 |
|
Nov. 6, 2009
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How
to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Nov. 5, 2009
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking
Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker
With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater?
With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change
With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Oct. 29, 2009
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our
Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
JWisdom.com Why what we wear
impacts who we are
With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love
With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks
With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness
with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really?
By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A
Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious
By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things
By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices
By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 15, 2009
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Vindication of an American Jewish Patriot
By
Michael Feldberg
The little known details of a man's courage, loyalty and willingness to expend his personal fortune for the cause of independence
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
David Salisbury Franks was a hero of the American Revolution. Ironically, because he was assigned as aide-de-camp to the traitorous Benedict Arnold, Franks' reputation was tainted. Although cleared on all charges of complicity in Arnold's efforts to surrender West Point to the British in 1780, Franks suffered from charges of disloyalty. Despite formal exoneration, Franks' reputation never fully recovered. Unfortunately, his name is rarely included in pantheon of first-rank Revolutionary heroes.
David S. Franks was born in Philadelphia around 1740 into a large and highly respected Jewish merchant family. As a young man, Franks' father relocated his branch of the family to Quebec. In 1775, on the eve of the Revolution, David S. Franks was living in Montreal, serving in the distinguished position of parnas (president) of the Spanish and Portuguese synagogue in that city, though he was of German Jewish descent. According to the late historian Jacob Rader Marcus, because Franks publicly defended the right of a protester to compare King George III of England to the Pope and call him a fool, Franks was jailed and held for 16 days. The experience converted him to the colonists' cause and, when the Continental Army invaded Quebec to "liberate" it from the British, Franks joined the revolutionaries. He was appointed paymaster of the Continental Army in Quebec and apparently expended his own funds to pay the salaries of the American volunteers.
When the American campaign faltered in Canada, Franks retreated to Philadelphia, reaching it in July 1776. He joined the Continental Army and served actively until October 1777. Because he spoke French, Franks was then assigned as liaison officer to the Comte d'Estaing, commander of the French naval forces fighting on the American side. Franks attained the rank of major and was assigned as aide-de-camp to Benedict Arnold, the military governor of Philadelphia. Arnold alienated several of the city's leading merchants and was given command of the strategic garrison at West Point, which controlled access to the upper reaches of the Hudson River.
When Arnold's treason became known, Franks fell under suspicion of complicity. The court martial dropped all charges against David Salisbury Franks on the ground that they were unfounded. Remarkably, Benedict Arnold himself wrote a letter from a British ship exonerating Franks. One can imagine, however, that a letter of support from the traitorous Arnold did little to restore Franks' good name.
After Franks was returned to active duty, General George Washington had him assigned to his command. However, the other officers of Franks' own regiment started a whispering campaign against him. Seeking to clear his name definitively, Franks asked General Washington to initiate another court-martial, one that would investigate — rather than simply drop — the scurrilous charges against him.
After a month-long investigation, the court issued a thorough report completely exonerating Franks. A promotion in rank immediately followed. Franks was entrusted by the State Department to carry highly secret documents to diplomats Benjamin Franklin in Paris and John Jay in Madrid. In 1783, Franks returned to Philadelphia, but soon left for Paris to deliver to Franklin the official copy of the peace treaty that ended the war and granted American independence. According to his accounts, Franks often paid more of his expenses than his beloved young nation could afford to reimburse.
At war's end, Franks was made American vice-consul at Marseilles. In 1786, he was appointed to the American diplomatic team that negotiated a trade treaty between the United States and the potentates of Morocco. Yet, political opponents pursued David S. Franks. To a degree not comprehensible today, politics in the 1780s was a "blood sport" in which it was commonplace to attack opponents with accusation of vile moral corruption. Despite his exoneration, Jeffersonian Republicans continued to attack Franks for his association with Benedict Arnold. In 1786, the attacks succeeded and Franks was dismissed from the diplomatic corps. He returned to the United States discredited and bankrupt.
Undaunted, Franks fought to restore his reputation. Several times, he petitioned President Washington for reappointment to the diplomatic service. Finally, in 1789, Congress granted Franks 400 acres of land in recognition of his service during the Revolutionary war. His last position was that of assistant cashier at the Bank of the United States in Philadelphia.
David Salisbury Franks died of yellow fever in October of 1793 at the age of 53. His fortune gone, a Christian neighbor rescued his corpse from the coroner's wagon before it went to potter's field. Franks today lies buried today in Philadelphia's Christ Church Burial Yard, saved from the pauper's fate but not among his fellow Jews.
Like so may other "minor" patriots, Franks' name is not well known today. His courage, loyalty and willingness to expend his personal fortune for the cause of independence, plus his dogged determination to clear his name, deserve remembrance. Had he not had the bad fortune to be assigned to serve under the infamous Benedict Arnold, that name might rank with that of Haym Salomon, Mordecai Sheftall and Francis Salvador among the best-known Jewish patriots of the American Revolution.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes inspiring articles. Sign up for our daily update. It's free. Just click here.
Michael Feldberg is the director of the American Jewish Historical Society. Comment by clicking here.
Previously:
Mordecai Sheftall and the Wages of War
Haym Salomon: The rest of the story
Francis Salvador: Martyr of the American Revolution
How Hebrew came to Yale
The Making of a Jewish Citizen
© 2006, Michael Feldberg
|
