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|Founding Documents:=[[Declaration of Independence]], <br>[[United States Constitution]]
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'''Benjamin Franklin''' (January 17, 1706, [[Boston]] - April 17, 1790 [[Philadelphia]]), was an American [[polymath]], printer, inventor, statesman, [[chess]] enthusiast, and one of the most prominent scientists in the world of the [[Enlightenment]], famed for his discoveries in electricity. He was widely admired in [[France]] in addition to the [[United States]]. His financial success, which he described in his most popular work, ''The Way to Wealth'' (1758), embodied the [[American dream]]. His wealth was due in part to his obtaining the right to print [[Pennsylvania]]’s paper currency, based on his writing ''A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency'' (1729). Later he became the printer of currency for New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. He also made money as the publisher of the ''Pennsylvania Gazette'', starting in 1729 and known as the finest of the colonial newspapers.
He was known as "the First [[American]]" because his efforts were critical to the formation of a new nation, the success of the [[American Revolution]] and the unification of the 13 colonies into the United States of America. Serving as the American minister to France, he secured decisive military and financial support for the Revolution, while asserting the values of democracy and [[republicanism]]. He assisted [[Thomas Jefferson]] in writing the [[Declaration of Independence]] in 1776 and helped legitimize the [[U.S. Constitution]] in 1787. His effective diplomacy, creative nationalism, promotion of civic virtue and devotion to [[republicanism]] earned him the top tier as a [[Founding Father]].
