The "Franklin Prophecy"

[Anonymous]

Here is the "prophecy":

http://www.libreopinion.com/members/sta ... ion09.html

As the American colonies rose in revolt against political oppression occasioned by the attempt of Jewish banking houses in Europe to consolidate their economic foothold in the New World, no man among the Founding Fathers was more alert to the designs of international Jewry than that shrewd elder statesman of the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin. Perhaps Ben Franklin's most damning indictment of Jewry was contained in his famous prophecy at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 in Philadelphia. In one of the most anti-Jewish utterances of all time, he declared:

"I fully agree with General Washington, that we must protect this young nation from an insidious influence and impenetration. That menace, gentlemen, is the Jews. In whatever country Jews have settled in any great number, they have lowered its moral tone; depreciated its commercial integrity; have segregated themselves and have not been assimilated; have sneered at and tried to undermine the Christian religion upon which that nation was founded by objecting to its restrictions; have built up a state within a state; and when opposed have tried to strangle that country to death financially, as in the case of Spain and Portugal. For over 1700 hundred years, the Jews have been bewailing their sad fate in that they have been exiled from their homeland, as they call Palestine. But, gentlemen, did the world give it to them in fee simple, they would at once find some reason for not returning. Why? Because they are vampires, and vampires do not live on vampires. They cannot live only amongst themselves. They must subsist on Christians and other people not of their race. If you do not exclude them from these United States in the Constitution, in less than 200 years they will have swarmed here in such great numbers that they will dominate and devour the land, and change our form of government, for which we Americans have shed our blood, given our lives, our substance, and jeopardized our liberty. If you do not exclude them, in less than 200 years our descendants will be working in the fields to furnish them substance, while they will be in the counting houses rubbing their hands. I warn you, gentlemen, if you do not exclude the Jews for all time, your children will curse you in your graves. Jews, gentlemen, are Asiatics, let them be born where they will or how many generations they are away from Asia, they will never be otherwise. Their ideas do not conform to an American's, and will not even though they live among us ten generations. A leopard cannot change its spots. Jews are Asiatics, are a menace to this country if permitted entrance, and should be excluded by this Constitutional Convention."

Franklin's remarks were recorded in "Chit Chat Around the Table During Intermissions," a section of the Diary of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina. Pinckney (1746-1825) attended the Convention as a delegate, and took down excerpts of some of the outstanding addresses and discourses, which he later published in his diary. Perhaps the best proof of the Franklin prophecy---as with any prophecy---lies in its actual fulfillment. What Benjamin Franklin foresaw as an ominous possibility in 1787 has today---a little over two hundred years later---become painful reality.

Now the problem I have is where people use this as a claim that even a respectable founder of the USA knew the danger of "Jews".

Here are rebuttals:

http://www.america.gov/st/pubs-english/ ... 59524.html

16 November 2007
The "Franklin Prophecy"

70-year-old forgery continues to circulate

The so-called "Franklin Prophecy," which continues to appear in various countries, is an anti-Jewish forgery that first appeared in the United States in 1934. Shortly thereafter, it was revealed to be a phony document.

The "Franklin Prophecy" claims that during the 1787 Constitutional Convention, American founding father Benjamin Franklin made a speech in which he warned against Jewish influence in America and proposed that Jews be expelled from the United States. The speech allegedly was found in the diary of a convention delegate, Charles Coatesworth Pickney of South Carolina.

The eminent American historian Charles Beard investigated the "Franklin Prophecy." He could find no copy of Pickney's diary or even any reference to it in the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the Franklin Institute, or other historical libraries. Nor was there any reference to Franklin having made such a speech. In 1935, Beard wrote:

<BLOCKQUOTE>I cannot find a single original source that gives the slightest justification for believing that the Prophecy is anything more than a barefaced forgery. Not a word have I discovered in Franklin's letters and papers expressing any such sentiments against the Jews as are ascribed to him .... His well-known liberality in matters of religious opinion would, in fact, have precluded the kind of utterances put in his mouth by this palpable forgery . . . In his writings on immigration, Franklin made no mention of discrimination against Jews. </BLOCKQUOTE>

Part of the "Franklin Prophecy" claimed that Franklin had said:

<BLOCKQUOTE>For more than 1700 years, [the Jews] have lamented their sorrowful fate – namely, that they have been driven out of their homeland; but, gentlemen, if the civilized world today should give them back Palestine and their property, they would immediately find pressing reason for not returning there. </BLOCKQUOTE>

Beard noted, with regard to this sentence and the "Prophecy" in general:

<BLOCKQUOTE>the phraseology of the alleged Prophecy is not that of the 18th century; nor is the language that of Franklin. It contains certain words that belong to contemporary [Nazi] Germany rather than America of Franklin's period. For example, the word "homeland" was not employed by Jews in Franklin's time. It was created in connection with the Palestine mandate. </BLOCKQUOTE>

In other words, the passage referring to a "homeland" for the Jews in Palestine could only have been written after this idea was first suggested in the mid-1800s – well after the 1787 Constitutional Convention.

Beard also noted that Franklin held Jews in high regard, citing the fact that Franklin contributed five pounds to the Hebrew Society of Philadelphia when it was raising money for a synagogue and signing an appeal for contributions to the synagogue from "citizens of every religious denomination."

Other historians and experts agree the "Prophecy" was a forgery. J. Henry Smythe, Jr., author of <I>The Amazing Benjamin Franklin</I>, said it was "a counterfeit," stating, "I have investigated this calumny and find no historical basis." The librarian of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Julian P. Boyd, came to the same conclusion. Another Franklin biographer, Carl Van Doren, stated:

<BLOCKQUOTE>The speech against the Jews which Benjamin Franklin is alleged to have made the Constitutional Convention of 1787 is a forgery, produced within the past five years [1933-38]. The forger, whoever he was, claims that the speech was taken down by Charles Pinckney of South Carolina and preserved in his Journal. ... But this Journal, if it ever existed, has never been found. ... the forger has further asserted that the original manuscript of Franklin's speech ... is in the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia. The Franklin Institute does not possess the manuscript.

... There is no evidence of the slightest value that Franklin ever made the alleged speech or ever said or thought anything of the kind about the Jews.</BLOCKQUOTE>

The "Franklin Prophecy" was published in the February 3, 1934 edition of the weekly newspaper <I>Liberation</I>, published by American Nazi leader William Dudley Pelley. Pelley, a former newspaper reporter, is suspected of being the author of the forgery.

In 1925, Pelley stated that he had an out-of-body experience, which had inspired him to radically change his life and lead a national movement to change society, centered on millennial Christianity. In 1933, Pelley interpreted Hitler's rise to power in Germany as a sign that the Second Coming of Jesus was approaching. Pelley founded an American Nazi organization, the Silver Legion, which wore Nazi-like silver uniforms. He envisioned them as fighting the forces of evil in the Last Days before the Second Coming. In 1942, Pelley was convicted of various crimes and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Osama bin Laden referred to Pelley's "Franklin Prophecy" forgery in his 2002 "Letter to the American People," in which he complained about supposed Jewish power in America, stating that this is "precisely what Benjamin Franklin warned you against."

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

Another analysis:

http://www.conservapedia.com/The_Franklin_Prophecy

The Franklin Prophecy
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The Franklin Prophecy is a forgery. It was first published in February 1934 in William Dudley Pelley's publication, Liberation. It refers to an anti-Semitic speech which Benjamin Franklin is alleged to have made at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, written down by Charles Pinckney of South Carolina and preserved in his journal. In a letter to John Quincy Adams dated 30 December 1818, Pinckney said he had kept a journal of the proceedings at the Convention. Pelley claimed that Pinckney published the Journal "for private distribution among his friends" under the title Chit-Chat Around the Table During Intermissions.
Contents
[hide]

    * 1 Use by American fascist groups
    * 2 Authenticity
    * 3 Text of the "Prophecy"
    * 4 See also
    * 5 References

Use by American fascist groups

Following its publication in Liberation, the "Prophecy" was widely circulated throughout the United States. In the 1930's it was disseminated by chain letters, and printed copies of the speech were placed in trains, buses, railway stations and similar public places. It appeared in the propaganda press and broadcasts of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, and a version was included in the 1935 edition of Handbuch der Judenfrage ("Handbook On The Jewish Question"), a political publication by Theodor Fritsch, first written several decades earlier, that went on to become a Nazi "bible".

In the United States, anti-Semitic groups such as Chicago's We The Mothers Mobilize For America used the Prophecy as their raison d'etre. Gerald L. K. Smith and other anti-Semitic propagandists argued strongly in favor of its authenticity, and it was printed in Women's Voice (31 July 1952) and the Political Reporter (July 1953). In May 1954 it was published in The Point, put out by Roman Catholic Father Leonard Feeney of St Benedict's, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Authenticity

Historians have overwhelmingly concluded that the Prophecy is fraudulent. Charles A. Beard wrote: "I cannot find a single original source that gives the slightest justification for believing that the Prophecy is anything more than a barefaced forgery. Not a word have I discovered in Franklin's letters and papers expressing any such sentiments against the Jews as are ascribed to him by the Nazis — American and German. His well-known liberality in matters of religious opinion would, in fact, have precluded the kind of utterances put in his mouth by this palpable forgery." Beard also pointed out: "The phraseology of the alleged Prophecy is not that of the 18th century; nor is the language that of Franklin. It contains certain words that belong to contemporary Nazi [ideology] rather than America of Franklin's period. For example, the word homeland was not employed by Jews in Franklin's time. It was created in connection with the Palestine mandate."

J. Henry Smythe, Jr., concluded that it was a "libel of the Jewish race, unjust both to Jews and to the name and fame of Benjamin Franklin. I have investigated this calumny and find no historical basis."

In fact, Benjamin Franklin was friendly towards the Jews even contributing towards the building of Mikveh Israel, the first permanent synagogue in America.[1]
Text of the "Prophecy"

    There is a great danger for the United State of America. This great danger is the Jew. Gentlemen, in every land the Jews have settled, they have depressed the moral level and lowered the degree of commercial honesty. They have remained apart and unassimilated; oppressed, they attempt to strangle the nation financially, as in the case of Portugal and Spain.
    For more than seventeen hundred years they have lamented their sorrowful fate — namely, that they have been driven out of their mother land; but, gentlemen, if the civilized world today should give them back Palestine and their property, they would immediately find pressing reason for not returning there. Why? Because they are vampires and vampires cannot live on other vampires - they cannot live among themselves. They must live among Christians and others who do not belong to their race.
    If they are not expelled from the United States by the Constitution within less than one hundred years, they will stream into this country in such numbers that they will rule and destroy us and change our form of Government for which we Americans shed our blood and sacrificed our life, property and personal freedom. If the Jews are not excluded within two hundred years, our children will be working in the field to feed Jews while they remain in the counting houses, gleefully rubbing their hands.
    I warn you, gentlemen, if you do not exclude the Jews forever, your children and your children's children will curse you in their graves. Their ideas are not those of Americans, even when they lived among us for ten generations. The leopard cannot change his spots. The Jews are a danger to this land, and if they are allowed to enter, they will imperil our institutions. They should be excluded by the Constitution.

So it doesn't seem too authentic.  No diary available, all we have is the word of this one guy that this existed.  The argument for the term "homeland" could be dismissed, but the claim that no other utterance of anti-"Jewish" speak from Franklin's works would indicate he didn't say it, or was shy to say things of such nature in written form.

Anyone have any authentication of it?

Peace.