In 1778 Benjamin Franklin, sent to Paris by the Continental Congress, signed with France a Treaty of Amity and Commerce. The treaty not only boomed U. S.-French trade but enabled Franklin to wangle large loans from a hesitant French Finance Minister. Impressed with the possibilities of such treaties for his then tiny and unprosperous country, Franklin brought Sweden and Prussia in on similar pacts.
Last fortnight in Washington Secretary of State Cordell Hull invited Ambassador Andre Lefebvre de Laboulaye of France to his office. There they signed a document "done in duplicate, in...
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