allergic.........................

 

Born and bred a member of the leather-aproned class, Franklin was, at least for most of his life, more comfortable with artisans and thinkers than with the established elite, and he was allergic to the pomp and perks of hereditary aristocracy.  Throughout his life he would refer to himself as "B. Franklin, printer."

     From these attitudes sprang what may be Franklin's most important vision: an American national identity based on the virtue and values of its middle class.

-Walter Isaacson, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life