10. Benjamin Franklin
When Benjamin Franklin arrived in France in December, 1776 as part of the first commission to represent American interests there, he immediately observed a trend which separated him from his fellow commissioners. To his French hosts, Franklin was a celebrity. To Franklin, it was apparent as he journeyed by coach to Passy, outside Paris, the French regarded him as a homespun genius of simple tastes. Though far from true, Franklin was nothing if not wily, and he exploited the image held by the French. The brocaded and opulent suits packed for the mission disappeared, and Franklin presented himself to the French court in the manner the French expected. His celebrity only grew, much to the annoyance of fellow commissioner John Adams.
Franklin’s almost shameless representation of himself as a man of simple tastes and humble virtue belied the luxuriousness of his accommodations in France. Throughout Paris, and in the villages and towns of France, he was regarded with almost awe by the smitten French people. To the women of the Court of Louis XVI and among the nobility he played the image to the hilt, while in the back rooms he engaged in intrigues and political maneuvers. He persuaded the French to aid the Americans with money and weapons, and eventually enter the war on the American side. He remained in France until 1785. Upon his return, over $100,000 of Congressional funds entrusted to him as commissioner were unaccounted for. He never did account for them, further annoying Adams.