"Franklin could not help but admire the proud, simple life of America's native inhabitants. There was a noble quality in the stories...which he told of their hospitality and tolerance, of their oratory and pride." Franklin saw in Indians' conduct "a living symbol of simplicity and 'happy mediocrity,' exemplifying essential aspects of the Virtuous Order." Depiction of this "healthful, primitive morality could be instructive for transplanted Englishmen, still doting on 'foreign Geegaws.' Happiness, Franklin wrote, 'is more generally and equally diffused among savages than in our civilized societies." "Happy mediocrity" meant striking a compromise between the over-civilization of Europe, with its distinctions between rich and poor and consequent corruption, and the egalitarian, democratic societies of the Indians that formed a counterpoint to European monarchy. The Virtuous Order would combine both, borrowing from Europe arts, sciences, and mechanical skills, taking from the Indians aspects of the natural society that Franklin and others believed to be a window on the pasts of other cultures, including those from which the colonists had come. There is in the writings of Franklin, as well as those of Jefferson, a sense of using the Indian example to recapture natural rights that Europeans had lost under monarchy. ... Franklin (as well as Jefferson) sought to erect an amalgam, a combination of indigenous American Indian practices and the cultural heritage that the new Americans had carried from Europe. In discussing the new culture, Franklin and others drew from experience with Native Americans, which was more extensive than that of the European Natural Rights Philosophers. The American Indians' theory and practice affected Franklin's observations on the need for appreciation of diverse cultures and religions, public opinion as the basis for a polity, the nature of liberty and happiness, and the social role of property. American Indians appear frequently in some of Franklin's scientific writings" (Johansen 83-84) |