Biographer Marks Ben Franklin’s 300th Birthday

JEFFREY BROWN:

He was a scientist, inventor, writer, diplomat, civic leader, a drafter of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and the fellow who told us that early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. And that is just a partial list. Benjamin Franklin was born 300 years ago today.

And to help us mark the occasion we're joined by Walter Isaacson, president of the Aspen Institute and author of "Benjamin Franklin: An American Life." He joins us from Philadelphia. Mr. Isaacson, welcome.

WALTER ISAACSON:

Well, thanks for having me. It's fun to be here in Philadelphia where we're celebrating the birthday.

JEFFREY BROWN:

Among all of Franklin's doings and inventions you write in your book the most interesting thing that he invented and continually reinvented was himself. Characterize the man for us.

WALTER ISAACSON:

He was one of the first great self-made men. In fact, he helped make America a place where self-made people could flourish and enjoy. He walks up Market Street here in Philadelphia as a 17-year-old runaway, bedraggled and wet. And he decides he's going to make himself the most successful entrepreneur in America, a very ambitious guy. But he helps in doing so create the notion of an ambitious middle class, somebody who is proud to be hard working, proud to be a shopkeeper.

And, of course, then he writes his autobiography which is sort of a way to wealth, a how-to book, a how to succeed book. It doesn't really tell you about the real Ben Franklin but if you peel away the layers, you get to see the smiling founder underneath the layers that he paints of himself in that book

JEFFREY BROWN:

And how did he come by his curiosity or you used the word "ambition?"

WALTER ISAACSON:

You know, he was the tenth son of a Puritan. And he was going to his dad's tie to the Lord. They were going to send him to Harvard to study for the ministry. But he wasn't exactly cut for the cloth. In fact, he was a cheeky lad. So they decided not to send him to college. And he taught himself by pulling down the books on his older brother's print shop and publishing house bookshelf, Plutarch's Lives and Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" when he was age 15, the same books we were reading when we were 15.

JEFFREY BROWN:

Right.

WALTER ISAACSON:

He becomes this curious guy wanting to learn about everything from electricity to state craft. So not only is he a self-made man but he's a self-taught man and that's something we can take an inspiration from as well.

JEFFREY BROWN:

Is it possible to characterize his particular contribution to the founding of the country among all these great men and women at the time? What did he contribute?

WALTER ISAACSON:

He was the one who held everybody together. He was much older than the other founders here at Independence Hall, whether for the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. And when they would fight, when they would get into these partisan struggles, the big states versus the little states and stuff, he would tell tales and say when we were young tradesmen in the city of Philadelphia, and we needed a joint that would fit together, we'd take a little from one side and take a little from the other until we had it and it would fit together for centuries. And that's why we here at this Constitutional Convention must each part with some of our demands.

And his lesson was that compromises may not make great heroes but they do make great democracies. You need that to be a tolerant democracy.

JEFFREY BROWN:

And how was he seen in his own time?

WALTER ISAACSON:

Well, everybody was somewhat amused by him. He made his share of enemies and stuff as well. But he was a guy who was doing the heat of a constitutional convention or even the declaration. He lived a few blocks from here on Market Street. And he had this great mulberry tree in his backyard.

Under the shade of that mulberry tree he would let the passions cool down. He would have a drink or two with everybody. And he was seen as the convivial sort, the one who really liked to be around people and calm everybody down and get things done. He was very practical.

JEFFREY BROWN:

Now fast forward through the next few hundred years here. And it's always interesting how figures from the past go through a kind of myth and reality. And it's hard to separate the two sometimes. What have we gotten most wrong, let's say, about Ben Franklin?

WALTER ISAACSON:

Well, first of all he wasn't some doddering old fool flying a kite in the rain. He was the best scientist of the 18th century. He was able to come up with a single fluid theory of electricity which was to that century what Newton's Theory of Gravity was to the century before.

He also was, you know, he was made of flesh and blood. We think of the founders as being marble up there on pedestals. He was a guy who had some, you know, sins of the flesh. And he wasn't very good to his family. And in some ways that makes him more human. We realize that can relate to him. He winks at us.

JEFFREY BROWN:

That's another line that you use in your book. You said that Benjamin Franklin is the founding father who winks at us. What do you mean by that? What does he say to us?

WALTER ISAACSON:

Well, you know, we can relate to him. He's the one who tells us to be sensible and to be calm. You know, I just left New Orleans this morning to come up here to Philadelphia — my native city of New Orleans. I love that city. As you may know, you know, the mayor, Mayor Ray Nagin down there who is actually a good, decent sort, but he stepped into it badly by saying things about God is mad at this country and about blacks and whites and stuff like that.

And they used to ask Ben Franklin what he thought God thought about all this. He said, you know, the Good Lord is very inscrutable but the one thing I know about the Good Lord is that made all of these creatures so He must have loved them all. And the best way we can serve the Lord is by being friendly to our neighbors, trying to serve all of God's creatures, trying to help our fellow man, trying to hand each other along on the way and trying to be tolerant of each person around us.

And I think that's a lesson we need to learn whether it's the racial lessons here in this country or it's what we're fighting for in this world, a sense of tribal and religious tolerance and a sense that maybe we shouldn't be so arrogant to think we know exactly what God is saying but that we should try to serve the Lord by helping our fellow man.

JEFFREY BROWN:

Let me just ask you finally briefly a lot of people have seen Ben Franklin as the most contemporary of the founding fathers, a guy who would fit in to our own time. Do you agree and what would he be doing now?

WALTER ISAACSON:

Well, first of all, he'd be showing you his new BlackBerry and you'd be showing him a trio because he loved wonderful gadgets. He was a great inventor; he was very technologically advanced. He believed in figuring out business plans or how you could make some new technology work. So I suspect he would be sort of publishing his own Web site; he would be enjoying the new technology.

This is why we relate to him. He was sort of a middle class ambitious entrepreneur. And in that way and in that tolerant way about religion when he was tolerant of all different sorts of people, he is a bit what our times try to be or sometimes are, or at least we can see ourselves in the mirror when we look at Ben Franklin.

JEFFREY BROWN:

All right. Happy birthday, Mr. Franklin; and Walter Isaacson, thanks for helping us out.

WALTER ISAACSON:

Thank you.