At the end of March [1783] Franklin applied to [French Foreign Secretary] Vergennes for permission to publish a complete translation of the United States constitutions in French, the only language in which they could be widely read. He was eager to correct Europe’s misapprehensions about the new nation; he knew as well that he was offering up an advertisement for American trade and immigration.... Copies went out over the summer to the entire diplomatic corps and, in extravagantly bound editions, to Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The most influential of Franklin’s European publications the constitutions were universally well received.
Clarke, Jonas
Lexington, MA — Completed in 1737 by John Hancock's grandfather, the house is now a museum
On the night of Paul Revere's April 1775 ride John Hancock and Samuel Adams were awakened there with news of the advancing British troops.A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America (2005)