The Omnivorous Reader

Follow the Money

Ben Franklin’s blueprint for America

By Stephen e. Smith

How is it possible that Ken Burns’ recent fourhour Ben Franklin documentary received ho-hum reviews? Have PBS devotees grown too familiar with Burns’ still-life voice-over production style? Maybe. But the lackluster reviews are more likely the fault of the kite-flying, bifocaled purveyor of the bon mot, old Ben Franklin himself. He’s every American’s everyman, the most human of our Founding Fathers.

We grew up learning about Franklin, and most of us believe we know what needs to be known about the archetypal American Renaissance man. Historian Michael Meyer’s Benjamin Franklin’s Last Bet: The Favorite Founder’s Divisive Death, Enduring Afterlife, and Blueprint for American Prosperity is a timely reminder that there is still much to learn about the influence Franklin continues to wield in 21st century America.

When he died in 1790 at the age of 84, Franklin was not universally mourned by his countrymen. Meyer reminds readers that George Washington and the Congress refused to acknowledge attempts by the French to express their condolences at Franklin’s passing, and John Adams had little good to say about his former diplomatic partner. Among his later detractors were Mark Twain, who wrote that Franklin “early prostituted his talents to the invention of maxims and aphorisms calculated to inflict suffering upon the rising generation of all subsequent ages”, and D.H. Lawrence reveled in revising and ridiculing Franklin’s 13 virtues.

Meyer’s primary focus is on the influence of Franklin’s last will and testament. William, Franklin’s first-born son who had sided with the British during the Revolution, was left worthless property and ephemera, and his daughter and grandchildren received gifts commensurate with the esteem in which he held them. But it was his “Codicil to Last Will and Testament,” a wordy but straightforward document, that morphed into a hydra-headed legal instrument that would vex administrators, the courts and politicians who attempted to oversee and control its ongoing disbursements.

Franklin established endowments for the cities of Philadelphia and Boston. “Having myself been bred to a manual art, printing, in my native town,” Franklin dictated, “and afterwards assisted to set up my business in Philadelphia by kind loans of money from two friends there, which was the foundation of my fortune, and of all the utility in life that may be ascribed to me, I wish to be useful even after my death, if possible, in forming and advancing other young men . . . .”

Franklin left each city £1,000, or about $133,000 in today’s dollars. The funds were intended to provide small loans to manual and industrial workers — cobblers, coopers, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, carpenters, etc. — to be repaid at 5 percent interest over a 10-year period. In addition to offering a helping hand for the socioeconomic class employed in manual labor, the funds’ underlying intention was to promote good citizenship. (“I have considered, that, among artisans, good apprentices are most likely to make good citizens,” Franklin wrote.) If the principal from the bequests were properly administered, the initial investment should have yielded billions in today’s dollars, making Franklin our first billionaire philanthropist.

So, what became of Franklin’s fortune, and where did his generosity lead us? Meyer follows the money, providing a decade-by-decade accounting of the funds’ expenditures while factoring in economic trends, poor oversight by fund managers, legal squabbles, political infighting, and losses incurred during national recessions and depressions.

All of which sounds incredibly boring. But be assured there’s nothing tedious about Meyer’s chronicle. What emerges is a lively and thoroughly researched social history of the country viewed through our evolving economic affluence and the increasingly litigious nature of American society.

The early ledgers read much like a personalized history of the country: “Turning the musty pages of each loan agreement can feel like reading an old swashbuckling story,” Meyer writes, “bringing the same sense of relief when the last line reveals that a character has made it through. Three cheers for the cabinetmaker Christopher Pigeon, who repaid his debt on time. And a compassionate wag of the head for Paul Revere’s son-in-law, one of only two Boston defaulters.”

Unfortunately, there was skullduggery aplenty in the management and disbursement of Franklin’s gifts. In 1838, Philadelphia’s Franklin Legacy treasurer John Thomason purchased Philadelphia

Gas Works stock with Franklin’s bequest, thus impeding the money’s growth and transforming the fund into a tool of corruption and patronage. In 1890, Franklin’s descendants were so aggrieved they felt compelled to file a suit claiming that his bequests should revert to their control.

Boston did not suffer a similar level of financial chicanery. In 1827, William Minot, who administered the fund for 50 years, deposited much of Franklin’s principal into Nathaniel Bowditch’s Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company to acquire interest, thus enabling Boston’s fund balance to surpass Philadelphia’s for the first time. Beantown never trailed again.

In the final analysis, Franklin’s bequests accomplished very little of their original intent. In the days before central banking, loans were difficult to administer in an equitable manner, and many of the later loans suffered default or were not repaid on time. By 1882, Philadelphia had only about $10,000 left in its fund. Franklin had failed to factor in even a single default, and he had no way of foretelling the emergence of liberal credit terms and the growing availability of loans charging less than 5 percent interest. In 1994, the entirety of Boston’s Franklin fund went to the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology. The Philadelphia Foundation continues to manage its Franklin Trust Funds for its original purpose.

At this moment of intense political division and national soul searching, Benjamin Franklin’s Last Bet is a timely reminder that we remain a generous people, and that philanthropy lives on in the hearts of ordinary Americans. The popularity of GoFundMe pages is the latest manifestation of our desire to help those in need, an example of the civic-mindedness exercised by the “good citizens” Franklin hoped to encourage. OH

Stephen E. Smith is a retired professor and the author of seven books of poetry and prose. He’s the recipient of the Poetry Northwest Young Poet’s Prize, the Zoe Kincaid Brockman Prize for poetry and four North Carolina Press Awards.

The Art of Living

INTRODUCING ALDERSGATE SQUARE

Building on our history of beauty and imagination, Arbor Acres is excited to announce Aldersgate Square, our newest residence rising from the center of this invigorating community. Around here, how we evolve our environment is how we renew the vitality of our mission, which means that a splendid home of comfort, convenience, and thoughtful amenities—with lovely views and spacious rooms—is just the start. Because living well is one thing, but living with purpose and passion, among friends in a rare and picturesque setting—this is life in all its shining brilliance. Arbor Acres is forever in a state of becoming—a place where creativity shines, where generosity thrives, where the art of living blooms.

For more information on Aldersgate Square and other independent living options, please call (336) 724-7921.

Arbor Acres is a Continuing Care Retirement Community a liated with the Western NC Conference of the United Methodist Church.

1240 Arbor Road, Winston-Salem, NC 27104 arboracres.org • (336) 724-7921

July Books

Compiled By Shannon purdy JoneS

It comes out of nowhere. You’re shuffling through the workday. Doing the dishes. In general, life is going well. But still there’s that tug. It pulls at the back corners of your mind — the urge to be somewhere else, someone else. That primal need for escape.

So we’re bringing you the summer’s best sci-fi releases to escape into. Some stand alone while others are continuations of series you’ll wish you’d started yesterday. All are guaranteed to transport you worlds away. A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers

From one of the foremost practitioners of hopeful sci-fi comes a story of kindness and love, the second volume of the USA Today–bestselling Monk and Robot series.

After touring the rural areas of Panga, Sibling Dex and robot Mosscap turn their attention to the villages and cities of the little moon they call home.

They hope to find the answers they seek, while making new friends, learning new concepts and experiencing the entropic nature of the universe. But in a world where people have what they want, does having more even matter? The Moonday Letters by Emmi Itäranta

A lyrical mystery wrapped in a love story that bends space, time, myth and science, it’s perfect for fans of Octavia Butler and Emily St. John Mandel.

Sol has disappeared. Their Earth-born wife, Lumi, sets out to find them. Told through letters and extracts, her search leads to underground environmental groups and a web of mystery. Lumi’s journey also takes her into Sol’s hidden past and longforgotten secrets of her own. In the end, The Moonday Letters is a love story between two individuals from very different worlds. Flying the COOP by Lucinda Roy

Lucinda Roy continues The Dreambird Chronicles, her explosive first foray into speculative fiction, with this sequel to The Freedom Race.

In the Disunited states, no person of color — especially not a girl whose body reimagines flight — is safe. A quest for Freedom has brought former Muleseed Jellybean “Ji-ji” Silapu to D.C., where, long ago, the most famous Dreamer of all time marched for the same cause.

Tiro and Afarra battle formidable ghosts of their own as the former U.S. capital controls the fate of all dreamers. The journeys the three friends take toward liberation will challenge the nature of reality itself. Upgrade by Blake Crouch

An ordinary man undergoes a startling transformation in the mind-blowing new thriller from The New York Times–bestselling author of Dark Matter.

Logan Ramsay can feel his brain . . . changing. His body, too. He’s becoming something other than himself. His DNA has been rewritten with a genetic-engineering breakthrough — one that could change the very definitions of humanity. And the battle to control this unfathomable power has already begun. Fevered Star by Rebecca Roanhorse

Return to The Meridian with New York Times–bestselling author Rebecca Roanhorse’s sequel to Black Sun — finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Lambda and Locus awards.

The great city of Tova is shattered. The sun is held within the smothering grip of the Crow God’s eclipse, but a comet that marks the death of a ruler and heralds the rise of a new order is imminent.

Sea captain Xiala, swept up in currents of change, finds an unexpected ally in the former Priest of Knives. For Tova Clan Matriarchs, tense alliances form as far-flung enemies gather and the war in the heavens reflects upon the Earth. OH

Shannon Purdy Jones is co-owner of Scuppernong Books.