Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1906-01-20
+ s +
A MODERN AMERICAN.

MODERN AMERICAN.
| Wednesday two continents celeb rate
the second centennial of the birth of Benjamin
much the son of France as of America and he
was as we'll known in England in New
England, prehaps better appreciated. Wher
Franklin threw his fortunes in with the fortunes
of revolution, King George himself was able
| to feel the loss of this man. where he could not
comprehend the loss of the colonies. And ir
France France, which has ever been able tc
appreciate dnring their lifetme-Franklir
was comprehended sympathetically during life
and at death was mourned not only as son
but as father of all that to which modern
France has remained steadfast, despite it's &C,
cidental vagaries.
Franklin does not then belong to us alone, not
in the way in which Jonathan Edward belonged
two years ago, not in the way in which Wash
ington will belong twenty-six years hence
But in essence he belongs to us, to this TWEEN
tieth centure America. than any other
man of the three centuries past. For Franklin
was the first modern American; he modern
to hsfnger tips; those fingers which held the
Clouds and whereby electric force was caught
and concentrated in the Declaration of Indepen-
dence. And as Franklin was, a and
consequence, the first cosmopolitan this
nation of cosmopolitonism has produced and
and the first "jingo" this nation of the soft word
and the big stick ever evolved.
In order to be the first modern American
it was necessary that he should not be Puritan
And Franklin, born in the very center and
stronghold of fine stiffest Pur;tanism, as
far from that state of mind, of spirit, as though
he had been born on the banks Of the Wabash.
Not even the temperamental substratnm of the
man puritan; he was not cavalier; it was
not as though he had been born in Virginia. 1t
was as though by some anticipation of fate he1
had been moulded to the likeness and the
necessities of the future. Insofar have
escaped that puritanism which certainly, in i
he early days. was Anericanism, SO far wei
nave become America. 1t is only within the
oast quarter of a century-and some of the
liminishment took place in that time-that we
nave escaped our thralldom, learned to think
Independently, unfettered by either the con-
luct or the mental prejudice of the old New
tngland1Sm, a splendid, stern, strong, out
auty morality and mentality.
Franklin seems to have comprehended
almost to have anticipated, modern day
He was municipal reformer centuries before
he American municipal league; he "thoughtl
nationally years before Hamilton thought at
al; he comprehended the world, when the
world a planet of very small scattered
places, with isolating oceans between themhe
was American, yet spent twenty-four of his
mature years in Europe, largely in France,
where he was force in the coming of the revolu-
ton as decidedly as he was i'll his home revolu-
ton; he was a lingo" before the word was
coined and he almost hung up the treaty of
1888, seeking greater results for the United
ing force which makes our modern world move
And he welded a journalistic pen with the
grace and the bite of his contemporaries, Add
son and Defoe, but with the trenchant, discover
ing force of modern journalism.
We pay Franklin great tribute tor certain
definite things he did-the Almanac, the
Declaration, lighting. French aid and the rest.
We shoule pay him greater tribute by acknow
Lodging that he belongs to our day, is more
sympathetic to it, more germane than any Of
the other men who established the republic
ST. Paul Dispatch