born Jan. 17, 1706, Boston, Mass.
died April 17, 1790, Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.
American statesman, scientist, philosopher, and publisher.
He was apprenticed at age 12 to his brother, a local printer. He taught himself to write effectively, and in 1723 he moved to Philadelphia, where he founded the Pennsylvania Gazette (173048) and wrote Poor Richard's Almanack (173257), whose proverbs and aphorisms emphasized prudence, industry, and honesty. He became prosperous and promoted public services in Philadelphia, including a library, a fire department, a hospital, an insurance company, and an academy that became the University of Pennsylvania . His inventions included the Franklin stove and bifocal spectacles, and his experiments in electricity led to the invention of the lightning rod. He served as a member of the colonial legislature (173651). He was a delegate to the Albany Congress (1754). He represented the colony in England in a dispute over land and taxes (175762); he returned there in 1764 as agent for several colonies. The issue of taxation gradually caused him to abandon his initial support for a unified colonial government under British rule. Believing that taxation ought to be the prerogative of the representative legislatures, he opposed the Stamp Act and helped secure its repeal. He served as a delegate to the second Continental Congress and as a member of the committee to draft the Declaration of Independence . In 1776 he went to France to seek aid for the American Revolution . Lionized by the French, he negotiated a treaty that provided loans and military support for the U.S. In 1781 he helped negotiate a preliminary peace treaty with Britain. As a member of the 1787 Constitutional Convention , he was instrumental in achieving adoption of the Constitution of the U.S. He is regarded as one of the most extraordinary and brilliant public servants in U.S. history.