Everybody in the US gets taught, over and over and over, that Ben Franklin wanted the turkey to be the “national bird.” That’s because a whole lot of people are idiots.
If you see the whole argument, it’s clear he’s just making fun of the symbol of the old boys’ club, the Socety of the Cincinnati (which fraternity he hated).
Here’s the whole passage (Franklin’s writings are public domain, no?):
He makes a pun about the kingbird.
He talks about how the turkey has been served as food at banquets.
He talks about how they’re vain and silly.
And, even if you still think he means you to take him at face value, the last sentence makes it clear he’s talking about domesticated turkeys.
On behalf of Ben Franklin, I hate everyone. Thank you.
How exactly is he making fun of the Society of Cincinatti?
His pun on the kingbird is apt, he says eagles can be driven away by kingbirds, and so is not a suitable symbol for our country as we have instead driven away the kingbird.
In Franklin’s day domestic turkeys and wild turkeys looked pretty similar, if not identical. They had not yet been bred to be the brainless white market turkey of today.
You can still raise domestic turkeys that resemble wild turkeys, look up bronze turkeys or broad-breasted bronze. I have 5 bronzes at my house right now.
I fail to see the reasons behind your argument that he was joking, perhaps it is my failure, but could you explain them with more detail?
This is interesting. I first read that Franklin had proposed that the Turkey be the American symbol, but that it was rejected (just as he had proposed a Great Seal for the U.S., significantly different from our adopted “Eagle-with-olive-branch-and-arrows on one side and Masonic Pyramid on the other” Great Seal, which was rejected as well) way back in grammar school in the 1960s. It was presented as if he had made a formal proposal, but I never heard or read the detailsd. If this letter is the sole expression of his idea, I don’t think you could say that he really made a serioous proposal of it, in any case. It’s not clear to me, either, that this was meant as a joke.
The idea popped up in Peter Stone’s script for both the play and movie 1776, for which he scoured the writings of the Founding Fathers, and pretty clearly lifted the idea for Franklin’s suggestion of the Turkey as the National Bird (in dialogue just before the song “The Egg”) from this letter – Franklin’s lines are very close paraphrases of this letter. The play and movie treat Franklin’s suggestions as serious, if quirky.
Fair enough - that needs context. He disliked the Society of the Cincinnati (if you follow the link), arguing that hereditary clubs are pretty stupid. Besides, these were officers of a war who had just fought against the idea of offices held because of family.
Also, if you follow the link, you’ll see here that the eagle as US symbol is foregone fact; he’s making the point (ironically) that the Cincinnati should now adopt the turkey as ITS symbol. He NEVER says the turkey should be the US symbol, whether you take him at face value (I don’t) or think he’s being ironic.
I could kind of go with this, although I have a hard time believing he wanted a domestic bird as the symbol, even if it were indistuiguishable from the wild.
It’s REALLY hard for me to believe he was really suggesting a bird should be made a symbol because it had been served the wedding feast of Charles IX.
Oh yeah - forgot - the eagle was made the national symbol in 1782 - Franklin was in France the whole year and wasn’t in the United States between late 1776 and the summer of 1785. Is it reasonable to think he was involved in the national bird discussion?
When he refers to the “Cincinnati of America” I think he is referring to the citizens of the USA that rose up to fight for independence and then went back to their farms, like Cincinnatus did. I don’t see from context that he is necessarily addressing the Society of Cincinnati.
I don’t know if he ever formally advocated for the adoption of the turkey as the national bird, but I am not convinced that he offered the suggestion as a joke.
Oops, I just noticed that the linked page does have the entire letter. OK, he is referring to the fraternity, but the thrust of his argument regardiing the turkey doesn’t seem to be a joke.
The way it reads to me is that he holds those who fought in the Revolution in honor and that the turkey is a more fitting symbol for them than a bald eagle, which is a thief and a coward. At the same time he is against the formation of a fraternity in which descendants of these men receive honors for the actions of their forbears.
Even taken at face value, the thrust of his argument is that he’s glad the emblem of the Society of the Cincinnati looks like a turkey even though it’s an eagle.
It’s obvious to me he chose the turkey to tweak them, but even if you don’t accept that, he never said the national bird should be the turkey.