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This portrait of Benjamin Franklin was commissioned by Robert Alexander, of the firm of William Alexander & Sons, Edinburgh. The beribboned document held by Franklin in the portrait is not a treaty or an Act of Parliament, but one of Alexander's deeds. The other books and pamphlets suggest the learned evidence brought in support of a wise man's decision. The bust of Isaac Newton, whose gaze is directed toward Franklin, invokes the greatest English voice of Reason.
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