I find in part three of his Autobiography, that Benjamin Franklin contradicts his own wisdom by proposing a "United Party for Virtue" comprised of "the virtuous and good men of all nations"(Franklin 94). There is no doubt such a party would be very beneficial to the world and mankind, but he is naive to think something like that has a chance to succeed. Why should his party for virtue be any less susceptible to corruption than any other political parties of the day? In my opinion, such an idea is like Communism: it sounds like great, but just doesn't work in the real world. I am confused as to why Franklin would have such a naive proposition not only because of his obvious wisdom, but because his writing gives evidence that he is a God-fearing man. I assume a man as well read and as zealous about religion as Franklin would have taken time to read the Scriptures contained in the Bible. Under that assumption, he should have known that mankind is ultimately corruptible, and that while there are many virtuous men in the Bible, they all have faults. Kind David committed adultery even while he loved God with all his heart. King Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived even turned away from God during his life. Assuming Franklin had read these recounts of Biblical men, I am confounded to think why he believed he could create an infallible party of virtuous men today.
Maybe it was that he never intended to create such a party in the first place. In thinking over this passage, perhaps Franklin would only write down such an idea to improve his own standing among other men, by presenting himself to the world as a virtuous man, able to judge other men with his "great" wisdom and understanding. It seems to go along with the thread of Franklin appearing to be a bit full of himself owing to his accomplishments and the praise he received for them. It is possible that Franklin did consider the idea, but never intended to see it fulfilled and merely wrote about it to impress others. It is impossible to know the intentions of Franklin's heart at the time he wrote this, but much of the evidence in his Autobiography seems to point to his desire to be internationally famous and well respected and admired. Writing in his memoirs about such a noble idea he himself envisioned seems to me a part of his method of acquiring his ambitions.
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"...that each person to be initiated should not only declare his assent to such creed, but should have exercised himself with the thirteen weeks' examination and practice of the virtues) as in the before-mention'd model; that the existence of such a society should he kept a secret, till it was become considerable, to prevent solicitations for the admission of improper persons..."
Like Chris said, Benjamin Franklin here is trying to start some sort of uncorruptable sect that is bound to become corrupt in the long run. First of all, who is Franklin to denote which persons are proper or improper? With all of his wisdom, he should know that humans by default are not perfect--him included. If his sect goes through a simple cookie-cutter selection process where all inductees have the same fundamental values, then where is the diversity to let the group know when they are getting out of line? When one who is trying to set an example places himself on a higher mental, social, and moral level than those he is trying to be an example to, then corruption is inevitable. In order to truly make an impact, the he must humble himself and reveal his weaknesses. Here, Franklin is too blind to see that his "Junto" is not built upon solid ground and is destined to collapse.
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