THE 2026 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
THE ROLE OF THE MILITARY IN A DEMOCRACY
Morning Seminar: Friday, January 16, 2026
9am Welcome to the APS (David Gary/ Patrick Spero CEO of APS)
MODERATOR:
Dr. R. Scott Stephenson, CEO, Museum of the American Revolution, Philadelphia
SPEAKERS:
Maj Gen Wesley E. Craig, PA National Guard,
‘Franklin’s Associators, PANG and the 28th Infantry Division: Three Centuries of Service’
Claire Finkelstein, Algernon Biddle Professor of Law, Professor of Philosophy and Faculty Director of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law (CERL), University of Pennsylvania Law School
‘Domestic Deployments and Constitutional Constraints on the U.S. Military’
Ronald J. Granieri, Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute (FPRI), Professor of History, Dept. of National Security and Strategy, US Army War College
‘The Future of Military Alliances’
Following is a ticketed lunch honoring Gen H. R. McMaster
Lt. General H.R. McMaster: 2026 Benjamin Franklin Founder Award
Two hundred and fifty years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia is a perfect time to consider The Role of the Military in a Democracy. Without the subsequent victory in the Revolutionary War, Franklin’s remark to John Hancock that they should hang together or most assuredly hang separately might have been fulfilled. The honoree at the celebration of Ben Franklin’s 320th birthday will be Lt Gen H.R. McMaster, a proud Philadelphian, a decorated soldier, historian and analytical thinker. A graduate of Valley Forge Military Academy and the US Military Academy at West Point, he was a US Army Officer for 34 years. His career included combat service in the Gulf War, where he commanded Eagle Troop in the fiercest US tank battle since WW2. After the Gulf War, he returned to teach history at West Point and earned a Ph.D. in history from UNC. His book, critical of the US involvement in the Vietnam War, Dereliction of Duty, became required reading for the next generation of officers. General McMaster also served in the later wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and spent the last year of his uniformed service as the National Security Adviser in the first Trump administration. His time in Washington was colorfully recounted in At War with Ourselves. H.R. McMaster’s international standing as a soldier and public servant, as well as his book sales, would surely have impressed Benjamin Franklin.
Registration will be available in November.
The annual Franklin Birthday Celebration serves as a public “junto” about important issues that trace a through-line from Franklin’s day to our own.
Recent themes and honorees include:
Here is a 3-minute video
about the history of
The Franklin Birthday Celebrations