The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-06-15

ana swayed with the PRIDE OF clhSS,
while Franklin was ever man OF the
people, simple in his tastes, companion
able to high and low and with scant
regard for the prejudices of class and |
condition. When loaded down with |
honors received at royal and titled |
hands, he could still remember with
pride his modest beginning and the |
days of his early married life when he |
was clad from head to foot in home- |
spun Of his wife's spinning, and when |
In his later years he had ceased for |
nearly forty years to be a printer by !
occupation, he still proudly wrote him |
self down in his will for all time as
Benjamin Franklin, printer" The
two Americans who seem to come most
directly from the very heart or the
masses. and who best typify the aver
age of American character. are Frank
lin and Lincoln, and both united In
their personalities the qualities of good
humor, genial fellowship, generous OPP
timism, originality of thought, simplic-
ity of ideas, inventive genius, unweary-
ing industry, and love of freedom, which
are the peculiar characteristics or our
people.
COMPARED WITH WASHINGTON.
Some may challenge my statement
that Franklin is the greatest of Ameri-
cans, and give preference to his great
there might be some question IL we
confined our estimate to the mere politi-
cal history of the republic and to their
services in its foundation. Washing
toms services on the field of battle APP
peal most to the imagination OF men,
and his inestimable influence as the
first president of the republic will ever
give him pre-eminence in its history.
| The man on horseback casts a longer
shadow than he who walks upon the
ground, and In the epic of our inde-
pendence, Nestor must give place to
our king of men," Such was not the
estimate Of their contemporaries, how
ever for Franklin was hailed by them
as "pater patriae" long before that title
was given by posterity to the great
Virginian. When Washington, an un-
known lad of sixteen years, was sur
veying the Fairfax estate, and before
Hamilton, Madison, Jay, Warren. John
Paul Jones, Arnold, Wayne, Knox, and
Marshall were ever born, Franklin had
become famous throughout the world
! by his discovery of the nature of light
ming. He was a power in the colonies
and was influencing their thought when
| Sam Adams was leaving Harvard, and
! jefferson, Hancock, Patrick Henry. and
| Richard Henry Lee were children. he
| had submitted to the council of Albany
! the first formal draft for a union OF
the colonies, and was urging its neces-
! sity as the delegate of Pennsylvania,
! when Washington was making his first
| and last surrender at Fort Necessity.
| Indeed, the length and variety of
/ Franklin'S public services have never
been surpassed, to my knowledge, and
/ rarely equalled. For siXty-eight years
/ he served his country and mankind.
/ His services commenced when, as a
mere lad of sixteen, he fought for the
/ 90 Z I., IL nd
tinued without interruption to his
eighty-fourth year, when from his sick
bed he advised with reference to i'm
! portant public measures.
HIS COUNTRY'S TEACHER.
He was the mentor of his country
men. He prepared them for their long
struggle with England by inculcating
| lessons of thrift and independence by
his homely and epigrammatic wisdom.
which, while 1t may seem pennywise to
us in these days of opulence, yet was
in that day of little wealth essential TO
the well-being of America. He advo-
Gated the necessity of union and drew
the first plan as early as 1854 to secure
it. In England he was the champion
| and defender of the colonies, and rend-
| cred them two services, which were in
! dispensable to American indenendence.
The first was the repeal of the Stamp
Act, which postponed the struggle until
the colonists were strong enough to de-
fend themselves, and the other and
more important was the series of ef-
! feCtive pamphlets and Satirical pole
mics, not inferior in biting satire to
those of Swift, by which he divided
| public sentiment in England and Sc
cured for America the sympathy of
such men as the elder Chatham, Burke,
| Fox, Shelburne, the Marquis of Rock
nuh a IDFin M n N "
others. For thirty years he led the
Liberal party Of Pennsylvania in it's
| strong assault on the hereditary privi-
leges of the Penns and the visionary
idealism of the Quakers, which was un-
suited to those times that tried mems
souls" Would the triumph of Wash
ington have been possible without the
formal treaty of alliance with France,
and the fleets and armies which were
sent by that generous ally to America
To whom more than to Franklin do we
owe this alliance?
The man whose name alone of all
Americans is to be found appended to
the four greatest documents of the
period. the Declaration of Independ-
ence, the treaty of alliance with France,
the treaty of peace with England, and
the Constitution of the United States
need not yield even to the courageous
soldier and masterful president.
No American who has ever lived, and
indeed few of any race or time, ever
shone so resplendenty in so many diff
ferent ways. The traditional versatil.
ity of the present hero of dramatic lit
erature, Cyrano de Bergerac, is fairly
shamed by one who was successively
a tallow wick cutter, printers devil
printer, merchant, justice of the peace
alderman, postmaster, postmaster-gen.
eral, private soldier, colonel, general
editor, author, humorist, musician, sci
enlist. philosopher, diplomat, states.
man, and philanthropist. In himself he
combined many of the qualities ant
achievements of Newton, Talleyrand
Addison, Swift Voltaire, Chatham
Wilberforce, Greeley, and Defoe. One
can sum up this extraordinary mar
with the simple statement that, "tried
by the arduous greatness of things
done" he thought more, said more
wrote more, and did more that was OF
enduring value than any man yet borr
of woman under the skies of free
America.
Mayor Josiah Quincy, of Boston
made brief address in which he said
that the achievements of Franklin were
such as to cause his memory to be
honored by not one or two cities, but
by the entire world.
The Unveiling.
The unveiling ceremonies in front OF
the postoffice on Chestnut street fol-
: lowed, the cord being drawn by Miss
! Margaret Hartman Bache, a descend
ant of Franklin.
Charles Emory Smith, postmaster
general, in making the address of pre-
, sentation, said: