Ben Franklin: The Prince of America.

Ben Franklin: The Prince of America

He started out working class. As he got older he became in charge of a printing shop. As a successful business owner, he branched out into different partnerships. One such was with a journeymen, whom he sent to Charleston, South Carolina. That journeyman wasn’t a dishonest man, just lousy at book-keeping. So he almost ran the Charleston branch into the ground. After the journeyman’s death, the wife took over the Charleston branch until the son was old enough to assume control. The widow completely turned the business around while teaching her son how to man it. From this Ben Franklin saw the need to educate women beyond music or dancing, saying “ By preserving them from losses by imposition of crafty men, and enabling them to continue perhaps a profitable mercantile house with established Correspondence till a son is grown up to fit to undertake and go on with it, to the lasting enrichment of the family.”

From there Ben Franklin, with the help of his organizations and deal making, established what would become the University of Pennsylvania. He established the first public library in 1731. Then in 1736 he organized the Philadelphia Union Fire company, modeled after the Fire Company in Boston. Then, seeing that the city needed a well armed militia, he went on and established that too. ( With the help of his organizations.) He even went to the New York Colony and talked to the governor there about securing cannons for the defense of Philadelphia, and at first the governor said no. Then after much drinking and talking, he managed to get the governor to send eighteen cannons to help the newly formed militia. The militia, rightly looking up to Ben Franklin, quickly made him a colonel and in command of the militia. Ben Franklin, rightly knowing his abilities and limitations, took the position in name only but often tried to find other men better suited to the tasks of military leadership. He was no military expert and he knew it. Some men might think him a coward, saying he was afraid of military service. But he was no coward. When it was his turn for guard duty, he stood guard with the common soldiers when it was his duty to do so.

During the French and Indian Wars, he saw that the British army was unprepared. He knew that they could be ruthless. So instead he struck a deal with the military commander of the British army. The locals would get paid for their wagons and would get jobs in the supply chain of the British arm, hauling supplies around in their wagons for the British army, and in return they would not loot the locals.

By this time his reputation was known throughout the colonies as a great man concerned with the common man. He lived his life in service of the colonies as a whole. And many saw this. During the French and Indian Wars, while being escorted North by the Calvary, all the Calvary Riders rode with their swords out, an honor reserved for members of the royal bloodline. No one, not governors or anyone of importance in the administrative affairs of the colonies, ever received such a high honor as this. And it was because no one was as important as Ben Franklin to the colonies. He was our prince.

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In 2021, I recorded my Army memoirs in a nine-part podcast series for YouTube. I had a beer or two, turned on the mic, and just told stories. It was called "Late to Formation," which sums up my military career nicely. I took the transcript of it and was going to adapt it for the blog and paperback. It was...not my best work. But the potential for my best work was in that first rough draft. So, I'm going through and rewriting each chapter, starting with Basic Combat Training. Once they're all rewritten, I'll record each chapter again. Currently I have the first two chapters remastered. I'm thinking of calling it, "(STILL) Late to Formation."

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