Why was Benjamin Franklin such an important founder? 

Franklin added international credibility to the Continental Congress because he a celebrity scientist and everyone's favorite American in Europe -- including England before 1774. Franklin had served in the Pennsylvania colonial legislature, as well as serving as the colonial agent for Pennsylvania and several other colonies to represent their affairs before the British government in London. Franklin was also a major publisher in the Middle Atlantic colonies. He was a modern celebrity, but a celebrity with remarkable substance. Despite lacking an semblance of a formal education, Franklin was a self-talent scholar who, like so many of the American founding fathers, was well read in the major political theorists of the day, as well as in the classical political histories of ancient Greece and Rome. His knowledge, wisdom and measured caution made him remarkably influential among the other founders and his political and diplomatic skills often helped foster the necessary compromises that often eluded other founders like John Adams. Franklin, in short, was brilliant and a truly original American intellect.

To say that you are practicing revisionist history would be an understatement. First we have a misconception of equality and we equate the equality of person with the equality of participation. They wanted to participate in the common councils of government as equals, which has nothing to do with the equality of persons as people. If you read the last paragraph of the Declaration of Independence it says this in spades; [We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.] What we see here is their desire to be self determinative, not having a King or a legislature in Britain determining anything for them. And this is where you are wrong about what they were trying to correct with the Constitution of the United States, because they already had a strong centralized government, and it didn’t go anywhere when the Constitution of the United States was adopted, because that original democracy of the States established by the Articles of Confederation was transferred into the Constitution of the United States as the Senate, and the Senate has the power of concurrence over both legislative systems in Congress, the Confederated (compound) Republic established by Article 1, and the Original Confederate assembly reestablished by Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution of the United States. So, what was the necessity for the Constitution of the United States? Disparity! They needed to address the disparity that existed between the States in their population and wealth, and they also needed to balance the legislative process to protect the interest of both the large and small States, because the large States are a minority in a democracy, and the small States are a minority in a republic. That’s why a system with characteristics of both forms a checks and balances legislative process, where one assembly determines scope and cost of all matters in question, and the other concurs with those choices, and it takes the concurrence of both to form an agreement to form a law, or policy. In the United States today, the 9 largest States control all matters of interest by their ability to form a proportional majority for assent in the House, however, when those matters are transmitted to the Senate for concurrence there are 41 smaller States to reject those measures and return them to the House for reconsideration along with amendments to advise those 9 largest States in the House what would be necessary to garner their concurrence for those measures. The other defect they fixed, which also is the only substantive amendment of the Articles of Confederation, was to change the assessment of taxes on the States to pay the debts of the Union from an assessment of the different forms of property within each State as a proportion of the aggregate assessment value of property throughout the Union, to a per capita assessment based upon an enumeration, a census, which normalized the States based upon a common factor, the population of each State as a proportion of the aggregate population of the Union, this made taxation more equitable, which also removed cheating on the assessment, and even the 3/5 compromise for slaves was part of that calculation, because it prevented a State from under counting their population to avoid paying taxes or over counting to have more representation in Congress. These two factors to make the States more equal and impart equity, is why they claimed to have established a “More Perfect Union”. Yes, Franklin was very important to the drafting of those documents, but the funny thing is, Washington was not as influential, especially as the President of the Constitutional Congress, it was Madison with his understanding of Republican Government which was a key factor, and the compromise was to split the responsibility of government into two legislative assemblies with different modes of assembly and action, which is why the Article 2 embodiment of the Senate was retained, the Republican Form of Government makes laws to manage how the States interact with each other to form and maintain the Union through laws, and the original confederate assembly manages how the States act as the Union when interacting with foreign nations through treaties to make the decisions of a Free and Independent State; with the full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, And to do All other Acts and Things an Independent State may by right do. And notice the majority consensus in the Republican assembly is a simple majority of the States, and the majority consensus in the confederate assembly is 2/3 of the States, just as it was under the Articles of Confederation!