Lone Traveler: The Singular Life of Benjamin Franklin by Voltaire and Rousseau but a living embodiment of them. Voltaire described Pennsylvania as an ideal society and Rousseau romanticized about the wilderness and primitive man. Neither Frenchman presented an accurate image of America and its people but their descriptions were exactly what America’s first ambassador needed. Franklin’s image as the noble peasant was the perfect counter to a haughty and powdered English king and his ambassador to France, Lord Stormont. Franklin realized the affect his appearance had on the people and he used it to his advantage immediately. He continued to wear his fur cap rather than a wig in Nantes, first because of the cold and then because of a recurring skin condition similar to psoriasis that plagued him through much of his life. By the time he reached Paris on December 21st the press had noted, in glowing reports, his rustic, yet endearing dress and the ladies had even gone so far as to create a hairstyle that resembled the cap, the “Coiffure a la Franklin”. The hat became a symbol and Franklin’s glasses, brown suit, and clean, white linen completed the image. His spoken French was imperfect but for many it was a flaw that only increased his appeal. His manners contributed to the misimpression that Franklin was a Quaker, a mistake he was not inclined to correct. One Frenchmen wrote, “Everything in him announces the simplicity and innocence of primitive morals… Such a person was made to excite the curiosity of Paris.” The cause of liberty had already excited many in Europe. The French were particularly moved by the events and passions of the American revolution and the “The virtuous young King”, Louis XVI, who had come to power three months after the episode in the Cockpit in January of 1774, gave his people great hopes about their own liberties. Franklin became the hub around which an international melodrama would spin.
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