Too often dismissed as the least philosophic of the Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin had a deep and lasting impact on the shape of American political thought. In this substantial collection of Franklins letters, essays, and lesser-known papers, Ralph Ketcham traces the development of Franklins practicaland distinctly Americanpolitical thought from his earliest Silence Dogood essays to his final writings on the Constitution and The Evils of the Slave Trade.