Franklin's arrival in France caused a sensation. By the time he reached Paris the city was buzzing with rumors: he had come with a small fortune in gold, to put his grandsons in school and then buy himself a Swiss chateau for his retirement; he had come to negotiate a treaty with France or, failing that, with Britain; he had come to sue for peace, just as he had earlier tried to reach a settlement with the Howes. These reports went the rounds of the diplomatic corps. The Parisians were so busy with conjecture, the Russian Minister informed St. Petersburg, that the police posted orders in all the taverns and coffee houses not to discuss American affairs.
Benjamin Franklin was an important conservative figure in the American Restoration Movement, especially as the leading antebellum conservative in the northern United States branch of the movement. He is notable as the early and lifelong mentor of Daniel Sommer, whose support of the 1889 Sand Creek Declaration set in motion events which led to the formal division of the Churches of Christ from the Disciples of Christ in 1906.
According to contemporary biographies "His early religious training was according to the Methodist faith, though he never belonged to any church until he united with the Disciples."
In 1856, Franklin began to publish the ultra-conservative American Christian Review, which he published until his death in 1878. Its influence, initially considerable, was said to have waned following the American Civil War. Franklin undertook a rigorous program of publication correspondence, and traveling lectures which took him to "many" U. S. states and Canada.
Franklin's last move was to Anderson, Indiana, where he lived from 1864 until his death.
... Show more