“For Franklin, knowledge was important, but application of knowledge ... mattered to him as much as any pure science.”
Thomas Jefferson had an immense respect for Benjamin Franklin, who was nearly 37 years his senior. Franklin became one of the most respected Americans during the revolution and was, in a sense, pushed there by British arrogance.
Further Reading
The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin by H.W. Brands
The Illimitable Search for Truth
The Jefferson Watch
We must never stop reading and expanding and raising our consciousness. It was Benjamin Franklin’s final act of moral courage, when he was operating on a very thin fund of vitality, that made me turn my attention back to Jefferson, searching for parallels, and what I saw was complacency and self-interest, not moral courage.
What Would Jefferson Do?
“Their concern was to make sure that foreign individuals or foreign governments did not interfere in the American republic by way of giving lavish gifts”
Tune in to your local public radio or join the 1776 Club to hear this episode of What Would Thomas Jefferson Do?
This week, Clay Jenkinson discusses Jefferson’s first inaugural address with regular guest Lindsay Chervinsky. The speech, inaudibly delivered on March 4, 1801, is regarded as one of the top five in American history.
This week, Clay Jenkinson interviews frequent guest Beau Breslin of Skidmore College about the most famous decision in Supreme Court history.
Professor Beau Breslin of Skidmore College returns to the Thomas Jefferson Hour to talk about important passages that were edited out of key American documents of the Founding Era, including the famous anti-slavery passage of the Declaration of Independence.
This week's episode of the Thomas Jefferson Hour was recorded live at Radford University in Radford, Virginia in February 2023.