Editing Benjamin Franklin (section)

===Early steps in Pennsylvania===
[[File:Feke - Benjamin Franklin.png|thumb|A portrait of Franklin c. 1746–1750,{{refn|group=Note|According to Professor Zara Anishanslin.}} by [[Robert Feke]] widely believed to be the earliest known painting of Franklin<ref>{{cite web |title=Franklin in Portraits: Robert Feke |url=https://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/event/franklin-in-portraits-robert-feke/ |website=Benjamin Franklin House}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Franklin in Portraits: Robert Feke [CC] | website=[[YouTube]] | date=March 12, 2021 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxlYvETkq4Q |language=en}}</ref>]]
[[File:Benjamin Franklin - Join or Die.jpg|thumb|''[[Join, or Die]]'', a 1754 political cartoon by Franklin, urged the colonies to join the [[Seven Years' War]] in the [[French and Indian War]]; the cartoon was later resurrected, serving as an iconic symbol in support of the [[American Revolutionary War|American Revolution]].]]
[[File:PennsylvaniaHospitalWilliamStrickland.jpg|thumb|In 1751, Franklin co-founded [[Pennsylvania Hospital]] in Philadelphia, one of the first hospitals in the United States, depicted in this 1755 engraving by [[William Strickland (architect)|William Strickland]].]]
[[File:1757 UPenn Seal.png|thumb|Seal of the College of Philadelphia, a college founded by Franklin that is now the [[University of Pennsylvania]]]]
[[File:Sketch of Tun Tavern in the Revolutionary War.jpg|thumb|Sketch of the original [[Tun Tavern]]]]
In 1736, Franklin created the [[Union Fire Company]], one of the first [[Volunteer fire department|volunteer firefighting companies]] in America. In the same year, he printed a new currency for New Jersey based on innovative anti-[[counterfeit]]ing techniques he had devised. Throughout his career, he was an advocate for [[Banknote|paper money]], publishing ''A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency'' in 1729, and his printer printed money. He was influential in the more restrained and thus successful monetary experiments in the Middle Colonies, which stopped [[deflation]] without causing excessive inflation. In 1766, he made a case for paper money to the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|British House of Commons]].<ref>[[John Kenneth Galbraith]]. (1975). ''Money: Where It Came, Whence It Went'', p. 54. Houghton Mifflin Company.</ref>

As he matured, Franklin began to concern himself more with public affairs. In 1743, he first devised a scheme for the [[Academy and College of Philadelphia|Academy, Charity School, and College of Philadelphia]]; however, the person he had in mind to run the academy, Rev. [[Richard Peters (priest)|Richard Peters]], refused and Franklin put his ideas away until 1749 when he printed his own pamphlet, ''Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania.''<ref name="MontgomeryHistory">{{cite book | title=A History of the University of Pennsylvania from Its Foundation to A.D. 1770 | url=https://archive.org/details/ahistoryunivers02montgoog | publisher=George W. Jacobs & Co. | last=Montgomery |first=Thomas Harrison | year=1900 | location=Philadelphia | lccn=00003240}}</ref>{{rp|30}} He was appointed president of the Academy on November 13, 1749; the academy and the charity school opened in 1751.<ref>[http://www.archives.upenn.edu/primdocs/upl/upl125.pdf The Early Years: The Charity School, Academy and College of Philadelphia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205112444/http://www.archives.upenn.edu/primdocs/upl/upl125.pdf|date=February 5, 2012}} at the University of Pennsylvania Archives, 1972.</ref>

In 1743, he founded the [[American Philosophical Society]] to help scientific men discuss their discoveries and theories. He began the electrical research that, along with other scientific inquiries, would occupy him for the rest of his life, in between bouts of politics and moneymaking.<ref name="vandoren"/>

During [[King George's War]], Franklin raised a militia called the Association for General Defense because the legislators of the city had decided to take no action to defend Philadelphia "either by erecting fortifications or building Ships of War." He raised money to create earthwork defenses and buy artillery. The largest of these was the "Association Battery" or "Grand Battery" of 50 guns.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dorwart |first=Jeffery |title=Fort Mifflin of Philadelphia: An Illustrated History |pages=9–11 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-8122-1644-8 }}</ref><ref name=Kyria1>{{cite book|title=Philadelphia's Lost Waterfront|first =Harry |last = Kyriakodis|publisher= The History Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-62584-188-9 |page=114 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Lt2CQAAQBAJ&pg=PT114 |chapter = 16. At Washington Avenue}}</ref>

In 1747, Franklin (already a very wealthy man) retired from printing and went into other businesses.<ref>James N. Green, "English Books and Printing in the Age of Franklin", in ''The Colonial Book in the Atlantic World'' (2002), 257.</ref> He formed a partnership with his foreman, [[David Hall (printer)|David Hall]], which provided Franklin with half of the shop's profits for 18 years. This lucrative business arrangement provided leisure time for study, and in a few years he had made many new discoveries.

Franklin became involved in Philadelphia politics and rapidly progressed. In October 1748, he was selected as a councilman; in June 1749, he became a [[justice of the peace]] for Philadelphia; and in 1751, he was elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly. On August 10, 1753, he was appointed deputy postmaster-general of [[British North America]]. His service in domestic politics included reforming the postal system, with mail sent out every week.<ref name="vandoren"/>

In 1751, Franklin and [[Thomas Bond (American physician)|Thomas Bond]] obtained a charter from the Pennsylvania legislature to establish a hospital. [[Pennsylvania Hospital]] was the first hospital in the colonies.<ref>{{Cite web|title=IN THE BEGINNING – The Story of the Creation of the Nation's First Hospital|url=https://www.uphs.upenn.edu/paharc/features/creation.html|url-status=live|access-date=August 22, 2021|website=Penn Medicine|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021015112900/http://www.uphs.upenn.edu:80/paharc/features/creation.html |archive-date=October 15, 2002 }}</ref> In 1752, Franklin organized the [[Philadelphia Contributionship]], the Colonies' first [[Home insurance|homeowner's insurance]] company.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Landers|first1=Jackson|title=In the Early 19th Century, Firefighters Fought Fires ... and Each Other|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/early-19-century-firefighters-fought-fires-each-other-180960391/|access-date=December 10, 2017|work=[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]]|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|date=September 27, 2016|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=McGuire|first1=Virginia|title=What Are Those Little Shields Above the Doorways of Philadelphia Homes?|url=http://www.phillymag.com/property/2013/05/03/the-storied-fire-marks-of-philadelphia/|access-date=December 10, 2017|work=[[Philadelphia (magazine)|Philadelphia]]|publisher=[[Metrocorp Publishing]]|date=May 3, 2013}}</ref>

Between 1750 and 1753, the "educational triumvirate"{{sfn|Olsen|2013|p=174}} of Franklin, [[Samuel Johnson (American educator)|Samuel Johnson]] of [[Stratford, Connecticut]], and schoolteacher [[William Smith (Episcopal priest)|William Smith]] built on Franklin's initial scheme and created what [[James Madison (bishop)|Bishop James Madison]], president of the [[College of William & Mary]], called a "new-model"<ref>Smith, Horace Wemyss, ''The Life and Correspondence of the Rev. Wm. Smith, D.D.'', Philadelphia, 1880, Volume 1: pp. 566–567.</ref> plan or style of American college. Franklin solicited, printed in 1752, and promoted an American textbook of [[Ethics|moral philosophy]] by Samuel Johnson, titled ''Elementa Philosophica'',<ref>Samuel Johnson, ''Elementa philosophica: containing chiefly, Noetica, or things relating to the mind or understanding: and Ethica, or things relating to the moral behaviour. Philadelphia'', Printed by B. Franklin and D. Hall, at the new-printing-office, near the market, 1752</ref> to be taught in the new colleges. In June 1753, Johnson, Franklin, and Smith met in Stratford.{{sfn|Olsen|2013|pp=163–274}} They decided the new-model college would focus on the professions, with classes taught in English instead of Latin, have subject matter experts as professors instead of one tutor leading a class for four years, and there would be no religious test for admission.{{sfn|Olsen|2013|p=163}} Johnson went on to found King's College (now [[Columbia University]]) in New York City in 1754, while Franklin hired Smith as provost of the College of Philadelphia, which opened in 1755. At its first commencement, on May 17, 1757, seven men graduated; six with a Bachelor of Arts and one with a Master of Arts. It was later merged with the [[University of the State of Pennsylvania]] to become the [[University of Pennsylvania]]. The college was to become influential in guiding the founding documents of the United States: in the [[Continental Congress]], for example, over one-third of the college-affiliated men who contributed to the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]] between September 4, 1774, and July 4, 1776, were affiliated with the college.{{sfn|Olsen|2013|p=308}}

In 1754, he headed the Pennsylvania delegation to the [[Albany Congress]]. This meeting of several colonies had been requested by the [[Board of Trade]] in England to improve relations with the Indians and defense against the French. Franklin proposed a broad [[Albany Plan|Plan of Union]] for the colonies. While the plan was not adopted, elements of it found their way into the [[Articles of Confederation]] and the [[Constitution of the United States|Constitution]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Union: Joseph Galloway, Plan of Union|url=https://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch7s3.html|access-date=December 30, 2022|website=press-pubs.uchicago.edu}}</ref>

In 1753, [[Harvard University]]<ref>{{Cite web|title=History of honorary degrees|url=https://www.harvard.edu/about/history/honorary-degrees/|access-date=December 30, 2022|website=Harvard University|language=en-US}}</ref> and [[Yale]]<ref>[http://ris-systech2.its.yale.edu/hondegrees/hondegrees.asp Honorary Degrees] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100610204206/http://ris-systech2.its.yale.edu/hondegrees/hondegrees.asp|date=June 10, 2010}} Yale University. Retrieved August 20, 2012.</ref> awarded him honorary master of arts degrees.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Resume {{pipe}} Ben Franklin Exhibit|url=https://www.benfranklinexhibit.org/resume|access-date=December 30, 2022|website=www.benfranklinexhibit.org}}</ref> In 1756, he was awarded an honorary [[Master of Arts]] degree from the [[College of William & Mary]].<ref>{{cite book |date=1874 |title=The History of the College of William and Mary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VfaiLj00yFYC&pg=PA48 |location=Richmond, VA |publisher=J.W. Randolph & English |page=148|isbn=978-1-4290-4333-5 }}</ref> Later in 1756, Franklin organized the [[Pennsylvania Army National Guard|Pennsylvania Militia]]. He used [[Tun Tavern]] as a gathering place to recruit a regiment of soldiers to go into battle against the Native American uprisings that beset the American colonies.<ref>{{cite book|last=Thompson|first=Peter|title=Rum Punch & Revolution: Taverngoing & Public Life in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia|date=1999|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|location=Philadelphia|page=}}</ref>