Benjamin Franklin and the Franco-American Alliance

Paris was restless with excitement. Rumors flew through the city; he’s come back to Europe to retire; he’s here to take the waters for the gout everyone knew plagued him; he’s here to publish his scientific papers; he’s fled to France because the American cause of freedom has failed. The British too joined the rumor mill and the prolific English author and politician, Horace Walpole posited, “he has invented a machine the size of a toothpick case… that would reduce St. Paul’s to a handful of ashes.” From his glorious palace of Versailles, the former hunting cabin turned seat of French sovereignty where courtiers competed with one another for proximity to the French monarch, King Louis XVI and his advisers debated how best to welcome France’s famous visitor from America; 70-year-old Benjamin Franklin.