Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin helped secure French recognition and support for the United States during the Revolutionary War. As a commissioner in France from 1776, he drew on his public reputation as a scientist while negotiating for assistance. The treaties of friendship and alliance signed in 1778 followed the American victory at Saratoga. Franklin’s residence at Passy became a center of American diplomatic activity in France. ¹

His French posting also enabled negotiations with another European court. Franklin and Count Gustaf Philip Creutz, both accredited to the French king, signed the treaty of amity and commerce with Sweden in Paris on 3 April 1783. Franklin held a concurrent commission for Sweden but never presented credentials at Stockholm. ^{3, 2}

Born in Boston in 1706, Franklin had trained as a printer before building a newspaper and publishing business in Philadelphia. He later represented Pennsylvania in London, served in the Continental Congress, and helped draft the Declaration of Independence. After returning from France in 1785, he became president of Pennsylvania and attended the Constitutional Convention. In 1790, the year of his death, he petitioned Congress to end slavery. ⁴