4. THE BIRTH OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC

CHRISTIAN FOUNDATIONS

Indeed, the constitutional Framers who gathered at Philadelphia in 1787 saw themselves and their challenge very much operating within the context of God's will. They were very well aware that God Almighty, which in the fashion of the times they often referred to as "Providence" as in "The One Who Provides," was the one empowerment that had enabled them recently to succeed in their very risky revolt. Apart from the direct – and frequent – assistance from God, it would have been highly unlikely that a handful of mere commoners could have ever succeeded on their own in a revolt against a powerful king and his army.

They knew well, and testified often to the fact, that only God had made the success of the American revolt possible.  They all understood that it was not the size of the American army, nor the cleverness of their generals – but it was the hand of God operating among them that had brought them successfully through these trying times.

At one point in late June of 1787, during the heated debates in Philadelphia over what kind of government they had been commissioned to create, Ben Franklin arose to address the assembly, with a proposal that seemed amazingly out of character for this great champion of earthly wisdom – namely, that the group should start each of its daily deliberations in prayer:

Mr. President

The small progress we have made after 4 or five weeks close attendance & continual reasonings with each other, our different sentiments on almost every question, several of the last producing as many noes and ays, is methinks a melancholy proof of the imperfection of the Human Understanding.

We indeed seem to feel our own want of political wisdom, some we have been running about in search of it.  We have gone back to ancient history for models of Government, and examined the different forms of those Republics which having been formed with the seeds of their own dissolution now no longer exist.  And we have viewed Modern States all round Europe, but find none of their Constitutions suitable to our circumstances.

In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, Sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of lights to illuminate our understandings?

In the beginning of the Contest with G. Britain, when we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room for the divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered.  All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a Superintending providence in our favor.  To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity.  And have we now forgotten that powerful friend?

I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth that God governs in the affairs of men.  And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?

We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that except the Lord build the House they labour in vain that build it.  I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages.  And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing Governments by Human Wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest.

I therefore beg leave to move, that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the Clergy of the City be requested to officiate in that service.

page 2 of Franklin's call for prayer

Madison, who recorded the events of the Convention (including Franklin's speech), noted that the motion was seconded by Roger Sherman, but met by a concern (voiced by Alexander Hamilton) that in taking up this policy at this late date in the process, people would interpret this resolution as merely the result of the embarrassments and dissentions among the delegates (which was indeed the case). Randolph of Virginia then came to the support of the Franklin proposal with a motion of his own specifying how this resolution was to be enacted.  But the business of the day ended without any vote on Randolph's motion.

We cannot state that the Constitutional Convention at this point then turned itself into a gathering of some kind of saintly religious synod.  But clearly all present understood the significance of what Franklin had just brought to their attention.  In the end what would guarantee the wisdom and durability of this constitutional enterprise rested ultimately not on the flawed and contentious wisdom of man, but instead on the mercies of the God that Provides for his people, especially in guiding their thoughts and actions.

Furthermore, the matter at hand was not just one of providing the thirteen states with some kind of political formula for cooperation, but was (as it had always been) that of building a test society, a demonstration model founded specially to give hope to all mankind that a people's government was not only possible, but was also able to stand strong against forces that would like to return the little people, the commoners of the earth, back under the domination of the high and mighty.  Thus there could be no failure in this important enterprise.

Benjamin Franklin was a very complex individual, witty, even a bit of a showman, a journalist and publisher, a scientist and inventor, a skilled politician and diplomat, and a philosopher possessed of a folk wisdom that cut through folly and conceit in order to bring authentic understanding of life to light.  He was a strong Christian, but never dogmatic in his beliefs so that one could therefore identify him with this or that particular religious group.  Some identified him as a Deist, who believed merely in some kind of Creator-God that simply observed life from above – and that perhaps (maybe) controlled the gates of Heaven, opening or closing them to a person at death depending on that person's moral performance while on earth.  But actually Franklin's Christian faith varied widely over the course of his life, from a very early negative reaction to the strict Puritanism of his parents, to indeed something that looked like regular Deism, to an interest in the power of passionate Christian revival to alter a person's course in life, to an understanding that indeed God is very active in the course of life for both individuals and societies.  But in any case, he was a very independent thinker on all subjects near and dear to him (which were vast in scope). Certainly it was easy to believe that he mostly was just a secular scientist focused primarily in studying the mechanics of life (especially this matter of electricity).  Yet others could see in him a person seriously concerned about the religious matters that were important to all Christians (or Jews), but in such a way that Christians, ranging from Roman Catholics to Quakers, could easily believe that he was definitely one of their particular faith.  The man was brilliant, a Humanist in the very best sense of the word, not really a lofty or isolated Idealist but very much the intensely involved Realist, and a person able to touch the hearts of others in a way that truly stood him out as one of the Greats of the Age.

He was born in Boston in 1706, the last male of seventeen children born to his father and his two subsequent wives, given formal schooling only until age ten, supposing himself headed to the ministry.  But at age twelve he took an apprenticeship in a printing business run by an older brother, James.  But at seventeen, Benjamin broke from that relationship (an illegal act at the time) and escaped to Philadelphia to work in printing shops there, before heading off to London to do the same.  A couple of years later he returned to Philadelphia, where he not only resumed his work in the publishing business but formed a discussion group (English coffeehouse style) of young members that combined their libraries and engaged in far-ranging discussions of social interest.  Young Franklin was very interested in public matters, and soon started up a series of newspapers that offered commentary on the world around him, especially on the matter of what brought societies to virtue and thus happiness, a theme that would remain central to Franklin for the rest of his life.

In 1730 he took up a common-law relationship with Deborah Read, whom he was not allowed to marry because she was already married to a man that ran off with her money, never to be heard from again.  Franklin brought into that relationship a son, William, born to him earlier by possibly another woman (or perhaps by Deborah herself?) and a surviving daughter, who would accompany and look after her father after her mother died.  He and Deborah remained together until her death in 1774.

In 1733 Franklin began to publish his annual Poor Richard's Almanack, offering advice on all sorts of daily matters, along with a multitude of witty sayings that became catch-phrases of the day.  The work (which ran from 1732 to 1758) was very popular ... whose sales made the Franklin family quite prosperous.

But his curiosity about life and how it worked did not stop there. He loved to experiment with better ways of doing ordinary things, inventing multitudes of new objects along the way, such as the Franklin stove, bifocals, an elaborate glass harmonica, but especially things connected with the new idea of electricity (including eventually the lightning rod, a dangerous venture which killed others who tried to follow his lead).  This latter interest soon had him considered to be one of the leading scientists of the day, and he found himself closely involved with the growing scientific community, especially during his many extensive stays abroad in Europe.

He was no less an inventor in the field of education, helping to develop in the 1750s a New-Model college curriculum taught not by tutor generalists but by professional specialists in different academic fields, and then to see this curriculum put into play in the new King's College (ultimately, Columbia University) and the College of Philadelphia (ultimately, part of the University of Pennsylvania) – the latter which Franklin also co-founded.

But it was in the field of politics that Franklin would be best remembered.  From the mid-1750s onward, Franklin spent much time in London as a representative of the Pennsylvania Assembly, in part to press the case against the autocracy of the Penn family (Penn's descendants were less generous than their Pennsylvania founder).  But eventually his main concern would come to be over the new taxes (especially the expensive government stamps required on all publications) being imposed on the colonies by King George's Tory Parliament.  With his opposition to the 1765 Stamp Act, he became well-known back in the colonies as a key advocate for a cause that touched not only Pennsylvania, but all the colonies mutually.

Franklin appearing before the King's Privy Council – 1774

But tragically this would put Franklin in deep opposition to his son William, who by Franklin's own intervention had been awarded the position as Governor of New Jersey.  This royal appointment was to make William a very strong Tory leader in the colonies, at the same time that his father was becoming a leading voice in the colonies' rising spirit of rebellion.  The two would split over this matter, never to be reconciled.

When Franklin returned finally from London in 1775, the rebellion had already begun, and Franklin was appointed as a Pennsylvania delegate to the Second Continental Congress, where he was also chosen to be a member of the five-man committee commissioned to draft a Declaration of Independence.

But then he was soon sent off to France (1776) to be something of an ambassador to the French court for the new United States.  Here he not only worked hard to coordinate the French support of the American rebellion (and its needs for French soldiers and supplies), but he dazzled the French Court with his (purposely stylized) rustic appearance and homespun wit and wisdom (John Adams, who was there with him at the time, found Franklin's folksy theatrics totally distasteful!).  Franklin would remain there throughout the War, ultimately helping negotiate the Treaty of Paris (1783) in which the British recognized the independence of the new United States of America.  Then Franklin returned to America in 1785, soon after he and Adams were joined in Paris by the young Jefferson.  This would bring Franklin back in time to serve (as we have just seen) as a Pennsylvania delegate to the Constitutional Convention being held in Philadelphia over the summer of 1787.