Editing Benjamin Franklin (section)

==Views on religion, morality, and slavery==
[[File:Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) MET DT2883.jpg|thumb|A bust of Franklin sculpted by [[Jean-Antoine Houdon]] in 1778]]
[[File:Pedro Américo - Voltaire abençoando o neto de Franklin em nome de Deus e da Liberdade.jpg|thumb|''Voltaire blessing Franklin's grandson, in the name of God and Liberty'', an 1890 portrait by [[Pedro Américo]]]]
[[File:Benjamin Franklin by Hiram Powers.jpg|thumb|upright|A statue of Franklin by [[Hiram Powers]]]]
[[File:Dr Richard Price, DD, FRS - Benjamin West.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Richard Price]], the radical minister of [[Newington Green Unitarian Church]], holding a letter from Franklin]]

Like the other advocates of [[Republicanism in the United States|republicanism]], Franklin emphasized that the new republic could survive only if the people were virtuous. All his life, he explored the role of civic and personal virtue, as expressed in ''Poor Richard's'' [[aphorism]]s. He felt that organized religion was necessary to keep men good to their fellow men, but rarely attended religious services himself.<ref>Franklin, ''Autobiography'', ed. Lemay, p. 65.</ref> When he met [[Voltaire]] in Paris and asked his fellow member of the Enlightenment vanguard to bless his grandson, Voltaire said in English, "God and Liberty," and added, "this is the only appropriate benediction for the grandson of Monsieur Franklin."{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=354}}

Franklin's parents were both pious Puritans.{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|pp=5–18}} The family attended the [[Old South Church]], the most liberal Puritan congregation in Boston, where Benjamin Franklin was baptized in 1706.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oldsouth.org/history.html |title=Isaacson, 2003, p. 15 |publisher=Oldsouth.org |access-date=September 21, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080531090015/http://www.oldsouth.org/history.html |archive-date=May 31, 2008}}</ref> Franklin's father, a poor chandler, owned a copy of a book, ''Bonifacius: Essays to Do Good'', by the Puritan preacher and family friend [[Cotton Mather]], which Franklin often cited as a key influence on his life. "If I have been," Franklin wrote to Cotton Mather's son seventy years later, "a useful citizen, the public owes the advantage of it to that book."{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=26}} His first pen name, Silence Dogood, paid homage both to the book and to a widely known sermon by Mather. The book preached the importance of forming [[voluntary association]]s to benefit society. Franklin learned about forming do-good associations from Mather, but his organizational skills made him the most influential force in making [[Volunteering|voluntarism]] an enduring part of the American ethos.{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=102}}

Franklin formulated a presentation of his beliefs and published it in 1728.<ref>{{cite web| last = Franklin| first = Benjamin| title = Articles of Belief and Acts of Religion| work = Benjamin Franklin Papers| publisher = franklinpapers.org| date = November 20, 1728| url = http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/yale;jsessionid=9379F5D050E36AA9D1F95700EE223865?d=-363718316&d=1379669530&vol=1&page=101a| access-date = December 24, 2010| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110726104638/http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/yale;jsessionid=9379F5D050E36AA9D1F95700EE223865?d=-363718316&d=1379669530&vol=1&page=101a| archive-date = July 26, 2011| url-status=dead| df = mdy-all}}</ref> He no longer accepted the key Puritan ideas regarding salvation, the [[Christology|divinity of Jesus]], or indeed much religious dogma. He classified himself as a [[Deism|deist]] in his 1771 autobiography,<ref>{{Cite book|last=Franklin|first=Benjamin|title=Autobiography and other writings|publisher=Riverside|year=1771|location =Cambridge|page=52}}</ref> although he still considered himself a Christian.<ref name="Christian">{{cite book| last=Olson| first=Roger| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rGMKbaNIjIoC&pg=PA61 |title=The Mosaic of Christian Belief: Twenty Centuries of Unity and Diversity |publisher=InterVarsity Press |quote=Other Deists and natural religionists who considered themselves Christians in some sense of the word included Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.| year= 2009| isbn=978-0-8308-2695-7}}</ref> He retained a strong faith in a God as the wellspring of morality and goodness in man, and as a Providential actor in history responsible for American independence.{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=486}}

At a critical impasse during the Constitutional Convention in June 1787, he attempted to introduce the practice of daily common prayer with these words:

{{blockquote|...&nbsp;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.&nbsp;... And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? or do we imagine that we no longer need His assistance. 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....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 this City be requested to officiate in that service.<ref>{{cite web |title=Thursday, June 28, 1787 |url=https://www.cui.edu/centers-institutes/center-for-civics-education/convention-a-daily-journal/post/thursday-june-28-1787 |website=www.cui.edu}}</ref>}}

The motion gained almost no support and was never brought to a vote.<ref>[[Clinton Rossiter|Rossiter, Clinton]]. 1787. ''The Grand Convention'' (1966), pp. 184–85.</ref>

Franklin was an enthusiastic admirer of the evangelical minister [[George Whitefield]] during the [[First Great Awakening]]. He did not himself subscribe to Whitefield's theology, but he admired Whitefield for exhorting people to worship God through good works. He published all of Whitefield's sermons and journals, thereby earning a lot of money and boosting the Great Awakening.{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|pp= 107–113}}

When he stopped attending church, Franklin wrote in his autobiography:

{{blockquote|...&nbsp;Sunday being my studying day, I never was without some religious principles. I never doubted, for instance, the existence of the Deity; that He made the world, and governed it by His providence; that the most acceptable service of God was the doing good to man; that our souls are immortal; and that all crime will be punished, and virtue rewarded, either here or hereafter.<ref name="autogenerated1">Franklin Benjamin [http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/autobiography/singlehtml.htm "Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography".] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080905094326/http://ushistory.org/franklin/autobiography/singlehtml.htm |date=September 5, 2008 }} Section 2 reprinted on UShistory.org.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://history.hanover.edu/courses/excerpts/111frank2.html |title=Benjamin Franklin |publisher=History.hanover.edu |access-date=September 21, 2009}}</ref>}}

Franklin retained a lifelong commitment to the non-religious Puritan virtues and political values he had grown up with, and through his civic work and publishing, he succeeded in passing these values into the American culture permanently. He had a "passion for virtue."{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=485}} These Puritan values included his devotion to egalitarianism, education, industry, thrift, honesty, temperance, charity and community spirit.{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=149}} Thomas Kidd states, "As an adult, Franklin touted ethical responsibility, industriousness, and benevolence, even as he jettisoned Christian orthodoxy."<ref>Kidd (2017) p. 4.</ref>

The classical authors read in the Enlightenment period taught an abstract ideal of republican government based on hierarchical social orders of king, aristocracy and commoners. It was widely believed that English liberties relied on their balance of power, but also hierarchal deference to the privileged class.<ref>Bailyn, 1992, pp. 273–74, 299–300.</ref> "Puritanism&nbsp;... and the epidemic evangelism of the mid-eighteenth century, had created challenges to the traditional notions of social stratification"<ref name="Bailyn303" /> by preaching that the Bible taught all men are equal, that the true value of a man lies in his moral behavior, not his class, and that all men can be saved.<ref name="Bailyn303">Bailyn, 1992, p. 303.</ref> Franklin, steeped in Puritanism and an enthusiastic supporter of the evangelical movement, rejected the salvation dogma but embraced the radical notion of egalitarian democracy.{{Citation needed|date=December 2020}}

Franklin's commitment to teach these values was itself something he gained from his Puritan upbringing, with its stress on "inculcating virtue and character in themselves and their communities."{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|pp=10, 102, 489}} These Puritan values and the desire to pass them on, were one of his quintessentially American characteristics and helped shape the character of the nation. [[Max Weber]] considered Franklin's ethical writings a culmination of the [[Protestant work ethic|Protestant ethic]], which ethic created the social conditions necessary for the birth of [[capitalism]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Weber |first=Max |title=The Protestant Ethic and the "Spirit of Capitalism" |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ez7CAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT11 |publisher=Penguin Books |year=2002 |translator=Peter Baehr |translator2=Gordon C. Wells |pages=9–11 |isbn=9780486122373 }}</ref>

One of his characteristics was his respect, tolerance and promotion of all churches. Referring to his experience in Philadelphia, he wrote in his autobiography, "new Places of worship were continually wanted, and generally erected by voluntary Contribution, my Mite for such purpose, whatever might be the Sect, was never refused."<ref name="autogenerated1" /> "He helped create a new type of nation that would draw strength from its religious [[Pluralism (philosophy)|pluralism]]."{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|pp=93ff}} The evangelical revivalists who were active mid-century, such as Whitefield, were the greatest advocates of religious freedom, "claiming liberty of conscience to be an 'inalienable right of every rational creature.{{' "}}<ref>Bailyn, 1992, p. 249.</ref> Whitefield's supporters in Philadelphia, including Franklin, erected "a large, new hall, that&nbsp;... could provide a pulpit to anyone of any belief."{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=112}} Franklin's rejection of dogma and doctrine and his stress on the God of ethics and morality and [[civic virtue]] made him the "prophet of tolerance."{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|pp=93ff}} He composed "A Parable Against Persecution," an apocryphal 51st chapter of Genesis in which God teaches Abraham the duty of tolerance.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mOEjB0Pdq8oC&pg=PA109|title=The Political Thought of Benjamin Franklin|isbn=978-0-87220-683-0|last1=Franklin|first1=Benjamin|year=2003|publisher=Hackett }}</ref> While he was living in London in 1774, he was present at the birth of [[General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches|British Unitarianism]], attending the inaugural session of the [[Essex Street Chapel]], at which [[Theophilus Lindsey]] drew together the first avowedly [[Unitarianism|Unitarian]] congregation in England; this was somewhat politically risky and pushed [[religious tolerance]] to new boundaries, as a denial of the doctrine of the [[Trinity]] was illegal until [[Doctrine of the Trinity Act 1813|the 1813 Act]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.unitarian.org.uk/support/doc-EssexHall1.shtml |title=Chapter 2, ''The History of Essex Hall'' by Mortimer Rowe B.A., D.D. Lindsey Press, 1959 |publisher=Unitarian.org.uk |access-date=June 20, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120326074021/http://www.unitarian.org.uk/support/doc-EssexHall1.shtml |archive-date=March 26, 2012 }}</ref>

Although his parents had intended for him a career in the church,<ref name="autobio" /> Franklin as a young man adopted the Enlightenment religious belief in deism, that God's truths can be found entirely through nature and reason,{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p= 46}} declaring, "I soon became a thorough Deist."<ref>{{Cite web|title=Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography|url=http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/preservation/bios/franklin/chpt4.htm|access-date=December 30, 2022|website=www.usgennet.org}}</ref> He rejected Christian dogma in a 1725 pamphlet ''[[A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain]]'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historycarper.com/resources/twobf1/m7.htm |title=A Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity, Pleasure and Pain |publisher=Historycarper.com |access-date=September 21, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090528094815/http://www.historycarper.com/resources/twobf1/m7.htm |archive-date=May 28, 2009}}</ref> which he later saw as an embarrassment,{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=45}} while simultaneously asserting that God is "all wise, [[Omnibenevolence|all good]], [[Omnipotence|all powerful]]."{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|p=45}} He defended his rejection of religious dogma with these words: "I think opinions should be judged by their influences and effects; and if a man holds none that tend to make him less virtuous or more vicious, it may be concluded that he holds none that are dangerous, which I hope is the case with me." After the disillusioning experience of seeing the decay in his own moral standards, and those of two friends in London whom he had converted to deism, Franklin decided that deism was true but it was not as useful in promoting personal morality as were the controls imposed by organized religion.{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|pp=46, 486}} Ralph Frasca contends that in his later life he can be considered a non-denominational Christian, although he did not believe Christ was divine.<ref name="Faith">{{cite book |first=Ralph |last=Frasca |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CY2UVzcU5l0C&pg=PA40 |page=40 |title=Benjamin Franklin's Printing Network: Disseminating Virtue in Early America |publisher=[[University of Missouri Press]] |quote=Despite being raised a Puritan of the Congregationalist stripe by his parents, who "brought me through my Childhood piously in the Dissenting Way", Franklin recalled, he abandoned that denomination, briefly embraced deism, and finally became a non-denominational Protestant Christian. |year= 2009 |isbn=978-0-8262-6492-3}}</ref>

In a major scholarly study of his religion, Thomas Kidd argues that Franklin believed that true religiosity was a matter of personal morality and civic virtue. Kidd says Franklin maintained his lifelong resistance to orthodox Christianity while arriving finally at a "doctrineless, moralized Christianity."<ref>Thomas S. Kidd, ''Benjamin Franklin: The Religious Life of a Founding Father'' (Yale UP, 2017) p. 6.</ref> According to David Morgan,<ref>Morgan, David T. "Benjamin Franklin: Champion of Generic Religion". ''The Historian''. 62#4 2000. pp. 722 ff.</ref> Franklin was a proponent of "generic religion." He prayed to "Powerful Goodness" and referred to God as "the infinite." [[John Adams]] noted that he was a mirror in which people saw their own religion: "The [[Catholic Church|Catholics]] thought him almost a Catholic. The [[Church of England]] claimed him as one of them. The [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterians]] thought him half a Presbyterian, and the [[Quakers|Friends]] believed him a wet Quaker." Adams himself decided that Franklin best fit among the "Atheists, Deists, and Libertines."<ref>Kidd, (2017) p. 36.</ref> Whatever else Franklin was, concludes Morgan, "he was a true champion of generic religion." In a letter to Richard Price, Franklin states that he believes religion should support itself without help from the government, claiming, "When a Religion is good, I conceive that it will support itself; and, when it cannot support itself, and God does not take care to support, so that its Professors are oblig'd to call for the help of the Civil Power, it is a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one."<ref>Benjamin Franklin to Richard Price, October 9, 1780 ''Writings'' 8:153–54</ref>

In 1790, just about a month before he died, Franklin wrote a letter to [[Ezra Stiles]], president of [[Yale University]], who had asked him his views on religion:

{{blockquote|As to [[Jesus of Nazareth]], my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupt changes, and I have, with most of the present [[English Dissenters|Dissenters in England]], some Doubts as to his divinity; tho' it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and I think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an Opportunity of knowing the Truth with less Trouble. I see no harm, however, in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequence, as it probably has, of making his doctrines more respected and better observed; especially as I do not perceive that the Supreme takes it amiss, by distinguishing the unbelievers in his government of the world with any particular marks of his displeasure.<ref name="vandoren"/>}}

On July 4, 1776, Congress appointed a three-member committee composed of Franklin, Jefferson, and Adams to design the [[Great Seal of the United States]]. Franklin's proposal (which was not adopted) featured the motto: "Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God" and a scene from the [[Book of Exodus]] he took from the [[Book frontispiece|frontispiece]] of the [[Geneva Bible]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=dseverance |date=October 15, 2019 |title=The Geneva Bible: The First English Study Bible {{!}} Houston Christian University |url=https://hc.edu/museums/dunham-bible-museum/tour-of-the-museum/past-exhibits/from-geneva-the-first-english-study-bible/ |access-date=December 17, 2023 |website=hc.edu |language=en-US}}</ref> with [[Moses]], the [[Israelites]], the [[Pillar of Fire (theophany)|pillar of fire]], and [[George III of the United Kingdom|George III]] depicted as [[Pharaohs in the Bible#Pharaoh of the Exodus|pharaoh]].

[[File:FirstCommitteeGreatSealReverseLossingDrawing.jpg|thumb|upright|Franklin's design for the First Great Seal of America, inspired by the Geneva Bible published in 1560 by [[Rowland Hill|Sir Rowland Hill]] ]]

The design that was produced was not acted upon by Congress, and the Great Seal's design was not finalized until a third committee was appointed in 1782.<ref>"[https://2009-2017.state.gov/documents/organization/27807.pdf The Great Seal of the United States]" (July 2003). [[Bureau of Public Affairs]], [[United States Department of State]].</ref><ref>"1782: Original Design of the Great Seal of the United States", ''Our Documents: 100 Milestone Documents from the National Archives''. [[National Archives and Records Administration|National Archives]] ([[Oxford University Press]], 2006), pp. 18–19.</ref>

Franklin strongly supported the right to [[freedom of speech]]:

{{blockquote|In those wretched countries where a man cannot call his tongue his own, he can scarce call anything his own. Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech&nbsp;...

Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom, and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech, which is the right of every man&nbsp;...|[[Silence Dogood]] no. 8, 1722<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Coffman |editor1-first=Steve |title=Words of the Founding Fathers: Selected Quotations of Franklin, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison and Hamilton, with Sources |year=2012 |publisher=McFarland |location=Jefferson, NC |isbn=978-0-7864-5862-2| page=97| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PsFnB7FA11YC&pg=PA97 }}</ref>}}

===Thirteen Virtues===
[[File:Franklin bust at Columbia University IMG 0924.JPG|thumb|A bust of Franklin in the Archives Department at [[Columbia University]] in New York City]]
Franklin sought to cultivate his character by a plan of 13 virtues, which he developed at age 20 (in 1726) and continued to practice in some form for the rest of his life. His autobiography lists his 13 virtues as:<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin|url=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/benjamin-franklin/the-autobiography-of-benjamin-franklin/text/single-page|access-date=June 12, 2021|website=standardebooks.org}}</ref>

# [[Temperance (virtue)|Temperance]]. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
# [[Silence]]. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
# [[Order (virtue)|Order]]. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
# [[Result|Resolution]]. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
# [[Frugality]]. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
# Industry. Lose no time; be always employ'd in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
# [[Sincerity]]. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
# [[Justice]]. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
# [[Moderation]]. Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
# [[Cleanliness]]. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.
# [[Tranquility]]. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
# [[Chastity]]. Rarely use [[Human sexuality|venery]] but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.
# [[Humility]]. Imitate Jesus and [[Socrates]].

Franklin did not try to work on them all at once. Instead, he worked on only one each week "leaving all others to their ordinary chance." While he did not adhere completely to the enumerated virtues, and by his own admission he fell short of them many times, he believed the attempt made him a better man, contributing greatly to his success and happiness, which is why in his autobiography, he devoted more pages to this plan than to any other single point and wrote, "I hope, therefore, that some of my descendants may follow the example and reap the benefit."<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin|url=https://www.ushistory.org/franklin/autobiography/page38.htm|access-date=December 30, 2022|website=www.ushistory.org}}</ref>

===Slavery===
Franklin's views and practices concerning slavery evolved over the course of his life. In his early years, Franklin owned seven slaves, including two men who worked in his household and his shop, but in his later years became an adherent of abolition.<ref>[[#nash2006|Nash, 2006]], pp. 618–638.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Benjamin Franklin Abolitionist|url=https://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_citizen_abolitionist.html|access-date=March 23, 2021|website=[[PBS]]}}</ref> A revenue stream for his newspaper was paid ads for the sale of slaves and for the capture of runaway slaves and Franklin allowed the sale of slaves in his general store. He later became an outspoken critic of slavery. In 1758, he advocated the opening of a school for the education of black slaves in Philadelphia.<ref>[[#nash2006|Nash, 2006]], pp. 623–624.</ref> He took two slaves to England with him, Peter and King. King escaped with a woman to live in the outskirts of London,<ref>[[#nash2006|Nash, 2006]], pp. 619–620.</ref> and by 1758 he was working for a household in [[Suffolk]].{{sfn|Isaacson|2003|at=Chapter 8, p. 191}} After returning from England in 1762, Franklin became more abolitionist in nature, attacking American slavery. In the wake of ''[[Somerset v Stewart]]'', he voiced frustration at British abolitionists:

{{cquote|O Pharisaical Britain! to pride thyself in setting free a single Slave that happens to land on thy coasts, while thy Merchants in all thy ports are encouraged by thy laws to continue a commerce whereby so many hundreds of thousands are dragged into a slavery that can scarce be said to end with their lives, since it is entailed on their posterity!<ref>{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ebz5CQAAQBAJ&pg=PA37| title = Eighty-eight Years – The Long Death of Slavery in the United States, 1777–1865| year = 2015| publisher = University of Georgia Press| isbn = 9780820333953}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Arnold|first=Isaac N.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RW0FAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA27|title=The History of Abraham Lincoln, and the Overthrow of Slavery|date=1866|publisher=Clarke & Company|language=en}}</ref>}}

Franklin refused to publicly debate the issue of slavery at the 1787 Constitutional Convention.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Waldstreicher |first=David|title=Benjamin Franklin, Slavery, and the Founders: On the dangers of reading backwards|journal=Common-Place|volume=04|number=4|date=July 2004|url=http://commonplace.online/article/benjamin-franklin-slavery/}}</ref>

At the time of the American founding, there were about half a million slaves in the United States, mostly in the five southernmost states, where they made up 40% of the population. Many of the leading American founders{{snd}}such as Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and [[James Madison]]{{snd}}owned slaves, but many others did not. Benjamin Franklin thought that slavery was "an atrocious debasement of human nature" and "a source of serious evils." In 1787, Franklin and [[Benjamin Rush]] helped write a new constitution for the [[Pennsylvania Abolition Society|Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery]],<ref>{{Cite web|title = Founding of Pennsylvania Abolition Society|publisher=[[PBS]] |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3p249.html}}</ref> and that same year Franklin became president of the organization.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Benjamin Franklin and Slavery|url = https://benjaminfranklinhouse.org/education/benjamin-franklin-and-slavery/}}</ref> In 1790, Quakers from New York and Pennsylvania presented their petition for abolition to Congress. Their argument against slavery was backed by the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society.<ref>Benjamin Franklin for The Pennsylvania Abolition Society to the United States Congress, ''The memorial of the Pennsylvania Society for promoting the Abolition of Slavery, the relief of free Negroes unlawfully held in bondage, and the Improvement of the Conditions of the African Race'' (February 3, 1790)</ref>

In his later years, as Congress was forced to deal with the issue of slavery, Franklin wrote several essays that stressed the importance of the [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolition of slavery]] and of the integration of African Americans into American society. These writings included:

* "[[s:An Address to the Public|An Address to the Public]]" (1789)
* "[[s:A Plan for Improving the Condition of the Free Blacks|A Plan for Improving the Condition of the Free Blacks]]" (1789)
* "[[s:Works of the late Doctor Benjamin Franklin/On the Slave Trade|Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim on the Slave Trade]]" (1790)<ref>{{Cite book |editor-last=Jehlen |editor-first=Myra |editor-last2=Warner |editor-first2=Michael |year=1997 |title=The English Literatures of America, 1500–1800 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LAYDAZmrKkgC&pg=PA891 |publisher=Psychology Press |page=891 |isbn=0-415-91903-7}}</ref>

===Vegetarianism===
Franklin became a vegetarian when he was a teenager apprenticing at a print shop, after coming upon a book by the early vegetarian advocate [[Thomas Tryon]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kaiser |first1=Larry |title=What Benjamin Franklin Really Said About Vegetarianism |url=https://www.vrg.org/history/benjamin_franklin.htm |website=The Vegetarian Resource Group |access-date=February 8, 2020}}</ref> In addition, he would have also been familiar with the moral arguments espoused by prominent vegetarian [[Quakers]] in the colonial-era [[Province of Pennsylvania]], including [[Benjamin Lay]] and [[John Woolman]]. His reasons for vegetarianism were based on health, ethics, and economy:

{{Blockquote|When about 16 years of age, I happen'd to meet with a book written by one Tryon, recommending a vegetable diet. I determined to go into it ... [By not eating meat] I presently found that I could save half what [my brother] paid me. This was an additional fund for buying books: but I had another advantage in it ... I made the greater progress from that greater clearness of head and quicker apprehension which usually attend temperance in eating and drinking.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin |url=https://archive.org/details/autobiographyofb20203gut |chapter=Part One |first=Benjamin |last=Franklin}}</ref>}}

Franklin also declared the consumption of fish to be "unprovoked murder."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Richards |first1=Jennie |title=Benjamin Franklin said "Eating Flesh is Unprovoked Murder" |url=https://www.humanedecisions.com/benjamin-franklin-said-eating-flesh-is-unprovoked-murder/ |website=Humane Decisions |date=January 20, 2016 |access-date=February 8, 2020}}</ref> Despite his convictions, he [[Pescetarianism|began to eat fish]] after being tempted by fried cod on a boat sailing from Boston, justifying the eating of animals by observing that the fish's stomach contained other fish. Nonetheless, he recognized the faulty ethics in this argument<ref>{{cite web |last1=Lamb |first1=Camille |title=Ben Franklin Practiced Vegetarianism |url=https://www.miaminewtimes.com/restaurants/ben-franklin-practiced-vegetarianism-6599949 |website=Miami New Times |date=April 9, 2012 |access-date=February 8, 2020}}</ref> and would continue to be a vegetarian on and off. He was "excited" by [[tofu]], which he learned of from the writings of a Spanish missionary to Southeast Asia, [[Domingo Fernández Navarrete]]. Franklin sent a sample of [[soybean]]s to prominent American botanist [[John Bartram]] and had previously written to British diplomat and Chinese trade expert [[James Flint (merchant)|James Flint]] inquiring as to how tofu was made,<ref name="feast">{{cite web |title=Benjamin Franklin on Food |url=http://feastandphrase.com/gastronomy-and-non-fiction/benjamin-franklin-on-food/ |website=Feast and Phrase |access-date=February 8, 2020 |archive-date=January 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200124192047/http://feastandphrase.com/gastronomy-and-non-fiction/benjamin-franklin-on-food/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> with their correspondence believed to be the first documented use of the word "tofu" in the English language.<ref>{{cite book|title=History of Tofu and Tofu Products (965 CE to 2013)|last1 = Shurtleff|first1 = William|author-link=William Shurtleff | last2 = Aoyagi| first2 = Akiko|year=2013|isbn=9781928914556|page=73|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gGrUNvZt0_YC&pg=PA73 |publisher=Soyinfo Center}}</ref>

Franklin's "Second Reply to ''Vindex Patriae,''" a 1766 letter advocating self-sufficiency and less dependence on England, lists various examples of the bounty of American agricultural products, and does not mention meat.<ref name="feast" /> Detailing new American customs, he wrote that, "[t]hey resolved last spring to eat no more lamb; and not a joint of lamb has since been seen on any of their tables ... the sweet little creatures are all alive to this day, with the prettiest fleeces on their backs imaginable."<ref>{{cite web |title="Homespun": Second Reply to "Vindex Patriae" |url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-13-02-0003 |website=Founders Online |publisher=National Archives: National Historical Publications and Records Commission |access-date=February 8, 2020}}</ref>

===View on inoculation===
The concept of preventing [[smallpox]] by [[variolation]] was introduced to colonial America by an African slave named [[Onesimus (Bostonian)|Onesimus]] via his owner [[Cotton Mather]] in the early eighteenth century, but the procedure was not immediately accepted. [[James Franklin (printer)|James Franklin's]] newspaper carried articles in 1721<ref>{{cite web|url=https://theconversation.com/benjamin-franklins-fight-against-a-deadly-virus-colonial-america-was-divided-over-smallpox-inoculation-but-he-championed-science-to-skeptics-161569|title=Benjamin Franklin's Fight Against A Deadly Virus|date=July 2021 |via=The Conversation|access-date=September 27, 2021}}</ref> that vigorously denounced the concept.<ref>One article posited that "epidemeal distempers (such as smallpox) come as Judgments from an angry and displeased God."</ref>

However, by 1736 Benjamin Franklin was known as a supporter of the procedure. Therefore, when four-year-old "Franky" died of smallpox, opponents of the procedure circulated rumors that the child had been inoculated, and that this was the cause of his subsequent death. When Franklin became aware of this gossip, he placed a notice in the ''Pennsylvania Gazette'', stating: "I do hereby sincerely declare, that he was not inoculated, but receiv'd the Distemper in the common Way of Infection ... I intended to have my Child inoculated." The child had a bad case of flux [[diarrhea]], and his parents had waited for him to get well before having him inoculated. Franklin wrote in his ''Autobiography'': "In 1736 I lost one of my sons, a fine boy of four years old, by the small-pox, taken in the common way. I long regretted bitterly, and still regret that I had not given it to him by inoculation. This I mention for the sake of parents who omit that operation, on the supposition that they should never forgive themselves if a child died under it; my example showing that the regret may be the same either way, and that, therefore, the safer should be chosen."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://view.email.bostonglobe.com/?qs=cdc7f8085ee22f77eb071f6b9d9e4071a0c765f900ec6e121cc219f15fe3c7b0f14dac08a385bc3075ebdbdb0e92897b4a55d30a33d253fbd5bcff3a28c6d7166f8706d88252c267ccf997fa7e5174efba5c09e5fabbbcde|title=A Founding Father's Vaccine Regret|first=Jeff |last=Jacoby|date=September 27, 2021|access-date=September 27, 2021|via=[[Boston Globe]]}}</ref>