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Ben and William Franklin were masters at the art of compromise. They used compromise in their public and personal life to create influence and prosperity for themselves. But as the conflicts between England and the American Colonies increased in the middle eighteenth century, and the rift between the loyalists and patriots became more defined, both father and son found themselves having to choose distinct sides where their usual mode of compromise could not be kept intact. As it would be, father and son chose opposite sides of the conflict. Due to this, by examining the breakdown of Ben and William Franklin's nature to compromise in their dealings as public figures, a clear parallel can be seen with that of the breakdown in their private lives as father and son.

Early on, Ben Franklin saw the benefit of compromise. As a lover of discourse, Franklin soon adopted a style of speaking that was drastically different than that of his first style as the emphatic debater. (Autobiography 20) After he had switched his speaking style to that of the Socratic method, he eventually loosened his manner to "expressing myself in terms of modest diffidence" (Autobiography 25) Even his newspaper, The Pennsylvania Gazette, was run on his philosophy of compromise so that it "offend no one" (Skemp 12). This all laid the groundwork for much of his public and political life, as well as with his relationship to his son.

William, "had learned his first and most enduring political lessons at his father's knee" (Skemp 88) and doubtless, the clever conversational and compromising tactics of his father had an impacting influence upon the younger Franklin. Ben's involvement and influence truly helped shape William's public, as well as his private, life. Indeed, it was due to his father's encouragement that William enlisted in the Royal Army, studied law, and was justified in accepting governorship of New Jersey. (Skemp 36) Ultimately, it was in William's becoming the Royal Governor of New Jersey that his public identity and his ability to compromise truly became evident in paralleled relation to his private identity with his father.

More than a decade before the Revolution occurred; both Franklin's had taken a trip to the British Midlands to research the Franklin ancestry. That experience helped to strengthen their bond to one another and "their English roots". (Skemp 31) To both of the Franklin's, their pride in being "British Americans" (Skemp 37) was profound, and neither "saw any conflict between their support of the Crown and the preservation of colonial rights". (Skemp 34) Also, the American assumption that "they possessed the rights of English subjects" (Skemp 41) was something that both Benjamin and William were guilty of believing. This view did not conflict, in the beginning of their public life, with their ideal of English and American colonial unity. The Franklin's beliefs actually helped them to perpetuate compromise in significant ways until the Stamp Act of 1765 and in limited ways thereafter. This Act of Parliament set a course of events into motion that would whittle away at their ability to compromise between the clashing cultures around them and between their personal lives as well.

As William began his governorship, his willingness and ability to compromise was evidenced in his desire to not only "honor his oath to the king", but to not make "any challenge to assembly rights." (Skemp 45) The Stamp Act created a "ferocity of opposition" that William, like his father, had not anticipated. (Skemp 51) William had to strive to keep the public peace in his colony as pressure rose in opposition to the Stamp Act, but he also had personal motivations for attempting to maintain the peace. If order in New Jersey was not maintained, William ran the risk of disappointing "both his father and his London superiors" (Skemp 51) and "unlike his father he had no other irons in the fire." (Skemp 88) Still, through this conflict, William, as Royal Governor, did not blame "the people of New Jersey for most of his difficulties." (Skemp 52) However, he was "no crusader" either. (Skemp 52) He also did not fight tooth and nail against Parliament on the issue, but had "accepted the inevitable with grace" and "readily complied" (Skemp 49) with the Board of Trade when he saw that Grenville would not back down from enforcing the Stamp Act. Ben Franklin "was stunned" (Skemp 49) when he heard of the American Colonies protests against the Stamp Act while he was in London trying to secure a Royal charter for Pennsylvania. He had "avoided taking a strong public stand" (Skemp 52) in opposition of Stamp Act because he did not want to "endanger" (Skemp 52) the prospects for the Royal charter. However, when Parliament began to have second thoughts about the Stamp Act, Ben loosened his compromise and began a "vigorous campaign" (Skemp 52) against it. Still, after the Stamp Act was repealed by Parliament, the Franklin's survived "with their relationship intact" although "the views of father and son were beginning to diverge." (Skemp 56) At present, they were still able to exercise their willingness and ability to find certain areas of compromise with public issues and between themselves even if it meant dropping "a disagreeable Subject". (Skemp 120)

The turning point for both Ben and William, which served to firm their resolve to become patriot and loyalist, respectively, were ironically similar. These separate events would serve to be the beginning of the end of their desire to seek compromise publicly, and would serve to be the tip of the wedge in their private lives that would ultimately separate father from son as the American Colonies separated from the British Empire.

During Benjamin's time serving as the London agent for the Pennsylvania, Georgia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts assemblies, his prolonged stay in England began to have a toll on his ability to compromise with the English and loyalist beliefs. This feeling solidified when Alexander Wedderburn publicly humiliated Benjamin before the Privy Council in 1774. Similarly, as William continued to serve as the Royal Governor of New Jersey, his prolonged stay in America, in his Royal office, began to have a toll on his ability to compromise with the growing patriot beliefs in the American Colonies. His feeling began to solidify in the early part of 1776 after his first attempted arrest on order of William Alexander (Skemp 137), and culminated during his public humiliation before the provincial congress in June 1776. (Skemp 144) Father and son "did not meet again until after the Revolution". (Skemp 148)

Benjamin Franklin died in 1790, but his mastery in the art of compromise, where it concerned his son, had died years before. Even though William, by laying down his art of compromise for the sake of fulfilling his duty as Governor of New Jersey, was relying on the philosophy of his fathers own words that "I shall never ask, never refuse, nor ever resign an Office." (Skemp 126) The close bond that the two had enjoyed in their earlier years had been severed. Although William attempted to "revive that affectionate Intercourse" (Skemp 183) with his father, he "refused to apologize for his part in the war." (Skemp 150) Thus, nothing substantial ever came of a true reconciliation. In fact, The Last Will and Testament of Ben Franklin sealed the true state of their relationship in the end.

Franklin, Benjamin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. 1866. Ed. 
     Gordon S. Haight, Ph.D. Roslyn: Walter J. Black, Inc, 1969.

---. The Last Will and Testament of Benjamin Franklin. Online. The 
     Franklin Institute Online. Internet. 15 Sept. 2000. Available:
     http://sln.fi.edu/franklin/family/lastwill.html.

Skemp, Sheila L. Ben and William Franklin: Father and Son, Patriot and
     Loyalist. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1994.