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.
Allen, Ethan
Ticonderoga, NY — Built by the French 1755—59 as Fort Carillon, it was taken by the British in 1759 and renamed. During the war the fort went from British to American to British and to American again. Reconstruction began in 1908.
A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America (2005)