September 11, 1776 Staten Island Peace Conference.
 

Staten Island Peace Conference - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

During another round of trying to fix the growing chasm between the colonies and England, it seems John Adams really got Admiral Richard Howe's goat as well as his goose. This applied to many other Englishmen. Adams was singled out as being one rebel that the English would not pardon. Benjamin Franklin though was quite another story because of his long going relationship with the Mother Land and his extensive history of trying to keep the two together. Howe had sent Franklin a letter which gives a window into the respect many English still held for Benjamin Franklin. Howe addressed Franklin as "my worthy friend" and hoped to sculpt "the establishment of lasting peace and union with the colonies." Ben Franklin received permission from the Continental Congress to reply to Lord Howe's letter. They had set up Staten Island as the meeting place for negotiations towards a route to peace but the result was a foregone conclusion because of the requirement that the British insisted on the return to allegiance to the Crown.

The story of Franklin and Adams' night together in a bed on the way to the Peace Conference is an amusing one and shows just how needy Adams could be and how adept Franklin was at getting the upper hand. http://amhistnow.blogspot.com/2009/07/window.html

Word Jumble answers for Wednesday: Intent, Sniff, Third, Untold.
 

A Continental Congress committee chose Ben Franklin with the intent that he embark on a mission to France to try to pull the French into supporting the colonies with aid. Some of his enemies found his leaving the New World cowardly especially when the Redcoats were coming closer to Philadelphia. Franklin was the first of three envoys sent to Paris. The other two were going to be Thomas Jefferson and Silas Deane. The third position switched from Jefferson to grumpy Arthur Lee after Jefferson sniffed out untold family problems. On the question of Franklin's mettle though it showed courage for a 70 year old with gout, kidney stones and other maladies to cross the Atlantic and brave the possibility of his ship being sunk or captured by the mighty British navy.

http://www.chron.com/entertainment/c.../comic/Jumble/

Franklin's ship on the journey he took to France in October 1776 was The Reprisal captained by Lambert Wickes. Wickes

Thursday Word Jumble answers.
 

Jumble - Houston Chronicle

Grand.
Frond.
Fewest.
Scenic.

For checking Friday's Word Jumble answers-- http://www.uclick.com/client/sea/tmj.../19/index.html

Franklin landed in France via a fishing boat which had ferried him from the more scenic Continental Naval ship the Reprisal. He and his grandsons Benny Bache (age 7) and William Temple Franklin (age 17) accompanied him when they landed at Auray. Franklin had wanted to make the most anonymous landing in France he could notifying the fewest French of his arrival. This did not last long as the people of France loved Ben Franklin and as soon as his carriage reached a larger city, he was in for a grand ball. He had taken to wearing a soft fur cap which the ladies of Nantes honored by wearing wigs that mirrored it in the coiffure à la Franklin. Franklin's cult status in France soon eclipsed that of King Louis XVI who was so irked by it that he gave his mistress who was a huge Franklinphile a chamber pot with Franklin's image embossed inside. There were probably palm fronds made into likenesses of Ben Franklin and his fur hat in France. There were images of him in just about every art in France in late 1776.

Friday Word Jumble answers.
 

Troll.
Dunce.
Abacus.
Abrupt.


For checking April 20, 2013 Word Jumble answers:
http://www.uclick.com/client/sea/tmj.../20/index.html

In the abacus of determining friend from foe, Benjamin Franklin had a very hard time with one of his compatriots. This was with Arthur Lee who-- to put it in terms of 2013-- often acted like a troll to the people around him. He was a dunce with many of the social affairs going on in Paris and caused an abrupt end to some of Ben Franklin's plans with respect to getting the backing of various members of Parisian high society towards supporting the American Revolution. http://leearchive.wlu.edu/reference/misc/tyler/01.html

Saturday, April 20 Word Jumble answers.
 

Blaze.
Rotary.
Simile.
Pouch.

Arthur Lee went out of Paris in a blaze of glory at least when viewed from the hindsight of history. http://www.newrepublic.com/book/revi...omas-schaeper# He had complained about many people he came in contact with and seemed quite paranoid to Ben Franklin and his companions. It did turn out the one of the people he was most anxious about Edward Bancroft was actually a double agent working for the British Secret Service. https://www.cia.gov/library/center-f...1a07p_0001.htm He used invisible ink in some of his letters, hid messages at a dead drop, and managed to allude the scores of French spies that had been placed by the authorities on Americans in Paris. You wonder how Ian Fleming would have written about Edward Bancroft and what kind of weapons Q might have supplied him? It seemed though like Franklin was the man getting all the female attention in Paris, however, so the James Bond simile does not work that well for Bancroft in that respect. Bancroft also seems like someone who would fit in more with the local rotary club than someone placing pouches of explosives under enemy bridges.

Mike Argirion and Jeff Knurek Sunday Word Jumble answers.
 

April 21 Sunday Word Jumble answers from the Villages Daily Sun:

Crouch.
Author.
Fruit.
Staid.

For checking April 22, 2013 Word Jumble answers: http://www.uclick.com/client/sea/tmj.../22/index.html

John André and the Market Street house of Ben Franklin.
 

Word reached Franklin in Paris that General Howe had captured Philadelphia. He would not find this out for a while but there was also news which would be bitter fruit for Franklin. A British captain named John André commandeered his Market Street house and supposedly at the orders of a staid superior stole many of Franklin's prizes possessions like his electrical equipment, books authored by hundreds of writers, musical instruments and a 1759 beloved painting of Franklin by Benjamin Wilson which would not return to America until 1906 from the descendants of André's superior. You can now often find this portrait of Ben Franklin crouching in the White House. (John André would later play a big part in the treason of Benedict Arnold for which the colonialists would hang him.) https://www.cia.gov/library/center-f...3a07p_0001.htm

April 22, 2013 Word Jumble answers.
 

Jumble - Houston Chronicle

Click.
Frame.
Sickly.
Bright.

Ben Franklin and the Battles of Saratoga.
 

After the invasion of Philadelphia the American cause in France was rather sickly until news reached them of the victory at Saratoga which framed Independence in a new bright light pulled the French into very serious talks about joining the fight against the British. You can just see Ben Franklin clicking his tongue at all those that doubted him. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battles_of_Saratoga http://www.nps.gov/history/NR/twhp/w...93saratoga.htm

Word Jumble answers for Tuesday, April 23, 2013.
 

Treaty of Alliance with France: Primary Documents of American History (Virtual Programs & Services, Library of Congress)

Aloud.
Booth.
Triple.
Shrink.

http://www.chron.com/entertainment/c.../comic/Jumble/

Treaty with France.
 

After the friendship and alliance Treaty with France was a reality, Franklin handed it over to his secretary Edward Bancroft. Who was a double agent and copied the Treaty and sent this copy via a hired messenger get it to the ministers in London. They received it within 42 hours of its signing and had already knew about its contents as Bancroft had put this information into a letter with invisible ink in his usual dead drop 2 weeks before. Either Bancroft's acting was on par with the Booths or perhaps Franklin just expected this information to get through to the British in some way or another. No slouch Bancroft he shorted stocks on the information betting that news of the Treaty would affect the "bulls in the alley". He almost tripled his 420 pounds he had put on trades made before news of the Treaty became public, netting 1000 pounds.

It seemed that the only French person not enthralled with Franklin was Queen Marie-Antoinette who called him aloud an upstart. His low birth certainly had no impact on shrinking his ability to stand next to a French queen as well as a French king as an equal in the eyes of many.