The Impact Of Benjamin Franklin's Impact On America

Benjamin Franklin was a true citizen of the Atlantic World. Even though born and bred in the American colonies, he lived his life on a global scale. From speaking before Parliament to wooing the French court, to opening America’s first library; Franklin went everywhere and did everything. Just as Franklin influenced the world, the world influenced Franklin in return. However, just like the Atlantic world influenced the First American, it too had great impacts on America herself. The connection between Europe and the early Anglo-American colonies influenced how America’s political system formed, from its beginnings in the earliest colonies, to the evolution of America’s unique brand of politics and the completion of America’s political system

By the 18th century, England had changed hands from the Catholics to the Protestants and Parliament reigned supreme under the English Bill of Rights, following the Glorious Revolution in 1688. Representative assemblies in America followed the lead of the English Whigs and restricted the power of the crown’s officers. Assemblies in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and New Jersey ignored the king’s instructions and slowly took control of taxation and official appointments. The political system in America became increasingly responsive to popular pressure and less under British control; in Boston when officials restricted the selling of produce to one market stall, crowds destroyed buildings in protest. America continued to gain more and more autonomy as the 18th century wore on and before long actions of the British Empire, like the Stamp Act and Townshend Act, fed a growing revolutionary ideal. In a letter to an English noble, Lord Howe, Benjamin Franklin expressed his sorrow with how events had played out. Franklin had tried to preserve the British Empire with “ unfeigned and unwearied Zeal” but there is a breaking point in all things, and when America hit hers the fires of rebellion sprang forth and an independent American government was forged. Inspired by

For the new country of America, the early 1800s were a time of political and economic uncertainty. They saw the rise of two political parties, the Federalists led by Alexander Hamilton and the Democratic-Republicans led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. As a new nation still unsure of its ability to govern and provide for itself, political parties where a terrifying idea. Parties spoke of disagreement, which spoke of dysfunction and possible implosion and failure. America had not yet finished solidifying itself into an independent nation and with dissenting political parties and an economy stuck in the colonial stage, a lot of raw materials and importing with little actual manufacturing of goods, there was a real chance that Britain could reclaimed its colonies at the turn of the 19th century. Although Britain had naught to do directly with the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans both parties lived in fear that the other would bring about the end of the fledgling nation, either on purpose or inadvertently. Perhaps the other side would make some bad economic or diplomatic moves and get them reabsorbed by the British Empire. It didn’t help relations between the two parties that neither considered the other as a legitimate claimant to political power. The French Revolution fueled