Compare Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson based on our readings and discussions in class.

Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson all had similar values and ideas about America concerning politics and its economy. They all also had a knack for getting people to follow them. Benjamin Franklin, who had only died about 30 years before William Cullen Bryant wrote To Cole, the Painter, Departing for Europe, seemed to express different views about America vs. Europe in his letters. In a letter Franklin wrote to his grandson, he expressed how …

…discussed seem to differ in their views of America vs. Europe from Bryant. Bryant seems to be thrilled that America is based on Europe. Places such as New York and New England were almost exact replicas of the originals. Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson were trying to change the way America was to make it a better place to live. It is because of these men that America is everything it is today.