The First American
(This column was first published in
the January 6, 2003 issue of The Buffalo News.)
Who
is your favorite early American?
For
many of us the answer to that inquiry has changed over the past decade. (I'm
speaking here about presidents before Abraham Lincoln, who I believe remains
beyond comparison.)
In
my case, for example, ten years ago I would have answered without hesitation:
Thomas Jefferson. Since then, however, Jefferson's vicious political infighting
came to light and, for me at least, sent him into decline. Replacing him in
succession were George Washington and John Adams. But now I believe I have come
up with a response that I am prepared to maintain.
The
best answer: Benjamin Franklin.
If
you don't agree, you almost certainly have not read the three excellent books
that have led me to this conclusion: the new ones, The First American: The
Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
by H. W. Brands (Random House, 2000) and Benjamin Franklin by Edmund S. Morgan (Yale University Press, 2002);
and the reprint, The Ingenious Dr. Franklin: Selected Scientific Letters of
Benjamin Franklin, edited by Nathan
G. Goodman (University of Pennsylvania, originally 1931).
Consider
evidence for my claim derived from these books.
A
remarkable politician, Franklin was the only American who contributed to and
signed our "big three" documents: the Declaration of Independence,
the Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary War and the Constitution.
Arguably even more important to this country, he had negotiated a wartime
treaty of commerce and defensive alliance with France. He was also, among other
things, a best-selling author - of "Poor Richard's Almanack" and his
"Autobiography" - and this country's first postmaster general. He
opened an early public library and formed a group that developed into the
American Philosophical Society. He was even a musician who played the violin,
harp and guitar, and invented an odd instrument called the armonica.
But
this is a column about natural history and Franklin's contributions to this
field were at least equally substantial. Unlike many of the philosophers of his
times, he would be comfortable in any community of scientists today.
And
here is where Franklin's model is most important for young people considering a
future in science. Morgan pins down this "most conspicuous virtue, the
thing that would earn him world‑wide fame in his own lifetime: his
insatiable curiosity.... Franklin could not see anything without asking himself
what it was, how it got that way, what made it tick. He had that rare capacity
for surprise that has made possible so many advances in human knowledge, the
habit of not taking things for granted, the ability to look at some everyday occurrence
and wonder why.... Franklin never stopped considering things he could not
explain.... He was always devising experiments to help him understand what he
saw around him, but he made the whole world his laboratory.... For Franklin the
world was so full of strange things that it is hard to keep up with his efforts
to understand them."
Among
the major outcomes of his investigations: the lightning rod, a practical result
of his association by his famous kite experiment of lightning with static
electricity; the Franklin stove, his contribution (he refused to patent it) to
heating our homes; and our first recognition of the Gulf Stream. Small things
too: the calming effect of oil on water, marsh gas, balloon flight, the common
cold, sun spots. He even contributed to meteorology and paleontology.
Interestingly,
Franklin refused to argue against those who disagreed with his scientific
views. He was averse to public argument about science; rather, he preferred to
let further experimentation respond to differences.
It
is quite appropriate that I celebrate Franklin today as his birthday was
January 6th - in 1705. (For purists, the change to the Gregorian calendar
implemented in September 1752 made this correspond to the modern January
17.)-- Gerry Rising
Note: A few of the many web resources on Benjamin Franklin are the following: