Benjamin Franklin: “Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One”

Benjamin Franklin had many facets to his life, of which writing was only one. For most of his lifetime he was physically strong and fit. On sea voyages he would swim in the ocean, circumnavigating the ship on which he was sailing and taking the opportunity to observe sharks and other mysteries of the sea. He was an outdoorsman who had a vigorous life on city streets and in the countryside. But his writings outlived him, and it is through them that he is now best known. He valued clarity in his writing, which has resulted in some misunderstandings about his artistry. Some critics have foolishly insisted that he lacked a poetic sensibility or that he sacrificed art for plainness. A reading of his texts proves both charges to be incorrect. Instances of sharp, powerful metaphorical imagery may be found even in his essays of persuasion, and they are abundant in his writings about the friction between America and Great Britain as well as in those about his hopes for a unified America with a republican government emerging from the Revolutionary War.

Franklin did not always favor an independent America. For many years he was a Loyalist, urging the colonists to come to terms with Great Britain. By 1751 his views had shifted, as evidenced in his satirical essay “Exporting of Felons to the Colonies.” In the ensuing years, he worked as a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly and became deeply involved in Revolutionary-era politics. His essay “Rules by Which a Great Empire May Be Reduced to a Small One,” published in the journal Public Advertiser in September 1773, highlighted the grievances that would be fundamental to provoking the American Revolution.