wallach featureseli s benjamin franklin. [bell ringing] announcer: across seasons and centuries, we come to be near the birth somehow. the wind of words that moved here once still blows, independence, and summer raises whisper-faint, echoing words of ancient arguments won and lost, and the old, cracked bell echoes liberty. [bell ringing] announcer: a gathering of haunted houses, people with ghosts and voices of ghosts, where the fathers of our country still speak. some of the great ones wish to return from beyond the grave to see how it all turned out. there is power in a wish with 200 years behind it. dr. benjamin franklin. he snatched lightning from the heavens and the scepter from tyrants. >> did i make a wish? well, so i did. i had an ardent desire to observe the state of america in century or two. i wish to be immersed in a cask of wine with a few friends until i would be called to life by the solar warmth of my dear country. now, it seems i must relive those first days, now two centuries past. hmm, we must begin in 177