Vital Statistics

Biography

Benjamin Franklin was the embodiment of American ingenuity and worldly wisdom. The oldest delegate at the Constitutional Convention, he was the elder statesman whose sagacity and humor often cooled heated tempers and forged crucial compromises. His speech on the final day, urging unanimous support for the Constitution, was a masterstroke of diplomacy from a man who had spent years charming kings and securing foreign support for the revolution. He was living proof that in America, a man could rise from humble beginnings to shape the destiny of the world.