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Is There More Than One Thomas Birch That Meets the Eye of Benjamin Franklin?

Conservative Wordsmith Susan Baldwin writes: There is more than one famous Thomas Birch that meets the eye of Benjamin Franklin. Who exactly is the Thomas Birch that copied the newly discovered Benjamin Franklin letters recently discovered by Professor Alan Houston?
 
To learn more, read my newly discovered (uh, written that is, but yet to be discovered by you). post. Click Will The Benjamin Franklin Obsessed Thomas Birch Please Stand Up? 
 
My Related Townhall Posts
 
 
Benjamin Franklin Letters Discovered:
Courtesy of Thomas Birch
 
 
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CONSERVATIVE WORDSMITH.COM

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Did Benjamin Franklin Cheat On His Wife? Read Excerpt From Newly Discovered Letter

Conservative Wordsmith Susan Baldwin writes: Did Benjamin Franklin cheat on his wife? Probably no one will ever know for sure. However, according to a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, a newly discovered letter definitely proves that, at the very least, Benjamin Franklin did love his wife, and was extremely devoted to her.
 
Judge for yourself. "Some modern researchers have wondered whether Franklin's eye wandered while he was in England, far from his wife, Deborah. Although it does not settle the issue, in one of the letters Franklin pleads with his wife: 'Write to me, by every opportunity. I long to be with you, as ever. Your loving husband.'" -- from a Los Angeles Times article entitled: 
 
Professor reveals discovery of copies of Benjamin Franklin letters
By Tony Perry
April 24, 2009
 
Visit my new site, www.conservativewordsmith.com , where you will find lots of fun conservative stuff to do.
 
Conservative Wordsmith Susan Baldwin, author of the Conservative Wordsmith Weblog, and CONSERVATIVE WORDSMITH.COM, appreciates your thoughts and comments.
 
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Benjamin Franklin Letters Discovered: Courtesy of Thomas Birch

Conservative Wordsmith Susan Baldwin writes: New letters written by Founding Father Benjamin Franklin were recently discovered by Alan Houston, a political science professor at UC San Diego. A total of 47 letters are in the archives at the British Library in London, England, yet these letters, according to Alan Houston, are not in the previously published definitive collection of Benjamin Franklin's writings.
 
The letters were evidently written by Benjamin Franklin, but reproduced by one Thomas Birch, a British literary figure.
 
"In all, Houston found 47 letters Birch had reproduced that were written by Franklin, to him or about him in 1755, when the French and Indian War was starting to bloody the American continent."

"'I couldn't sit still; I couldn't work,' Houston said Thursday. 'On the last day, on the last document, and I had this incredible discovery. I ran out of the library and called my wife in San Diego.'"
 
The above information, including quotations, are from a Los Angeles Times article entitled:
 
Professor reveals discovery of copies of Benjamin Franklin letters
By Tony Perry
April 24, 2009
 
Question: I wonder how many other "undiscovered" documents are hiding in libraries all over the world, just waiting for someone willing to take a little time to find them. It troubles me a little that someone representing said British Library did not already make the discovery.
 
Stay tuned for more posts on Benjamin Franklin's letter to his wife, Deborah, and on Thomas Birch.
 
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Conservative Wordsmith Susan Baldwin, author of the Conservative Wordsmith Weblog at Townhall.com, and of CONSERVATIVE WORDSMITH.COM, appreciates your thoughts and comments.
 
 
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Thoughts on Benjamin Franklin and Rabbi Hillel

Conservative Wordsmith Susan Baldwin writes: Welcome to the Conservative Wordsmith Weblog. If you are already a conservative thinker, then you will feel right at home. If you are not, then you will hopefully have an open mind, and possibly change your thinking on some issues. You are invited to bookmark this page and become a regular guest.

"'Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:
     'Today, if you will hear His voice,
     Do not harden your hearts....'" (Hbr 3:7, 3:8, NKJV)

Thanks to
http://www.blueletterbible.org/
cgi-bin/tools/printer-friendly.pl?
book=Hbr&chapter=3&version=NKJV#7

for the above biblical quotation. 
 
 
What will you do if today you hear God's voice? Will you become more responsible, more accountable? Will you try to find out what your true purpose is in life? Will you learn all that you can about the presidential candidates, so that you will be able to cast an intelligent and informed vote? Now is the time, not tomorrow. Do not put it off for another day.
 
To learn more about how to find
your purpose in life, click
http://www.purposedrivenlife.com/.

To learn about procrastination, click
http://webapps2.ucalgary.ca/~steel//
Procrastinus/quotes.php

and find more quotes like these: 

"Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today."
Benjamin Franklin

"You may delay, but time will not."
Benjamin Franklin 

Also, remember what the great Jewish sage Rabbi Hillel said:
“If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when?” http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/
jsource/Quote/hillel2.html
 

My Related Posts

Benjamin Franklin on God and Prayer
Ben Franklin's Title to Hitchens' Book
Ben And Mitt Match Taxable Wits  
Christopher Hitchens Is Not Great
The Religion of Christopher Hitchens
Kevorkian Released, Polish Man Wakes Up


*The original date of this revised post was
July 2, 2007.

Conservative Wordsmith Susan Baldwin, author of the Conservative Wordsmith Weblog, appreciates your thoughts and comments.
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Benjamin Franklin on God and Prayer

Conservative Wordsmith Susan Baldwin writes: If Benjamin Franklin were alive today, here would be his answer to atheist Christopher Hitchens, author of current bestseller God is not Great:  How Religion Poisons Everything.

"Did Ben pray?

There are a couple of versions of a religious creed that appears both in Ben's autobiography and, later in his life, in a letter to Ezra Stiles. Below are the words from his autobiography:

[I believe] That there is one God, who made all things.
That he governs the world by his providence.
That he ought to be worshiped by adoration, prayer, and thanksgiving.
But that the most acceptable service of God is doing good to man.
That the soul is immortal.
And that God will certainly reward virtue and punish vice, either here or hereafter.

On June 28, 1787, Franklin made a formal motion for prayers at the Constitutional Convention. The text of the motion itself reads:

I therefore beg leave to move, That henceforth Prayers, imploring the Assistance of Heaven and its Blessing on our Deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed to Business, and that one or more of the Clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that Service.
This text is from Albert Henry Smyth's 1906 edition of The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, Collected and Edited with a Life and Introduction, vol. IX, page 601.Franklin preceded the actual motion with a page and a half of explanation supporting the idea. After the motion, there is a footnote by the editor that reads: "Note by Franklin.--'The convention, except for three or four persons, thought prayers unnecessary.'""
http://sln.fi.edu/franklin/birthday/faq.html#18

My Related Posts

Thoughts on Benjamin Franklin and Rabbi Hillel
Ben Franklin's Title to Hitchens' Book
Ben And Mitt Match Taxable Wits
Christopher Hitchens Is Not Great
The Religion of Christopher Hitchens
Kevorkian Released, Polish Man Wakes Up


*The original date of this revised post was 6/6/2007.

Conservative Wordsmith Susan Baldwin, author of the Conservative Wordsmith Weblog, appreciates your thoughts and comments.

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Ben Franklin's Title to Hitchens' Book

Conservative Wordsmith Susan Baldwin writes: Here is a great alternative title to Christopher Hitchens' Bestseller God Is Not Great:  How Religion Poisons Everything: "If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be if without it." According to Wikipedia, this quote is from a letter that Ben wrote to Thomas Paine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
#Virtue.2C_religion_and_personal_beliefs


These are my sentiments exactly. Would the world be a better place, and less evil, if no one believed in God, or any religion? (Think of John Lennon's song "Imagine":  
    "Nothing to kill or die for
     And no religion too").
http://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/
john_lennon/imagine.html


I guess Benjamin and John did not see eye to eye on this matter. Many have praised this song in the same manner that many are now praising Hitchen's book. But is either one "spiritual" or "true"? Or is the esteemed Mr. Franklin right?

What would men be if totally without religion? It is more difficult for me to "imagine" this than to picture the world according to John Lennon or Christopher Hitchens. Would there be any true charity or concern for others in a world without God or religion? Would all of the "caring" and "ethical" atheists really do a better job than the true religious thinkers, leaders, saints, and martyrs that have marched throughout history with their messages of hope for humanity? I think not.

My Related Posts

Christopher Hitchens Is Not Great
The Religion of Christopher Hitchens
Ben And Mitt Match Taxable Wits  
Benjamin Franklin on God and Prayer
Thoughts on Benjamin Franklin and Rabbi Hillel  
Kevorkian Released, Polish Man Wakes Up

*The original date of this revised post was
June 19, 2007.

Conservative Wordsmith Susan Baldwin, author of the Conservative Wordsmith Weblog, appreciates your thoughts and comments.
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