Benjamin Franklin quotes resurface in July 4 reflections

writersJul 4, 2026271,007

As Americans marked the 250th anniversary of Independence Day, Benjamin Franklin’s lines and image reappeared across July 4 posts, notably the quote “A republic, if you can keep it.” The Library of Congress highlighted Thomas Jefferson’s handwritten Declaration draft with revisions by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. Social posts referenced Charles Willson Peale’s 1785 portrait of Franklin and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway’s July 4th festivities, where a live performance was described. Commenters imagined Franklin in the modern world, saying he would adapt to social media or modern life, and some linked his role on the Declaration drafting committee to broader debates about the founders’ legacies. Writers and posters recommended recent books such as Foundling Fathers while others invoked Franklin among the roster of revolutionary figures to be honored on Independence Day.

Flat Pluto Society

@adhdgobl.in

I don't give a single shit what any of the Founding Fathers would've thought about the modern world, but I would love to see what Benjamin Franklin would've done with a Twitter account.

5667h ago

Open Ride PHL66

If I could bring any Founding Father forward in time it’d be B. Franks. Guarantee he’d be looking for strip clubs, trying every drug possible, and scrolling endlessly while talking about the Philly Naked Bike Ride.

Lynn Dickey Fan Club President16

Horny on main without a doubt

ethers.elixirs 🏳️‍⚧️12

His liked posts would be CRAZY

Matt Puckett8

guy was already known for waking up in the middle of the night to write weird shit, he’d be an all-timer for sure

vegetable melange7

Ben Franklin with a posting account would be alternating between thirsty replies to porn bots and quote tweeting Adams to just drag him like a tired toddler

Clifton5

I’d like to see Thomas paine’s account.

Quoting this

La Croix Molotov15

He would become the greatest man cancelled for typing "hey" in every single womans DM's the website has ever seen

Cascadian Separatist 🇺🇸🇨🇦3

Benji? He’d be gooning over OF girls. The modern equivalent of what he did in his day

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal

@jayapal.house.gov

“A republic, if you can keep it.” – Benjamin Franklin On America’s 250th anniversary, I’m thinking so much about what America means to me and so many other immigrants. Today, we must commit to protecting the promise of America.

1296h ago

Library of Congress

@librarycongress.bsky.social

The Library is also home to another amazing document from this period in American history: Thomas Jefferson's own draft of the Declaration of Independence, which he worked on with John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. www.loc.gov/item/mtjbib0...

Thomas Jefferson's rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, handwritten with things crossed out and re-written

316h ago

Massimo (mirror)

@rainmaker1973-m.bsky.social

Thomas Jefferson's handwritten draft of the Declaration of Independence (with revisions by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin), 1776. Original post

287h ago

There is no Buford, only Zuul

@bufordtbuford.bsky.social

The only founding father who would be able to adapt seamlessly to modern society is Benjamin Franklin and it’s because he’d be drunkest

323h ago

ellemm17

Drunk Ben Franklin staggering around Philadelphia, pointing at everything he sees and slurring "I thought of that first"

Susie Snowflake7

He'd be enthralled by all the available pornography

Darth J.D.1

Look as long as there were still women to sleep with, I doubt that man would care about anything else.

RocketMermaid1

Until he sees somebody he thinks is German, that is. Even then, he'd just get a little bit more schwasted and brag about everything in Philly.

micchiato 🎋

@micchiato.bsky.social

Gerald Horne writing on how the counter-revolutionary Founding Fathers tied their independence to enslaving Africans, whose own revolutionary potential they feared. Happy July 4, USA! #otd #history

Moreover, the settlers thought that London's special relationship with Africans had gone too far, to the point where they thought they had reason to fear that the Crown's sable arm would come down with a crash upon their heads. "Every slave might be reckoned a domestic enemy," according to Benjamin Franklin speaking almost two decades before 1776." Just before 4 July 1776, a fellow Philadelphian denounced London for "not only urging savages to invade the country, but instigating Negroes to murder their masters."2 The embodiment of colonial secession, George Washington, may have spent more time overseeing
"his" enslaved Africans than he did supervising soldiers or government officials, suggesting the importance of this troublesome property; by 1764, he owed one of his London creditors a still hefty eighteen hundred pounds sterling and certainly had an incentive to both preserve his slave property and escape from the Crown which seemed to be calling it into question. John Adams, who earned handsome fees as legal counsel for slaveholders in cases against the enslaved, had little reason to dis-agree? Ditto for John Hancock, whose large signature on the nascent republic's founding document was somehow appropriate since he was one of Boston's largest slave owners? James Madison speculated in late 1774, "if America & Britain should come to an hostile rupture, I am afraid an Insurrection among Negroes may & will be promoted. In one of our Counties lately a few of those unhappy wretches met together & chose a leader who was to conduct them when the English Troops should arrive-which they foolishly thought would be very soon & that by revolting to them they should be rewarded with their freedom??

116h ago

Paul "Princejvstin" Weimer

@princejvstin.com

For this Independence Day, my next read is FOUNDLING FATHERS by @megelison.bsky.social Opening line: "It took Benjamin Franklin 27 minutes and 14 seconds to discover there was pornography on the internet."

156h ago

Dr. Peter Paul Rubens

@peterpaulrubens.bsky.social

2/2 Benjamin Franklin. Painted in 1785 by Charles Willson Peale, whose day is today.

193h ago

Avi Wolfman-Arent

@avi-wa.bsky.social

The Benjamin Franklin Parkway. 9 pm. July 4th. Meek Mill rips into Dreams and Nightmares. At "hold up wait a minute" the music cuts out. LeBron James Sr. emerges through a cloud of smoke

214h ago

Rusty

@rusty-baxter.bsky.social

Americans have Independence Day all wrong. We have plenty of days to remember and honor our soldiers. Today we should honor the men who provided the reason to fight. Patrick Henry, Benjamin Franklin, John and Sam Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Paul Revere, John Hancock, Crispus Attucks

156h ago

Kathleen Bachynski

@bachynski.bsky.social

What about Benjamin Franklin? “Franklin's story is a tale as old as time: Child is born in a small town (Boston), longs for something more, and, as a teen, eventually works up the courage to set off for the big city (Philadelphia), whereby, suddenly surrounded by other brilliant minds, he blossoms.”

164h ago

Jellicle Aurora Thee Elezen 🏀KNICKS IN 5🏀

@kylenne.etheirys.social

playing harriet tubman got into an alliance w tecumseh and we beating the shit out of benjamin franklin currently happy 4th of july I love civilization 7

175h ago

Joolia Ghoulia

@jooliaghoulia.bsky.social

Dimwits and democracy do not a solid foundation make ~ Benjamin Franklin, 1953

155h ago

Louvain Rees ⚰️

@hellohistoria.bsky.social

#IndependenceDay 🇺🇲 In 1791, locks of both Franklin's and Price's hair were taken and fashioned into this mourning ring 💎 💍 The ring is made of gold and encrusted with diamonds 💎 The inscription reads: 'Benjamin Franklin died 17 April 1790. 'Rich'd Price D.D. Died 19 April 1791.' #Wales

96h ago

Jonathan Ladd

@jonathanmladd.com

The Second Continental Congress gave a small Drafting Committee the job of writing the Declaration of Independence, made up of: John Adams (MA), Benjamin Franklin (PA), Thomas Jefferson (VA), Robert R. Livingston (NY) and Roger Sherman (CT).

97h ago

Benjamin Franklin quotes resurface in July 4 reflectionswriters

Benjamin Franklin quotes resurface in July 4 reflections

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