Blog 3

                Chapters nine through nineteen of Franklin’s Autobiography continues to follow Franklin through his life, including his involvement with the fighting for and establishment of the early American government. Something that stood out to me the most within these chapters was actually not as much about Franklin, but about his account of Mr. Morris as a governor. Franklin describes how Morris grew up learning how to argue with others and how that made him to be an eloquent and sophisticated disputer, one that is often successful. Franklin then notes though how people like that may be victorious sometimes with arguments, but they never gain good will with others, which is more important. Having known someone that would argue about anything for the sake of arguing, I can personally attest to what Franklin said about that kind of person never gaining good will from others. Franklin might have recognized this argumentative trait in himself when he was first learning how to debate; yet, Franklin had intention of improving his mode of disputing and Morris, even after Franklin brought up the point to not argue with the Assembly, had no intention of changing. It is fascinating how someone can be so engrossed with wanting to argue with anyone that they cannot hold their tongue when it matters or even when a friend asks them to. Personally, I believe that if Morris decided to move past himself and truly agreed to not argue with the Assembly, he might have remained as governor longer than he did.

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