Editing Benjamin Franklin (section)

==Death==
[[File:Benjamin Franklin's grave 2010.JPG|thumb|Franklin's gravesite at [[Christ Church Burial Ground]] in [[Philadelphia]]]]
Franklin suffered from obesity throughout his middle age and elder years, which resulted in multiple health problems, including [[gout]], which worsened as he aged. In poor health during the signing of the [[Constitution of the United States|U.S. Constitution]] in 1787, he was rarely seen in public after then until his death.{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}}

Franklin died from [[Pleurisy|pleuritic attack]]{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|pp={{page needed|date=April 2025}}}} at his home in [[Philadelphia]] on April 17, 1790, at age 84.<ref>{{cite web|title=Later Years and Death|url=http://www.benjamin-franklin-history.org/later-years-and-death/|url-status=live|access-date=September 17, 2021|publisher=Benjamin Franklin Historical Society|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160627181743/http://www.benjamin-franklin-history.org:80/later-years-and-death/ |archive-date=June 27, 2016 }}</ref> His last reported words, conveyed to his daughter, were, "a dying man can do nothing easy," after she suggested that he change position in bed and lie on his side so he could breathe more easily.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mentalfloss.com/article/58534/64-people-and-their-famous-last-words|title=64 People and Their Famous Last Words|date=February 1, 2016|website=mentalfloss.com|language=en|access-date=February 17, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/benjamin-franklins-last-days-funeral-and-a-u-s-senate-slight|title=It was 228 years ago today: Benjamin Franklin died in Philadelphia – National Constitution Center|website=National Constitution Center – constitutioncenter.org|access-date=February 17, 2019}}</ref> Franklin's death is described in the book ''The Life of Benjamin Franklin'', quoting from the account of [[John Paul Jones]]:

{{blockquote|...&nbsp;when the pain and difficulty of breathing entirely left him, and his family were flattering themselves with the hopes of his recovery, when an imposthume, which had formed itself in his lungs, suddenly burst, and discharged a quantity of matter, which he continued to throw up while he had power; but, as that failed, the organs of respiration became gradually oppressed; a calm, lethargic state succeeded; and on the 17th instant (April 1790), about eleven o'clock at night, he quietly expired, closing a long and useful life of eighty-four years and three months.<ref>Sparks, pp. 529–30.</ref>}}

Approximately 20,000 people attended Franklin's funeral, after which he was interred in [[Christ Church Burial Ground]] in Philadelphia.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.ushistory.org/tour/christ-church-burial-ground.htm |title=Christ Church Burial Grounds |access-date=June 22, 2020 |work=[[Ushistory.org]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/2016808354/ |title=Benjamin Franklin's grave [Christ Church Burial Ground], Philadelphia |work=[[Library of Congress]] |access-date=June 22, 2020 |year=1900}}</ref> Upon learning of his death, the Constitutional Assembly in Revolutionary France entered into a state of mourning for a period of three days, and memorial services were conducted in honor of Franklin throughout the country.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Paxton|first=John|title=Companion to the French Revolution|publisher=Facts on File|year=1988|isbn=0-8160-1116-8|location=New York|pages=85}}</ref>

In 1728, at age 22, Franklin wrote what he hoped would be his own epitaph:

{{blockquote|The Body of B. Franklin Printer; Like the Cover of an old Book, Its Contents torn out, And stript of its Lettering and Gilding, Lies here, Food for Worms. But the Work shall not be wholly lost: For it will, as he believ'd, appear once more, In a new & more perfect Edition, Corrected and Amended By the Author.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Franklin|first=Benjamin|date=2010-08-16|title=Transcript of Benjamin Franklin, Epitaph – Benjamin Franklin: In His Own Words {{pipe}} Exhibitions (Library of Congress)|url=https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/franklin/bf-trans61.html|access-date=December 30, 2022 |publisher=Library of Congress}}</ref>}}

Franklin's actual grave, however, as he specified in his final will, simply reads "Benjamin and Deborah Franklin."<ref>[http://sln.fi.edu/franklin/family/lastwill.html ''The Last Will and Testament of Benjamin Franklin''.] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090821230120/http://sln.fi.edu/franklin/family/lastwill.html |date=August 21, 2009 }} The Franklin Institute Science Museum.</ref>