Michael Warner: Representational Politics of Benjamin Franklin (Essay Sample)

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Michael Warner: Representational Politics of Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin was easily the most prominent American during his day. He lived by wisdom and wrote extensively. He was well known as an inventor, a scientist, a printer, an economist, a musician, and a political leader. Franklin was among the United States’ founding fathers and was “the First American” in a number of ways. For many years, Franklin served as the British postmaster for the protectorates. This enabled him to establish the first communications network across America. He was energetic and active in community matters, state and colonial politics, national politics, as well as international affairs (Jolly 354). Franklin served as the Pennsylvania governor from 1758 to 1788. He believed in equality and freedom of all men and freed his slaves, which made him one of the most legendary abolitionists.
According to Warner, the career of Benjamin Franklin as a Republican revolved around an inevitable difficulty. While the task of a statesman was to symbolize legitimate power, republicanism’s task was to take away power from the individual (Warner 357). Therefore, the Republican statesman became a contradiction with respect to the Republican principles. He became an embodiment of something that, by its very definition, was not possible to embody. Critics may ask whether Franklin was the Ideal American. In addition, an objection may be raised that Franklin was never a member of the American elite. In this regard, he could not have been among the elites since the culture of the elite trumpeted the ideals of the common person. This objection, however, can be dealt with swiftly. In Warner’s case, ideal is looked at from the perspective of “representative” in the sense of an example to be desired.
A completely opposed disagreement is that Franklin was never ideal since he was a non-heroic figure. He had no resplendent military exploits and his famous spectacles gave him a more shopkeeper look than that of a national helmsman. However, it is perhaps for this reason that he was viewed as a good example by the common people who aspired to achieve as Franklin did. Franklin was the first to make a career wholly out of letters. All the prior figures that had been viewed as men of letters such as Cotton, Edwards, Mathers, and Taylor attained their eminence in oral setting through preaching. It is only with Franklin that this was never the case (Warner 361). Having faced considerable challenges as a young adult, he overcame them through hard work, creativity, and intellectual curiosity. In this regard, Franklin is, without a doubt, a more representative model of the American culture. In addition, Franklin is a powerful exemplar because he was a “fresh and new” man, in terms of both his ascent to the realms of power, as well as the fact that America itself was also new at the time. Benjamin Franklin’s world, Britain’s North American colonies, was a new and young social organism completely devoid of social distinctions.
When Alexis de Tocqueville, a French nobleman, visited the young American republic in the 1830s, he was mesmerized by the homogeny of the society. The only peculiarity he observed was that of gender and race. Of course, the Revolutionary War greatly altered the American world. However, from the beginning, the North American colonies proved more democratic and open than their parent European society. Franklin’s career placed him in a situation where it was possible to arbitrate political struggles by appealing to the rational and neutral ground of public representation (Warner 362). He called for citizens to exercise civic virtue through giving priority to common good and not individual interest. Franklin enjoyed a brisk rise to public prominence. His freethinking ways matched his tolerant religious culture. Franklin was famous for the calculating rationality he depicted. His rationality has been taken to make him a symbol of his historical moment (Warner 365). However, not all of Franklin’s successes can be attributed to his public image.
Franklin was a talented person. Alongside his printing business, he seeded printing enterprises in cities with contracts for joint profits, but with provisions for buyouts...