Quote · The Rest Is History
684. Franklin: Revenge of the American Genius (Part 2)
Where this was said
The Letter Never Sent, the Declaration Signed, and the Famous Quip
At 56:00 · chapter starts 53:30
Franklin's most famous letter — addressed with icy formality to his old London printer friend William Strahan, declaring 'You are now my enemy and I am yours. B. Franklin' — was never actually sent. It was circulated among Congress as a piece of political theatre to stiffen wavering delegates' resolve; Strahan later sent Franklin a cheese [1] — Tom Holland "Franklin wrote to his old printer friend William Strahan — 'You are now my enemy and I am yours' — but never sent it. He circulated it amon…" 53:25 . Franklin's actual contribution to the Declaration of Independence was limited partly by a severe attack of boils; he left the principal drafting to Thomas Jefferson, whose elevated prose was better suited to the occasion than Franklin's Christmas-cracker folksy style. His one famous editorial intervention was crossing out Jefferson's phrase 'sacred and undeniable' and replacing it with 'self-evident', veiling a theological claim behind the language of Enlightenment reason [2] — Tom Holland "Yes, we must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately." 56:00 . On 2 August 1776, when the Declaration was formally signed, Franklin responded to John Hancock's call for unity with a celebrated pun: 'We must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately' — since they were now traitors in British eyes.
