Franklin

[The Gipper]

Benjamin Franklin’s politics came into play during the revolution when he became very active in politics during this time period and there are many reasons why people listened to what he had to say. 

Franklin believed that citizens need to be able to support themselves because society can’t function with people benefiting off others.  Franklin believed that money is a good thing because it is a reward for your hard work.  Franklin believed that the individual and businesses needs to make their own decisions, an example of this is “Commerce, consisting in a mutual exchange of the necessaries and conveniences of life, the more free and unrestricted it is, the more it flourishes, and the happier are all the Nations concerned in it” Franklin 1783.  People living in the colonies in this time period listened to Franklin because of phrases like this because England was regulating and taxing the colonies.

Franklin also had many ideas for the roles of government and how the government should affect citizen’s lives.  One key idea of Franklin was that all of the colonies need to unite and that nothing could be done without this.  Franklin did not believe that the government should tax their citizens for necessary items such as stamps.  Franklin directly opposed the stamp tax because he believed that it was an ineffective way for the government to collect money.  Franklin believed that a functioning society needs to be balanced and that an extreme is bad for the nation.  Franklin believed that you should be able to do almost anything to acquire money without breaking the laws but he thought that going to war over money is foolish.