Founding Father and all-around Renaissance man Benjamin Franklin considered and wrote about many topics. In this essay from 1786 on restful sleep, Franklin advises exercise before meals, moderate eating ( full feeding, occasions nightmares and horrors inexpressible; we fall from precipices, are assaulted by wild beasts, murderers, and demons, and experience every variety of distress ), and fresh air in the sleep chamber, to avoid perspiring in a hot bed. Most importantly, he says, one must be sure to preserve a Good Conscience. This short work is part of Applewood s American Roots, series, tactile mementoes of American passions by some of America s most famous writers."
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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