Benjamin Franklin, next to George Washington possibly the most famous 18th-century
American, by 1757 had made a small fortune, established the Poor Richard of his almanacs
(written under the pseudonym Richard Saunders) as an oracle on how to get ahead in the
world, and become widely known in European scientific circles for his reports of electrical
experiments and theories. What is more, he was then just at the beginning of a long career
as a politician, in the course of which he would be chief spokesman for the British colonies
in their debates with the king's ministers about self-government and would have a hand in
the writing of the Declaration of Independence, the securing of financial and military aid
from France during the American Revolution, the negotiation of the treaty by which Great
Britain recognized its former 13 colonies as a sovereign nation, and the framing of the
Constitution, which for two centuries has been the fundamental law of the United States of
America.