During his residence in England he became intimate with some of the most distin guished men both of Britain and of the continent; his correspondence with them indi cates the combination in a remarkable degree of a cultivated mind with a vivid imagi nation. In 1762, he returned to America; but new difficulties arising between the mother country and the colonies, which determined the assembly to demand the estab lishment of a central government, he was again dispatched to England as its agent. He strongly opposed the stamp act, and was examined at the bar of the house of commons in 1766, when the repeal of that offensive measure was proposed. In consequence of the position he assumed on this occasion, he was deprived of the postmastership, and treated very harshly by the ministry.. Despairing of bringing about any reconciliation between the disputants, he returned to Philadelphia in 1775, where the congress was at that time assembled. He was elected a delegate to it; and from that time he exerted himself to the utmost to obtain a declaration of the independence of the 13 American states. This declaration was pronounced by congress on the 4th July, 1776, and F. was appointed United States minister at the court of France, where he succeeded in inducing the French government to form an offensive and defensive alliance with the states. On the 20th of Jan., 1782, F. had the supreme satisfaction of signing at Paris, along with the English commissioners, the treaty of peace by which the independence of the American colonies was assured. Returning to America in 1785, he was succes sively chosen member and president of the supreme executive council for the city of Philadelphia, and in 1787, delegate for Pennsylvania to the convention for the revision and emendation of the articles of union. In 1788, he retired from public life, and died
April 17, 1790, at the advanced age of 84. The congress, as a testimony of the grati tude of the 13 states, and of their sorrow for his loss, appointed a general mourning throughout the states for the period of two months.
F., in all his labors, was ever actuated by an intense desire to promote the well being and happiness of his fellow-men; and few have been more successful in their aims. From poverty he rose to wealth, and from ignorance and obscurity to extensive erudition and honorable renown; gaining for himself the admiration of Europe and the gratitude of America.
In person, F. was about 5 ft. 9 or 10 in. in height, and well and strongly made. He had a fair complexion and gray eyes, while his manners were extremely winning and affable. None of his descendants bears his name; the last who did so being his grand son, William Temple Franklin, who died in 1823. There are many descendants of his daughter, who married a Mr. Bache.
The works of F. appeared in London in 1806. His memoirs, etc., were published in 1817; a complete edition of his works, in 1836-40. In 1874, Bigelow published a new edition of F.'s autobiography (originally published in a French translation), from the original autograph. See Parton's Life and Times of F, 1864.