He helped draw up the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution

Usage examples of franklin.

Even Benjamin Franklin, who adamantly opposed slavery, had once owned two black house servants and had personally traded in slaves, buying and selling from his Market Street print shop.

But Adams adamantly opposed hereditary monarchy and hereditary aristocracy in America, as well as all hereditary titles, honors, or distinctions of any kind--it was why he, like Jefferson and Franklin, strongly opposed the Society of the Cincinnati, the association restricted to Continental Army officers, which had a hereditary clause in its rules whereby membership was passed on to eldest sons.

That Franklin was quietly proposing to equip the Continental Army with bows and arrows must have left Adams still more puzzled.

A committee was appointed, the Committee of Five, as it became known, consisting of Jefferson, Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, and Benjamin Franklin, who had by now returned from his expedition to Canada but was ill and exhausted and rarely seen.

And however much was owed to the writings of others, as Jefferson acknowledged, or to such editorial refinements as those contributed by Franklin or Adams, they were, when all was said and done, his lines.

At New Brunswick the inn was so full, Adams and Franklin had to share the same bed in a tiny room with only one small window.

Before turning in, when Adams moved to close the window against the night air, Franklin objected, declaring they would suffocate.

Franklin, who had known Howe in England, introduced Adams and Rutledge.

On November 27, Congress named Adams a commissioner to work with Franklin and Arthur Lee in negotiating a French alliance.

The first call of the day was on Benjamin Franklin, and from that point on Adams was kept steadily on the move, with sights to see, social engagements, dinners, teas, the theater.

Receiving Adams with all customary cordiality, Franklin insisted that he move in with him to quarters previously occupied by Silas Deane.

Whenever possible, Adams worked on his French, preferring the quiet of early morning, before Franklin was stirring.

Franklin had wasted no time confirming what Adams had heard at Bordeaux.

Franklin called Izard a man of violent passions and assured Adams that neither Lee nor Izard was liked by the French.

For their part, Lee and Izard were quick to assure Adams that Franklin was beneath contempt, expressing their views with a vehemence that astonished Adams as much as their choice of words.