FRANKFORT-ON-THE-MAIN, man, Prussia, the capital of a district of same name, on both banks of the navigable river Main, 24 miles above its confluence with the Rhine. It is divided by the river into two unequal parts; the one on the north bank, called Frankfort proper, being considerably larger than the other, which is called Sachsenhausen; and the two communi cate by several bridges. Frankfort was for merly fortified; but most of its outworks are now converted into gardens and promenades, and it is entered by nine gates. The principal streets are wide; there are also many squares and a number of large buildings, among which may be named the Rcemerberg, or old palace, in which the emperors of Germany were elected, and place of the assembling of the Diet; the Taxis palace, a place of residence of the em perors; the Sallhof, a modern imperial palace; an academy of painting, and the Senkenberg Museum. Its manufactures include carpets, table-covers, oilcloths, cotton and silk fabrics, woolen stuffs, jewelry, tobacco and printer's black. It has also large printing, lithographic and stereotyping establishments. Charlemagne, who had a palace in this city, summoned a coun cil in 794, and it was surrounded with walls by Louis 1 in 838. It was the capital of the Eastern Franks from 843 to 889, when Ratisbon was se lected. Frederick I was elected at Frankfort in 1152. From that time it became the place of election of the German kings and emperors. Frankfort was made a free city in 1245. Fred erick of Prussia signed a treaty known as the Union of Frankfort, with the empire, France and Sweden, at this city, 13 May 1744.The French captured it 2 Jan. 1750, and again in sembly of Pennsylvania a delegate to the Con tinental Congress which consolidated the armies of the colonies, placed Gen. George Washington in command of them, issued the first Continental currency, and assumed the responsibility of re sisting the imperial government; his last hope of maintaining the integrity of the empire hav ing been dissipated by recent collisions between the people and the royalist troops at Concord and Lexington. Franklin served on 10 commit
tees in this Congress. He was one of the five who drew up the Declaration of Independence in July 1776, and in September following was chosen unanimously as one of the three com missioners to be sent out to solicit for the infant republic the aid of France and the sym pathies of continental Europe. In this mission, the importance of which to his country can hardly be exaggerated, he was greatly favored by the reputation which had preceded him as a man of science. While yet a journalist he bad made some experiments in electricity, which established its identity with lightning. The pub lication by an English correspondent of the let ters in which he gave an account of these ex periments secured his election as an honorary member of the Royal Society of London and undisputed rank among the most eminent nat ural philosophers of his time. When he ar rived in Paris, therefore, he was already a member of every important learned society in Europe, one of the managers of the Royal So ciety of London, and one of the eight foreign members of the Royal Academy in Paris, where three editions of his scientific writings had already been printed. To these advantages must be added another of even greater weight: his errand there was to assist in dismembering the British Empire, than which nothing of a political nature was at this time much nearer every Frenchman's heart. See GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES.
The history of this mission, and how Frank lin succeeded in procuring from the French king financial aid to the amount of 26,000,000 francs, at times when the very existence of the republic depended upon them, and finally a treaty of peace more favorable to his country than either England or France wished to con cede, has been often told; and there is no chapter in the chronicles of this republic with which the world is more familiar.