Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin on Immigration to America, Slavery, and Other Papers Descriptive of Early America

Collected here in this short volume, Benjamin Franklin on Immigration to America, Slavery, and Other Papers Descriptive of Early America, are eight short pieces written by Franklin during the later years of his life. The first three articles were written and first published around 1784 while Franklin was in residence in France. The later four articles are among the last public statements Franklin made before his death in Philadelphia in 1790. Far from being the words of a worn-out man facing a decline in his mental capabilities, they reveal Franklin at his finest. Fellow Founding Father Benjamin Rush commented that Franklin in his final years was "as cheerful as a young man of twenty-five, his conversation full of the wisdom and experience of mellow old age, the evening of his life was marked by the same activity of his moral and intellectual powers which distinguished its meridian." To the end of his life, Franklin maintained an optimistic view toward human nature. The goodness he saw in mankind was no different in Negroes or Indians than in whites; he believed his fellow scientists and politicians no better than farmers and tradesmen. He lived and died as a truly virtuous citizen, as close as any to achieving the full potential of the human spirit. These views, and his vision for the country he worked so hard to establish, shine through in these eight papers.