mber of the Assembly, to which office he is
elected ten consecutive years.

Although he was not an orator, no man wielded more influence over the
legislative department than did Franklin. As is well-known, he invented
the celebrated Franklin Stove, which proved so economical, and for
which he refused a patent. For years he entertained the theory that
galvanic electricity, and that which produced lightning and thunder were
identical; but it was not until 1752 that he demonstrated the truth by
an original but ingenious contrivance attached to a kite, and to
Franklin we owe the honor of inventing the lightning rod, but not its
abuse which has caused such widespread animosity to that valuable
instrument of self-preservation.

These discoveries made the name of Franklin respected throughout the
scientific world. Forever after this period, during his life, he was
connected with national affairs. At one time he was offered a commission
as General in the Provincial Army, but distrusting his military
qualifications he unequivocally declined. Sir Humphrey Davy said:
"Franklin seeks rather to make philosophy a useful inmate and servant in
the common habitations of man, than to preserve her merely as an object
for admiration in temples and palaces." While it is said of him by some
that he always had a keen eye to his own interests all are forced to add
he ever had a benevolent concern for the public welfare.

The burdens bearing so heavily upon the colonies: Pennsylvania,
Maryland, Georgia, and Massachusetts, appointed Franklin as their agent
to the mother-country. Arriving in London in 1757, despite his mission,
honors awaited him at every turn. There he associated with the greatest
men of his time, and the universities of Edinburgh and Oxford honored
him with the title of L.L.D. and the poor journeyman printer of a few
years before, associated with princes and kings. At the end of five
years he returned to America, and in 1762 received the official thanks
of the Assembly. Two years later he was again sent to England, and he
opposed the obnoxious stamp act, and where he carried himself with
decorum and great ability before the entire nobility. Upon his return to
America he was made a member of the Assembly the day he landed, where he
exerted his whole influence for a Declaration of Independence, and soon
after had the pleasure of signing such a document.

In 1776 Congress sent him to France, where he became one of the greatest