THE ORATOR INTRODUCED BY THE CHAIRMAN After an instrumental interlude, Reinicke's Andantino for strings, by the orchestra, the chairman introduced the orator of the day, the Hon. Carroll D. Wright, in the following words: - The Honorable Carroll D. Wright, President of Clark College at Worcester, will render an itemized account of "Our Debt to Franklin "; and I present him as the orator of the day. OUR DEBT TO FRANKLIN ORATION BY THE HON. CARROLL D. WRIGHT There has been but one Benjamin Franklin, as there has been but one George Washington. These two names are, and ever will be, inseparably linked together in the affection and reverence of Americans, for they have been the two men of greatest renown of all America has yet produced. This can be said without disparagement of any of the great Revolutionary patriots, whose names we are glad to honor, and who placed this nation under lasting obligation. Or of those great men who, since the Revolution, have contributed so much to the development, expansion, and solidity of our republic. Yet Franklin and Washington cannot be compared. Their temperaments, their characteristics, and their services were not of the same order. The great field general and magnificent statesman is entitled par excellence to the proud title of "Father of his Country," but without the aid and the services of Franklin in entirely different fields, this grand title could not have been won. Shall we give Washington the first rank, or shall we couple Franklin with him on an equality? Each was the complement of the other; but for action, for being in the very position for which his great abilities and his unquestionable patriotism fitted him, Washington must ever stand first, and Franklin on a pedestal only a little below that of his great compeer. Many men of judgment have given him a place equal to that of Washington, and the estimates of his contemporaries and those coming after him, who have had the best opportunities for studying and analyzing his services, have placed him so near Washington that it is difficult, con sidering their varied characteristics, to name a rank exactly just in all respects. But we need not exercise our minds in this respect, for Franklin stands so high, occupies now the public mind in so great a measure, that Washington's fame is in no wise diminished by giving Franklin a place by his side. John Adams, who cannot be said to have been carried away by Franklin's peculiar nature and temperament, and who could not regard his associate in the great business he accomplished with entire equanimity, did not hesitate to write of him while in France: "Franklin's reputation was more universal than that of Leibnitz or Newton, Frederick or Voltaire, and his character more beloved and esteemed than any or all of them. His name was familiar to government and people, to kings, courtiers, nobility, clergy, and philosophers, as well as plebeians, to such a degree that there was scarcely a peasant or a citizen, a valet de chambre, coachman or footman, a lady's chambermaid or a scullion in a kitchen who was not familiar with it, and who did not consider him a friend to humankind. When they spoke of him they seemed to think he was to restore the golden age. And the great Chatham spoke of him as "One of whom all Europe ranks with our Boyles and Newtons, as an honor not to the English nation only, but to human nature." And Jefferson has borne the warmest testimony to Franklin's greatness, for he said in 1791: "I can only therefore testify in general that there appeared to me more respect and veneration attached to the character of Dr. Franklin in France than to that of any other person in the same country, foreign or native. I had opportunities of knowing particularly how far these sentiments were felt by the foreign ambassadors and ministers at the court of Versailles. I found the ministers of France equally impressed with the talents and integrity of Dr. Franklin. The Count de Vergennes particularly gave me repeated and unequivocal demonstrations of his entire confidence in him." And thus Jefferson, it seems to me, set at rest all queries as to the relations between Franklin and the Count de Vergennes. And at a later period, 1818, Jefferson again testified that mutual confidence was all which subsisted between Dr. Franklin and the government of France. |