PRESENTATION TO FRANCE OF 



THE GOLD MEDAL AUTHORIZED BY 



THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, 



APRIL 27, 1904 



By the Honorable Elihu Root, 



Secretary of State 



[In The American Academy of Music, Friday, April 20] 



Excellency: On the 27th of April, 1904, the Con- 

 gress of the United States provided by statute that the 

 Secretary of State should cause to be struck a medal to 

 commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of the 

 birth of Benjamin Franklin, and that one single impres- 

 sion on gold should be presented, under the direction of 

 the President of the United States, to the Republic of 

 France. 



Under the direction of the President I now execute 

 this law by delivering the medal to you as the represen- 

 tative of the Republic of France. This medal is the 

 work of fraternal collaboration by two artists whose 

 citizenship Americans prize highly, Louis and Augustus 

 Saint-Gaudens. The name indicates that they may have 

 inherited some of the fine artistic sense which makes 

 France preeminent in the exquisite art of the medalist. 



On one side of the medal you will find the wise, 

 benign, and spirited face of Franklin. On the other 



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