Benjamin Franklin said he had looked everyday at a chair that had half a sun on the back of it ..?

Question

He said that he always wondered if that sun was a rising or setting one.. At the end of the convention, he decided it was rising. What did he mean by that???

Answer 1

That was in his autobiography. That's a damn good book. He was one of those amzing men who had fire coming out of his ears, like Teddy R.
When you see a picture of the sun setting, are you sure it's not rising? How do you know? He liked to make points with jokes and setting ironic examples. A good one he made was when they were trying to decide which colonies were going to stand against England. He said, "If we don't hang together on this; we will surely hang apart." Funny in a dark way. I'm sure if he were alive today, he would produce heavy metal bands or be a giant promoter.
He was using the sun setting/rising example to let you know he was upbeat about the direction in which the country was going. Like the Japanese Flag, the rising sun. Would you want you country to be a setting sun? That means 'end'.
Got it?

Answer 2

http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l3_citizen_founding.html

As the representatives signed the Constitution, Franklin watched. The president's chair was at the front of the hall, and a sun was painted on the back of the chair. Franklin told some of the members near him that it was always difficult for painters to show the difference between the rising sun and the setting sun. He said that during the convention he had often looked at the painted sun and wondered "...whether it was rising or setting. But now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun."

I think it has to do with his optimism for the New World's future.