After his death a general mourning of two months was ordered by Congress as a tribute to the memory of one who had done so much by his wisdom and his activity in establishing the Republic.
In addition to his political, miscellaneous, and philosophical compositions, Franklin wrote several papers in the American Transactions, and two volumes of Essays, all of which have been carefully collected and edited. In all his writings is evidenced his wonderful gift of shrewd common-sense and practical wisdom. These are seen from end to end of his Autobiography. His “weather eye” is always open — upon himself as well as upon others; and while he neither deceives himself nor allows others to deceive him, so he takes care not to deceive his readers. He tells us that he sets some things down out of vanity, and that though his pride may be scotched, it cannot be killed, He holds, indeed, that these qualities are right in their place; but he tries to keep them in their true place and subjection. His revelation of himself is a very frank one—almost the frankest that has ever been written; and it is full of wise hints for those who know how to take them. Goethe wrote his life, but he called it “Truth and Poetry” (Wahrheit und Dichtung), and Renan tells us that when men write their lives it is mostly poetry they set down. Franklin seems to have written only the truth, leaving out the poetry; and yet there is not wanting a fine and even a grand thread of poetry running through that active and ever-striving life, that began as a printer’s boy and ended as one of the foremost makers of a nation, who, despite his political occupations, ranked also among the leading philosophical and scientific men of his time.