by
Oil on canvas; 35 7/8 x 28 1/2 inches (91.1 x 72.4 cm). Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA.
Painted while Franklin served as the U.S. Commissioner in France, arguing the American cause. In front of him is a map labeled Philadelphia.
Benjamin Franklin, 1778/79
I set out on this ground, which I suppose to be self-evident, that the earth belongs in usufruct to the living; that the dead have neither powers nor rights over it.
This, with its echo of the Declaration (self-evident
) was Jefferson at his most terse. Except for the phrase in usufruct
— a legalism meaning the right to use property for a certain time — Jefferson’s words could be chiseled in stone, or shouted on the hustings.
James Madison (2011)