The sun., 1903-12-13
Ambassador Choate on Franklin.

We publish to-day most Of the inaug
ural address on BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
recently delivered by the Hon. JOSEPH
HODGES CHoATE at Birmingham. The
two or three reflections from good taste
which marred his otherwise admirable
Edinburgh address on LINCOLN, in 1900,
are not repeated. The temptation to a
jocose reference to Mr.. RoosEvELT's
strenuous -Malthusianism was ire
sistible; and with ali his blushing honors
thick upon him the American Ambassador
at the Court Of st. James's may be par
doned for recalling with humorous envy,
cloaked in modesty, Poor RICHARD at
Versailles, surrounded by three hundred
beauties crowning him with kisses and
laurels. Mr.. CHoATE gives rapid but
clear review of the character and career of
the greatest of American di iplomatists and
philosophers, dwelling with most detail
upon his life up to l775. Much of it comes
from the "Autobiography;' and Mr..
CAoATE's speech will do real service to
his countrymen il it sends them to that
book of wisdom, shrewdness, humor and
inexhaustible charm, and to the standard
biographies in which is given general
view of that long and varied apprentice
ship and mastership in craftsmanship,
science and the art of life.
Mr.. CHoATE did not avail himself for
the perhaps too obvious opportunity for
comparison between FRANKLIN and
LINCOLN. In sagacity. common sense.
humor, conciliatory spirit, they were not
unlike; and both educated themselves,
although FRANKLIN's cultivation was
much wider, and he may be said to have
been, without the loss Of any OF his native
homely tang, the first American .cosmo-
politan The fame OF his Poor Richard's e
Almanack, perhaps the best known and
most widely diffused piece OF American
literature. may have been little in
furious to FRANkL1N's reputation. The
canny and Phlistine side is only part
of him. He e.was as generous as he was
thrifty. He had the curiosity, the toler-
ance, the philanthropic and philosophic
spirit of the eighteenth century; and
France found genuine and practical in
him what was often fashion, affectation
or contagion in his French admirers. He
became the idol of a nation without los
ing any of his influence at home or re-
mitting his fruitful labors for his country;
and the French alliance, Indispensable
to the United States, was largely-in
Mr.. CHoATE's opinion chiefly to
"the skill and sagacity Of FRANKLIN
He had his personal social distractions,
after the manner of.the age. Something
of the enlightened and smiable heathen
peeps out from him, nor is the impress
sion wholly dispelled by his motion for
opening each days session of the Consti-
tutional Convention with prayer.
In spite of many recent efforts, WASH
INoToN does not become human to most
of u.s. even il he could swear He has
something of the demigod, the austere,
aloof, majestic, wooden, STUARTs pict-
ure may be to blame. Early impress
sions may be to blame. But FRANKLIN
is always hospitable, inviting, tranquil,
wise without being offensive, not too
good for human natures daily food.
Mr.. CHoATE's Birmingham address sum-
marizes excellently FRANKLIN's story;
and it prompts the reader to a fuller
acquaintance with the first famous
American.