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Society for Historians of the Early American Republic Benjamin Franklin in American Thought and Culture, 1790-1990 by Nian-Sheng Huang Review by: J. A. Leo Lemay Journal of the Early Republic, Vol. 15, No. 2 (Summer, 1995), pp. 310-312 Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press on behalf of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3123916 . Accessed: 14/06/2014 19:21 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . University of Pennsylvania Press and Society for Historians of the Early American Republic are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the Early Republic. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 185.2.32.106 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 19:21:58 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Benjamin Franklin in American Thought and Culture, 1790-1990by Nian-Sheng Huang

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Society for Historians of the Early American Republic

Benjamin Franklin in American Thought and Culture, 1790-1990 by Nian-Sheng HuangReview by: J. A. Leo LemayJournal of the Early Republic, Vol. 15, No. 2 (Summer, 1995), pp. 310-312Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press on behalf of the Society for Historians of the EarlyAmerican RepublicStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3123916 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 19:21

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

University of Pennsylvania Press and Society for Historians of the Early American Republic are collaboratingwith JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the Early Republic.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.106 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 19:21:58 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

JOURNAL OF THE EARLY REPUBLIC JOURNAL OF THE EARLY REPUBLIC

and shows that the application of its authority to review legislation for constitutionality generated more appreciation than opposition, as America's most democratic society came to recognize the limits of popular influence. Although Rowe's historical background of judicial review as illustrated by Sir Edward Coke and James Otis is incorrect, his examination of its emergence and acceptance in early republican Pennsylvania is an important contribution.

Embattled Bench is marred, however, by an odd narrowness of fo- cus that removes it from some of the other major political and legal battles of its day. Presented more as backdrop, the Paxton affair and the Whiskey Rebellion are not well integrated into the frontier vio- lence that so embroiled the courts and their personnel. The political history of this court, which is the strength of the book, would have benefited by some reflection on the connection of those events-in-

cluding their social dimensions-to the tribulations of Rowe's court. For a book that is concerned with the role of the judiciary in demo- cratic culture, it is also disappointing that the issues underlying the ominous decision in the case of the Philadelphia Cordwainers (Com- monwealth v. Pullis, decided by that city's Mayor's Court in 1806) are

ignored. Matters in civil litigation-especially technical ones-are not handled as reliably as those in criminal prosecutions generally are, and occasionally leave the reader puzzled at what was really being decided, and why.

Despite all the impressive work that the author has put into this book, the press has not served him well in its editing. Circuit judges suffer from "inclimate weather" (186) and the threat of "bandetti" in the West (223); capitalization is inconsistent, and legal terms ap- pear in a variety of incorrect forms. The obvious contributions of this book deserve better.

Washington University, St. Louis David Thomas Konig

Benjamin Franklin in American Thought and Culture, 1790-1990. By Nian-Sheng Huang. (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1994. Pp. xviii, 270. Illustrations. $25.00.)

A revision of a dissertation completed under Michael Kammen at Cornell University in 1990, Benjamin Franklin in American Thought and

Culture, 1790-1990 surveys the changing reputation of Benjamin Franklin and, from that vantage point, interprets American history and culture. The three parts of the book are "Character, 1790-

and shows that the application of its authority to review legislation for constitutionality generated more appreciation than opposition, as America's most democratic society came to recognize the limits of popular influence. Although Rowe's historical background of judicial review as illustrated by Sir Edward Coke and James Otis is incorrect, his examination of its emergence and acceptance in early republican Pennsylvania is an important contribution.

Embattled Bench is marred, however, by an odd narrowness of fo- cus that removes it from some of the other major political and legal battles of its day. Presented more as backdrop, the Paxton affair and the Whiskey Rebellion are not well integrated into the frontier vio- lence that so embroiled the courts and their personnel. The political history of this court, which is the strength of the book, would have benefited by some reflection on the connection of those events-in-

cluding their social dimensions-to the tribulations of Rowe's court. For a book that is concerned with the role of the judiciary in demo- cratic culture, it is also disappointing that the issues underlying the ominous decision in the case of the Philadelphia Cordwainers (Com- monwealth v. Pullis, decided by that city's Mayor's Court in 1806) are

ignored. Matters in civil litigation-especially technical ones-are not handled as reliably as those in criminal prosecutions generally are, and occasionally leave the reader puzzled at what was really being decided, and why.

Despite all the impressive work that the author has put into this book, the press has not served him well in its editing. Circuit judges suffer from "inclimate weather" (186) and the threat of "bandetti" in the West (223); capitalization is inconsistent, and legal terms ap- pear in a variety of incorrect forms. The obvious contributions of this book deserve better.

Washington University, St. Louis David Thomas Konig

Benjamin Franklin in American Thought and Culture, 1790-1990. By Nian-Sheng Huang. (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1994. Pp. xviii, 270. Illustrations. $25.00.)

A revision of a dissertation completed under Michael Kammen at Cornell University in 1990, Benjamin Franklin in American Thought and

Culture, 1790-1990 surveys the changing reputation of Benjamin Franklin and, from that vantage point, interprets American history and culture. The three parts of the book are "Character, 1790-

310 310

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1860," containing a section on Franklin as the representative Ameri- can; "Personality, 1870-1938," including a discussion of Franklin as a many-sided genius; and "Character and Personality, 1945-1990," pointing out how Franklin has been a psychological puzzle for many scholars. With 53 illustrations, the book attempts to account both for Franklin's reputation among scholars and for his fame in the popular press. Nian-Sheng Huang has given us an excellent history of Frank- lin's image in America.

I have, however, some reservations. If one is interested in the growth of Franklin's reputation in any field (literature, science, diplo- macy), one finds only bits and pieces of the story. Take, for example, Franklin as a natural philosopher. The index contains only two refer- ences to Franklin as "scientist"; only three references to him as "nat- ural philosopher"; and only one reference to I. Bernard Cohen. The book lacks any reference to the important assessments of Humphrey Davy, J. L. Heilbron, or Thomas S. Kuhn and does not mention the Nobel laureates who have celebrated Franklin's achievements: Pyotr Kapitza, Robert A. Millikin, and Chen Ning Yang.

Huang makes some questionable statements and has some sur- prising omissions. The letter Huang believed Franklin wrote to Thomas Paine telling him to burn the manuscript of "The Age of Reason" (20) was actually addressed to Joseph Huey, December 13, 1757. Huang attributes to Franklin the belief that the more wealth "each individual gained in his own life, the more he was able to con- tribute to the improvement of society" (41). But Franklin thought that great accumulation of wealth by a single individual was harmful to society (Papers of Benjamin Franklin 22: 533). Huang stated that Mel- ville "bitterly noted that Franklin was jack-of-all-trades, a master of each and yet the master of none" (158). Actually, Huang quoted Melville incorrectly: Franklin was a "Jack of all trades, master of each and mastered by none (92)." That is, no single one of the nu- merous epithets ("printer, postmaster, almanac maker . . .") that Melville gave him could begin to explain him-he was superior to each and all of them. Huang wrote that Twain "despised Franklin's story" (119). But the humorous speech Huang cited concluded with Twain presenting himself as a latter-day Franklin. Twain's funny speech basically honors Franklin. Huang expressed the amazing opin- ion that Franklin's "innermost sentiments about women" are con- tained in the spoof "Old Mistresses Apologue" (147). He also said that after D. H. Lawrence's attack appeared, "for quite some time few Americans knew how to respond" (166). But Herbert W. Schnei- der's reply, "The Significance of Benjamin Franklin's Moral

BOOK REVIEWS 311

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JOURNAL OF THE EARLY REPUBLIC JOURNAL OF THE EARLY REPUBLIC

Philosophy," appeared only two years later and is listed in the bibli-

ography of criticism in the Norton Critical Edition of the Autobiogra- phy. Indeed, it is surprising that Huang does not cite the Norton Edition (1986) as it includes more than two hundred pages of selected

opinions about Franklin, from David Hume and Mather Byles to the

present and therefore is a better record of Franklin's changing reputa- tion than any work before Huang's.

Nevertheless, Huang has done well what he set out to do. Benja- min Franklin in American Thought and Culture is a valuable addition to our knowledge.

University of Delaware J. A. Leo Lemay

The Moral Foundations of United States Constitutional Democracy. By James H. Rutherford. (Pittsburgh: Dorrance Publishing Co., 1992.

Pp. 49. Paper, $5.00.)

This short monograph, written by an orthopedic surgeon from Ohio, was intended "for students of Western civilization and teachers of

ethics, law, history, and government." Its focus is the "several differ- ent aspects of universal equality, the unifying 'central idea' or pri- mary moral concept of our form of government." James Rutherford maintains that "[c]onstitutional democracy in the United States at-

tempts to integrate and balance the several aspects of universal equal- ity as they apply to the coercive powers of government" (v).

The distinguishing feature of Rutherford's essay is his delineation of "four different aspects of universal equality in the historical context of four different ethical and legal systems": Canon Law, Roman

Law, English common law, and social contract theory (8). The great achievement of American constitutional democracy was to synthesize these four ethical traditions. In developing his thesis, Rutherford

quotes or summarizes such notables as Jefferson, Lincoln, Tocque- ville, Madison, Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Cicero, Weber, Hobbes, Locke, Paine, Luther, and Coke. Among the American founders, Jef- ferson stands out as the moral thinker who most successfully unified and integrated "metaphysics, nature, social theory, and the nature of human beings" (33).

Once we appreciate the extent to which American constitutional

democracy draws not only from developments in modern political thought (particularly Hobbes and Locke) but also from classical, re-

ligious, and medieval moral traditions, then we can see that

Philosophy," appeared only two years later and is listed in the bibli-

ography of criticism in the Norton Critical Edition of the Autobiogra- phy. Indeed, it is surprising that Huang does not cite the Norton Edition (1986) as it includes more than two hundred pages of selected

opinions about Franklin, from David Hume and Mather Byles to the

present and therefore is a better record of Franklin's changing reputa- tion than any work before Huang's.

Nevertheless, Huang has done well what he set out to do. Benja- min Franklin in American Thought and Culture is a valuable addition to our knowledge.

University of Delaware J. A. Leo Lemay

The Moral Foundations of United States Constitutional Democracy. By James H. Rutherford. (Pittsburgh: Dorrance Publishing Co., 1992.

Pp. 49. Paper, $5.00.)

This short monograph, written by an orthopedic surgeon from Ohio, was intended "for students of Western civilization and teachers of

ethics, law, history, and government." Its focus is the "several differ- ent aspects of universal equality, the unifying 'central idea' or pri- mary moral concept of our form of government." James Rutherford maintains that "[c]onstitutional democracy in the United States at-

tempts to integrate and balance the several aspects of universal equal- ity as they apply to the coercive powers of government" (v).

The distinguishing feature of Rutherford's essay is his delineation of "four different aspects of universal equality in the historical context of four different ethical and legal systems": Canon Law, Roman

Law, English common law, and social contract theory (8). The great achievement of American constitutional democracy was to synthesize these four ethical traditions. In developing his thesis, Rutherford

quotes or summarizes such notables as Jefferson, Lincoln, Tocque- ville, Madison, Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Cicero, Weber, Hobbes, Locke, Paine, Luther, and Coke. Among the American founders, Jef- ferson stands out as the moral thinker who most successfully unified and integrated "metaphysics, nature, social theory, and the nature of human beings" (33).

Once we appreciate the extent to which American constitutional

democracy draws not only from developments in modern political thought (particularly Hobbes and Locke) but also from classical, re-

ligious, and medieval moral traditions, then we can see that

312 312

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