Ben Franklin and Virtuous Citizenship
Introduction:
Although certainly an exceptional figure, in many ways Benjamin Franklin represented the men
of his day. By examining his life—even outside of politics—we can see the values and
philosophies that shaped the early nation and our modern American political institutions.
Franklin is perhaps most well known for his celebration of personal virtue and self-improvement
with his belief that “…without virtue, man can have no happiness in this world.” While many
historians attribute Franklin’s famous list of “13 virtues” (temperance, silence, order, resolution,
frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, humility) to
the legacy of the Puritan forefathers (shorn of religious intent), Franklin’s pursuit of character
and esteem likewise reflects prevailing political philosophies that circulated in the colonial
world. Indeed, his emphasis on virtue (vs. corruption and indulgence) fits with the Founding
Father’s intellectual interests in the classical republic ideals yet also exposes the limits of the
seemingly egalitarian political order.
Standards Addressed
11.1 Students analyze the significant events in the founding of the nation and its attempts to realize
the philosophy of government described in the Declaration of Independence.
1.
Describe the Enlightenment and the rise of democratic ideas as the context in which the
nation was founded.
2.
Analyze the ideological origins of the American Revolution, the Founding Fathers'
philosophy of divinely bestowed unalienable natural rights, the debates on the drafting and
ratification of the Constitution, and the addition of the Bill of Rights.
Historical Interpretation
1. Students show the connections, causal and otherwise between particular historical
events and larger social, economic, and political
trends and developments.
2. Students interpret past events and issues within the context in which an event unfolded
rather than solely in terms of present-day norms and values
Guiding Questions:
1. What was the significance of “virtue” to Benjamin Franklin and the Founding Fathers?
2. How did the idea of virtue reflect larger political philosophies of the day?
3. How did the rhetoric of virtue inform opposition to the British monarchy and thus,
contribute to the revolutionary war effort?
4. How inclusive was Franklin’s vision of political life?
5. What form of government did Franklin and the founders establish? Is that the same as or
different from our present American democracy?
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Procedure
1. Opening Exercise: Ask students to define “virtue” and explore its importance in
American life today. Perhaps make a list of attributes associated with virtue on the board.
2. Developing a central concept: Ask students to consider how the idea of “virtue” was
important in the revolutionary era. Explain that you will examine the life of Benjamin
Franklin to understand how vital such a concept was to the Founding Fathers.
3. Context: Break students into groups and have them read introduction and/or then explore
Bowers on-line exhibit “Civic Visions” (either individually as a whole class) at
http://www.benfranklin300.org/exhibition/_html/3_0/index.htm.
What is important is that they understand that Benjamin Franklin’s life exemplified the
“virtue of virtue” and primacy of contributing to the common good. Most notably,
Franklin sought to improve himself and his community through the establishment of
Philadelphia’s and Pennsylvania’s first library, firefighting brigade, university, militia,
hospital, and insurance company. Such institutions certainly advanced the common good
and enriched civic life.
4. Source Analysis: Have groups read through Franklin’s 13 Virtues (Source 1) analyze the
Fire Mark (Source 2) and answer the questions that follow connecting his virtues to this
contributions to colonial society.
5. Further Source analysis and Political Implications: Next, have students read Cato’s
Letters and the Excerpt from Gordon Wood’s The Radicalism of the American
Revolution. Proceed with the questions that follow each. For Cato’s Letters, discuss the
Enlightenment context of “virtue” as coming from an interest in classical republicanism.
Explain that men like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, John Adams and Franklin
himself read the writings of John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon in Cato’s Letters (17201723)—a treatise that invoked the tenets of classical Rome as a critique of British
monarchical tyranny and corruption. According to this celebrated tradition of classical
Rome, liberty in a republic could only be realized when citizens were virtuous—meaning
they were willing to sacrifice personal interests for the good of the larger community.
Gordon’s excerpt further explains that to be completely “virtuous” also meant free from
material interests or dependence—any monetary interests would corrupt one’s ability to
participate in public life. Thus, integrity, virtue, and disinterestedness was at the center
of public life and, according to Franklin and his contemporaries, would allow citizens to
forfeit all selfish concerns for the good of the body politic. In addition to condemning the
prevailing political order and objections to the corruption, luxury and indulgence of the
British king, classical republicanism offered a political model to prevent the abuse of
power and liberties through the separation of powers. Franklin likewise believed the
domain of political office should be reserved for “gentlemen”—those retired from
monetary pursuits. As a true “republican”, he did not engage in military or political office
until he had retired from his work as a printer and had acquired sufficient material wealth
to ensure “disinterest” in public administration. Accordingly, Franklin’s seemingly
egalitarian theories of self-improvement and virtue had its limits.
6. Conclude with discussion that even though Franklin’s life demonstrates the remarkable
capacity for mobility in the American colonies, inclusion into the aristocratic elite, and
specifically the political process was nonetheless dependent upon virtue and economic
independence. Benjamin Franklin and the Founding Fathers had did not believe in an
inclusive democratic political process open to all. Rather, they asserted the classical
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ideals of Rome, and advocated a restricted political body, open to citizens who could
demonstrate requisite characteristics of virtue and material independence. Finally end
with a discussion about politics today i.e. how different democracy is from a republic and
significantly—discuss the role of virtue in modern day politics. Ask students to
reconsider their definition of virtue and create a written response comparing
contemporary definitions and understandings of virtue to the held by Ben Franklin and
the Founding Fathers. In their written responses, students should include evidence from
the primary and secondary sources to support their analysis.
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Source 1: Franklin’s Thirteen Virtues from Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography
1. Temperance: Eat not to dullness and drink not to
elevation.
2. Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or
yourself. Avoid trifling conversation.
3. Order: Let all your things have their places. Let each
part of your business have its time.
4. Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought.
Perform without fail what you resolve.
5. Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others
or yourself: i.e. Waste nothing.
6. Industry: Lose no time. Be always employed in
something useful. Cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit. Think innocently and
justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. Justice: Wrong none, by doing injuries or omitting the
benefits that are your duty.
9. Moderation: Avoid extremes. Forebear resenting
injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanness in body, clothes
or habitation.
11. Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or
offspring; Never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of
your own or another's peace or reputation.
12. Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at
accidents common or unavoidable.
13. Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates
Questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Temperance: sensible control
of the things you say and do,
especially the amount of
alcohol you drink
trifling-unimportant
Resolve: to make a definite
decision to do something
Industry: the fact of working
hard
deceit-lying, or behavior that
makes someone believe
something untrue
Forebear: to refrain; hold
back
habitation: a house or place to
live in
Chastity-the principle of not
having sex with anyone, but
your husband or wife
venery: lust or desire
trifle: something unimportant
or not valuable
Which of Franklin’s virtues do you think is most important?
Is his list concerned more with private or public virtue?
How well does Franklin’s life exemplify his 13 Virtues?
How does Franklin’s creation of a lending library fit with his 13 Virtues?
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Source 2 Philadelphia Contributionship fire mark, 1752-1753
1. What does the image exemplify about Franklin’s beliefs of virtue?
2. Why would the establishment of a fire regiment be an especially potent symbol of
Franklin’s notions of virtue and community?
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Source 3: Excerpts from John Trenchard & Thomas Gordon, Cato’s Letters, 1720 – 1723
Unlimited power is so wild and monstrous a thing, that
however natural it be to desire it, it is as natural to oppose it;
nor ought it to be trusted with any mortal man, be his
intentions ever so upright: For, besides that he will never care
to part with it, he will rarely dare… We know, by infinite
examples and experience, that men possessed of power,
rather than part with it, will do any thing, even the worst and
the blackest, to keep it; and scarce ever any man upon earth
went out of it as long as he could carry every thing his own
way in it; and when he could not, he resigned. I doubt that
there is not one exception in the world to this rule; and that
Dioclesian, Charles V, and even Sulla, laid down their power
out of pique and discontent, and from opposition and
disappointment…
The Romans, who knew this evil, having suffered by it,
provided wise remedies against it; and when one ordinary
power grew too great, checked it with another. Thus the
office and power of the tribunes was set up to balance that of
the consuls, and to protect the populace against the insolence,
pride, and intrenchments of the nobility: And when the
authority of the tribunes grew too formidable, a good
expedient was found out to restrain it; for in any turbulent or
factious design of the tribunes, the protest or dissent of any
one of them made void the purposes and proceedings of all
the rest. And both the consuls and tribunes were chosen only
for a year.
Thus the Romans preserved their liberty by limiting the time
and power of their magistrates, and by making them
answerable afterwards for their behaviour in it: And besides
all this, there lay from the magistrates an appeal to the
people; a power which, however great, they generally used
with eminent modesty and mercy; and, like the people of
other nations, sinned much seldomer than their governors.
Indeed, in any publick disorder, or misfortune, the people are
scarce ever in the fault; but far on the other side, suffer often,
with a criminal patience, the sore evils brought wantonly or
foolishly upon them by others, whom they pay dear to
prevent them.
Questions:
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infinite-endless, many
resigned: to leave one’s
job or to calmly accept a
situation that is bad, but
cannot be changed
pique: a feeling of being
annoyed or upset
tribune: an official in
ancient Rome who was
elected by the ordinary
people to protect their
rights
insolence: rudeness or
disrespect in behavior or
speech
intrenchments-power
that is firmly established
factious: given to
divisions
dissent: disagreement
magistrates: judge or one
who works in court of
law
wantonly: without regard
for what is right,
reckless
1. What does Cato’s Letters say about the nature of power?
2. Who do you think is the subject of such a complaint about unlimited power (hint: think
about causes of the American Revolution)?
3. What is the proposed solution to absolute power?
4. How does Franklin’s Thirteen Virtues compare with Cato’s descriptions of the British
Monarchy?
5. In Cato’s letters, what ideal political systems might protect against tyranny and the abuse
of power?
6. How do you see that manifest in American political institutions?
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Source 4 Excerpts from Gordon Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution
“According to the classical republican tradition, man was by
nature a political being, a citizen who achieved his greatest
moral fulfillment by participating in a self-governing
republic…Liberty was realized when the citizens were
virtuous—that is, willing to sacrifice their private interests
for the sake of the community, including without pecuniary
rewards. This virtue could be found on in a republic of
equal, active, and independent citizens. To be completely
virtuous citizens, men—never women…had to be free from
dependence and from the petty interest of the marketplace.
Any loss of independence and virtue was
corruption…Republics demanded far more morally from
their citizens than monarchies did of their subjects. In
monarchies each man’s desire to do what was right in his
own eyes could be restrained by fear or force, by patronage
or honor. In republics, however, each man must somehow
be persuaded to sacrifice his personal desires, his luxuries,
for the sake of the public good… Without virtue and selfsacrifice republics would fall apart. “(105)
“…ultimately the most enlightened of that enlightened age
believed that the secret of good government and the
protection of popular liberty lay in ensuring that good
men—men of character and disinterestedness—wielded
power. In the end there was no substitute for classical
republican virtue in the society’s rulers; and everyone on the
political spectrum paid at least lip service to the need for it.
But no one paid more attention to this need for virtue than
did members of that generation of North American colonial
leaders who came of age during the middle decades of the
eighteenths century.” (109)
republic: a country
governed by elected
representatives of the
people, and led by a
president, not a king or
queen
pecuniary: a country
governed by elected
representatives of the
people, and led by a
president, not a king or
queen
patronage: a system by
which someone in a
powerful position gives
people help or
important jobs in return
for their support
disinterestedness: not
concerned with gaining
an material advantage
from something
Questions:
1. According to the passage, how was liberty achieved in society and government?
2. What is one of the most important features of cultivating virtue for public office? Are such
qualifications open to all? What does that say about the founding father’s visions of the nation’s
early political body?
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3. How does faith in “self-improvement” reflect the revolutionary ideals? How might such a
belief diverge from British notions of aristocracy? I.e. is one “born with” virtue or can it be
acquired? Still, how limited is the acquisition of “virtue” (for the sake of public office?)
Which do you feel is the most quintessentially “American” virtue? What role do you think virtue
plays in politics today?
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