Using history: Americans and Benjamin Franklin, 1790-1845.

Abstract

This dissertation examines representative Americans' uses of Franklin's image, 1790-1845, and the transformation of the image from that of the multi-dimensional actor of 1706-1790 to the one-dimensional capitalist of Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1904-5). In order to establish the state of Franklin's reputation among different groups, the dissertation draws on the accounts of foreign travelers in America, the edition histories of Franklin's writings, tavern and other business signs, cartoons, fire company paraphernalia, and pamphlets, periodicals, and newspapers known to have enjoyed wide circulation at the time. Part One of the dissertation examines activities of Franklin that disturbed pseudo-aristocratic Anglo-Americans from 1774 to 1790, including his association with the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776, his kindness to children and servants, and his late-life relations with the Library Company, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Pennsylvania Hospital. His bequests to the Library Company and Hospital are discussed; and Philadelphians' reactions to them are traced through the remainder of the dissertation. Part Two traces Franklin's popularity as well as fashionable dislike of him from 1790 to 1865. Before 1794, the subtlety of fashionable criticism evinced politic respect for, if displeasure with, Franklin's popularity among the middling and lower sorts, who valued Franklin as an advocate of their economic and political independence. From 1794 to 1800 aristocratic fear of democracy and the French Revolution resulted in blatant attacks against Franklin entangled with hysterical fear of spelling reform, powerful women, illicit sex, and emasculation. After losing national political power in 1800, aristocratic Americans once more muted--in some cases abandoning, in some not--their dislike of Franklin. With the establishment of the Franklin Institute (1824), representative heirs of Franklin's first enemies joined his advocates in promoting Franklin as a role-model for efficient, time- and money-conscious, but dependent industrial workers, who were in increasing demand as the nation began to industrialize. Subsequently, workers who sought to stand on their own avoided invoking Franklin's image as they formed the first Working Men's Party, in effect abandoning Franklin to their adversaries.