Ben Franklin in His Own Words

NOV 01, 2004

Dudley Herschbach

King Wiemann (Physics Today, May 2004, page 18 ) objects to the view of Neal Lane (October 2003, page 41) that Ben Franklin would encourage scientists to become social activists. Instead, Wiemann asserts that Franklin, as a “self-made man,” would “argue that individuals are responsible for their own lives and accomplishments, unaided—and unfettered—by government.” Here are a couple of pertinent statements by Franklin himself. In 1783, Franklin wrote in a letter to Robert Morris, US finance minister:

All the property that is necessary to a man for the conservation of the individual and the propagation of the species is his natural right, which none can justly deprive him of: But all property superfluous to such purposes is the property of the public, who by their laws have created it, and who may therefore by other laws dispose of it, whenever the welfare of the public shall demand such disposition. He that does not like civil society on these terms, let him retire and live among savages.

In his will in 1790, explaining why he established a trust to encourage public service, Franklin wrote, “I wish to be useful even after my death, if possible, in forming and advancing other young men that may be serviceable to their country.

More about the authors

Dudley Herschbach, (herschbach@chemistry.harvard.edu) Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, US .