AUTHOR OF FIRST TREATY FOR AMERICA IN 1778.
MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY TO FRANCE IN 1778.
ONE OF FIVE TO DRAFT THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.
A LEADER IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.
ONE OF THE FRAMERS OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.
LIKE WASHINGTON, "FIRST IN WAR, FIRST IN PEACE, AND FIRST IN THE HEARTS OF HIS COUNTRYMEN."
Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert R. Livingston were associated with Franklin in drafting the Declaration of Independence, which Congress adopted, July 4, 1776. The original draft was by Jefferson, but it contained many interlineations in the hand-writing of Franklin. When they were signing the memorable document, after its passage by Congress, John Hancock remarked:
"We must be unanimous,—we must all hang together."
"Yes, if we would not hang separately," replied Franklin.
Jefferson was viewing, with evident disappointment, the mutilation of his draft of the Declaration in Franklin's hand-writing, when the latter remarked: