ABSTRACT
Benjamin Franklin would have been glad to retire that he had seen the war through, but Congress would not let him. He stayed on in Paris as American Minister, receiving honours of all kinds and helping America to take her place as one of the independent nations. The Duke of Dorset, Britain’s new Ambassador of Paris often came to see him, sometimes on business, sometimes out of pure friendliness. The Pope notified him that the John Carroll who had taken such good care of him during the Canadian expedition in 1776 was to be made the Superior of the Catholic clergy in America. Philadelphia greeted him with firing of cannon and ringing of bells, and deputation after deputation came to pay its respects. The Congress of Pennsylvania made him its President, and, in 1787, its representative at the Convention which drew up the Constitution of the United States. Washington was the great hero of Convention, but Franklin was the patriarch.
