AS Statesman and Diplomatist 77 



of the final plan; to have signed and helped to frame 

 the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance, 

 the Treaty of Commerce, the Treaty of Peace, and the 

 Constitution of the United States — these great acts are 

 sufficient to place him in the front rank of our construc- 

 tive statesmen and designate him as the greatest of our 

 diplomatists from the beginning until now. 



It is the fate of the average ambassador or minister 

 to foreign countries to become generally subject to the 

 influence of his new surroundings, and to look sometimes 

 through foreign spectacles at public and social questions, 

 and unduly to admire the rulers and institutions of the 

 nations which welcome them so warmly and honor them 

 so highly. But it was the unique merit of Franklin to 

 be so intensely American that no foreign influence could 

 touch him. Jefferson argued that it spoilt an American 

 diplomatist to keep him abroad seven years — and I think 

 many instances could be cited in support of his argu- 

 ment. But Jefferson took care to add that this did 

 not apply to Franklin, who, he says, was America 

 itself when in France, not subjecting himself to French 

 influence, but subjecting France to American influence, 

 and I am sure that this is true of him in his fifteen 

 years in England. 



The American ambassador of to-day can hardly re- 

 alize the responsibility, difficulty and danger that sur- 

 rounded his predecessor of the eighteenth century. Tied 



