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There are many views on him that show him In a good light and some that how him in a bad light. There are some that saw that he was shallow and didn’t show great religious passions for the man who came to America to bring about religious tolerance. While others say that he was “an exemplar of the personal character and civic virtue that are too often missing in today’s world. ” Even after all of these opinions his actions showed that he wanted to live a good life through good works and making other peoples lives better. The first of the seven great virtues talked about how Franklin didn’t really care about what people thought about his opinions.
He created an Alice In order to get his linings printed by his brother’s shop. They talked about how Franklin didn’t like the Puritan way of government. He thought that church and state needed to be separate, however you should not leave your religious beliefs behind. Throughout Franklins life he did a lot of compromising, the one thing that he would not compromise on was his aversion to tyranny. These beliefs made him become a founding father for his views on English taxes and other things. Freedom of expression is one of the basic rights that Americans have, in fact it is in the First Amendment.
Benjamin Franklin strongly believed in the importance of freedom of expression. Not only was it important to be able to living in a society that wasn’t always monitored and controlling but it go rid of tyranny. He said that if there was tyranny then there is no freedom of expression. When he first opened up his own paper, the Pennsylvania Gazette, he realized that there wouldn’t be any need for a paper if people didn’t have their own opinions because everybody would be say peoples opinions but at the same time it was his responsibility to not let things be published that can do real damage to a person.
When he was a candidate in the 1764 Pennsylvania Assembly election there was some very nasty articles and pamphlets miming out about his life. This is to be expected during an election but these were the most brutal things said during any election, and yet Franklin didn’t even thinking about taking an action towards them because he saw that they were Just voicing their opinions and it wasn’t his Job to take away their right of expression. To us this right is sometimes taken for granted because we’ve always had it but for Franklin it was extremely important. Caisson said “democracy was build on a foundation of unbridled free speech. This is very true because without this freedom of speech a necromancy would be very hard. Franklin was a man who understood people and their ways of thinking a lot better than most give him credit for. Human being never want to see the flaws in themselves. This is why when you tell someone something that they aren’t going to like you either have to come right out and say it or you have to disguise it as something else, usually something funny. Franklin was very good at this. He used fake characters a lot of time to tell his opinions and show his intentions. Another tactic he used was hoaxes he wrote a hoax called, “The Speech of Poly Baker”.
This as about a young woman who was being put on trial for having her 5th illegitimate child and she told about what happened to her that made her the way she was, and after she was acquitted she married a Judge a day later. This is Just one example of the things that Franklin did to get the messages across to society. Franklin saw that using humor was the best way to make political points. He also saw that “America would always be strongest when it was confident enough and self-aware enough, to laugh at itself. ” In this essay it also talked about Franklins views on humility and how he found nullity to be very useful throughout his life.
He believes that one can never have too much humility because if you have too much than that can cause you to be proud of the humility you have and will cause you to start all over in your need to be more humble. I believe that this is true. Having humility can help in all aspects of life, if you aren’t going on about your own accomplishments in life and let the person you are talking to tell you all about their accomplishments it will make them feel like you are a great friend and in turn will want to do more for you. Franklin used this tactic when e wanted to launch the first subscription lending library in America.
He used his club Junta to do this, during the clubs existence he always thought it best to hear everyone’s point of view so when he came up with this idea he began to put it into everyone’s head to it seemed like their own idea and it worked. To many this seems like a sort of manipulation but this is the way people think. If you want something that requires the help of others making them feel like they came up with the idea by themselves will only help your case, and in time the truth will come out of who really amen up with the idea. From England Franklin went to France to try and get them on our side of the war.
In order to do this he used a couple of tactics. The fist being the calculations of national interests and the second being he wanted them to see America as exceptional and unique. He began by publishing documents from America to try and win over the hearts of all of the French people. He echoed many great writers in order to do so. Franklin also thought his appearance was a very important part of this process. He made sure to wear his powdered wig and formal dress instead of the fur cap he got room Canada. This style helped the people see the person that they imagined he would be from his background.
All of these factors worked too, and he decided to stick with them even after the treaty had been signed. Many believed that Franklin never had the background as a “printer’s foreman” because of the status he had achieved in Europe. Benjamin Franklin saw the importance of the balance between idealism and realism. Without these two ideas combining the treaty with France may never have come about. Compromise is the key to success in any area where there are two sides. Franklin saw hat compromise would be a necessary step during the Constitutional Convention if America was going to come about with everybody happy.
In fact the motto that he lived a lot of this life by was, “Both sides must part with some of their demands. ” He used this motto because you need to have a win-win situation with people otherwise it will only cause more problems in the future. Even though he didn’t completely agree with the compromise about representation that was made a the Constitutional Convention he saw its importance from a political stand point and from a moral stand point. Caisson said it wonderfully when he said, “Tolerance, humility and a respect for other required it. As it stated in the essay that American religious tolerance was not born with it but they had to acquire it. Franklin saw the needs of each of the different religious. After leaving the Puritan Boston for Philadelphia he began to see all the different religious together in one city and not fighting over anything and embracing the idea of religious tolerance. Franklin wrote parodies about the Puritans who had a great amount of intolerance to make people see how silly they were being about believing hat there could be different religions being in the same city.
During the July 4th celebration one year he was too sick to leave his bed and so the parade came right underneath his window where he could see all the different religious leaders walking together in peace. When he died every clergyman of the city accompanied his casket, which was exactly what he would have wanted. Benjamin Franklin went to great lengths to make this country what he thought it should be. He used his ideas of tyranny and freedom of expression to help bring about democracy. In addition to that he used his humor and humility to help people e the mistakes that they were making.