Lone Traveler: The Singular Life of Benjamin Franklin
Chapter 35 Philosophers, John Paul Jones and William’s Plight Franklin and Voltaire met on more than one occasion in 1778, the year of the great writer’s death. He’d returned to Paris at the age of eighty-three after a twenty-eight year, self-imposed exile. The Parisians adored and praised him as the world’s foremost philosopher on physical and spiritual liberty. It was imperative that America’s representatives to France meet him. Soon after Voltaire’s arrival in February the envoys, along with Temple, called on Voltaire at his lodgings at the Hotel de Villette, in Paris. The aged philosopher, author of Candide and Zaire, former prisoner of the Bastille, and critic of religious institutions stood with Franklin and his grandson in front of a crowd that seemed to expect a parting of the clouds or some other phenomena to mark the meeting of two of the greatest men of their age. Franklin, ever conscious of his society didn’t disappoint. Taking Temple by the shoulders he guided the youth to a position before Voltaire and asked for his blessing. Placing his emaciated hands on the boy’s head he blessed him. Shortly after the event Voltaire wrote, “When I gave the benediction to the grandson of the illustrious and wise Franklin, the man of all America most to be respected, I pronounced only the words: God and Liberty. All who were present shed tears of happiness.” Others who were there that day verified Voltaire’s claim of a weeping crowd. They met again on April 9th when Voltaire was initiated into Franklin’s Masonic lodge, the Nine Sisters and on April 29th at the Academy of Science. At that meeting Voltaire gave eulogies on the French scientists Jurieu, Duhamel and others and as he did the crowd became restless and began to call for another encounter between Voltaire and Franklin. The two stood and approached each other but not knowing what was expected of them they hesitated. Adams described the scene, “…there presently arose a general cry that M. Voltaire and M. Franklin should be introduced to each other. This was done, and they bowed and spoke to each other. This was no satisfaction: there must be something more. Neither of our philosophers seem to divine what was wished or expected; they however took each other by the hand. But this was not enough. The clamour continued until the explanation came out: Il faut s’embrasser a la francaise. The two aged actors upon this great theatre of philosophy and frivolity then embraced each other by hugging one another in their arms and kissing each other’s cheeks, and then the tumult subsided. And the cry immediately spread throughout the kingdom, and I suppose throughout Europe: Qu’il est charmant de voir embrasser Solon et Sophocle. Solon and Sophocles should embrace, but it must be in the manner of the French.” It was in 1778 that Turgot penned the most famous of modern Latin epigrams and the one that appears along with the words of Mirabeau and Washington on the wall by Franklin’s grave in Philadelphia, Eripuit caelo fulmen sceptrumque tyranis, “He tore from the skies the lightning and from tyrants the sceptre.” Houdon sculpted a marble bust of Franklin in that year and on February 14 John Paul Jones sailed into Quiberon Bay, where he and Admiral La Motte Piquet exchanged gun salutes, the first time the American flag was officially recognized by another nation. Already battle tested as the commander of the first vessel commissioned by the Continental Navy, the Providence, Jones left America on November 1, 1777 with the Ranger, carrying the news of Gates’ victory at Saratoga. With the French and Spanish navies engaging the British in the West Indies, the Mediterranean and elsewhere Congress believed that attacks on British vessels in their home waters could be successful. They sent Jones to harass shipping in the English Channel, Irish Sea, North Atlantic and North Sea. It wasn’t necessary that he have a significant impact militarily but by threatening Britain’s merchant vessels he would cause insurance rates to rise, stock prices to fall, and Lord North’s opponents to act. The Ranger only carried 18 guns but Jones used them and his small crew boldly. On April 10, 1778 he left Brest for the Irish Sea and once there engaged several small vessels and completed one of the most noteworthy shore raids in naval history. His father was the gardener on the Arbigland estate in southwest Scotland where Jones was born. He left home for the West Coast of England at the age of 13 to serve 4 difficult years as a seaman’s apprentice. The town that he and his crew raided in 1778 was Whitehaven, the port from which Jones served his apprenticeship. He knew the channels and docks, which certainly had a bearing on his target selection but it may also have been chosen out of revenge. Jones’ treatment as a cabin boy and his experience as a ship’s officer on a slaver out of Whitehaven was often quite harsh. Destroying the property
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