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prosperity to the point that revolution became just a matter of time. Thomas Jefferson may have written the Declaration but it is certain Franklin' ideas and thinking were strongly represented within its words. While Jefferson, Madison and Jay, among others, fleshed out the final details of the declaring of independence, Franklin worked on the colonies behalf overseas, signing both the Treaty of Amity and Commerce and The Treaty of Alliance with France, agreements the new nation would desperately need to survive against the world power that was England.

Ever the diplomat, Franklin now in his seventies spent much of the War in Europe, working strongly behind the scenes to assure the best outcomes for his countrymen. Although our school history book s spoke at length about George Washington's difficult campaigns, it is entirely conceivable that the outcome of the war would have been very different without the diplomatic alliances formed by Franklin. When France signed the Treaty of Alliance with the American colonies, both France and their ally Spain took up arms against England in the West Indies, the Gulf of Mexico, India and resulted in military action in the Netherlands. Faced with war on so many fronts, England was forced to give up hope that the Colonies would remain under their rule. The Colonies had won their freedom only because of the agreements and alliances forged by Dr Franklin. Fittingly, he signed the Treaty of Paris on behalf of the colonies which officially ended the war.

Winning independence was just the beginning of the trials for the newborn union. There were many differing opinions and disagreements between colonies and even within colonies on the form the new government should take. The first Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation at the dawn on the war in 1777 but the document was a weak confederation geared for the business of war. Disputes soon surfaced once the necessities of war faded. Franklin, true to form, had submitted a plan for an American Republic to the Continental Congress in 1775. His plan, annotated by Thomas Jefferson began the debate on the creation of an American Republic. Hamilton, Madison, Washington, Jay and Wilson instituted a series of regional commercial conferences that culminated into a national constitutional convention in Philadelphia in 1787.The colonies were used to being governed under the Puritan format of covenants and several of these found parts and pieces instituted into the final drafts.

As

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