Ben+Franklin+-+SP09

=**Benjamin Franklin**=

President of Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania
=Occupation:= Benjamin Franklin was a very known writer during his time. He wrote Poor Richards Almanack and the Pennsylvania Gazette which led to to become very wealthy. He also invented items such as the lightning rod, bifocals, and the stove. Franklin established the University of Pennsylvania and Franklin and Marshall college, and also many fire fighting facilities, even establishing one of the first voluntary fire fighting company. Franklin is most famous for his experiment to prove that lighting is a form of electricity by flying a kite in a storm. Franklin was elected to be Ambassador of France where he then successfully negotiated a treaty alliance with the French to secure loans from the French government which helped finance the Revolution. He was elected President of Pennsylvania and also became the president of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society.

=**Constitutional Convention:**= Benjamin Franklin was a delegate of the Constitution. He was elected by his other delegates as Postmaster General under the Continental Congress.

=**Ratification:**= Franklin was for ratification and convinced many of his fellow delegates to ratify.

=Argument for Ratification:= -Only founding father who signed the Declaration of Independence, Treaty of Paris and the Constitution -helped Parliament repeal the Stamp Act -successfully negotiated a treaty alliance with the French government which helped finance Revolution -convinced French that Adams and Jay acted out of propriety, not hostility -Walter Isaacson said "the most accomplished American of his age and the most influential in inventing the type of society America would become." -believed the executive power was too great to be placed in only one persons hand -wanted the Legislative branch to be a unicameral legislature -paved the way for the Great Compromise= Large states had power in the legislature and the upper house would have an equal number of senators -oversaw the initial stages of the successful peace negotiations with Britian -stressed civic duty -wrote several essays to try to convince others to abolish slavery -had many ideas that he wanted in the constitution but were rejected by the convention -made a speech at the end of the convention trying to convince that ratification would be the best for the nation and all delegates should sign " I expect no better, and because I am not sure it is not the best." "For when you assemble a Number of Men to have the advantage of their joint Wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those Men all their Prejudices, their Passions, their Errors of Opinion, their local Interests, and their selfish Views." ""There are several parts of this Constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them. ... I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution. ... It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies..."

=Friends:= John Jay John Adams George Washington

=Foes:= George Mason Richard Henry Lee Z

"Benjamin Franklin." //Virtual American Biographies.// 12 February 2009. [|.] "The Constitution Should Be Accepted in a Spirit of Compromise." //Opposing Viewpoints.// 12 February 2009. (Primary Source) "Founding Father." //PBS.// 2002. 12 February 2009. . Wood, Gordon S. //The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin.// New York: Penguin Group, 2004.