“What new story have you lately heard agreeable for telling in conversation? Have you lately heard of any citizen’s thriving well, and by what means?”
It would be common for members of “Junto” to discuss these questions. Benjamin Franklin founded the collective in 1727, almost three centuries before self-improvement became a multi-million-dollar industry. The Founding Father understood that an individual can’t become virtuous alone—we need each other to improve ourselves and our communities.
How did his club put this notion into practice?
Portrait of Benjamin Franklin, 1778, by Joseph Siffrein Duplessis. Public Domain
Debates, Discussions, and Sound Thinking
“I should have mentioned before, that, in the autumn of the preceding year, [1727] I had form'd most of my ingenious acquaintance into a club of mutual improvement, which we called the Junto,” wrote Franklin in his autobiography.Alternatively called “The Leather Apron Club,” the collective met regularly in Philadelphia. The 21-year-old Franklin was the youngest of the 12 members. The group was eclectic, including businessmen Hugh Meredith, Stephen Potts, George Webb, and Robert Grace, merchant and scrivener Joseph Breintnall, clerk William Coleman, inventor and mathematician Thomas Godfrey, cartographers Nicholas Scull II and William Parsons, and cabinetmaker William Maugridge, and shoemaker John Jones Jr., whose name remained unknown until 2007, when Pennsylvania State University Historian George Boudreau discovered it among long-forgotten documents.
"Still Life With a Skull and a Writing Quill," 1628, by Pieter Claesz. Oil on panel, 9 1/2 inches by 14 1/8 inches. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Public Domain
Every Friday night, a Junto member had to lead the gathering with “one or more queries on any point of Morals, Politics, or Natural Philosophy, to be discuss’d by” the “junta,” which is Spanish for “assembly.” Meetings took place either in local taverns or in members’ private residences. Some of Franklin’s guiding questions for the meetings were published posthumously in his “Political, Miscellaneous, and Philosophical Pieces.” These five give us a glimpse of the wide range of topics up for discussion:
- “Do you know of any fellow citizen, who has lately done a worthy action, deserving praise and imitation? Or who has committed an error proper for us to be warned against and avoid?”
- “What unhappy effects of intemperance have you lately observed or heard? Of imprudence? Of passion? Or of any other vice or folly?”
- “Do you know of any deserving young beginner lately set up, whom it lies in the power of the Junto any way to encourage?”
- “Have you lately heard any member’s character attacked, and how have you defended it?”
- “Is there any difficulty in matters of opinion of justice, and injustice, which you would gladly have discussed at this time?”
Informal debates occasionally took the place of discussion. Although the stakes were low, it seems that members took their rhetorical practice very seriously. The goal of the debates was neither “dispute” nor “victory,” but a greater understanding of whatever question was at hand. To discourage dogma and uncritical opinions, Franklin even established “small pecuniary penalties” for using words like “certainly” and “undoubtedly,” which “imported a fix'd opinion” to be avoided in “the sincere spirit of inquiry after truth.”
Franklin’s attitude is an exemplary guideline for upholding intellectual honesty in our lives. “When another asserted something that I thought an error,” Franklin continued, “I deny‘d myself the pleasure of contradicting him abruptly. … I soon found the advantage of this change in my manner; the conversations I engag’d in went on more pleasantly. The modest way in which I propos’d my opinions procur‘d them a readier reception and less contradiction; I had less mortification when I was found to be in the wrong, and I more easily prevail’d with others to give up their mistakes and join with me when I happened to be in the right.”
Honesty, modesty, and curiosity were the Junto’s guiding principles.
Civic Duty: Serving the Community Through the Intellect
Out of Junto’s meetings came proposals for the creation of the first lending library, volunteer militia, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Pennsylvania Hospital, which is the second-oldest hospital in the United States. The American Philosophical Society was also conceived in 1743 as a branch of Junto. It now connects tens of thousands of philosophy students and professors worldwide.
The Pennsylvania Hospital was inspired from discussions in Benjamin Franklin's Junto group. Rytyho usa/CC BY-SA 3.0
Another product of Junto was the first firefighting company in Philadelphia, and one of the first in the American colonies. Its inception illustrates the value of encouraging active participation in local communities, which had always been the collective’s overarching goal. Better individuals meant better communities.
After observing the inefficiencies of the constables who were supposed to manage Philadelphia’s city watch, Franklin wrote an essay that called for “the hiring of proper men to serve constantly in that business.” The idea floated without materializing until he wrote another paper about the “carelessnesses by which houses were set on fire,” which was later published in a local newspaper. Again, he received unconditional support from Junto members, whose influence and financial backing enabled the establishment of what eventually became the Union Fire Company.
Several similar companies were founded by Philadelphian citizen groups inspired by Junto’s commitment to proactive citizenship. As Franklin reported in his autobiography, since the formation of these institutions, “the city has never lost by fire more than one or two houses at a time, and the flames have often been extinguished before the house in which they began has been half consumed.”
Junto’s Predecessors
Junto-like societies have existed for millennia. The first academic institutions in Athens were born of leaders like Franklin who wanted to converse with their friends for the benefit of everyone involved. After he converted to Christianity, Augustine of Hippo spent the autumn of that year in Cassiciacum, modern-day Italy, where he held morning and evening conversations around a shared text with his younger friends. These are just two of countless examples from history.
“St. Augustine,” between 1645 and 1650, by Philippe de Champaigne. Oil on Canvas; 30 11/12 inches by 24 2/5 inches. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Public Domain
Two well-known collectives closer in time to Junto were Cotton Mather’s “neighborhood benefit societies” and the “Dry Club,” both of which were known to Franklin. Mather’s “society” began in pre-independence Massachusetts around 1700. The Puritan clergyman invited 12 married couples to meet in rotation at one another’s homes for prayer, supper, and conversation. Mather articulated his vision in “Essays To Do Good,” which explicitly reminds members to refrain from deeds or speech “that may have any taint of backbiting or vanity.” Back in England, the “Dry Club” was inaugurated around the same time by philosopher John Locke, who hosted weekly two-hour meetings in his home to encourage the free exchange of ideas about topical issues. Although the two groups had been established with slightly different aims—one for spiritual enrichment and the other for intellectual inquiry—their goal was the same: to foster moral improvement by participation in a like-minded community.
Junto in the Digital Age
Had Franklin lived today, his ideas would have reached millions across the globe in record time. The amazing perk of digital media is that we don’t have to be senators, wealthy philosophers, or successful entrepreneurs to form or join collectives like Junto. But would Franklin have chosen to limit his work to the online sphere?This Founding Father’s interest in proactive citizenship reminds us that genuine self-improvement unfolds in the application of ideas. Application is most tangible and effective in the physical world, where it directly affects human lives, as Franklin cared to show us in his reflections on the Union Fire Company. The internet offers limitless resources. It allows us to connect beyond physical boundaries, giving us a far better starting point than most human beings could have ever wished for. Yet it also precludes essential in-person interactions.
There’s something special about meeting friends under the same roof, sharing ideas around the same table, and encouraging one another to think more carefully, act more prudently, and assist those in need more passionately while looking each other in the eyes. But maybe Franklin would have told us not to worry about our methods too much. Any means will do, so long as our hope is to become better and better every day.
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