Green Ben Franklin
Some readers took umbrage at the characterization of Franklin in our August cover story as a pioneer of environmental science. One was livid that Franklin and Al Gore were mentioned in the same sentence. "Al's major accomplishments have been enlarging his wealth and waistline," wrote John Boyd.
Franklin's Foresight
I just finished reading Steven Johnson's article, "Green Ben" (August 2009), and I was very disturbed to find this obvious eco propaganda given the imprimatur of your fine periodical. To call Ben Franklin "green" is to use the false technique of declaring your point and then going back into history to find disconnected and diverse facts that, with clever writing and editing, can be made to prove it.
William H. Bacharach
Pequea, Pa.
We say…
Johnson's careful review of primary documents led him to conclude that Franklin not only played an unheralded role in Joseph Priestley's discovery that the air we breathe is a concoction of plants, but also showed remarkable prescience in recognizing that the process is part of a vast ecosystem. Franklin could not have foreseen the ongoing political debate over the findings produced by the new science he helped unleash. But one thing we can learn from him is to approach the debate with an open mind.
Lincoln's Clairvoyance
If President Lincoln got a message shortly before dawn on July 4, 1863, that the Confederates were in retreat from Gettysburg, he must have been clairvoyant ("Reborn on the 4th of July," August 2009). Both armies stayed in position that day. Only under cover of darkness did Lee begin his withdrawal.
Roland Brockmeyer
Via e-mail
We say…
We can't vouch for Lincoln's prognosticative powers, but hopeful news from the battlefield arrived in Washington at 6:10 a.m. on July 4 and continued through the morning hours. General George Meade reported that his army was "in fine spirits" and that "the enemy might be withdrawing." While General Robert E. Lee did not officially order his army to retreat until the evening of July 4, Lincoln issued a statement to the nation at 10:30 that morning proclaiming that "news from the Army of the Potomac…is such to cover that army with the highest honor, to promise a great success to the cause of the Union."
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