The outcome of the American Revolution was in doubt from the beginning. The colonists faced a wealthy European country with a well-equipped, professional army and the world’s most powerful navy. Although Americans of the time were a rugged, healthy and largely self-sufficient people, their rustic manners, disorganized militias and comparatively inexperienced military leadership were no match for the bloodthirsty redcoats, many of whom were thieves and cutthroats snatched off the streets of England’s dismal cities and beaten into vicious, remorseless and organized killers. And to add to the redcoat menace were the whooping, scalp-hunting savages to the west, armed by the British and driven into frenzies of bloodlust by a steady flow of firewater across the lawless frontier.
Moved by forethought, genuine patriotism and enthusiasm for the company of beautiful European ladies, America’s greatest statesman of all time set out to secure an alliance that would result in the salvation of his fledgling nation. By the time the American Revolution got under way, Benjamin Franklin was already advanced in years, but despite his bald head, spectacles, heavy paunch and coonskin cap, he was a smash hit with French women.
The men of France already admired Franklin greatly for his achievements in science and literature, but what really won over the entire nation was his passion for the Game. However, not all of America’s founding fathers were entirely pleased with Franklin’s methods, which seemed to some disorderly and wasteful, but with the benefit of hindsight, their efficacy can hardly be doubted.
John Adams, who was of a different sort of temperament and was initially sent as part of the same diplomatic mission, wrote dismissively of Franklin’s peccadillos:
The life of Dr. Franklin was a Scene of continuall discipation [...] It was late when he breakfasted, and as soon as the breakfast was over, a crowd of carriages came to his Levee or if you like the term better his Lodgings, with all Sorts of People; some Phylosophers, Academicians and Economists [...] but by far the greater part were Women and Children, come to have the honour to see the great Franklin, and to have the pleasure of telling Stories about his Simplicity, his bald head and scattering straight hairs…
–The Diary and Autobiography of John Adams
Adams was probably a bit jealous, and the attention Franklin garnered likely wounded his pride, but this was France, after all, and the love the French had for Franklin turned out to be a very valuable asset.
Despite Adams’ account, it wasn’t simply Franklin’s reputation for simplicity and eccentricity that scored points with the ladies; John Adams, beta that he was, was blind to the diligent effort and skill that went into Franklin’s brand of diplomacy. It was his eagerness to play along and his attention to the finer points of Game that elevated Franklin to such mythic proportions amongst the ladies of France.
For example, we like to think of the text message and email as revolutionary tools for social networking, but in the France of Franklin’s day people were in the habit of sending countless notes and letters per day — especially women. These notes were often as pointless as your typical text message, sometimes including nothing more than a teasing or scolding word or two, or some invitation to dinner, or for a walk in the park or whatever else might be desired by an acquaintance.
Franklin made it a point to keep up his correspondence as best he could, writing volumes of letters to his female admirers. Many of those that survive included references to acts of physical intimacy and “professions of undying love and demands [...] for greater intimacies with what would seem to be a whole harem of passionate and beautiful women.” [Edmund S. Morgan in The Genuine Article, chapter 16 "Secrets of Benjamin Franklin"]
As this quote from Morgan’s book demonstrates, his letters also reveal the subtle use of Game tactics such as push-pull:
Franklin may complain to Madame Helvétius, with whom he says he has spent “so many of his days,” because “she seems very ungrateful in never giving him one of her nights.” But when a lady actually yields to such entreaties, he asks for a delay “until the nights were longer.”
[ibid]
Although he had long been well-known to French intellectuals and men of society, French men viewed Franklin’s dalliances with women as though he were engaged in a sport — one that they themselves enthusiastically participated in as well. His skill at Game greatly raised the French estimate of the American character, leading them to take the budding country more seriously, and soon money and aid began to pour into the Revolutionary cause.
Ultimately, Franklin’s diplomatic mission was such a resounding success that the French Navy sent a fleet to relieve American forces during the most crucial point of the American Revolution, ensuring America’s victory and Independence.
Although a man bereft of the accomplishments of Franklin could not expect to have been taken as seriously as he was, yet a man of unquestioned intellectual brilliance and accomplishment never could have accomplished as much for his country as Franklin did without Game. Without Benjamin Franklin in all his incarnations – author, inventor, and master of Game – the world’s most powerful nation could easily have died in its infancy.
