The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1896-05-13
The Penalty Of Humor.

When the time came for the people
of the thirteen united colonies to pro-
claim to the world that they were free,
and that they held them selves absolv-
ed from all allegiance to the British
crown, and that all political connection
between them and Great Britain was
totally dissolved, a committee Of the
Continental Congress was appointed
TO draw up declaration of independ-
ence. The members of this committee
were Benjamin Franklin, of Pennsyl-
vania, John Adams, of Massachusetts,
Roger Sherman, of fConnectieut, Robert
II. Livingston, of New York, and
Thomas Jefferson, Of Virginia. Why
was it that their colleagues committed
the writing of the Dee laratiOn of Inde-
pendence to Thomas Jefferson and not
to Benjamin Franklin? The Virgin
ian was not the most prominent man,
even of his own section, and although
his reputation could not fahiy be term
GU lOtSti, IL WIS buN llttic hAOAtf NAAhS
the name of the Pennsylvanian was
known throughout the whole civilized
world. Franklin was not only the
foremost citizen of Philadelphia, where
the Congress was sitting, he was the
most experienced pubIicist and the most
accomplished man Of letters in all the
thirteen colonies, and lie was especial
ly well equipped for the drawing up of
an appeal to Europe, as he had but just
returned from London, where he had
been pleading the cause of his country
men with indomitable courage and in
disputable skill Yet Franklin was
not asked to write the Declaration of
Independence, and although he and
Adams made a few verbal amend
ments, the credit Of that great state
paper belongs to jefferson. And why
was it that this great responsibility was
placed on jefferson and not on Frank
lin?
/ think the explanation lies in the
fact that Franklin was a HumOrist.
Not only was Franklin's sturdy COM
nonsense felt to be too plain home
spun for wear in the courts of Europe,
when the thought needed to be attired
in all the lofty rhetoric that the most
fervid enthusiasm could produce but
also, fear me greatly, his colleagues
were afraid that Franklin would have
his joke. 1t would be good joke, no
probably very good joke, but
the very best of jokes would not be in
keeping with the stately occasion.
They were acute, these leaders of the
Continental Congress, and they knew
that every man has the defect Of his
qualities, and that a hum )rist is
likely to be lacking in reverence,
and that the writer of the Declaration n
of Independence had theme which
demanded the most reverential treat
ment.
So it was that Benjamin franklin
had to pay the penalty Of humOr in
the last century, just as Abraham Lin
coin had to pay it in this century. Be
cause Lincoln was swift to seize upon
an incongruity, and because he sought
relief for his abiding melancholy in
playfulness, there were not few who
refused to take him seriously.
Even after his death there were hon
est folk who held the shrewdest and
loftiest of our statesmen to have been
little better than a buffOOn. OF the
three greatest Americans Franklin,
Washington and Lincoln, two were
humorists, and it Is perhaps his def
cheney of humOr which makes Wash
ington seem more remote from Us and
less frieadly than either o. he
others.-From The Penalty of Humor,
by Brander Matthews, in HdyPer's
Magazine for May.