The Hatmaker’s Sign: A Story by Benjamin Franklin

Thu, 06/16/2011 - 8:57am by manz

The Hatmaker’s Sign is a picture book tells the tale of Ben Franklin consoling Thomas Jefferson during an editing debate that came about after he submitted his draft of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson wrote this great document he was proud of and the Continental Congress offered many suggestions for improvement. He took this to heart, and Franklin tried to reassure Jefferson, which resulted in him telling a story of a hat maker getting a sign made for his new shop.

On his way to the sign maker the hat maker is stopped several times and offered advice on changing the sign. The moral of the story is that "No matter what you write, or how well you write it, if the public is going to read it, you can be sure they will want to change it."Ben Franklin, being the master story teller that he was, used the tale to console Jefferson during an important historical event.

For more Franklin facts, fun and events, see here.