The Winchester appeal. [volume] (Winchester, Tenn.) 1856-1856, 1856-03-08
DR.. Franklin.

Inc leaulng property OF Dr. Frank
Inns mind-great as it was--the fac
ulty which made him remarkable, and
set him apart from other men, the gen
orator, in truth, of all his power--was
good sense--only plain good sense
nothing more. He was not man of
genius: there was no brilliancy about
him; little or no tervour; nothing like
poetry and eloquence; and yet, by the
sole, untiring, continued operations Of
his humble, unpretending quality of
mind, he came to do more in the world
OF science, more in council, more in
the revolution Of empires--uneduca-
ted, or sell-educated as he was--than
five hundred others might have done,
each with more genius, more fcrvour,
more eloQuence, more brilliancy.
He was born of English parents, in
Boston. Massachusetts,, about 1908,
we believe. When lad he ran away
to Philadelphia. After a long course
OF selt-deniaI. hardship, and wearying
disappointment, which nothing but his
frugal, temperate, courageous good
sense carried him through, he became
to be successfully, a journaman prin-
ter, (or pressman, rather, on account
of his great bodily strcngth) in Lon
don printing office; editor and publish
er at home, in Philadelphia, Of many
papers, which had prodigious influence
on the temper ofhis countrymen; agent
for certain colonies to this govern
ment; an anthor Of celebrity; phioS-
ophcr, whose reputation has gone over
the whole OF the learned world; q very
able negotiator; statesman, a minis
ter plenipotentiary ofFrance. ofwhose
king he obtained. while the Bourbons
We're IN their glory, by his great mod
Grafton, wisdom, and republican adj
dress, treaty, which enabled our tlir-
teen colonies Of North America to
laugh all the power Of Great Britain.
year after year, to scorn; yes, all these
things did Benjamin Franklin, by yir-
tue alone of his good common sense.
He died in 1896, "full of years and
honors," the pride and glory of that
empire, the very foundations Of which
he had helped into the appointedplace,
with his own powerful hands. lie
was one of the tew--the priesthood OF
liberty--that stood up undismaycd,
unmoved, while the ark Of their saliva
ton numbered and shook and tighten
ed in their faces; putting their venera-
bic hands upon ii, nevertheless, and
abiding the issue while the declaration
Of Independence went forth like the
noise Of a trumpet to the four corners
Of the earth. He lived until he heard
the Warlikc flourish cchoing through
the general solitudes Of America--thc
roar OF battle on every side OF hin--all
Europe in commotion--her over-peo-
pied empires rioting with a new spr-
this country quietly taking her
place among the nations. What more
could be wished! Nothing 1t was
time to give up the ghost.
He was II great, and OF course Il good
man, We have but few things to lay
to his charge, very few; and after all,
when we look about us, recoIecting as
we do, the great good which he has
done eOerytChere; the little mischief he
has done, the less than little he ever
meditated anyWhcre, in all his life, TO
the cause of humanity, we have no
heart, we confess it again, to speak
unkindly of him. The evil that Ben
jamin Franklin did, in the whole Of his
tourscore years and upwards of life,
was, in comparison with his good
works, but as the dust in the balance.