Compare Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson based on our readings and discussions in class.

Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson all had similar values and ideas about America concerning politics and its economy. They all also had a knack for getting people to follow them.

Benjamin Franklin, who had only died about 30 years before William Cullen Bryant wrote To Cole, the Painter, Departing for Europe, seemed to express different views about America vs. Europe in his letters. In a letter Franklin wrote to his grandson, he expressed how he wanted to return to America before his death but didn't think he would be able to. He seemed so passionate when writing about America. It was as if there was nothing better than America.

We also know that Franklin was very involved in politics and economics. He is one of the first people we read about who was very concerned with money and how it affected status and politics. Obviously wealth affects status in at least some aspect.

"Declaration of Independence" - This idealized dep...

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Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson...

Whether the wealth was measured by money or by land, it defined social class. Only people of the upper class took part in politics.

Franklin was one of America's founding fathers. He helped write the Declaration of Independence, which we still abide by today, over 200 years later. Benjamin Franklin listed 13 virtues with their precepts in one of his documents. He listed these to make sure he abided by all of them and just these 13. One of the precepts was 'order'. He expanded on this by making a schedule of how his business and his life should run. It listed what should be done for the day, including when he should eat and sleep. He was definitely ahead of his time and set the standards for Americans today.

Thomas Paine instilled his ideas onto others in Common Sense. He starts...