Franklin was an undisputed leader of the Revolution. Other patriots
relied on him for advice about government, politics, propaganda,
and law. George Washington even consulted him for military advice.
Franklin was most important, however, as a diplomat. Without France's
aid, America could never have won the war. Without Franklin's charm
and talent, the French may not have given this aid. The French
ministers were impressed by his intelligence and sophistication,
his reputation as a scientist and man of letters, and his understanding
of British and French politics. He helped convince the French that
Americans were serious about winning their independence and would
stop at nothing short of it. Recognizing this, the French leaders
saw a chance to hurt Britain by helping America.
While the French government respected Franklin, the French people
loved him. He was a celebrity. The French delighted in Franklin's
jokes and witticisms. French intellectuals, steeped in the philosophy
of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, saw Franklin as a sort of noble savage.
Rousseau had written about a "state of nature" in which all humans
were equal and free. In Rousseau's philosophy, the institutions
of society had created inequality and hierarchy. Though Rousseau
thought of the "state of nature" as hypothetical rather than historical,
many his admirers believed that it was real. They sometimes equated
it with America. Dressing and speaking like a backwoods farmer,
yet full of wisdom and intelligence, Franklin seemed to be from
this "state of nature."
Franklin's popularity was not limited to intellectuals,
however. John Adams famously described the Franklin phenomenon.
"His name," Adams wrote, "was familiar to government and people,
to kings, courtiers, nobility, clergy, and philosophers, as well
as plebeians, to such a degree that there was scarcely a peasant
or a citizen, a valet de chambre, coachman or footman,
a lady's chambermaid or a scullion in a kitchen, who was not familiar
with it, and who did not consider him as a friend to human kind."
While nearly everyone loved Franklin in Paris, there was
at least one person back in America who hated him: Franklin's own
son, William. William had been appointed governor of New Jersey, probably
at the request of his father. Franklin had raised William, helped
his career, even tended to William's illegitimate son. He had begun
his Autobiography as a letter to William, and had
hoped William would follow in his footsteps. When the Revolution
began, though, William took Britain's side. He remained a loyalist throughout
the war, to Franklin's disappointment. After the war started, father
and son were enemies; they would never make up.
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