Enlightenment & Revolutions
Benjamin Franklin
1706–1790 · Self-government
A republic, if you can keep it.
In their words
“Those who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary Safety deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
Printer, scientist and diplomat, Franklin built voluntary institutions, a library, a fire company, an insurance office and a university, on the principle that people should not wait for a crown to solve their problems. He wrote that those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither, and he left the Constitutional Convention telling the crowd it had a republic, if it could keep it.
Why it matters for freedom
He named the trade every government offers and the reason to refuse it.
Who they stood against
the Penn proprietors, the crown, and the panic that buys safety with obedience