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 he wanted to return to America before his death but didn't think he would be able to. He seemed so passionate when writing about A…