a naive confidence......................

 But he suffered from a naive confidence in the power of reason and a few good men to arrange complex matters.  As late as 1775 he was still persuaded that the issues separating Britain and the colonies were "a mere Matter of Puncitilo, which Two or three reasonable People might settle in half an Hour."  He had little or no comprehension of the structural forces and the popular passions that limited individual action.  In the end he was convinced that the glorious empire to which he had devoted so much of his life was broken by "the mangling hands of a few blundering ministers."

-Gordon S. Wood, from the chapter "The Invention of Benjamin Franklin" in his book, Revolutionary Characters: What Made The Founders Different