John Winthrop and Benjamin Franklin both played pivotal roles in their structuring government, yet were very different in their philosophical views. Winthrop, a Puritan, founded his ideals based on a firm belief in one almighty God. Whereas Franklin, also a believer in a supreme being, founded his ideals on a more scientific ideal. Both men had different visions of government, along with a different view of humanity.
Franklin agreed and signed the Declaration of Independence that stated, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” This statement solidifies the right to work
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He displays this thought process when twisting words that a store owner should not pass losses on to customers when he remarks,“That, as a man may take the advantage of his own skill or ability, so he may of another's ignorance or necessity.“ Along with the man’s claim that if he lost goods at sea, he should be able to charge more for goods he still had to make up for the loss. Winthrop felt that this causes oppression to the people and was unfair. Whereas, the store owner was of better stature than many in the town, he should not offset his loss by charging more to his customer. He was beholden to the idea that the more fortunate should help the less fortunate. Winthrop’s vision was for an equality among people. in opposition to this ideal, Benjamin Franklin expressed that people had different skills, and if they so chose could work as hard as they wanted to make the life they envisioned for themselves. Franklin also identified that people needed to be able to have this freedom, whereas for the most part, they would do good with it not only themselves, additionally others. Therefore, not only helping the community grow, as well as personal satisfaction of taking pride in their work. Thus, inspiring others, along with bringing natural leaders to the forefront for offices. Hamilton perceived the need to keep the people under control, and in a perfect world convert them all to believers in God. While Franklin was more of a free, independent thinker, thus wanting to put more power in the peoples hands. Both men had those who admired and followed them. To this day, our country still struggles with electing those to office who want less or more
Winthrop’s use of imperative language here further solidifies the idea that he is not a zealous fanatic, but someone
He affirmed that people could be ethical without having a religion or believing in God. Franklin’s philosophies general followed the principles of what became known as “The Age of Enlightenment. He based his philosophy on the belief that man had the ability to think for themselves and the power to do good for mankind and use their talents for the betterment of all.He concluded that people could build their societies without being told how and what to do by one government that ruled all. While Franklin was certain that there was a higher power, he also accredited man, with the capabilities of securing his own happiness through self discipline and hard work. Franklin defended freedom of religion and that the basics of most religions were to do good to others. Therefore, at some point on earth or in the hereafter, those who sought the route of crime would be punished. Thus, he respected all religions as he concludes,” These I esteemed the essentials of every religion; and, being to be found in all the religions we had in our country, I respected them
In these speeches that both great minds gave there is some things that are alike then there's some differences . Some likes and differences are obvious and others are really hard to figure out. For some who have trouble paying attention, listening to the speeches it’s harder for them and for those who can listen to it over and over again and still understand it , it's easy for them. Then there's those who try to pay attention because they are important to the history of Americans, but just can't pay attention so they are a little of both problems.
It is easy to see Benjamin Franklin was no doubt an archetypal American. No one since him has ever had the same amount of success as him. He was a private businessman who made enough money to retire early and to spend the rest of his life in politics. Around this time period only the rich were able to retire early. He was industrious. Franklin continually put forth the idea of the industrious American. He had support from the middle-class who did not care if he was rich but he was a man who was self-made and worked hard. This American attitude was formed early and most of it by him. Franklin was also not judgmental came to decisions and conclusions as a businessman and politician. However, his attitude was non-judgmental with respect to a
On June of 1776, the Declaration of Independence was born. Drawn up by Thomas Jefferson and based on the works of John Locke, the general purpose of the document was to clarify that governments have conditional, not absolute authority over the people; that human beings possess natural rights that can’t be taken from them and government is created to protect those rights. The phrases “unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” and “all men are created equal” were the main theme of the social contract written for the small colonies of what would be the basis of the United States of America to declare independence from Great Britain and its tyrannical king. However, “unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” and “all men are created equal” did not apply to African Americans, enslaved or free for the coming years.
“Though I am still of opinion that it, was a practicable scheme, and might have been useful, by forming a good number of citizens: and I was not discouraged by the seeming magnitude of the undertaking as I have always thought that one man of tolerable abilities may work great changes and accomplish great affairs among mankind (pg. 106).” Benjamin Franklin is an archetypal American because everybody wants to be just like him. He wrote this book to show the right way to become the perfect American. Also, he wrote this autobiography to explain to his son and to other people about how to be the ideal American. Benjamin Franklin became a deism because it helped him become more open-minded. A deism is a person that believes that god created the
It is ironic how two men were both born during the same time period, in the same area, and had many similar ideas on one’s behavior, beliefs in God, and impacts on society; and they didn’t even know who they other person was! Both Ben Franklin and Jonathan Edwards were born in the eighteenth century, within three years of each other. They were both contemporaries and took time to write about themselves or their outlooks on life. They felt it was important to contribute to society and to share their ideas with others. Ben Franklin and Jonathan Edwards were similar and different in many ways, including their attitudes or perspectives on moral perfection, their beliefs in God, and their impacts on society throughout their life.
Some similarities that Henry and Franklin share are they both want to gain independence from New England. They both wanted to be free and have a united society. They both agree that they must speak out against England in order to gain independence like they want.
“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” - The Declaration of Independence
The affliction of vanity appears regularly throughout both pieces of work by Franklin and Woolman. The two men seem to be hampered by this vice of pride and wishing to possess humility. Benjamin Franklin addresses this burden of appearing vain as an issue and aims to improve himself with his constituted principles. He lists “Humility” as his last virtue he aspires to develop so as to “Imitate Jesus and Socrates” (Franklin, 79). How ironic of Franklin to want to be humble, yet strive for moral perfection! Franklin so much as prides himself on this list of virtues that heavily influences his life. However, he accordingly considers pride to be one of the most difficult to overcome considering one can “disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out and show itself...” (Franklin,
Lastly, while Franklin attempted to pass over political disorder, Paine seems to address it straight on, and often. Benjamin Franklin does not mention political issues in his letters, because of the fact thayy he likely wants to represent the beauty and good that is found in America. However, for Thomas Paine, the potential war and tension are at the heart of what he is writing for, which is the independence of the American Colonies (343). In his pamphlet Common Sense, Paine covers why America should separate from England and how they can thrive afterwards, creating the separation to be natural, practical and extremely logical (336-39). For example, he writes,
Billions of people all over the nation and world have heard of the ideal American vision to be defined as a perfect set of rules and regulations that provide the ideal conditions for living life. Though many people to this day may still argue their understanding of these idealistic views, there is an ideniable truth that it was two most influential figures in history from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Benjamin Franklin and John Winthrop, who helped shape this vision through their strong and very different opinionated perspectives. God’ role and form of government, social classes gradation, nature and moral laws, individualism or collectivism and virtues of success are all important aspects that have helped shape the American vision, in which also the opinions of Franklin and Winthrop stand divided between the leaders. Franklin emphasized the importance of the science and reason, which explains the structure of the world its affect of life on every nation. Winthrop presented his “a City on a hill” model, where everything depends on God’s will.” (The Puritan Vision Altered, John Winthrop, “A Model of Christian Charity”, 1630, pp. 6-7). Unlike Franklin’s democracy and liberty, he believed in state of brotherhood. However, Winthrop shares Franklins’ nature norms in relationship between people, but Winthrop also builds his vision
Franklin, himself climbed the ranks society “having emerged from the poverty and obscurity in which [he] was born and bred to a state of affluence and some degree of reputation in the world” (Franklin 27). He had been raised by a humble middle class family, not being promised much wealth or land, forcing him to make a name for himself. Franklin, a man of the enlightenment,
John Winthrop and John Adams and their respective works were heavily influenced by their times. Winthrop was a devout Puritan Christian that was escaping a persecuting king in the early to mid-seventeenth century. As a learned and religious man, he came to be the leader of this puritan sect that was to establish a society unlike any other, free from religious corruption that his fellow people saw in the Church of England, that would be a model community much like the “Citty upon a Hill” described in the bible. On the other hand, John Adams experienced the “tyranny” of the British monarchy in a contrasting way. This era was marked with worsened conditions for American colonists in terms of economic and social taxations. Their literary
One of the most famous quote people remember from the Declaration of Independence was, “ We hold these truths to be self- evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’ Adams persuaded the committee to select Thomas Jefferson to compose the original draft of the document, which Congress then would edit to create the final version. The Declaration was an explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare