Summary: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

In 1706, a young lad born in Boston, des­tined for great­ness, was one of 17 sib­lings and was pro­ject­ed to enter the cler­gy by his father, Josi­ah. How­ev­er, his fer­vor for read­ing and writ­ing steered him in anoth­er direc­tion. He depart­ed from his appren­tice­ship with his sib­ling, James, fol­low­ing a dis­agree­ment, and relo­cat­ed to Philadelphia.

There, he secured a job with Samuel Keimer, estab­lished con­nec­tions with influ­en­tial polit­i­cal fig­ures, and lat­er jour­neyed to Eng­land. He spent eigh­teen months labor­ing as a print­er along­side his asso­ciate, James Ralph, from whom he would even­tu­al­ly dis­tance him­self. Upon his return to Amer­i­ca in 1726, he found­ed a debat­ing soci­ety called the Jun­to. Just two years lat­er, he assumed con­trol of The Penn­syl­va­nia Gazette from Keimer, reshap­ing it into a suc­cess­ful pub­li­ca­tion with resources amassed from Lon­don. He wed­ded his child­hood sweet­heart, Deb­o­rah Read, in 1730 and they wel­comed two chil­dren. The first­born, William, came about a year lat­er and plays a cru­cial part in the ini­tial sec­tion of his account. Through­out the 1730s, he under­took var­i­ous minor roles pro­vid­ing print­ing ser­vices for the government.

This era marked the gen­e­sis of Poor Richard’s Almanac and his appoint­ment as Philadel­phi­a’s post­mas­ter. Addi­tion­al­ly, he devised the Franklin stove and con­tributed to mul­ti­ple civic projects includ­ing the estab­lish­ment of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia. He retired from print­ing in 1748, shift­ing his focus to sci­en­tif­ic exper­i­ments relat­ed to light­ning. By 1753, he had been bestowed with hon­orary degrees from esteemed uni­ver­si­ties and was appoint­ed Post­mas­ter Gen­er­al of Amer­i­ca. When con­flict erupt­ed between Eng­land and France, he played a piv­otal role in coor­di­nat­ing the war efforts and sug­gest­ing strate­gies to secure fund­ing for colo­nial defense. His account abrupt­ly ter­mi­nates in 1757, remain­ing unfin­ished. He endeav­ored to com­plete it on three sep­a­rate occa­sions in his life­time – 1771, 1783–83, and 1788 – yet his demise pre­vent­ed him from doing so.

 

Part 1 Section 1

The mem­oir com­mences with Ben­jamin Franklin com­pos­ing a let­ter to his son, William Franklin, who was then the roy­al gov­er­nor of New Jer­sey, dur­ing his sojourn in a quaint vil­lage rough­ly 50 miles south of Lon­don in 1771. He resolves to nar­rate his life tale to his son, reflect­ing on the fact that even though his life has been enjoy­able, there are minor errors he wish­es he could rec­ti­fy. Nev­er­the­less, since life can­not be rewound, he opts to rec­ol­lect it and express­es grat­i­tude to God for hav­ing led a ful­fill­ing life. Franklin delves into his fam­i­ly lin­eage, dis­clos­ing that he is the youngest of five sons, notwith­stand­ing hav­ing two younger sis­ters. He expounds on his ances­tors and shares some vers­es from his esteemed uncle Ben­jamin, to whom he owes his name­sake. The Franklins, he divulges, have always been a dynam­ic fam­i­ly, active­ly engaged in the Ref­or­ma­tion in Europe. He then intro­duces his par­ents. His father, Josi­ah Franklin, immi­grat­ed to Amer­i­ca from Eng­land in 1682 with his spouse and three chil­dren. He sired four more chil­dren with his first spouse and ten more with his sec­ond wife, Abi­ah, after the demise of the first. Ben­jamin, the fif­teenth of Josi­ah’s sev­en­teen off­spring, was born in Boston on Jan­u­ary 17, 1706. Ben­jam­in’s sib­lings were appren­ticed to var­i­ous trades, but he was sent to gram­mar school to pur­sue the clergy.

He ulti­mate­ly switched schools to ele­vate his writ­ing and arith­metic skills. Despite grap­pling with arith­metic, his forte lay in writ­ing. How­ev­er, at the age of ten, he dis­con­tin­ued school­ing to work with his father in the soap and can­dle-mak­ing trade. Around this time, he endeav­ored to con­struct a wharf using pur­loined quar­ry stones but was caught and penal­ized, assim­i­lat­ing that deceit leads to a dead end. Franklin revered his father, por­tray­ing him as a man of “sound under­stand­ing and sol­id judg­ment,” esteemed in their vicin­i­ty. He imbibed the art of debate from Josiah—a skill that would prove invalu­able in the days ahead. He laid his par­ents to rest in a notable Boston ceme­tery adja­cent to Boston Com­mon, where he also erect­ed a mon­u­ment hon­or­ing their mem­o­ry. Despite his dis­in­cli­na­tion towards his father’s craft, Ben­jamin was appren­ticed to his sib­ling James, a print­er, at twelve years old. This pro­fes­sion enabled him to indulge in his love for read­ing, par­tic­u­lar­ly rel­ish­ing works by John Bun­yan, Cot­ton Math­er, and Daniel Defoe. He bor­rowed copi­ous books from a local book mer­chant, refin­ing his writ­ing by emu­lat­ing the styles of pro­fes­sion­al writ­ers. He struck up a friend­ship with a “book­ish lad” named John Collins, nour­ish­ing their debate skills through writ­ten exchanges. Con­cur­rent­ly, Josi­ah aid­ed in hon­ing Ben­jam­in’s writ­ing, cul­mi­nat­ing in his acqui­si­tion of a copy of the British news­pa­per The Spec­ta­tor, which facil­i­tat­ed in learn­ing the “method in the arrange­ment of thoughts.”

Part 1 Section 2

In his youth, Franklin embraced pro­gres­sive con­cepts such as dab­bling in veg­e­tar­i­an­ism tem­porar­i­ly and har­bor­ing a grow­ing skep­ti­cism towards reli­gion. He endeav­ored to exhib­it less con­ceit after fac­ing crit­i­cism, striv­ing to engage in dis­cus­sions “with pre­tend­ed mod­esty.” In 1720, Franklin’s sib­ling James inau­gu­rat­ed the New Eng­land Courant, the sec­ond news­pa­per in Amer­i­ca. Franklin, who dis­trib­uted news­pa­pers for the Courant, assumed the helm when James was incar­cer­at­ed. How­ev­er, fol­low­ing a rift, Franklin resolved to step down, prompt­ing James to cau­tion oth­er print­ers in Boston against hir­ing him. This com­pelled Franklin to con­tem­plate relo­cat­ing for employ­ment. At the age of 17, Franklin clan­des­tine­ly depart­ed for New York City, but fail­ing to secure work there, pro­ceed­ed to Philadel­phia in search of poten­tial oppor­tu­ni­ties with a print­er named Andrew Brad­ford. His jour­ney was marked by a tem­pest where­in he res­cued an ine­bri­at­ed man from drown­ing. He final­ly reached Philadel­phia on Octo­ber 6, 1723.

There, Franklin secured lodg­ings through atten­dance at a Quak­er con­gre­ga­tion, yet was dis­heart­ened when Brad­ford could not offer him a job. Instead, Brad­ford intro­duced him to Keimer, anoth­er print­er in the city. Even­tu­al­ly, he took up res­i­dence with John Read, whose daugh­ter Deb­o­rah he would lat­er wed. Franklin com­menced min­gling with the young pop­u­lace of Philadel­phia and sus­tained cor­re­spon­dence with his com­rade Collins. Impressed by a com­pelling mis­sive from Franklin, Penn­syl­va­nia Gov­er­nor William Kei­th agreed to assist Franklin in estab­lish­ing a print­ing house. How­ev­er, Franklin’s father declined to pro­vide finan­cial sup­port dur­ing a sev­en-month jour­ney back to Boston. Franklin elect­ed to return to Philadel­phia, accom­pa­nied by Collins. Along the way, he encoun­tered chal­leng­ing inci­dents, met Gov­er­nor Bur­net of New York, and dis­cov­ered Collins’ strug­gle with alco­holism. A dis­pute ensued, lead­ing to Franklin push­ing Collins over­board, after which Collins opt­ed to sail for Bar­ba­dos, fail­ing to reim­burse Franklin the sum owed. Back in Philadel­phia, Franklin apprised Kei­th of his father’s ver­dict, and Kei­th resolved to finan­cial­ly endorse Franklin. Franklin then laid the ground­work for a sojourn to Eng­land to forge con­nec­tions in the book and sta­tionery sec­tor. He con­tin­ued labor­ing for Keimer, prac­ticed debate and veg­e­tar­i­an­ism, and ini­ti­at­ed a courtship with Miss Read. He also forged friend­ships with Charles Osborne, Joseph Wat­son, and James Ralph, form­ing a small set that rel­ished read­ing, writ­ing, and debat­ing. Franklin opt­ed to have Ralph accom­pa­ny him on his voy­age to England.

Part 1 Section 3

Dur­ing his jour­ney to Eng­land accom­pa­nied by James Ralph, Ben­jamin Franklin forms a bond with a Quak­er named Mr. Den­ham. Upon arriv­ing in Lon­don on the 24th of Decem­ber, 1724, Franklin dis­cov­ers that Kei­th had deceived him by not deliv­er­ing the promised let­ter of rec­om­men­da­tion. Mr. Den­ham advis­es Franklin to seek work at Palmer’s print­ing house, where he spends the fol­low­ing year. Through­out this peri­od, both Ralph and Franklin lose con­tact with their fam­i­lies and engage in a dar­ing lifestyle. Franklin devel­ops a friend­ship with Wilcox and they make plans for a small lend­ing library. He also pub­lish­es a brochure that catch­es the atten­tion of a renowned sur­geon, lead­ing to intro­duc­tions to influ­en­tial indi­vid­u­als in Lon­don. As for Ralph, he falls in love, relo­cates to rur­al areas, and starts teach­ing. Ten­sions arise in his friend­ship with Franklin due to his poet­ic pur­suits and mis­un­der­stand­ings with his girl­friend. Franklin’s com­pe­tence leads to a pro­mo­tion and salary increase. He moves to a new res­i­dence and enjoys the com­pa­ny of his landlady.

He even con­sid­ers open­ing a school for swim­ming. After eigh­teen months in Lon­don, he returns to Philadel­phia per­suad­ed by Mr. Den­ham. Upon his return, he finds Kei­th demot­ed and Keimer offer­ing him a man­age­r­i­al posi­tion. Ini­tial­ly declin­ing, Franklin accepts the job after Mr. Den­ham’s demise. Despite work­force depar­tures, he main­tains a pos­i­tive rela­tion­ship with those who remain. When Keimer attempts to cut his pay, Franklin resigns and decides to take over Keimer’s fail­ing print­ing busi­ness with his asso­ciate Mered­ith. Mean­while, Keimer relo­cates to New Jer­sey, offer­ing Franklin an oppor­tu­ni­ty to expand his con­nec­tions. Amidst his pro­fes­sion­al respon­si­bil­i­ties, Franklin embraces Deism and estab­lish­es a group called Jun­to for philo­soph­i­cal and moral con­ver­sa­tions. Franklin’s dili­gence saves his news­pa­per from finan­cial ruin, even­tu­al­ly lead­ing him to acquire Keimer’s strug­gling pub­li­ca­tion. He becomes the offi­cial print­er for the Penn­syl­va­nia Assem­bly and uses his earn­ings to set­tle his debts. Mered­ith leaves, and Franklin expands his enter­prise by hir­ing Cole­man and Grace. A gov­ern­ment debate on paper cur­ren­cy prompts Franklin to pub­lish a rel­e­vant brochure. His ser­vices are fur­ther uti­lized to print addi­tion­al gov­ern­ment mate­ri­als fol­low­ing the House­’s endorse­ment of paper cur­ren­cy. Con­tem­plat­ing mar­riage, Franklin weds his for­mer love, Miss Read, despite soci­etal crit­i­cism. Togeth­er, they launch the first sub­scrip­tion library in Amer­i­ca. Franklin tem­porar­i­ly halts his auto­bi­og­ra­phy to focus on the evolv­ing Amer­i­can Revolution.

Part 2

The sec­ond sec­tion begins with two let­ters addressed to Franklin. The ini­tial let­ter is from Mr. Abel James, offer­ing feed­back on Part One of the Auto­bi­og­ra­phy and Franklin’s pro­posed out­line for the remain­der of the work. Dat­ed 1782, James encour­ages Franklin to com­plete his auto­bi­og­ra­phy. The sec­ond let­ter, writ­ten by Ben­jamin Vaughn in Jan­u­ary 1783, also moti­vates Franklin to per­sist with his book, sug­gest­ing that it could inspire oth­ers seek­ing self-improve­ment once pub­lished. Vaughn argues that the pub­li­ca­tion of the Auto­bi­og­ra­phy could show­case the virtue and indus­try of the Amer­i­can peo­ple to the Eng­lish, high­light­ing Amer­i­ca’s eco­nom­ic poten­tial. At this point, Franklin is writ­ing from France, where he served as a diplo­mat post-Rev­o­lu­tion. He reflects on his past accom­plish­ments, par­tic­u­lar­ly the suc­cess­ful estab­lish­ment of a library in 1730. He men­tions import­ing books from Eng­land due to the lack of qual­i­ty book­stores in Philadel­phia, acknowl­edg­ing the role his library played in pro­mot­ing read­ing and famil­iar­iz­ing peo­ple with books. Despite these achieve­ments, Franklin mod­est­ly under­plays his con­tri­bu­tion to the library’s ini­tial suc­cess to pre­vent poten­tial resent­ment. Con­cur­rent with the library’s cre­ation, Franklin is build­ing a fam­i­ly with his wife, for­mer­ly Miss Read. He uses the library to enhance his own intel­lec­tu­al devel­op­ment while sup­port­ing his fam­i­ly through dili­gence and thrift. As a com­mit­ted Deist, Franklin respects all faiths and dis­ap­proves of reli­gious con­flicts. He refrains from pub­lic wor­ship and chal­lenges cer­tain Chris­t­ian inter­pre­ta­tions of morality.

Dri­ven by a con­tin­u­ous quest for self-improve­ment, Franklin embarks on the ambi­tious goal of attain­ing “Moral Per­fec­tion,” out­lin­ing a sequence of 13 virtues to cul­ti­vate: Mod­er­a­tion, Tran­quil­i­ty, Sin­cer­i­ty, Jus­tice, Clean­li­ness, Chasti­ty, Silence, Tem­per­ance, Humil­i­ty, Indus­try, Res­o­lu­tion, Fru­gal­i­ty, and Order. He designs a week­ly reg­i­men to mas­ter each virtue, track­ing his progress and set­backs in a small jour­nal, and estab­lish­es a dai­ly rou­tine to instill dis­ci­pline. Despite ini­tial chal­lenges, Franklin pro­gres­sive­ly cor­rects most flaws, although mas­ter­ing Order proves par­tic­u­lar­ly ardu­ous due to his sharp mem­o­ry. He acknowl­edges his inabil­i­ty to flaw­less­ly embody all virtues, con­clud­ing that “a speck­led axe is best… A kind man should accept a few faults to main­tain his friends’ dig­ni­ty.” While per­fec­tion eludes him, his pur­suit of these virtues enhances his hap­pi­ness. Franklin posits that his virtues should res­onate across diverse reli­gious beliefs, empha­siz­ing prac­ti­cal ben­e­fits rather than moral edicts. He reveals that Humil­i­ty was the final virtue added after crit­i­cism from friends regard­ing his arro­gance. To prac­tice humil­i­ty, he adopts less assertive lan­guage in con­ver­sa­tions, find­ing it improves his inter­ac­tions. Yet, he admits strug­gles in sup­press­ing his pride, humor­ous­ly not­ing becom­ing proud of his humil­i­ty. In 1784, Franklin tem­porar­i­ly sus­pend­ed his auto­bi­og­ra­phy, resum­ing writ­ing in Amer­i­ca four years lat­er in August 1788.

Part 3 Section 1

In August 1788, after a four-year hia­tus from writ­ing Part Two and 17 years since com­plet­ing Part One, Franklin returned to his work from his Amer­i­can abode. In 1731, he envi­sions an exclu­sive inter­na­tion­al polit­i­cal orga­ni­za­tion cen­tered on Virtue, acces­si­ble only to the wise. Craft­ing the par­ty’s prin­ci­ples, which encom­pass a suc­cinct com­pi­la­tion of the fun­da­men­tal tenets of all major reli­gions like belief in God’s omnipo­tence, per­pe­tu­ity, and exis­tence. Mem­bers would adhere to the thir­teen virtues from Part Two, reli­gious guide­lines, and com­mit to serv­ing human­i­ty. How­ev­er, due to time con­straints and oth­er oblig­a­tions, he aban­dons the plan. In 1732, Franklin estab­lished Poor Richard’s Almanac, a 25-year pub­li­ca­tion intend­ed to edu­cate and enter­tain the gen­er­al pop­u­lace. The almanac fea­tures pop­u­lar say­ings like “An emp­ty bag can­not stand upright.” His news­pa­per, The Penn­syl­va­nia Gazette, which accounts for over 50% of his income, serves a com­pa­ra­ble edu­ca­tion­al pur­pose. He dili­gent­ly upholds the paper’s integri­ty by exclud­ing per­son­al dis­putes and harm­ful con­tent. As he matures, Franklin engages with diverse polit­i­cal issues, advo­cat­ing for wom­en’s edu­ca­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly in finan­cial mat­ters. An avid learn­er, he acquires pro­fi­cien­cy in French, Ital­ian, Span­ish, and Latin, propos­ing Latin be taught after Eng­lish rather than direct­ly fol­low­ing it. He indulges in chess reg­u­lar­ly and ini­tial­ly sup­ports his local Pres­by­ter­ian con­gre­ga­tion, only to with­draw his back­ing upon dis­cov­er­ing the par­son­’s pla­gia­rized ser­mons. Franklin’s life is marked by chal­lenges, includ­ing the loss of his four-year-old child. Despite adver­si­ties, he revis­its Boston to rec­on­cile with his fam­i­ly and broth­er, James, offer­ing assis­tance with typesetting.

Back in Philadel­phia, Franklin’s debat­ing soci­ety, the Jun­to, stretch­es into var­i­ous loca­tions nation­wide. He car­ried on his typo­graph­ic work, act­ing as the Clerk of the Gen­er­al Assem­bly of Penn­syl­va­nia in 1736. By 1737, he assumed the role of Deputy Post­mas­ter of Philadel­phia, ensur­ing his Gazette was dis­patched. In 1753, he rose to the posi­tion of Post­mas­ter Gen­er­al. Franklin grad­u­al­ly shifts his focus toward soci­etal enhance­ment and pub­lic affairs. He sug­gests a land tax to bet­ter finance the police, pub­lish­es a pam­phlet on fire cau­sa­tion, and assists in estab­lish­ing Amer­i­ca’s pre­mier mod­ern fire depart­ment, the Union Fire Com­pa­ny. Devel­op­ing a rep­u­ta­tion in the 1730s, Franklin close­ly observes the Great Awak­en­ing, a spir­i­tu­al revival empha­siz­ing heart­felt involve­ment, spear­head­ed by cap­ti­vat­ing preach­ers like Jonathan Edwards. In 1739, after meet­ing the influ­en­tial Eng­lish preach­er, Rev. White­field, Franklin observed indi­vid­u­als’ tran­si­tion from reli­gious apa­thy to zealotry. Moved by White­field­’s com­pelling speech­es, Franklin gen­er­ous­ly donates to an orphan­age in Geor­gia, even though he pre­ferred its loca­tion in Philadel­phia. Nev­er­the­less, he cri­tiques White­field­’s lit­er­ary style.

part 3 section 2

As the years pass, Franklin’s pros­per­i­ty grows. His news­pa­per thrives, and his print shop in the Car­oli­nas pros­pers. Despite an ini­tial set­back, Franklin, with the assis­tance of the Jun­to, even­tu­al­ly estab­lished the “Acad­e­my” which lat­er evolved into the Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia in 1755. Con­cur­rent­ly, Franklin pro­duces a pam­phlet, Plain Truth, empha­siz­ing the colonies’ fee­ble defense and the imper­a­tive for uni­ty. A sys­tem of lot­ter­ies is devised to gen­er­ate funds for defense, though fundrais­ing proves chal­leng­ing due to the paci­fist Quak­er pop­u­la­tion. Franklin’s inge­nu­ity leads to the inven­tion of the stove in 1742, which he gra­cious­ly declines to patent. Sub­se­quent­ly, he assumes the role of Com­mis­sion­er of the Peace, then a mem­ber of the Penn­syl­va­nia Assem­bly. His duties include nego­ti­at­ing treaties with the Amer­i­can Indi­ans, and he express­es sor­row over the detri­men­tal effects of alco­hol on cer­tain tribes. Along­side his com­rade Thomas Bond, Franklin con­ceives the idea for a hos­pi­tal and drafts the bill for its financing.

He also pro­vides coun­sel on the con­struc­tion of a new Pres­by­ter­ian meet­ing house. His civic con­tri­bu­tions con­tin­ue with the estab­lish­ment of a street clean­ing ser­vice and a bill for city paving and illu­mi­na­tion. Franklin’s soci­etal endeav­ors gar­ner him hon­orary degrees from esteemed uni­ver­si­ties such as Har­vard and Yale. In 1754, amidst the impend­ing war between Eng­land and France, Franklin pre­sent­ed plans for colo­nial defense and gov­ern­men­tal struc­ture dur­ing times of con­flict. His under­tak­ings raise con­cerns with­in the Eng­lish gov­ern­ment regard­ing poten­tial colo­nial self-suf­fi­cien­cy, prompt­ing them to dis­patch reserve troops to Amer­i­ca. Franklin’s duties expand to coor­di­nat­ing the gath­er­ing of wag­ons for the war, amass­ing 150 in a fort­night. He then focus­es on ele­vat­ing troop spir­its through care pack­ages. Despite his admi­ra­tion for British Gen­er­als, he crit­i­cizes their severe treat­ment of Amer­i­can troops. Franklin also voic­es frus­tra­tion over the chal­lenges of obtain­ing reim­burse­ments from the mil­i­tary bureau­cra­cy, yet he per­sists in his role as a finan­cial com­mis­sion­er for mil­i­tary fund­ing, orga­niz­ing the mili­tia and fort con­struc­tion. Franklin’s ser­vices earn him the title of Colonel, which is lat­er revoked by the British. He sub­se­quent­ly shifts his focus to sup­ply­ing and main­tain­ing army provisions.

part 3 section 3

Franklin tran­si­tions from recount­ing his mil­i­tary escapades to delin­eat­ing his sci­en­tif­ic pur­suits. In 1746, he com­menced con­duct­ing sci­en­tif­ic exper­i­ments, grad­u­al­ly for­mu­lat­ing the then-ridiculed the­o­ry that thun­der­bolts and elec­tric­i­ty are syn­ony­mous. His pub­lished papers, includ­ing his renowned kite exper­i­ment, are trans­lat­ed into numer­ous lan­guages, pro­pelling him to inter­na­tion­al renown and earn­ing him a medal from the esteemed Roy­al Soci­ety. Dur­ing this peri­od, he forges a friend­ship with Pennsylvania’s new gov­er­nor, Capt. Den­ny. In 1756, the Penn­syl­va­nia Assem­bly appoint­ed Franklin as the Com­mis­sion­er to Eng­land, a posi­tion he secured pri­mar­i­ly due to his glob­al sci­en­tif­ic rep­u­ta­tion. His task entails advo­cat­ing for colo­nial rights with the Crown, fol­low­ing an Assem­bly peti­tion. Simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, he works towards enhanc­ing the colonies’ defense sys­tem while mon­i­tor­ing the war, which ulti­mate­ly favors the British. He also shares his per­spec­tives on var­i­ous mil­i­tary lead­ers. After numer­ous delays and addi­tion­al expens­es in New York, Franklin final­ly departs Amer­i­ca. Dur­ing the voy­age, he records his obser­va­tions on ship­build­ing and recounts a pur­suit by French war­ships. After briefly explor­ing the Eng­lish coun­try­side, he arrived in Lon­don on July 27, 1757.

part 4

Part Four suc­cinct­ly recounts Franklin’s 1757 vis­it to Lon­don and the sig­nif­i­cant events of that peri­od. He briefly encoun­ters his for­mer Eng­lish asso­ciates, yet his diplo­mat­ic endeav­ors are not entire­ly fruit­ful. The Pres­i­dent of the King’s Privy Coun­cil informs him, “The King is the leg­is­la­tor of the colonies,” dis­miss­ing Franklin’s pur­suit of colo­nial leg­isla­tive rights. Franklin argues for the impor­tance of colo­nial Assem­blies and their leg­isla­tive author­i­ty, but his argu­ments go unheed­ed. He per­ceives his treat­ment in meet­ings as dis­cour­te­ous, har­bor­ing resent­ment against the British diplo­mats. He finds him­self defend­ing Amer­i­can tax­a­tion laws in a British court, near­ly reach­ing a com­pro­mise. His return to Philadel­phia in 1762 was marked by the Assem­bly thank­ing him for advo­cat­ing colo­nial inter­ests in Britain. The writ­ing of the Auto­bi­og­ra­phy then halts, and Franklin pass­es away two years lat­er with­out com­plet­ing it.