Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin shared a long and prosperous friendship from the mid-1770s until Franklin’s death in 1790. Their friendship began at the Continental Congress where they served on the committee of five to write the Declaration of Independence in 1776. On August 13, 1777, Jefferson wrote to Franklin, then serving in Paris as our American diplomat, that his current domestic circumstances prevent him from joining Franklin in France.

Jefferson would eventually join Franklin in Paris for nine months beginning in 1784 to assist with commercial negotiations and eventually become our new representative to the French King. He would always admire Franklin and, according to Monticello, will note in his eulogy for Franklin the following:

“On being presented to any one as the Minister of America, the common-place question, used in such cases, was ‘c’est vous, Monsieur, qui remplace le Docteur Franklin?’ ‘It is you, Sir, who replaces Doctor Franklin?’ I generally answered ‘no one can replace him, Sir; I am only his successor.’”

Pictured: John Trumbull’s painting, Declaration of Independence, inspired by Thomas Jefferson; however, not historically accurate.