Colonial Philadelphia
Historical Society

292 ST. JAMES PLACE, PHILADELPHIA, PA. 19106

• 215-923-5662

**President**
Harold S. Gilbert

**First Vice President**
Arthur Klein

**Second Vice President**
Arthur Milner

**Third Vice President**
Wilhelm Knauer, Jr., Esq.

**Recording Secretary**
Mrs. Irene Matthews

**Assistant Secretary**
Mrs. Ada Flowers

**Treasurer**
Joseph Ottaviano, Jr.

**Assistant Treasurer**
Miss Jeanne Giordano

**DIRECTORS**

David Auspitz
Mrs. Bette Austin
Mrs. Dolly Bellet
James E. Brunt
Miss Dorothy Byrd
Dr. Walter Edmunds
Mrs. George S. Garrett
Dr. Oscar Hankinson
Mrs. Thomas Lyons
Mrs. Florence Miller
Mrs. Dorothy Mullen
Milton Packer
Leo Riordan
Mrs. Mae Belle Segal
Mrs. Dorothea W. Sitley
David Stevens
Miss Eleanor Thompson
Miss Marion Watson
Richard J. Watson

**HONORARY DIRECTORS**

Dr. F. Bruce Baldwin, Jr.
Arnold Blumberg, Esq.
Chester Brooks
Hobart G. Cawood
Dr. John Lambert Cotter
William L. Day
Richardson Dilworth, Esq.
Joseph Eastwick
Leonard Elfreth
Saul J. Freedman
Dr. Nevin E. Funk
Robert Hamilton
J. Welles Henderson, Esq.
C. Jared Ingersoll
R. Sturgis Ingersoll, Esq.
Arthur C. Kaufmann
Philip Klein
Mrs. Philip Klein
E. George Lavino
Henry Magaziner
Mrs. Edwin C. Moore
William L. Rafsky
Dr. John C. Roak
Hon. Harold Saylor
Hon. Raymond Shafer
Governor Milton J. Shapp
Dr. Ezra Staples
Charles Tyson
Mrs. Henry M. Watts, Jr.
Dr. Kenneth D. Wells

**PAST PRESIDENTS**
Edwin C. Moore
Judge Edwin O. Lewis
Rev. Ernest A. Harding
Maureen Murdock
Sydney Jenkins
Charles Z. Klauder
Norman Smith

July 12, 1973

Dr. Henry Kissinger
The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Dr. Kissinger:

The judges thought this winning essay comparing you to Benjamin Franklin, the diplomat, so excellent they have suggested that we send it on to you.

It was written without reference material or notes at the Colonial Philadelphia Historical Society's 13th Annual History Youth Award Competition, a program to keep Colonial History alive in our high schools.

The 1973 question given the entrant to research prior to testing was "Compare Benjamin Franklin, as a diplomat with any living diplomat of your choice."

Contestants from more than 150 public, parochial and private high schools in Southeastern Pennsylvania competed for college grants-in-aid. Awards were given to 37 contestants.

We hope you enjoy the reading.

HG/es
enclosure (1)

215-923-5662

13th ANNUAL HISTORY YOUTH AWARD ACHIEVEMENT
___
ESSAY COMPETITION - 1973

TOPIC: Compare Benjamin Franklin as a diplomat with a diplomat of your choice today.

SECOND PRIZE WINNER: Kathleen Hughes
3429 Oakmont St.
Phila., Pa. 19136

Lincoln High School
Grade 12

When one glances back over the history of the world of the past two centuries, the most startling changes he at once notices are those taking place in the locations of world power and the trappings of the world. Since 1776, the axes of the major powers have shifted their balance from Europe to the Far East and the Western Hemisphere. Theories of diplomacy have changed accordingly, and this is in no small measure due to the advent of the nuclear age.

Empires have risen and fallen, and with them a special kind of diplomacy.

Despite this change in time and culture, it remains as true today as it did then that one man in every nation stands out far above his fellows. In the America of 1776, that man was Dr. Benjamin Franklin; in the America of 1973, at least in the field of Foreign Relations, that man is Dr. Henry Kissinger, a German-born Jew, is a man not wholly reconciled to the peculiarities of American

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President
Harold S. Gilbert

First Vice President
Arthur Klein

Second Vice President
Arthur Milner

Third Vice President
Wilhelm Knauer, Jr., Esq.

Recording Secretary
Mrs. Irene Matthews

Assistant Secretary
Mrs. Ada Flowers

Treasurer
Joseph Ottaviano, Jr.

Assistant Treasurer
Miss Jeanne Giordano

DIRECTORS

HONORARY DIRECTORS

Dr. F. Bruce Baldwin, Jr.
Arnold Blumberg, Esq.
Chester Brooks
Hobart G. Cawood
Dr. John Lambert Cotter
William L. Day
Richardson Dilworth, Esq.
Joseph Eastwick
Leonard Elfreth
Saul J. Freedman
Dr. Nevin E. Funk
Robert Hamilton
J. Welles Henderson, Esq.
C. Jared Ingersoll
R. Sturgis Ingersoll, Esq.
Arthur C. Kaufmann
Philip Klein
Mrs. Philip Klein
E. George Lavino
Henry Magaziner
Mrs. Edwin C. Moore
William L. Rafsky
Dr. John C. Roak
Hon. Harold Saylor
Hon. Raymond Shafer
Governor Milton J. Shapp
Dr. Ezra Staples
Charles Tyson
Mrs. Henry M. Watts, Jr.
Dr. Kenneth D. Wells
PAST PRESIDENTS
Edwin C. Moore
Judge Edwin O. Lewis
Rev. Ernest A. Harding
Maureen Murdock
Sydney Jenkins
Charles Z. Klauder
Norman Smith

Colonial Society

Page 2

life; Franklin was an American-born patriot, devoted to founding a nation of free men or giving his life in the process. Kissinger represents a nation with the most prosperous and powerful people in the world behind it; Franklin represented a group of upstart colonies which presumed to oppose an imperial power. Kissinger devotes his life to his particular area of specialization -- Foreign Affairs. Franklin was recognized as a man of innumerable talents; statesman, philosopher, scientist, to name a few. Nevertheless, a closer look into each man's personality and public service bears witness to several rather startling similarities.

Both Dr. Franklin and Dr. Kissinger have been acknowledged by their contemporaries as the most prominent and important diplomats of their days. Though this may be in some part attributed to their respective duties (each taking part in peace negotiations thought to be the most significant of their respective days), the personal weight which each man carried with him to the conference tables cannot be minimized. A Scotch agent named Dalrymple once hailed Benjamin Franklin as "the first genius of the age." Franklin was greatly admired throughout the European nations, even by his adversaries in England. In fact, during wartime, Edmund Burke referred to Franklin as "the Philosopher, my friend, and the lover of his species." Henry Kissinger's own contemporaries are no less congratulatory. He is usually regarded as "the most remarkable presidential adviser of his time", without a parallel in all of American history. His

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