> 00:59:51,094 Adams is an impatient man, he's a brittle man. 1069 00:59:51,255 --> 00:59:53,915 And he doesn't understand the channels of diplomacy. 1070 00:59:54,091 --> 00:59:55,531 And he certainly doesn't understand the way 1071 00:59:55,551 --> 00:59:57,341 the French Court works. 1072 00:59:57,511 --> 01:00:00,971 He doesn't see that the secret to Franklin's success is, 1073 01:00:01,140 --> 01:00:04,180 in large part, his inactivity, the fact that he is... 1074 01:00:04,351 --> 01:00:07,151 essentially being polite and genteel 1075 01:00:07,313 --> 01:00:09,903 and is expressing gratitude toward these people who are 1076 01:00:10,065 --> 01:00:12,225 underwriting our-- our Revolution. 1077 01:00:12,401 --> 01:00:14,821 Adams wants to be demanding things at all times and, 1078 01:00:14,987 --> 01:00:16,507 essentially, makes himself very unwelcome 1079 01:00:16,530 --> 01:00:18,120 at the French Court. 1080 01:00:18,282 --> 01:00:20,782 It's the "good cop" and the "bad cop." 1081 01:00:20,951 --> 01:00:22,751 And Franklin is the good cop. 1082 01:00:22,911 --> 01:00:25,331 I think they become an effective team and instead 1083 01:00:25,497 --> 01:00:28,247 of seeing one as right and the other as wrong, um, it works 1084 01:00:28,417 --> 01:00:30,037 for the American cause. 1085 01:00:30,210 --> 01:00:32,020 This is probably the greatest assemblage of diplomatic 1086 01:00:32,046 --> 01:00:34,716 talent in American history--two people. 1087 01:00:34,882 --> 01:00:39,092 But Adams is perceived by the French, especially Vergennes, 1088 01:00:39,261 --> 01:00:43,771 the French foreign minister, as this impossible creature. 1089 01:00:43,932 --> 01:00:47,732 In February 1779, 1090 01:00:47,895 --> 01:00:51,105 Adams learned that, at Vergennes' insistence, 1091 01:00:51,273 --> 01:00:53,733 Congress had named Benjamin Franklin 1092 01:00:53,901 --> 01:00:57,701 the United States' sole representative in France. 1093 01:00:59,948 --> 01:01:02,868 John Adams left for home. 1094 01:01:17,383 --> 01:01:20,973 This was a war that was not a sectional war. 1095 01:01:21,136 --> 01:01:24,056 This was not North versus South. 1096 01:01:24,223 --> 01:01:27,353 Americans were fighting against Americans. 1097 01:01:27,518 --> 01:01:31,728 This was a Continental war where every single person had 1098 01:01:31,897 --> 01:01:35,437 to decide which side they were on. 1099 01:01:35,609 --> 01:01:37,439 After being taken to Connecticut as 1100 01:01:37,611 --> 01:01:41,531 a prisoner in 1776, William Franklin had been 1101 01:01:41,699 --> 01:01:44,909 persuaded to sign a paper promising not to attempt 1102 01:01:45,077 --> 01:01:49,037 an escape or to work against the Patriots so he could be 1103 01:01:49,206 --> 01:01:52,626 placed under house arrest in a comfortable home. 1104 01:01:52,793 --> 01:01:56,303 It didn't last long. 1105 01:01:56,463 --> 01:01:59,343 He began secretly corresponding with British 1106 01:01:59,508 --> 01:02:02,758 officials in New York, advising them about Loyalists 1107 01:02:02,928 --> 01:02:05,718 in Connecticut and New Jersey. 1108 01:02:05,889 --> 01:02:09,059 Congress learned what William was doing and ordered him 1109 01:02:09,226 --> 01:02:12,856 taken to the infamous Litchfield jail. 1110 01:02:13,021 --> 01:02:16,901 He was kept there in solitary confinement for 8 months, 1111 01:02:17,067 --> 01:02:20,237 with nothing but a chamber pot and a straw pallet 1112 01:02:20,404 --> 01:02:22,244 on the floor. 1113 01:02:22,406 --> 01:02:26,946 It was, he wrote, as if "I have been buried alive." 1114 01:02:27,119 --> 01:02:30,959 His wife, Elizabeth, had moved to British-held New York City, 1115 01:02:31,123 --> 01:02:34,423 where her already fragile health worsened. 1116 01:02:34,585 --> 01:02:37,705 William appealed to General Washington, begging 1117 01:02:37,880 --> 01:02:40,630 for permission to see her. 1118 01:02:40,799 --> 01:02:43,049 I am certain that an indulgence 1119 01:02:43,218 --> 01:02:45,298 in my present request will be 1120 01:02:45,471 --> 01:02:47,771 thankfully acknowledged by my father, 1121 01:02:47,931 --> 01:02:50,811 for he has great esteem for my wife, 1122 01:02:50,976 --> 01:02:53,096 and I believe that though we differ 1123 01:02:53,270 --> 01:02:54,980 in our political sentiments, 1124 01:02:55,147 --> 01:02:58,687 yet it has not lessened his natural affection for me, 1125 01:02:58,859 --> 01:03:02,949 any more than it has mine for him. 1126 01:03:03,113 --> 01:03:04,953 Washington passed his request 1127 01:03:05,115 --> 01:03:08,945 on to Congress, which refused to intervene. 1128 01:03:09,119 --> 01:03:14,289 The same day, Elizabeth died at age 43. 1129 01:03:14,458 --> 01:03:17,288 In his jail cell, William's own health 1130 01:03:17,461 --> 01:03:20,671 began deteriorating. 1131 01:03:20,839 --> 01:03:24,009 My Life has become quite a burden to me. 1132 01:03:24,176 --> 01:03:27,046 In short, I suffer so much 1133 01:03:27,221 --> 01:03:30,311 that I should deem it a Favour to be immediately 1134 01:03:30,474 --> 01:03:33,104 taken out and shot. 1135 01:03:35,270 --> 01:03:36,900 Franklin's daughter Sally 1136 01:03:37,064 --> 01:03:40,154 and her husband appealed to Congress to move him. 1137 01:03:40,317 --> 01:03:44,277 So did many of Franklin's Philadelphia friends. 1138 01:03:44,446 --> 01:03:48,576 In France, Benjamin Franklin himself did nothing 1139 01:03:48,742 --> 01:03:52,002 on his son's behalf. 1140 01:03:52,162 --> 01:03:56,422 In September of 1778, Congress approved an exchange 1141 01:03:56,583 --> 01:03:58,253 of prisoners. 1142 01:03:58,418 --> 01:04:02,458 The British released the Patriot governor of Delaware. 1143 01:04:02,631 --> 01:04:05,511 William Franklin was taken to New York City. 1144 01:04:05,676 --> 01:04:08,716 It was assumed he would sail to England. 1145 01:04:08,887 --> 01:04:13,477 Instead, he stayed to help the British, establishing a network 1146 01:04:13,642 --> 01:04:18,772 of spies that operated behind American lines and organizing 1147 01:04:18,939 --> 01:04:22,479 guerrilla units that conducted raids along the coast 1148 01:04:22,651 --> 01:04:26,071 of Connecticut and Rhode Island and up the Hudson River 1149 01:04:26,238 --> 01:04:28,448 in New York. 1150 01:04:28,615 --> 01:04:31,655 He came out of that jail time experience 1151 01:04:31,827 --> 01:04:35,157 in the same way that Benjamin came out of the Cockpit. 1152 01:04:35,330 --> 01:04:39,080 He was angry, and he wanted to do everything that he could 1153 01:04:39,251 --> 01:04:41,001 to defeat the Patriots. 1154 01:04:41,169 --> 01:04:44,459 He became head of something called the "Associate Board 1155 01:04:44,631 --> 01:04:47,591 of Loyalists," which was a terrorist organization, 1156 01:04:47,759 --> 01:04:49,299 pure and simple. 1157 01:04:49,469 --> 01:04:52,599 In New Jersey, Patriots were routinely 1158 01:04:52,764 --> 01:04:54,734 murdering Loyalists. 1159 01:04:54,892 --> 01:04:59,482 In response, William's group issued a warning. 1160 01:04:59,646 --> 01:05:02,266 A Warning to Rebels: 1161 01:05:02,441 --> 01:05:06,111 If you continue in your murder and cruelties, 1162 01:05:06,278 --> 01:05:09,698 we Loyalists do Solemnly Declare that we 1163 01:05:09,865 --> 01:05:13,535 will Hang Six for One, which shall be Inflicted 1164 01:05:13,702 --> 01:05:16,542 on your Headmen and Leaders. 1165 01:05:20,918 --> 01:05:23,548 Word of the alliance with France had 1166 01:05:23,712 --> 01:05:26,472 prompted the British to abandon Philadelphia 1167 01:05:26,632 --> 01:05:29,892 and bolster their defenses in New York. 1168 01:05:30,052 --> 01:05:34,142 Franklin's family moved back into their Market Street home. 1169 01:05:34,306 --> 01:05:38,096 Sally organized women who went door-to-door to raise money 1170 01:05:38,268 --> 01:05:40,938 for the Continental Army and knitted shirts 1171 01:05:41,104 --> 01:05:43,114 for Washington's men. 1172 01:05:43,273 --> 01:05:47,863 But elsewhere in America, the war was not going well. 1173 01:05:48,028 --> 01:05:51,408 The first joint American- French military operation, 1174 01:05:51,573 --> 01:05:54,283 in Rhode Island, had failed to take Newport 1175 01:05:54,451 --> 01:05:56,041 back from the British, 1176 01:05:56,203 --> 01:05:59,713 who opened up their own offensive in the South. 1177 01:05:59,873 --> 01:06:02,673 They captured Savannah, Georgia, and later, 1178 01:06:02,834 --> 01:06:07,344 Charleston, South Carolina, where 5,000 American troops, 1179 01:06:07,506 --> 01:06:12,796 4 ships, and 300 pieces of artillery were surrendered. 1180 01:06:12,970 --> 01:06:16,850 Soon, a British army, under General Lord Cornwallis, 1181 01:06:17,015 --> 01:06:20,095 would begin marching toward Virginia. 1182 01:06:20,268 --> 01:06:25,318 "Our present situation makes one of two things essential to us," 1183 01:06:25,482 --> 01:06:27,822 George Washington wrote to Franklin. 1184 01:06:27,985 --> 01:06:31,945 "A peace or the most vigorous aid of our allies, 1185 01:06:32,114 --> 01:06:35,334 particularly in the article of money." 1186 01:06:35,492 --> 01:06:40,872 Lafayette reported to Franklin how dire things had become. 1187 01:06:41,039 --> 01:06:44,289 My dear friend, You have no idea 1188 01:06:44,459 --> 01:06:46,959 of the shocking situation the Army is in. 1189 01:06:47,129 --> 01:06:50,469 We are naked, shockingly naked, and worse off on that 1190 01:06:50,632 --> 01:06:52,762 respect than we have ever been. 1191 01:06:52,926 --> 01:06:54,216 For God's sake let us have 1192 01:06:54,386 --> 01:06:56,556 fifteen or twenty thousand uniforms 1193 01:06:56,722 --> 01:06:59,222 and let it be done in such a way as will insure their 1194 01:06:59,391 --> 01:07:02,271 timely departure from France. 1195 01:07:02,436 --> 01:07:04,726 In France, managing the purchase 1196 01:07:04,896 --> 01:07:09,276 and shipment of supplies proved frustratingly slow. 1197 01:07:09,443 --> 01:07:12,953 Franklin did what he could to speed things up, but some 1198 01:07:13,113 --> 01:07:17,163 in Congress blamed him for the delays anyway and discussed 1199 01:07:17,325 --> 01:07:19,745 having him replaced. 1200 01:07:19,911 --> 01:07:23,001 Vergennes was angered at the news. 1201 01:07:23,165 --> 01:07:27,455 He approved an outright gift, not a loan, the largest 1202 01:07:27,627 --> 01:07:31,377 of the war to the United States, and wrote Congress 1203 01:07:31,548 --> 01:07:34,548 that it had been granted specifically because 1204 01:07:34,718 --> 01:07:37,888 of Franklin's persistence. 1205 01:07:38,055 --> 01:07:41,015 Franklin, meanwhile, wrote Congress, 1206 01:07:41,183 --> 01:07:43,983 asking to be replaced. 1207 01:07:44,144 --> 01:07:47,024 I have pass'd my 75th Year. 1208 01:07:47,189 --> 01:07:51,989 I have been engag'd in publick Affairs, and enjoy'd public 1209 01:07:52,152 --> 01:07:56,322 Confidence in some Shape or other, during the long Term 1210 01:07:56,490 --> 01:08:00,870 of fifty Years, an Honor sufficient to satisfy any 1211 01:08:01,036 --> 01:08:05,286 reasonable Ambition, and I have no other left, but that 1212 01:08:05,457 --> 01:08:10,207 of Repose, which I hope the Congress will grant me, 1213 01:08:10,378 --> 01:08:15,088 by sending some Person to supply my Place. 1214 01:08:17,719 --> 01:08:22,679 On November 19, 1781, a young American merchant 1215 01:08:22,849 --> 01:08:26,309 named Elkanah Watson paid a visit to Passy 1216 01:08:26,478 --> 01:08:29,728 and found the old man lost in thought. 1217 01:08:29,898 --> 01:08:33,438 Franklin invited him in for dinner, played a Scottish 1218 01:08:33,610 --> 01:08:37,820 pastoral tune for him on the armonica, and then they talked 1219 01:08:37,989 --> 01:08:43,579 late into the night about the state of the war. 1220 01:08:43,745 --> 01:08:46,535 We weighed probabilities, balanc'd 1221 01:08:46,706 --> 01:08:51,336 vicissitudes, dissected the best Maps; and finally it 1222 01:08:51,503 --> 01:08:54,553 resulted in a disheartening foreboding, 1223 01:08:54,714 --> 01:08:56,514 that the English Fleet wou'd intercept 1224 01:08:56,675 --> 01:09:00,755 & destroy the French Fleet, Land their Army & brake up 1225 01:09:00,929 --> 01:09:03,219 Washington's quarters. 1226 01:09:03,390 --> 01:09:07,770 Thus our unhappy Country would again bleed at every vein 1227 01:09:07,936 --> 01:09:10,106 & the war commence with fresh vigor 1228 01:09:10,272 --> 01:09:13,112 on the part of our implacable enemy. 1229 01:09:14,901 --> 01:09:18,361 Franklin was extremely discouraged. 1230 01:09:18,530 --> 01:09:22,870 He was working night and day to supply the Americans 1231 01:09:23,034 --> 01:09:26,164 with everything they needed. 1232 01:09:26,329 --> 01:09:31,959 But the war was dragging on and on and on. 1233 01:09:32,127 --> 01:09:37,297 So, when, at midnight, a courier came galloping into 1234 01:09:37,465 --> 01:09:40,965 Franklin's courtyard with the news of the victory 1235 01:09:41,136 --> 01:09:45,096 at Yorktown, it transformed him. 1236 01:09:45,265 --> 01:09:47,885 A month earlier, Washington's army 1237 01:09:48,059 --> 01:09:52,439 of 9,000 Americans and nearly as many French troops 1238 01:09:52,606 --> 01:09:56,106 had trapped British General Cornwallis at Yorktown 1239 01:09:56,276 --> 01:09:58,146 on the Virginia Peninsula. 1240 01:09:58,320 --> 01:10:01,990 The French fleet offshore had cut off any chance of his 1241 01:10:02,157 --> 01:10:05,737 being resupplied or reinforced. 1242 01:10:05,911 --> 01:10:09,661 After 9 days of heavy bombardment, Cornwallis 1243 01:10:09,831 --> 01:10:16,381 surrendered his 8,000 troops on October 19, 1781. 1244 01:10:16,546 --> 01:10:20,466 Lafayette, a division commander of American forces, 1245 01:10:20,634 --> 01:10:23,764 was at Washington's side. 1246 01:10:23,929 --> 01:10:27,019 If France had not supplied the ships, 1247 01:10:27,182 --> 01:10:29,272 if Lafayette hadn't come over, 1248 01:10:29,434 --> 01:10:32,774 if Vergennes and others hadn't done what they did, 1249 01:10:32,938 --> 01:10:36,188 if we hadn't had the French Navy helping by 1250 01:10:36,358 --> 01:10:40,358 the time we got to Yorktown, I do not think that 1251 01:10:40,528 --> 01:10:44,368 the American Colonies would have won the Revolution. 1252 01:10:44,532 --> 01:10:47,992 I think Benjamin Franklin, by sealing the alliance 1253 01:10:48,161 --> 01:10:52,671 with France, did as much to win the Revolution as anybody 1254 01:10:52,832 --> 01:10:55,382 with the possible exception of George Washington. 1255 01:10:57,212 --> 01:11:00,262 The Americans had won a great victory, 1256 01:11:00,423 --> 01:11:04,593 but the British still had 26,000 troops in North America, 1257 01:11:04,761 --> 01:11:07,811 and the war with England was not over. 1258 01:11:07,973 --> 01:11:10,853 Neither were Franklin's duties. 1259 01:11:11,017 --> 01:11:15,767 Congress refused to accept his resignation and instead gave him 1260 01:11:15,939 --> 01:11:17,689 an additional mission. 1261 01:11:17,857 --> 01:11:20,567 He was now part of a delegation to begin peace 1262 01:11:20,735 --> 01:11:24,025 negotiations with England. 1263 01:11:24,197 --> 01:11:28,737 Franklin drew up a list of 4 non-negotiable demands 1264 01:11:28,910 --> 01:11:32,210 during informal talks with the British and rebuffed their 1265 01:11:32,372 --> 01:11:35,212 suggestions that the Americans cut the French 1266 01:11:35,375 --> 01:11:38,455 out of the deliberations. 1267 01:11:38,628 --> 01:11:42,798 To complicate things, when two other American negotiators 1268 01:11:42,966 --> 01:11:45,836 arrived in Paris, they had their own opinions 1269 01:11:46,011 --> 01:11:48,051 on the best way forward. 1270 01:11:48,221 --> 01:11:52,811 One was John Jay, a brilliant New York lawyer. 1271 01:11:52,976 --> 01:11:56,896 The other was John Adams. 1272 01:11:57,063 --> 01:11:58,573 That I have no friendship 1273 01:11:58,732 --> 01:12:00,782 for Franklin, I avow. 1274 01:12:00,942 --> 01:12:03,822 That I am incapable of having any with a man of his moral 1275 01:12:03,987 --> 01:12:06,567 sentiments, I avow. 1276 01:12:06,740 --> 01:12:09,280 His whole Life has been one continued Insult 1277 01:12:09,451 --> 01:12:11,871 to good Manners and to Decency. 1278 01:12:12,037 --> 01:12:14,457 I can have no Dependence on his Word. 1279 01:12:14,622 --> 01:12:18,342 I never know when he speaks the Truth, and when not. 1280 01:12:18,501 --> 01:12:21,631 I wish with all my Soul he was out of public Service, 1281 01:12:21,796 --> 01:12:24,716 and in Retirement, repenting of his past Life, 1282 01:12:24,883 --> 01:12:29,513 and preparing, as he ought to be, for another World. 1283 01:12:29,679 --> 01:12:32,059 Franklin was the kind of man put on Earth 1284 01:12:32,223 --> 01:12:35,353 to drive a man like Adams absolutely crazy. 1285 01:12:35,518 --> 01:12:37,808 Franklin, himself, writes back to the Congress during 1286 01:12:37,979 --> 01:12:40,359 the time they're both Ministers in France and says, 1287 01:12:40,523 --> 01:12:43,403 "John Adams is an honest man; sometimes, a great one. 1288 01:12:43,568 --> 01:12:46,318 "But, in some ways and some things, absolutely out 1289 01:12:46,488 --> 01:12:48,108 of his senses." 1290 01:12:48,281 --> 01:12:50,241 Despite their differences, the Americans 1291 01:12:50,408 --> 01:12:52,158 settled down to work. 1292 01:12:52,327 --> 01:12:53,907 John Jay agreed with Adams, 1293 01:12:54,079 --> 01:12:56,919 that they should not consult with Vergennes, 1294 01:12:57,082 --> 01:13:00,422 even though the alliance with France required it. 1295 01:13:00,585 --> 01:13:05,465 For the sake of unanimity, Franklin reluctantly consented. 1296 01:13:05,632 --> 01:13:10,392 By November of 1782, more than a year after Yorktown, 1297 01:13:10,553 --> 01:13:14,563 a preliminary agreement seemed within reach. 1298 01:13:14,724 --> 01:13:18,144 England would recognize American independence, 1299 01:13:18,311 --> 01:13:21,021 remove its troops from the United States, 1300 01:13:21,189 --> 01:13:24,689 allow American fishing rights off the coast of Newfoundland, 1301 01:13:24,859 --> 01:13:29,159 and relinquish any claims south of the Great Lakes. 1302 01:13:29,322 --> 01:13:31,282 But there was a sticking point. 1303 01:13:31,449 --> 01:13:34,489 The British wanted a provision that would compensate 1304 01:13:34,661 --> 01:13:38,161 American Loyalists for their losses during the war. 1305 01:13:38,331 --> 01:13:41,211 Adams and Jay wavered on the issue. 1306 01:13:41,376 --> 01:13:44,496 Franklin wouldn't budge. 1307 01:13:44,671 --> 01:13:46,211 And Franklin got angry. 1308 01:13:46,381 --> 01:13:47,901 He didn't very often get angry, and he said, 1309 01:13:47,924 --> 01:13:50,974 "Wait a minute. You ruined our crops. 1310 01:13:51,136 --> 01:13:53,386 "You burned our cities. 1311 01:13:53,555 --> 01:13:56,055 "You took our citizens across the Atlantic 1312 01:13:56,224 --> 01:13:57,854 "and tortured them. 1313 01:13:58,017 --> 01:14:01,097 "You engaged in state terror against the citizens 1314 01:14:01,271 --> 01:14:03,191 "of the United States. 1315 01:14:03,356 --> 01:14:05,896 "Don't talk to me about recompensing Loyalists unless 1316 01:14:06,067 --> 01:14:09,487 "you want to pay for Norfolk and all the cities you burned 1317 01:14:09,654 --> 01:14:11,634 "and trashed, and the houses that you ruined, and the lives 1318 01:14:11,656 --> 01:14:13,316 that you shattered." 1319 01:14:13,491 --> 01:14:16,121 Even Adams was struck by Franklin's vehemence 1320 01:14:16,286 --> 01:14:18,036 on the issue. 1321 01:14:18,204 --> 01:14:21,834 His fury came in part from reports of his son William's 1322 01:14:22,000 --> 01:14:24,750 conduct back in the United States. 1323 01:14:24,919 --> 01:14:28,509 Intent on keeping the war going, despite the British 1324 01:14:28,673 --> 01:14:32,723 defeat at Yorktown, William's group of guerrilla marauders 1325 01:14:32,886 --> 01:14:35,096 had pressed forward with their raids. 1326 01:14:35,263 --> 01:14:39,393 In one notorious incident, they hanged a Patriot leader 1327 01:14:39,559 --> 01:14:42,149 in the midst of what was supposed to be a peaceful 1328 01:14:42,312 --> 01:14:44,272 exchange of prisoners. 1329 01:14:44,439 --> 01:14:47,979 It was an outrage that threatened to mushroom into 1330 01:14:48,151 --> 01:14:51,531 an international crisis, complicating Franklin's 1331 01:14:51,696 --> 01:14:55,446 diplomacy in Paris at precisely the wrong time. 1332 01:14:57,660 --> 01:15:01,290 At the end of 1782, a preliminary agreement 1333 01:15:01,456 --> 01:15:04,786 of peace was signed and sent to London and Philadelphia 1334 01:15:04,959 --> 01:15:06,839 for approval. 1335 01:15:07,003 --> 01:15:10,723 It did not require reparations to Americans who had remained 1336 01:15:10,882 --> 01:15:12,592 loyal to England. 1337 01:15:12,759 --> 01:15:16,469 And France, which had given so much to the new nation, 1338 01:15:16,638 --> 01:15:19,468 had been excluded altogether. 1339 01:15:19,641 --> 01:15:23,231 Franklin was assigned the task of smoothing things over 1340 01:15:23,394 --> 01:15:25,154 with Vergennes. 1341 01:15:25,313 --> 01:15:27,273 Franklin writes one of the greatest letters 1342 01:15:27,440 --> 01:15:29,030 he ever wrote to Vergennes, 1343 01:15:29,192 --> 01:15:31,782 apologizing for this in a beautiful way and-- 1344 01:15:31,945 --> 01:15:34,405 and really disarming the-- what could have been a huge 1345 01:15:34,572 --> 01:15:37,992 international crisis, that we had not fulfilled our promise 1346 01:15:38,159 --> 01:15:40,699 to work out the diplomatic aspects of the end of the war 1347 01:15:40,870 --> 01:15:43,330 with France and not separately. 1348 01:15:43,498 --> 01:15:46,328 But he also, in that same letter of apology to Vergennes, 1349 01:15:46,501 --> 01:15:48,501 this masterpiece, said, "And, by the way, 1350 01:15:48,670 --> 01:15:52,220 we need some more money, too," and he got it! 1351 01:15:52,382 --> 01:15:56,222 Finally, on September 3, 1783, 1352 01:15:56,386 --> 01:15:59,136 the Treaty of Paris was signed. 1353 01:15:59,305 --> 01:16:02,725 England officially recognized its former colonies 1354 01:16:02,892 --> 01:16:05,312 as the United States of America. 1355 01:16:05,478 --> 01:16:08,688 The Revolutionary War was over. 1356 01:16:10,149 --> 01:16:12,859 Members of the British delegation refused to pose 1357 01:16:13,027 --> 01:16:15,697 for the portrait meant to commemorate the moment. 1358 01:16:15,863 --> 01:16:19,333 In the unfinished painting, Franklin sits in the middle, 1359 01:16:19,492 --> 01:16:22,702 with his grandson Temple, the delegation's secretary, 1360 01:16:22,870 --> 01:16:24,910 sitting to his left. 1361 01:16:25,081 --> 01:16:28,881 On Franklin's right sits John Adams, already worried 1362 01:16:29,043 --> 01:16:33,053 about how history would remember the Revolution. 1363 01:16:33,214 --> 01:16:35,474 The history of our revolution will be 1364 01:16:35,633 --> 01:16:39,553 one continued lie from one end to the other. 1365 01:16:39,721 --> 01:16:42,641 And the essence of the whole will be that Dr. Franklin's 1366 01:16:42,807 --> 01:16:46,227 electrical rod smote the Earth, and out sprang 1367 01:16:46,394 --> 01:16:48,314 General Washington. 1368 01:16:48,479 --> 01:16:52,609 That Franklin electrified him with his rod and thence forward 1369 01:16:52,775 --> 01:16:55,895 these two conducted all the policy, negotiations, 1370 01:16:56,070 --> 01:16:58,780 legislation and war. 1371 01:17:04,120 --> 01:17:06,290 The Treaty of 1783 is one of the most 1372 01:17:06,456 --> 01:17:09,496 lopsided treaties in American diplomatic history. 1373 01:17:09,667 --> 01:17:13,127 It's a total victory for the United States. 1374 01:17:13,296 --> 01:17:15,916 Its independence is recognized by France and the rest 1375 01:17:16,090 --> 01:17:17,800 of Europe and England. 1376 01:17:17,967 --> 01:17:20,507 And we get a third of a continent, everything from the 1377 01:17:20,678 --> 01:17:22,868 Mississippi to the Atlantic, and from the Canadian border 1378 01:17:22,889 --> 01:17:24,599 to Florida. 1379 01:17:24,766 --> 01:17:27,516 We now become a nation larger than France, England, 1380 01:17:27,685 --> 01:17:29,515 and Spain put together. 1381 01:17:29,687 --> 01:17:33,687 There is a consensus, at the end, uh, among the negotiators, 1382 01:17:33,858 --> 01:17:36,488 including the Brits, that we're witnessing 1383 01:17:36,653 --> 01:17:38,703 the creation of an American empire. 1384 01:17:41,324 --> 01:17:43,624 By the end of the war, France's coffers were 1385 01:17:43,785 --> 01:17:46,195 more or less depleted. 1386 01:17:46,371 --> 01:17:50,581 France had the satisfaction in triumphing over their 1387 01:17:50,750 --> 01:17:52,960 arch enemy Great Britain, 1388 01:17:53,127 --> 01:17:58,047 but they hadn't counted on bankrupting, uh, their own 1389 01:17:58,216 --> 01:18:00,336 country in the process. 1390 01:18:00,510 --> 01:18:05,140 So, Franklin extracted, in a way, the lifeblood 1391 01:18:05,306 --> 01:18:11,556 out of the royal coffers and he gave in return something 1392 01:18:11,729 --> 01:18:14,359 that the monarchy was not counting on. 1393 01:18:16,984 --> 01:18:20,994 He lit a fire, not only in France, 1394 01:18:21,155 --> 01:18:26,035 but in all of Europe, promoting the democratic ideals 1395 01:18:26,202 --> 01:18:29,162 that the United States stood for. 1396 01:18:29,330 --> 01:18:34,500 To put down tyranny was something that all 1397 01:18:34,669 --> 01:18:37,129 the peasants could understand. 1398 01:18:41,926 --> 01:18:46,176 For Native Americans, the treaty was devastating. 1399 01:18:46,347 --> 01:18:49,847 Many Nations had decided that they would be better off by 1400 01:18:50,017 --> 01:18:53,557 allying with the British, not the colonists, who for nearly 1401 01:18:53,730 --> 01:18:58,150 2 centuries had been encroaching on their lands. 1402 01:18:58,317 --> 01:19:00,857 Now the United States was claiming 1403 01:19:01,028 --> 01:19:03,238 an even vaster territory, 1404 01:19:03,406 --> 01:19:06,866 and as its white citizens pushed farther west, 1405 01:19:07,034 --> 01:19:10,794 more and more Native people would be dispossessed, 1406 01:19:10,955 --> 01:19:15,835 regardless of whose side they had taken during the war. 1407 01:19:23,134 --> 01:19:27,724 In the summer and fall of 1783, huge balloons suddenly 1408 01:19:27,889 --> 01:19:31,139 appeared in the skies over Paris. 1409 01:19:31,309 --> 01:19:34,099 Hundreds of thousands of people turned out to see 1410 01:19:34,270 --> 01:19:38,070 human beings flying for the first time. 1411 01:19:38,232 --> 01:19:41,322 And Franklin is watching this, with his usual spirit of, 1412 01:19:41,486 --> 01:19:43,856 you know, what does this portend and what are 1413 01:19:44,030 --> 01:19:48,950 the applications for war, for travel, for recreation. 1414 01:19:49,118 --> 01:19:52,248 And a man that was standing next to him, uh, watched all 1415 01:19:52,413 --> 01:19:57,753 this and said, "Interesting, but what's the use of it?" 1416 01:19:57,919 --> 01:20:00,629 And Franklin turned to him and said, 1417 01:20:00,797 --> 01:20:03,337 "What's the use of a newborn baby?" 1418 01:20:04,801 --> 01:20:08,471 In early 1785, another balloon crossed 1419 01:20:08,638 --> 01:20:11,308 the English Channel and landed in France. 1420 01:20:11,474 --> 01:20:15,314 It carried the world's first airmail letter addressed to 1421 01:20:15,478 --> 01:20:19,228 Temple Franklin at Passy. 1422 01:20:19,398 --> 01:20:23,148 It came from his father, William, who was now in London. 1423 01:20:23,319 --> 01:20:26,359 He had reestablished his relationship with Temple 1424 01:20:26,531 --> 01:20:30,491 and was hoping to do the same with his father. 1425 01:20:30,660 --> 01:20:33,410 Dear and Honored Father, 1426 01:20:33,579 --> 01:20:35,369 Ever since the termination 1427 01:20:35,540 --> 01:20:39,130 of the unhappy contest between Great Britain and America, 1428 01:20:39,293 --> 01:20:42,003 I have been anxious to write to you, 1429 01:20:42,171 --> 01:20:45,131 and to endeavor to revive that affectionate connection 1430 01:20:45,299 --> 01:20:47,839 which till the commencement of the late troubles 1431 01:20:48,010 --> 01:20:52,520 had been the pride and happiness of my life. 1432 01:20:53,724 --> 01:20:57,734 Dear Son, I received your letter. 1433 01:20:57,895 --> 01:21:01,605 Nothing has ever hurt me so much and affected me with such 1434 01:21:01,774 --> 01:21:06,994 keen sensations as to find myself deserted in my old age 1435 01:21:07,154 --> 01:21:12,124 by my only son; and not only deserted, but to find him 1436 01:21:12,285 --> 01:21:14,865 taking up arms against me. 1437 01:21:15,037 --> 01:21:19,377 There are natural duties which precede political ones, 1438 01:21:19,542 --> 01:21:23,502 and cannot be extinguished by them. 1439 01:21:23,671 --> 01:21:27,551 You may confide to your son the family affairs you wished 1440 01:21:27,717 --> 01:21:30,007 to confer upon with me. 1441 01:21:30,177 --> 01:21:33,927 I shall hear from you by him. 1442 01:21:34,098 --> 01:21:35,888 Benjamin Franklin was estranged from 1443 01:21:36,058 --> 01:21:39,478 many of his British associates and friends during the war. 1444 01:21:39,645 --> 01:21:42,855 But after the war, he was able to repair all those 1445 01:21:43,024 --> 01:21:46,324 relationships, except with William. 1446 01:21:46,485 --> 01:21:49,485 And I'm not sure I can say exactly why. 1447 01:21:49,655 --> 01:21:53,615 William is willing to make up, but Benjamin is not. 1448 01:21:53,784 --> 01:21:56,794 And I just sort of imagine that William is--is holding out 1449 01:21:56,954 --> 01:22:00,044 his hand to his father and his father just won't take it. 1450 01:22:00,207 --> 01:22:02,287 I guess the hurt went too deep. 1451 01:22:04,420 --> 01:22:08,260 By May of 1785, Thomas Jefferson had arrived 1452 01:22:08,424 --> 01:22:12,054 as the new ambassador to France, and Franklin learned 1453 01:22:12,219 --> 01:22:16,349 that Congress had finally accepted his resignation. 1454 01:22:16,515 --> 01:22:20,265 By July, with his grandsons Temple and Benny, 1455 01:22:20,436 --> 01:22:23,016 he was ready to leave. 1456 01:22:23,189 --> 01:22:27,189 They crossed the Channel and lingered for several days 1457 01:22:27,360 --> 01:22:30,570 in the port at Southampton, where Franklin visited 1458 01:22:30,738 --> 01:22:34,618 with some of his oldest English friends. 1459 01:22:34,784 --> 01:22:37,544 Then William arrived. 1460 01:22:37,703 --> 01:22:42,043 He and his father had not seen each other in a decade. 1461 01:22:44,919 --> 01:22:48,839 Whatever expectations William held for the reunion, 1462 01:22:49,006 --> 01:22:52,586 his father treated it as a business negotiation. 1463 01:22:52,760 --> 01:22:55,550 He insisted that the deeds to William's properties 1464 01:22:55,721 --> 01:22:59,141 in America be turned over to Temple. 1465 01:22:59,308 --> 01:23:03,938 Franklin also made clear that Temple, William's own son, 1466 01:23:04,105 --> 01:23:08,275 would be returning to the United States with him. 1467 01:23:08,442 --> 01:23:11,202 Legal documents were drawn up. 1468 01:23:11,362 --> 01:23:14,952 William signed them all. 1469 01:23:15,116 --> 01:23:18,076 They would never see each other again. 1470 01:23:23,082 --> 01:23:26,962 On July 27, Franklin's ship set sail 1471 01:23:27,128 --> 01:23:30,378 for his 8th crossing of the Atlantic. 1472 01:23:30,548 --> 01:23:34,088 On board, he soon immersed himself in the most sustained 1473 01:23:34,260 --> 01:23:37,930 scientific work since his experiments with electricity 1474 01:23:38,097 --> 01:23:41,557 back in 1752. 1475 01:23:41,726 --> 01:23:45,516 Most of his time was focused on observations and theories 1476 01:23:45,688 --> 01:23:50,278 about the ocean and ships-- from more efficient designs 1477 01:23:50,443 --> 01:23:53,993 for hulls and sails, to thoughts on the outrigger boats 1478 01:23:54,155 --> 01:23:58,775 of Pacific Islanders and the canoes of Native Americans, 1479 01:23:58,951 --> 01:24:03,121 from proposals for better anchors to a better soup bowl 1480 01:24:03,289 --> 01:24:07,589 that would be less likely to spill when the ship tilted. 1481 01:24:07,752 --> 01:24:09,422 And with Temple and Benny's help, 1482 01:24:09,587 --> 01:24:13,217 he continued gathering details about the Gulf Stream- 1483 01:24:13,382 --> 01:24:15,932 taking the temperature of the air and water 1484 01:24:16,093 --> 01:24:20,263 3 times a day for more than 40 days. 1485 01:24:22,391 --> 01:24:26,311 Finally, his ship docked at the wharf in Philadelphia, 1486 01:24:26,479 --> 01:24:31,029 62 years after his first arrival as a teenage runaway. 1487 01:24:34,028 --> 01:24:37,358 Back then, no one had heard of him. 1488 01:24:37,531 --> 01:24:41,081 This time, he was greeted by booming cannons, 1489 01:24:41,243 --> 01:24:42,833 ringing church bells, 1490 01:24:42,995 --> 01:24:46,825 and the cheers of his fellow Americans. 1491 01:24:46,999 --> 01:24:49,459 He's been away for 8 1/2 years. 1492 01:24:49,627 --> 01:24:51,427 He's about to see a country that he's created. 1493 01:24:51,587 --> 01:24:53,167 It didn't exist when he'd left. 1494 01:24:53,339 --> 01:24:56,799 It's a really, um, rather extraordinary return. 1495 01:24:56,967 --> 01:24:59,597 He's greeted at the pier in Philadelphia by crowds 1496 01:24:59,762 --> 01:25:01,562 and acclamations. 1497 01:25:01,722 --> 01:25:04,562 The crowd carried him to his Market Street home, 1498 01:25:04,725 --> 01:25:07,225 where his daughter Sally introduced him to 1499 01:25:07,394 --> 01:25:12,274 4 new grandchildren who had been born while he was away. 1500 01:25:14,360 --> 01:25:17,700 I am now in the Bosom of my Family, 1501 01:25:17,863 --> 01:25:20,953 and find four new little Prattlers, 1502 01:25:21,117 --> 01:25:22,737 who cling about the Knees 1503 01:25:22,910 --> 01:25:28,080 of their Grand Papa, and afford me great Pleasure. 1504 01:25:37,133 --> 01:25:40,223 In May of 1787, delegates from 1505 01:25:40,386 --> 01:25:43,756 all the former colonies began converging again 1506 01:25:43,931 --> 01:25:45,981 on Philadelphia. 1507 01:25:46,142 --> 01:25:49,312 The Articles of Confederation that had been drawn up after 1508 01:25:49,478 --> 01:25:52,648 the Declaration of Independence had proved inadequate 1509 01:25:52,815 --> 01:25:56,315 for the new nation during the Revolution. 1510 01:25:56,485 --> 01:25:58,485 When the Constitutional Convention 1511 01:25:58,654 --> 01:25:59,954 is called, 1512 01:26:00,114 --> 01:26:01,874 it's really a last chance for America 1513 01:26:02,032 --> 01:26:03,742 to get its act together. 1514 01:26:03,909 --> 01:26:06,999 The Articles of Confederation really did not do what 1515 01:26:07,163 --> 01:26:08,663 Franklin had asked for, 1516 01:26:08,831 --> 01:26:13,131 which is unite the Colonies into one nation. 1517 01:26:13,294 --> 01:26:15,754 When George Washington arrived 1518 01:26:15,921 --> 01:26:18,801 in Philadelphia, his first stop was to pay 1519 01:26:18,966 --> 01:26:21,296 Franklin a visit. 1520 01:26:21,468 --> 01:26:24,308 At the Constitutional Convention, 1521 01:26:24,471 --> 01:26:27,931 he was one of the two great figures. 1522 01:26:28,100 --> 01:26:29,730 There was George Washington and there was 1523 01:26:29,894 --> 01:26:34,364 Benjamin Franklin, and nobody else came third. 1524 01:26:34,523 --> 01:26:36,863 Up until the end of the War, 1525 01:26:37,026 --> 01:26:39,396 if you were trying to rate American leaders, 1526 01:26:39,570 --> 01:26:41,570 Washington would be behind him 1527 01:26:41,739 --> 01:26:43,909 and Franklin would be at the head. 1528 01:26:44,074 --> 01:26:45,914 Franklin's the great man. 1529 01:26:46,076 --> 01:26:49,536 By the end of the War, Washington has gone ahead, 1530 01:26:49,705 --> 01:26:53,495 and in his will, Franklin says, "I leave him my crab-tree 1531 01:26:53,667 --> 01:26:57,047 walking stick for his stroll towards destiny." 1532 01:26:57,213 --> 01:27:01,183 On May 25, 1787, when the convention 1533 01:27:01,342 --> 01:27:05,682 gathered for its first day, Washington was unanimously 1534 01:27:05,846 --> 01:27:08,136 elected to preside. 1535 01:27:08,307 --> 01:27:11,937 Benjamin Franklin's health is starting to fade. 1536 01:27:12,102 --> 01:27:14,562 Prisoners from the Walnut Street Jail, they have to 1537 01:27:14,730 --> 01:27:17,230 carry him from his home on Market Street 1538 01:27:17,399 --> 01:27:18,899 for the 2 or 3 blocks 1539 01:27:19,068 --> 01:27:22,488 to get to what is now called Independence Hall. 1540 01:27:22,655 --> 01:27:26,525 Franklin was 81, nearly crippled by gout 1541 01:27:26,700 --> 01:27:28,410 and kidney stones. 1542 01:27:28,577 --> 01:27:32,867 Still, he would attend every session but one. 1543 01:27:34,458 --> 01:27:38,298 From the start, it was clear that the 55 delegates did not 1544 01:27:38,462 --> 01:27:40,552 agree on the details of how to fix 1545 01:27:40,714 --> 01:27:43,094 the Articles of Confederation. 1546 01:27:43,259 --> 01:27:47,509 Franklin favored a single-body Congress and a 3-member 1547 01:27:47,680 --> 01:27:51,100 executive council instead of a president. 1548 01:27:51,267 --> 01:27:54,767 Virginians proposed 2 legislative bodies-- 1549 01:27:54,937 --> 01:27:56,397 a House of Representatives 1550 01:27:56,563 --> 01:27:59,443 that would select the members of an upper body 1551 01:27:59,608 --> 01:28:01,108 to be called the Senate 1552 01:28:01,277 --> 01:28:04,817 and also name the president and judiciary. 1553 01:28:04,989 --> 01:28:08,409 Alexander Hamilton of New York thought the president should 1554 01:28:08,575 --> 01:28:11,495 be elected--for life. 1555 01:28:11,662 --> 01:28:15,372 Fierce debates on all the issues raged for days 1556 01:28:15,541 --> 01:28:18,461 during a sweltering Philadelphia summer. 1557 01:28:21,088 --> 01:28:22,418 We must not expect 1558 01:28:22,589 --> 01:28:24,879 that a new government may be formed, 1559 01:28:25,050 --> 01:28:29,050 as a game of chess may be played, by a skillful hand, 1560 01:28:29,221 --> 01:28:31,641 without a fault. 1561 01:28:31,807 --> 01:28:35,977 We are making experiments in politics. 1562 01:28:36,145 --> 01:28:40,065 The players of our game are so many, their ideas 1563 01:28:40,232 --> 01:28:43,362 so different, their prejudices so strong 1564 01:28:43,527 --> 01:28:45,197 and so various, 1565 01:28:45,362 --> 01:28:49,582 that not a move can be made that is not contested. 1566 01:28:53,162 --> 01:28:55,962 The convention adopted many provisions 1567 01:28:56,123 --> 01:28:58,883 that Franklin did not initially support-- 1568 01:28:59,043 --> 01:29:04,343 a 2-body legislature, a single executive who could veto laws-- 1569 01:29:04,506 --> 01:29:08,426 and others that he did-- a 4-year presidential term, 1570 01:29:08,594 --> 01:29:11,434 the legislature's power of impeachment, 1571 01:29:11,597 --> 01:29:14,847 and no requirement of property ownership for voting 1572 01:29:15,017 --> 01:29:17,387 or holding office. 1573 01:29:17,561 --> 01:29:20,481 One of the thorniest issues was how Congress 1574 01:29:20,647 --> 01:29:22,317 would be apportioned. 1575 01:29:22,483 --> 01:29:25,823 Under the Articles of Confederation, each state had 1576 01:29:25,986 --> 01:29:29,946 an equal vote, and delegates from smaller states demanded 1577 01:29:30,115 --> 01:29:32,075 that it stay that way. 1578 01:29:32,242 --> 01:29:35,952 Larger states, which would be contributing more in taxes, 1579 01:29:36,121 --> 01:29:39,631 wanted Congress to be based on population. 1580 01:29:39,792 --> 01:29:42,632 Franklin was placed on a committee to find 1581 01:29:42,795 --> 01:29:45,005 a workable compromise. 1582 01:29:45,172 --> 01:29:49,012 And, finally, Franklin gets up and he says, 1583 01:29:49,176 --> 01:29:51,676 "When we were young tradesmen here in Philadelphia, 1584 01:29:51,845 --> 01:29:54,805 "we had a joint of wood that didn't quite fit, 1585 01:29:54,973 --> 01:29:57,393 "we'd take a little from one side and shave from the other 1586 01:29:57,559 --> 01:30:00,729 until we had a joint that would hold together for centuries." 1587 01:30:00,896 --> 01:30:04,606 And his point was that compromises may not make 1588 01:30:04,775 --> 01:30:08,065 great heroes, but they do make great democracies. 1589 01:30:08,237 --> 01:30:11,237 As the impasse over apportionment threatened to 1590 01:30:11,407 --> 01:30:14,367 derail the convention, Franklin began inviting 1591 01:30:14,535 --> 01:30:17,405 important delegates to his home, where they could 1592 01:30:17,579 --> 01:30:20,499 socialize in the late afternoon, under the branches 1593 01:30:20,666 --> 01:30:26,506 of his mulberry tree, and try to find common ground. 1594 01:30:26,672 --> 01:30:29,472 They discuss science, they discuss the things 1595 01:30:29,633 --> 01:30:32,263 they're talking about that they have to compromise on. 1596 01:30:32,428 --> 01:30:35,808 And he helps cool the passions of that hot summer 1597 01:30:35,973 --> 01:30:38,563 under the shade of his mulberry tree. 1598 01:30:41,437 --> 01:30:44,687 In the end, a compromise was reached. 1599 01:30:44,857 --> 01:30:48,777 Each state would have the same number of senators, 2, 1600 01:30:48,944 --> 01:30:51,614 chosen by their legislatures. 1601 01:30:51,780 --> 01:30:54,530 The members of the House of Representatives would be 1602 01:30:54,700 --> 01:30:59,370 elected by voters, white men only, and each state's share 1603 01:30:59,538 --> 01:31:02,958 would be based on its population. 1604 01:31:03,125 --> 01:31:06,545 To mollify the southern states, their populations 1605 01:31:06,712 --> 01:31:10,342 would include their number of enslaved people, 1606 01:31:10,507 --> 01:31:13,387 but each of those human beings would be counted 1607 01:31:13,552 --> 01:31:17,142 as only three-fifths of a person. 1608 01:31:17,306 --> 01:31:19,346 They can't talk about slavery directly, and the word 1609 01:31:19,475 --> 01:31:24,145 "slavery" is never mentioned in the document itself. 1610 01:31:24,313 --> 01:31:29,283 The difficult fact to accept is that the Union is only 1611 01:31:29,443 --> 01:31:32,243 possible if it includes the South. 1612 01:31:32,404 --> 01:31:36,034 And the states south of the Chesapeake are committed 1613 01:31:36,200 --> 01:31:39,660 to slavery, especially Virginia and South Carolina. 1614 01:31:39,828 --> 01:31:45,038 If you did the moral thing in the summer of 1787 and took 1615 01:31:45,209 --> 01:31:48,839 a clear stand and insisted on it, the Constitution would 1616 01:31:49,004 --> 01:31:50,634 have never passed. 1617 01:31:52,174 --> 01:31:54,724 It was a tragic compromise, obviously, for many 1618 01:31:54,885 --> 01:31:57,295 populations in the United States who had no party 1619 01:31:57,471 --> 01:31:59,061 to this agreement. 1620 01:31:59,223 --> 01:32:00,873 They had never agreed that they would be represented 1621 01:32:00,891 --> 01:32:02,561 in this way. 1622 01:32:02,726 --> 01:32:05,476 And, so, the compromise looks especially compromised 1623 01:32:05,646 --> 01:32:07,226 in those terms. 1624 01:32:07,397 --> 01:32:12,357 This is America's original sin, and they know it. 1625 01:32:12,528 --> 01:32:16,238 Nobody in the Convention or at that moment 1626 01:32:16,406 --> 01:32:20,156 talks about slavery as anything other than a necessary evil. 1627 01:32:20,327 --> 01:32:22,497 The original sin of slavery 1628 01:32:22,663 --> 01:32:27,963 was more than just simply compromising. 1629 01:32:28,126 --> 01:32:30,706 The original sin of slavery began, at least 1630 01:32:30,879 --> 01:32:34,259 for these colonists, years before. 1631 01:32:35,717 --> 01:32:40,807 For Franklin, unity and compromise was the only thing 1632 01:32:40,973 --> 01:32:44,143 that could make this new nation move forward. 1633 01:32:44,309 --> 01:32:47,979 Without it, it would be a failed journey. 1634 01:32:48,146 --> 01:32:51,936 American democracy would not develop without it. 1635 01:32:52,109 --> 01:32:56,409 And for that reason, Franklin, as well as others, 1636 01:32:56,572 --> 01:32:59,782 sidestepped the issue of slavery. 1637 01:32:59,950 --> 01:33:04,960 On September 17, 1787, the delegates gathered 1638 01:33:05,122 --> 01:33:08,252 to vote on the proposed Constitution. 1639 01:33:08,417 --> 01:33:13,087 Benjamin Franklin made the motion for its adoption. 1640 01:33:13,255 --> 01:33:15,375 I agree to this Constitution 1641 01:33:15,549 --> 01:33:18,389 with all its faults, if they are such, 1642 01:33:18,552 --> 01:33:23,022 because I think a general government necessary for us. 1643 01:33:23,181 --> 01:33:26,601 I doubt, too, whether any other convention we can obtain 1644 01:33:26,768 --> 01:33:29,978 may be able to make a better Constitution. 1645 01:33:30,147 --> 01:33:32,897 For, when you assemble a number of men, to have 1646 01:33:33,066 --> 01:33:36,316 the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably 1647 01:33:36,486 --> 01:33:39,616 assemble with those men all their prejudices, 1648 01:33:39,781 --> 01:33:42,121 their passions, their errors of opinion, 1649 01:33:42,284 --> 01:33:45,414 their local interests, and their selfish views. 1650 01:33:45,579 --> 01:33:48,579 From such an assembly can a perfect production 1651 01:33:48,749 --> 01:33:51,419 be expected? 1652 01:33:51,585 --> 01:33:55,295 It therefore astonishes me, sir, to find this system 1653 01:33:55,464 --> 01:33:59,514 approaching so near to perfection as it does; 1654 01:33:59,676 --> 01:34:03,216 and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting 1655 01:34:03,388 --> 01:34:06,848 with confidence to hear that our councils are confounded, 1656 01:34:07,017 --> 01:34:10,977 like those of the builders of Babel, and that our States are 1657 01:34:11,146 --> 01:34:14,016 on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter 1658 01:34:14,191 --> 01:34:17,441 for the purpose of cutting one another's throats. 1659 01:34:17,611 --> 01:34:22,571 Thus I consent, sir, to this Constitution because I expect 1660 01:34:22,741 --> 01:34:26,661 no better, and because I am not sure that it is 1661 01:34:26,828 --> 01:34:29,708 not the best. 1662 01:34:34,169 --> 01:34:37,919 Franklin's motion was approved. 1663 01:34:38,090 --> 01:34:42,050 One by one, the delegates signed the new Constitution, 1664 01:34:42,219 --> 01:34:45,719 so it could be sent to the states for ratification. 1665 01:34:45,889 --> 01:34:47,679 He signed it. 1666 01:34:47,849 --> 01:34:53,649 And I think he was relieved that it brought Americans together. 1667 01:34:53,814 --> 01:34:56,024 And that was something that he had wanted ever since 1668 01:34:56,191 --> 01:34:57,981 the Albany Conference. 1669 01:34:58,151 --> 01:35:03,071 He had wanted Americans to be a part of one grand whole. 1670 01:35:03,240 --> 01:35:04,660 This might not be the best, 1671 01:35:04,825 --> 01:35:06,345 but it was the best that you could get, 1672 01:35:06,410 --> 01:35:07,990 and he recognized that. 1673 01:35:08,161 --> 01:35:11,251 The Constitution is the framework for an ongoing 1674 01:35:11,415 --> 01:35:13,575 argument about who we are as a people 1675 01:35:13,750 --> 01:35:15,460 and where power resides. 1676 01:35:15,627 --> 01:35:18,507 And it's presumed that each generation will be engaged 1677 01:35:18,672 --> 01:35:21,012 in an argument and take it in new directions. 1678 01:35:21,174 --> 01:35:23,474 What do we mean by, "We the people"? 1679 01:35:23,635 --> 01:35:25,275 And certainly, we mean a lot more people now 1680 01:35:25,303 --> 01:35:27,393 than we did then. 1681 01:35:27,556 --> 01:35:29,266 With the work done, 1682 01:35:29,433 --> 01:35:32,773 the doors to Independence Hall were thrown open. 1683 01:35:32,936 --> 01:35:35,186 Franklin was approached by one of the city's 1684 01:35:35,355 --> 01:35:39,145 most prominent citizens, Elizabeth Willing Powel, 1685 01:35:39,317 --> 01:35:42,107 whose own rights had not been considered. 1686 01:35:42,279 --> 01:35:45,989 She asked him, "Well, Doctor, what have we got, 1687 01:35:46,158 --> 01:35:49,368 a republic or a monarchy?" 1688 01:35:49,536 --> 01:35:53,826 "A republic," he answered, "if you can keep it." 1689 01:35:53,999 --> 01:35:57,249 "A republic, if you can keep it," 1690 01:35:57,419 --> 01:35:59,089 which turns out to be 1691 01:35:59,254 --> 01:36:01,804 maybe the most prophetic sentence of all. 1692 01:36:01,965 --> 01:36:03,625 Everyone who cares about this country 1693 01:36:03,800 --> 01:36:05,890 has to ask that question every day. 1694 01:36:06,052 --> 01:36:09,812 "A republic, if you can keep it." 1695 01:36:12,642 --> 01:36:15,152 Hitherto, this long life 1696 01:36:15,312 --> 01:36:17,522 has been tolerably happy, 1697 01:36:17,689 --> 01:36:21,229 so that if I were allowed to live it over again, I should 1698 01:36:21,401 --> 01:36:25,411 make no objection, only wishing for leave to do what 1699 01:36:25,572 --> 01:36:30,292 authors do in a second edition OF THEIR WORKS: correct some 1700 01:36:30,452 --> 01:36:32,542 of my Errata. 1701 01:36:40,378 --> 01:36:43,508 By early 1790, the Constitution 1702 01:36:43,673 --> 01:36:48,053 had been ratified, and Franklin was now 84 years old. 1703 01:36:48,220 --> 01:36:52,140 His kidney stones put him in such pain, he took regular 1704 01:36:52,307 --> 01:36:55,017 doses of laudanum, a tincture of opium, 1705 01:36:55,185 --> 01:36:57,095 to get through the day. 1706 01:36:57,270 --> 01:37:00,400 "I should have died 2 years ago," he wrote to Washington, 1707 01:37:00,565 --> 01:37:03,395 who had been elected as the nation's first president, 1708 01:37:03,568 --> 01:37:05,948 "but I am pleased that I have lived them, 1709 01:37:06,112 --> 01:37:10,832 since they have brought me to see our present Situation." 1710 01:37:10,992 --> 01:37:13,082 Our grand machine has at length 1711 01:37:13,245 --> 01:37:14,905 begun to work. 1712 01:37:15,080 --> 01:37:19,130 I pray God to bless and guide its operations. 1713 01:37:19,292 --> 01:37:23,462 If any form of government is capable of making a nation happy 1714 01:37:23,630 --> 01:37:27,970 ours I think bids fair for producing that effect. 1715 01:37:28,134 --> 01:37:31,474 But after all, much depends upon the people 1716 01:37:31,638 --> 01:37:33,968 who are to be governed. 1717 01:37:34,140 --> 01:37:38,140 Our new Constitution is now established, everything seems 1718 01:37:38,311 --> 01:37:42,861 to promise it will be durable; but, in this world, nothing is 1719 01:37:43,024 --> 01:37:47,034 certain except death and taxes. 1720 01:37:49,656 --> 01:37:52,366 As an Enlightenment scientist and inventor, 1721 01:37:52,534 --> 01:37:56,254 he considered America's new democracy an experiment. 1722 01:37:56,413 --> 01:37:58,833 It should be tested and tinkered with, 1723 01:37:58,999 --> 01:38:01,499 if improvements were needed. 1724 01:38:01,668 --> 01:38:05,008 As a man who had once constructed an elaborate chart 1725 01:38:05,171 --> 01:38:08,051 and checklist to help him better himself, 1726 01:38:08,216 --> 01:38:11,926 he still believed in keeping track of his failings. 1727 01:38:12,095 --> 01:38:15,635 Now Benjamin Franklin felt there was still one more 1728 01:38:15,807 --> 01:38:20,977 public duty to carry out, one more of his life's "errata" 1729 01:38:21,146 --> 01:38:23,056 to correct. 1730 01:38:24,482 --> 01:38:26,282 During his time as a delegate 1731 01:38:26,443 --> 01:38:28,533 to the Constitutional Convention, 1732 01:38:28,695 --> 01:38:31,025 Franklin, a former slave owner, 1733 01:38:31,197 --> 01:38:33,117 had accepted the presidency 1734 01:38:33,283 --> 01:38:36,203 of the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting 1735 01:38:36,369 --> 01:38:38,159 the Abolition of Slavery, 1736 01:38:38,330 --> 01:38:41,330 a Quaker group in Philadelphia. 1737 01:38:41,499 --> 01:38:45,339 He had considered introducing a statement of principle 1738 01:38:45,503 --> 01:38:46,883 into the Constitution, 1739 01:38:47,047 --> 01:38:50,047 condemning slavery and the slave trade, 1740 01:38:50,216 --> 01:38:53,886 but several delegates had persuaded him to drop it. 1741 01:38:54,054 --> 01:38:58,434 The question of anti-slavery, pro-slavery, was not 1742 01:38:58,600 --> 01:39:02,270 an important issue for the vast majority of people 1743 01:39:02,437 --> 01:39:05,477 who wrote or thought about or argued about 1744 01:39:05,649 --> 01:39:07,359 the American Revolution. 1745 01:39:07,525 --> 01:39:12,065 On the other hand, given the fact that it is the daily 1746 01:39:12,238 --> 01:39:17,118 reality for enslaved men and women, in some ways, that was 1747 01:39:17,285 --> 01:39:20,035 the key question every day. 1748 01:39:20,205 --> 01:39:26,795 The gross hypocrisy in fighting a war for liberty, 1749 01:39:26,962 --> 01:39:31,972 liberty of people, and not including everybody 1750 01:39:32,133 --> 01:39:34,093 was obvious. 1751 01:39:34,260 --> 01:39:38,260 If you're talking about liberty, you're talking about liberty. 1752 01:39:38,431 --> 01:39:41,311 With the Constitution in place, 1753 01:39:41,476 --> 01:39:46,056 Franklin felt free to address the issue head-on. 1754 01:39:46,231 --> 01:39:47,901 To the Senate 1755 01:39:48,066 --> 01:39:51,146 and House of Representatives of the United States. 1756 01:39:51,319 --> 01:39:53,359 From a persuasion that equal liberty 1757 01:39:53,530 --> 01:39:55,780 is still the Birthright of all Men, 1758 01:39:55,949 --> 01:40:00,159 we earnestly entreat your serious attention to the subject 1759 01:40:00,328 --> 01:40:03,918 of Slavery; that you will be pleased to countenance 1760 01:40:04,082 --> 01:40:08,172 the Restoration of liberty to those unhappy Men, who alone 1761 01:40:08,336 --> 01:40:10,256 in this land of Freedom 1762 01:40:10,422 --> 01:40:13,722 are degraded into perpetual Bondage, 1763 01:40:13,883 --> 01:40:18,353 that you will devise means for removing this Inconsistency 1764 01:40:18,513 --> 01:40:21,313 from the Character of the American People. 1765 01:40:22,892 --> 01:40:25,232 The first real act of Franklin's life, 1766 01:40:25,395 --> 01:40:26,975 or the first public act, I guess, 1767 01:40:27,147 --> 01:40:28,977 is his running away from home. 1768 01:40:29,149 --> 01:40:32,489 So, here you have a young man in quest of freedom. 1769 01:40:32,652 --> 01:40:35,742 And the last real act of-- the last public act 1770 01:40:35,905 --> 01:40:39,025 of Franklin's life, um, is a treatise against slavery. 1771 01:40:39,200 --> 01:40:43,960 So, the end--the life is largely bookended in a way, um, 1772 01:40:44,122 --> 01:40:47,712 by these two, um, endorsements, in some way, of freedom. 1773 01:40:47,876 --> 01:40:52,006 Benjamin Franklin evolved as far as his understanding 1774 01:40:52,172 --> 01:40:55,632 of race relations and slavery were concerned. 1775 01:40:55,800 --> 01:40:57,430 He had owned slaves. 1776 01:40:57,594 --> 01:40:59,684 He didn't see anything wrong with it 1777 01:40:59,846 --> 01:41:01,506 until very late in the game. 1778 01:41:01,681 --> 01:41:06,101 But in his last years, he started to change his mind. 1779 01:41:07,604 --> 01:41:11,904 Philadelphia became a leader in abolition 1780 01:41:12,067 --> 01:41:16,277 and the emancipation of enslaved people of African descent. 1781 01:41:16,446 --> 01:41:21,196 There were laws on the books that began the dismantling 1782 01:41:21,367 --> 01:41:23,367 of slavery. 1783 01:41:23,536 --> 01:41:28,076 It was a train that could not be stopped. 1784 01:41:28,249 --> 01:41:33,799 And, so, we see someone who understands the tide 1785 01:41:33,963 --> 01:41:36,133 of the city, of the state, 1786 01:41:36,299 --> 01:41:40,849 looks at the laws, understands that slavery is going to end, 1787 01:41:41,012 --> 01:41:43,562 at least in Pennsylvania, 1788 01:41:43,723 --> 01:41:46,893 and he got on the right side of that conversation. 1789 01:41:47,060 --> 01:41:49,810 If this were a petition coming from anybody else, 1790 01:41:49,979 --> 01:41:51,899 the Congress would have never even considered it, 1791 01:41:52,065 --> 01:41:53,775 but because of Franklin's signature, 1792 01:41:53,942 --> 01:41:55,822 they're forced to consider it. 1793 01:41:55,985 --> 01:42:00,235 And it's the first outspoken, in public, debate 1794 01:42:00,406 --> 01:42:02,946 in the American history on-- under the new nation 1795 01:42:03,118 --> 01:42:04,908 on slavery. 1796 01:42:05,078 --> 01:42:07,458 In Congress, the petition was immediately 1797 01:42:07,622 --> 01:42:09,962 attacked by southerners. 1798 01:42:10,125 --> 01:42:13,835 Representative James Jackson of Georgia warned that if 1799 01:42:14,003 --> 01:42:17,173 Congress tried to abolish slavery, it would "light up 1800 01:42:17,340 --> 01:42:20,890 the flame of civil discord" and the southern states 1801 01:42:21,052 --> 01:42:24,762 "will never suffer themselves to be divested of their property 1802 01:42:24,931 --> 01:42:26,721 without a struggle." 1803 01:42:26,891 --> 01:42:31,151 Another congressman claimed that the South's sweltering climate 1804 01:42:31,312 --> 01:42:34,652 prohibited whites from working the soil. 1805 01:42:34,816 --> 01:42:38,146 For that, he said, they needed slaves. 1806 01:42:38,319 --> 01:42:42,409 And Franklin goes back to a device he had used as 1807 01:42:42,574 --> 01:42:46,374 a teenager, which is to write a parody in the voice 1808 01:42:46,536 --> 01:42:48,326 of somebody else. 1809 01:42:48,496 --> 01:42:53,416 So he writes a sermon that he pretends has been given by 1810 01:42:53,585 --> 01:42:57,165 a Muslim from North Africa about why they have to keep 1811 01:42:57,338 --> 01:43:00,218 white Europeans in slavery. 1812 01:43:00,383 --> 01:43:04,933 And it parodies the entire argument of all those who are 1813 01:43:05,096 --> 01:43:08,846 opposing abolition in the United States. 1814 01:43:09,017 --> 01:43:11,307 "If we forbear to make slaves 1815 01:43:11,477 --> 01:43:14,937 of the Christians," Franklin's character asks, 1816 01:43:15,106 --> 01:43:21,106 who, in this hot climate, are to cultivate our lands?" 1817 01:43:21,279 --> 01:43:24,069 And if we set our slaves free, 1818 01:43:24,240 --> 01:43:26,870 what is to be done with them? 1819 01:43:27,035 --> 01:43:30,035 For men accustomed to slavery, will not work 1820 01:43:30,205 --> 01:43:34,825 for a livelihood when not compelled. 1821 01:43:35,001 --> 01:43:40,671 Here they are brought into a land where the sun of Islam 1822 01:43:40,840 --> 01:43:43,470 gives forth its light 1823 01:43:43,635 --> 01:43:46,215 and they have an opportunity of making 1824 01:43:46,387 --> 01:43:51,097 themselves acquainted with the true doctrine, and thereby 1825 01:43:51,267 --> 01:43:55,147 saving their immortal souls. 1826 01:43:56,564 --> 01:43:58,484 And, so, of course, the reader realizes 1827 01:43:58,650 --> 01:44:01,820 that Franklin is using precisely the same arguments 1828 01:44:01,986 --> 01:44:04,906 of James Jackson of Georgia, which immediately proves to you, 1829 01:44:05,073 --> 01:44:08,663 without question, the absurdity of the arguments. 1830 01:44:08,826 --> 01:44:11,536 This is the genius of Franklin, to--to take something 1831 01:44:11,704 --> 01:44:13,754 and just turn it around, to switch the lens and say, 1832 01:44:13,915 --> 01:44:15,915 "So, how would you like it if it looked like that?" 1833 01:44:17,835 --> 01:44:21,335 The House of Representatives voted 29-25 1834 01:44:21,506 --> 01:44:24,426 that "Congress has no authority to interfere" 1835 01:44:24,592 --> 01:44:26,392 on the issue of slavery. 1836 01:44:26,552 --> 01:44:31,812 In the Senate, the petition was tabled without discussion. 1837 01:44:31,975 --> 01:44:34,385 What they agree on, more than anything else, 1838 01:44:34,560 --> 01:44:36,650 is we're not talking about this. 1839 01:44:36,813 --> 01:44:39,193 The Federal Government is not talking about this. 1840 01:44:39,357 --> 01:44:41,417 This is not the forum to deal with the national question 1841 01:44:41,442 --> 01:44:43,952 of slavery, because there is no national question. 1842 01:44:44,112 --> 01:44:46,032 It's a state question. 1843 01:44:46,197 --> 01:44:49,617 The question of the future of slavery is really left 1844 01:44:49,784 --> 01:44:51,914 for the individual States to decide. 1845 01:44:52,078 --> 01:44:55,208 That's how we end up with the North-South division. 1846 01:44:55,373 --> 01:44:57,543 I would put it this way. 1847 01:44:57,709 --> 01:45:05,299 Before the Revolution, slavery was never a major public issue. 1848 01:45:05,466 --> 01:45:09,046 There were people who spoke, before the Revolution, 1849 01:45:09,220 --> 01:45:14,350 who spoke against it and gave good reasons to what evil 1850 01:45:14,517 --> 01:45:19,897 it was, but it was not a major public issue. 1851 01:45:20,064 --> 01:45:26,364 After the Revolution, there never was a time when it wasn't. 1852 01:45:34,746 --> 01:45:36,866 Here is my creed: 1853 01:45:37,040 --> 01:45:41,630 I believe in one God, creator of the universe. 1854 01:45:41,794 --> 01:45:44,714 That he governs it by his providence. 1855 01:45:44,881 --> 01:45:46,671 That he ought to be worshipped. 1856 01:45:46,841 --> 01:45:49,591 That the most acceptable service we render to him 1857 01:45:49,761 --> 01:45:53,181 is doing good to his other children. 1858 01:45:53,348 --> 01:45:57,308 That the soul of man is immortal and will be treated 1859 01:45:57,477 --> 01:46:03,187 with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. 1860 01:46:03,358 --> 01:46:06,738 These I take to be the fundamental principles of all 1861 01:46:06,903 --> 01:46:10,033 sound religion, and I regard them 1862 01:46:10,198 --> 01:46:12,778 in whatever sect I meet with them. 1863 01:46:14,744 --> 01:46:18,374 Franklin's worsening health kept him housebound. 1864 01:46:18,539 --> 01:46:21,459 "People who live long, who will drink from the cup 1865 01:46:21,626 --> 01:46:24,456 of Life to the very bottom," he wrote a friend, 1866 01:46:24,629 --> 01:46:28,509 "must expect to meet with some of the usual dregs." 1867 01:46:30,176 --> 01:46:34,136 In the spring of 1790, he suffered chest pains 1868 01:46:34,305 --> 01:46:36,845 and a fever that confined him to his bed, 1869 01:46:37,016 --> 01:46:39,226 surrounded by his family. 1870 01:46:39,394 --> 01:46:43,024 He asked his daughter Sally to arrange things so he could 1871 01:46:43,189 --> 01:46:45,069 "die in a decent manner." 1872 01:46:45,233 --> 01:46:50,453 She told him everyone hoped he would live many more years. 1873 01:46:50,613 --> 01:46:53,373 "I hope not," he replied. 1874 01:46:56,285 --> 01:47:02,035 On April 17, 1790, an abscess in his lung burst, 1875 01:47:02,208 --> 01:47:05,458 and he slipped into unconsciousness. 1876 01:47:05,628 --> 01:47:10,258 At 11:00 that night, Benjamin Franklin died. 1877 01:47:10,425 --> 01:47:14,295 He was 84 years old. 1878 01:47:14,470 --> 01:47:16,760 More than 20,000 people, 1879 01:47:16,931 --> 01:47:20,391 the largest crowd Philadelphia had ever seen, 1880 01:47:20,560 --> 01:47:23,440 turned out for his funeral procession. 1881 01:47:23,604 --> 01:47:25,694 Leading it from his house on Market Street 1882 01:47:25,857 --> 01:47:28,607 to the burial ground at Christ Church 1883 01:47:28,776 --> 01:47:33,656 were the clergy of every church of every sect in the city, 1884 01:47:33,823 --> 01:47:36,783 walking arm in arm. 1885 01:47:36,951 --> 01:47:39,371 When he was 22 years old, 1886 01:47:39,537 --> 01:47:42,917 Franklin had composed an epitaph for his grave. 1887 01:47:43,082 --> 01:47:46,092 "The Body of B. Franklin, Printer, 1888 01:47:46,252 --> 01:47:48,592 "Like the Cover of an old Book, 1889 01:47:48,754 --> 01:47:52,514 "Its contents torn out, And Stript of its Lettering 1890 01:47:52,675 --> 01:47:57,095 "and Gilding, "Lies here, Food for Worms. 1891 01:47:57,263 --> 01:48:00,223 "But the Work shall not be wholly lost, 1892 01:48:00,391 --> 01:48:03,981 "For it will, as he believed, appear once more, 1893 01:48:04,145 --> 01:48:06,935 "In a new & more perfect Edition 1894 01:48:07,106 --> 01:48:10,566 Corrected and amended By the Author." 1895 01:48:12,028 --> 01:48:16,568 As he aged, however, the old printer had, of course, 1896 01:48:16,741 --> 01:48:18,741 edited it down. 1897 01:48:18,910 --> 01:48:21,660 The gravestone's epitaph became, 1898 01:48:21,829 --> 01:48:24,539 "BENJAMIN And DEBORAH FRANKLIN." 1899 01:48:27,168 --> 01:48:30,458 He had never completed the autobiography he started 1900 01:48:30,630 --> 01:48:33,840 back in 1771. 1901 01:48:34,008 --> 01:48:38,888 His grandson Temple eventually published the manuscript. 1902 01:48:39,055 --> 01:48:41,805 The book would go through hundreds of editions 1903 01:48:41,974 --> 01:48:44,354 in dozens of languages, 1904 01:48:44,519 --> 01:48:48,519 inspiring generations of ambitious strivers 1905 01:48:48,689 --> 01:48:52,439 wanting to get ahead in life. 1906 01:48:52,610 --> 01:48:54,820 There's nothing dreamy or romantic about Franklin. 1907 01:48:54,987 --> 01:49:00,407 But in that self-improving, marvelously protean way, 1908 01:49:00,576 --> 01:49:03,536 there's something about him that so much becomes what we 1909 01:49:03,704 --> 01:49:06,924 all quest for, what we think of as the sort of, American 1910 01:49:07,083 --> 01:49:08,923 ingenuity, that American feeling that we can 1911 01:49:09,085 --> 01:49:10,705 accomplish anything. 1912 01:49:16,217 --> 01:49:19,467 In his will, Franklin left most of his wealth 1913 01:49:19,637 --> 01:49:22,267 and possessions to members of his family, 1914 01:49:22,431 --> 01:49:24,981 except to his son William. 1915 01:49:26,769 --> 01:49:30,729 But in memory of his start as a lowly printer's apprentice, 1916 01:49:30,898 --> 01:49:34,858 he created a trust fund, still active today, 1917 01:49:35,027 --> 01:49:38,277 to help young people with ambition and talent 1918 01:49:38,447 --> 01:49:44,867 from his two hometowns of Boston and Philadelphia. 1919 01:49:45,037 --> 01:49:47,117 I begin to be almost sorry 1920 01:49:47,290 --> 01:49:49,130 I was born so soon, 1921 01:49:49,292 --> 01:49:52,712 since I cannot have the Happiness of knowing what will 1922 01:49:52,878 --> 01:49:55,668 be known 100 Years hence. 1923 01:49:59,176 --> 01:50:02,096 But it is the will of God and Nature that these mortal 1924 01:50:02,263 --> 01:50:05,023 bodies be laid aside. 1925 01:50:05,182 --> 01:50:08,812 Whether I have been doing good or mischief is for time 1926 01:50:08,978 --> 01:50:10,518 to discover. 1927 01:50:10,688 --> 01:50:13,438 I only know that I intended well, 1928 01:50:13,608 --> 01:50:17,568 and I hope all will end well. 1929 01:50:17,737 --> 01:50:19,907 Adieu. 1930 01:50:20,072 --> 01:50:21,572 Benjamin Franklin.