Ben Franklin's quote about returning to the farm....

[dapper]

It's driving me crazy - I can't find Ben Franklin's quote about returning home after holding office. Google has not been my friend! :-) Can anyone post it or point me in the right direction.

Thanks!
Dap

[hobbit709]

1. Franklin never held office

[gristy]

2. Do you mean John Adams?

"Following his 1800 defeat, Adams retired into private life. He went back to farming in the Quincy area."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_adams

Franklin died in office (though it may not have been elective office): "From 1775 to 1776, Franklin was Postmaster General under the Continental Congress and from 1785 to his death in 1790 was President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Franklin

[Cocoa]

3. sounds like the legend of Cincinnatus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnatus

"With one hand he returns the fasces, symbol of power as appointed dictator of Rome. His other hand holds the plow, as he resumes the life of a citizen and farmer."

[Spider Jerusalem]

6. Or George Washington (who was called 'the American Cincinnatus')...

who is probably the person the OP is thinking of...

There's a statue of Washington in the Virginia capitol rotunda that shows him with a fasces and plow:

[Bucky]

7. I like how he's not wearing the sword, but hangs if from the fasces.

The fasces, someone pointed out to me in DU, doesn't carry an ax in this statue. This was only used when the state on rare occasions claimed to have the authority over life and death--as with internal insurrections. Washington was such brilliant proponent of civil republican government--no wonder the Continental Congress trusted only him in supreme power and never gave it to men who turned out to be better fighting generals. I'll take a good politician-bureaucrat general over a great battlefield general any day of the week.

[Spider Jerusalem]

9. Yes, great fighting generals have a tendency to have monstrous egos...

Patton comes to mind (imagine him in theatre command instead of Eisenhower). Or, to cite an example from the American Revolution, Benedict Arnold (part of the reason for his betrayal was that he felt unrecognised for his military accomplishments).

[Nikki Stone 1]

12. Yes. Cincinnatus is unusual because he steps down and returns home

Most folks in his place set up a permanent power base. His proported ethics and return home kept the Roman republic a republic.

[theophilus]

4. Here's one from G. Washington:

“As for myself I am now seated in the shade of my Vine and Fig tree, and altho' I look with regret on many transactions which do not comport with my ideas, I shall, notwithstanding "view them in the calm lights of mild philosophy", persuaded, if any great crisis should occur, to require it, that the good sense and Spirit of the Major part of the people of this country, will direct them properly.”

Is that it?

[mcscajun]

5. If you're putting the words "farm" or "farmer" in your search,

you're off-base. Franklin was always a city boy; apprenticed at the age of twelve to a printer, he was a businessman, inventor, journalist, publisher, politician and statesman, but never truly a farmer.

[MrBenchley]

8. Ben Franklin was a city boy

He started out in Boston and headed to Philadelphia where he made his fortune and enjoyed city life.

I doubt very much he wanted to get stuck in the sticks on a farm.

[dapper]

10. hmm...

It was something to the effect of...

they come as doctors, farmers, lawyers, lead their country and then return to their farms??
or once they serve- they return home.

Franklin did not want politicians to become career politicians.


My brother-in-law quoted it a few times but I was hoping to get the exact quote- Unfortunately he's on vacation now!!!

Dap

[dapper]

11. Here's a reference to the quote...

McCarthy: I decided it was time to bring my education, the experience of 30 years in business and family experience into Congress. Remember, Congress was intended to be made up of citizen-representatives. The intent was for us to elect citizen-representatives. They would go to Washington and serve their country. Then they would go back home and maintain their farms. I will go to Washington in January 2003, if elected, and I will spend a number of years there. When the district says my time is up, they'll vote me out and I'll go back into my high tech business.