gest
that the charge of the public treasury should be taken from him! To whom
else would the Frenchmen have unlocked their coffers as they did to him,
whom they so warmly liked and admired? John Adams and Arthur Lee and
other Americans who endeavored to deal with the French court got
themselves so thoroughly hated there that little aid would have been
forthcoming at the request of such representatives. It was to Franklin's
personal influence that a large portion of the substantial help in men,
ships, and especially in money, accorded by France to the States, was
due. He was as much the right man in Europe as was Washington in
America.

Nevertheless this attribution of traits, so maliciously penned, has
passed into history, and though the world does not see that either
France or the States had cause "to repent" keeping Franklin in Paris in
general charge of affairs, and unwatched by a vigilant secretary, yet
all the world believes that in the gay metropolis Franklin was indolent
and given over to social pleasures, which flattered his vanity.
Undoubtedly there is foundation in fact for the belief. But to arrive at
a just conclusion one must consider many things. The character of the
chief witness is as important as that of the accused. Adams, besides
being a severe critic, was filled to the brim with an irrepressible
activity, an insatiate industry, a restlessness and energy, all which
were at this period stimulated by the excitement of the times to an
intensity excessive and abnormal even for him. To him, in this condition
of chronic agitation, the serenity of Franklin's broad intellect and
tranquil nature seemed inexplicable and culpable. But Franklin had what
Adams lacked, a vast experience in men and affairs. Adams knew the
provinces and the provincials; Franklin knew the provinces and England
and France, the provincials, Englishmen, Frenchmen, and all ranks and
conditions of men,--journeymen, merchants, philosophers, men of letters,
diplomatists, courtiers, noblemen, and statesmen. The one was an able
colonist, the other was a man of the world, of exceptionally wide
personal experience even as such. Moreover Franklin's undertakings were
generally crowned with a success which justifies us in saying that,
however much or little exertion he visibly put forth, at least he put
forth enough. Adams sometimes was for putting forth too much. Franklin,
when he arrived in France, was in his seventy-first year; his health was
i