507.Benjamin Franklin and Confucian Merit System

During the 1780s, the founders of the young American republic faced the tremendous challenge of creating a stable political system to preserve their hard-earned national independence. Soon after the conclusion of the War for Independence, the Founding Fathers realized that the election of capable public servants would be one of the major factors that determined the destiny of their new nation. Many of the founders believed that the ideal government official would not only have a strong educational background, but also display exemplary moral virtue.[1]

However, this sentiment was not shared by all citizens; in particular, some veterans of the War for Independence sought to establish certain systems that would enable them to pass their honors to their descendants. In 1783, these veterans organized the Society of Cincinnati to counter the prevailing beliefs of the founders.[2] Benjamin Franklin expressed uneasiness with the Society’s desire to mimic the European hereditary tradition by forming “an order of hereditary knights.”[3] Franklin wrote,

My Opinion of the Institution cannot be of much Importance. I only wonder that when the united Wisdom of our Nation had, in the Articles of Confederation, manifested their Dislike of establishing Ranks of Nobility, by Authority either of the Congress or of any particular State, a Number of private Persons should think proper to distinguish themselves and their Posterity from their Fellow Citizens, and form an Order of hereditary Knights, in direct Opposition to the solemnly declared Sense of their Country.[4]

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[1] U.S. Office of Personnel Management https://archive.opm.gov/about_opm/tr/history.asp

[2] http://www.societyofthecincinnati.org/

[3] Benjamin Franklin, To Sarah Bache (unpublished), Passy, January, 26^th, 1784. It is available on line at http://franklinpapers.org

[4] Ibid.