I didn't want to steal any of Ben Franklin's!  Although I really like Silence Dogood.  "She" was great!

"Franklin was more "radical" when writing under a nom de plume than in his "signed" pieces. While this suggests that satirists used pseudonyms so they would not get caught, it also shows that, generally, satirists previous to Franklin provided an example for him to follow, such as Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope, in using pseudonyms that both hide one's own name while amplifying the personality of the writing."

'Cowardice' is not the only reason to use a nom de plume after all.