Benjamin Franklin was a great man with upstanding moral value who constantly worked to improve himself.  Benjamin Franklin lived in a time and place that held those of a lower financial status back allowing them little chance to change their fortunes.  Benjamin Franklin although coming from a lower class family was extremely intelligent he was not a perfect man because like all others he had his flaws but he was a man that built his character through and around those very flaws that afflicted him.  Franklin even went as far as to write a list of virtues through which he would practice at everyday constantly trying to live up to those virtues daily.  Benjamin Franklin's original virtues list only consisted of 12 virtues through which he should live his life.  A 13th virtue was added the day a Quaker friend of Benjamin's told him that he was prone to be on occasion in his conversations proud and overbearing, so as to combat his own pride Benjamin Franklin wrote in a final virtue by which he would live his life the virtue of humility.

    Franklin was a hard working man, a man that did not make his fortune or reputation within a single day.   Benjamin Franklin was for the most part in his life involved in print and he started out working for an older brother who treated him as an apprentice rather then a brother.  Throughout his younger years Benjamin Franklin after working for his brother moved across the country looking for work within print in which he could better himself and scrape out a living.  Benjamin Franklin had at one point been inclined by closeness to an absent friends wife attempted to commit adultery after which he was rejected and he soon lost a friend who had owed him a sizable debt.  Benjamin Franklin had learned the folly of his mistake in a hard lesson and although he was depressed about the loss of his friends debt he was even more saddened by the loss of a friend.

    Franklin wrote and printed an almanac in 1732 later called the Poor Richard's Alamanac which made him a large amount of money and gave him the recognition that allowed him to make his name known and allowed him to build his fortune.   Benjamin Franklin was a man who didn't not desire much and wanted his inventions and patents to be used by others, "That, as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously."  Franklin was able through experiments in electricity invent a great invention a thing called the light bulb.  Benjamin Franklin became constantly involved in the affairs of the government although not always by choice but more often because of his well known wisdom.  He even became somewhat involved with military affairs and peace talks with England.

    Benjamin Franklin was a great man who proved through hard work, determination and heavy moral values was instrumentle in defining what a true American is and should be.  He is the model of the perfect American citizen.