AS Statesman and Diplomatist 79 



ton, " he never was intrusted with those initiative diplo- 

 matic powers which in England and now under the Con- 

 stitution of the United States, are confided to the depart- 

 ment having charge of foreign affairs. Congress con- 

 tinued to pass resolutions directing the policy foreign 

 ministers were to pursue." So that it was to the resolu- 

 tions of a vacillating Congress, and when Congress was 

 not in session, to letters from a constantly shifting Com- 

 mitee of Congress that Franklin had to look for general 

 or specific instructions. As letters then, under the best 

 circumstances, averaged two months in their passage 

 from Philadelphia to Paris; and after the war between 

 France and England began he was sometimes six months, 

 and at one time eleven months, without advice from his 

 government, he had to act upon his own responsibility 

 and at his own peril in matters of the greatest concern; 

 and so the greater the responsibility, the greater the 

 credit for all his diplomatic achievements. 



In another respect, Franklin had a substantial advan- 

 tage as our representative in Paris. The Congress of 

 the Confederation seems to have laid down the proper 

 rule as to what was necessary to maintain the dignity 

 of their diplomatic representatives abroad. When he 

 was first appointed one of the Commissioners to Paris 

 the salary of the Commissioners was not fixed at a spe- 

 cific sum, Congress resolving " that they shall live in 

 such a style and manner as they might find suitable and 



