ABSTRACT
After the War of Independence, John Adams predicted immortality for George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. He never expected to be similarly ennobled, but there can be no doubt that he longed to be remembered as a notable American statesman. On arrival, Adams discovered that the envoys, Silas Deane, Benjamin Franklin, and Arthur Lee, had negotiated treaties of alliance and commerce with France, so that his mission was useless. In addition, Adams dispatched intelligence to Congress, reporting on English morale, Great Britain's diplomatic isolation in Europe, the state of the French economy, and Versailles's attachment to the American cause. Adams had come to France bubbling with optimism in the wake of America's victory at Saratoga in the fall of 1777. That triumph, coupled with France's entry into the war soon after Adams arrived in Passy, appeared to him to seal Great Britain's doom.
