The seventh volume concludes the first period of Franklin's public service in Pennsylvania, and takes him to England to begin his "second career," that of colonial agent. Problems of defense during the war with France, quartering of British troops in Philadelphia, and financing of Pennsylvania's military heavily engaged his attention as Assembly leader. When the dispute over taxation of proprietary estates led the Assembly to send him to England, Franklin make a new will, arranged for supervision of the colonial postal system during his absence, tended to much personal business, yet found time to correspond with friends on such topics as the nature of heat and cold. On the voyage to England he wrote what is generally known as "The Way to Wealth," his most widely reprinted single composition.
Benjamin Franklin was an important conservative figure in the American Restoration Movement, especially as the leading antebellum conservative in the northern United States branch of the movement. He is notable as the early and lifelong mentor of Daniel Sommer, whose support of the 1889 Sand Creek Declaration set in motion events which led to the formal division of the Churches of Christ from the Disciples of Christ in 1906.
According to contemporary biographies "His early religious training was according to the Methodist faith, though he never belonged to any church until he united with the Disciples."
In 1856, Franklin began to publish the ultra-conservative American Christian Review, which he published until his death in 1878. Its influence, initially considerable, was said to have waned following the American Civil War. Franklin undertook a rigorous program of publication correspondence, and traveling lectures which took him to "many" U. S. states and Canada.
Franklin's last move was to Anderson, Indiana, where he lived from 1864 until his death.
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