18. Benjamin Franklin was a double agent while in Paris during the American Revolution
Benjamin Franklin’s status as a Founding Father is unquestioned. So is his standing as a scientist, inventor, writer, diplomat, and philosopher. Less known is his status as a spy. Franklin, while serving as one of America’s representatives to France during the Revolution, was also a spy for the British, though not for the party in power. From his long service in London as Massachusetts’ representative to the Court of St. James, Franklin knew many influential British politicians and businessmen sympathetic to the American cause. He made sure that those men were kept abreast of the events which brought about French and Spanish support of the Revolution, as well as the financial support from the Dutch.
Franklin’s wily use of the British politicians and businessmen to shift public opinion in Britain did not go unnoticed. Frequent complaints were made that the British seemed to be aware of confidential discussions between the American commissioners almost immediately. John Adams confided his suspicions of Franklin to his diary and to his wife, Abigail. But Franklin persisted, giving the British information which shaped not only their war effort, but their position in the negotiations in Paris. It was from Franklin they learned that the United States would never allow a separate state for the occupation of Indian tribes on the Northwestern border, a demand the British dropped in 1781.