AlterNet: Some Reflections on Turkeys and Eagles: "When the eagle was selected, Ben Franklin, the man who discovered how to harness and tame lightning; who invented the bifocals, the rocking chair and the Franklin stove; who helped write the Constitution and gained the help of the French at a critical moment in the American revolution, wrote in a letter to his daughter:
'For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the representative of our country. He is a bird of bad moral character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead tree near the river, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labor of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a fish, and is bearing it to his nest for the support of his mate and young ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.
'With all this injustice, he is never in good case but like those among men who live by sharping and robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the district. He is therefore by no means a proper emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America who have driven all the King birds from our country . . . "