“I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country,” [Ben Franklin] said when he heard of Congress’s 1782 decision.
“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, 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 is support of his mate and young ones, the bald eagle pursues him, and takes it from him.”
What bird did Ben prefer? “The turkey,” he declared, “is a respectable bird and true, original native of America.”
Ben Franklin’s Almanac: Being a True Account of the Good Gentleman’s Life by Candace Fleming, page 90.