EXCELLENCY: On the 27th of April, 1904, the Congress of the United
States provided by statute that the Secretary of State should cause to
be struck a medal to commemorate the two-hundredth anniversary of the
birth of Benjamin Franklin, and that one single impression on gold
should be presented, under the direction of the President of the United
States, to the Republic of France.
Under the direction of the President I now execute this law by
delivering the medal to you as the representative of the Republic of
France. This medal is the work of fraternal collaboration by two artists
whose citizenship Americans prize highly, Louis and Augustus
Saint-Gaudens. The name indicates that they may have inherited some of
the fine artistic sense which makes France pre-eminent in the exquisite
art of the medallist.
On one side of the medal you will find the wise, benign, and spirited
face of Franklin. On the other side literature, science, and philosophy
attend, while history makes her record. The material of the medal is
American gold, as was Franklin.
For itself this would be but a small dividend upon the investments which
the ardent Beaumarchais made for the mythical firm of Hortalez and
Company. It would be but scanty interest on the never-ending loans
yielded by the steady friendship of de Vergennes to the distressed
appeals of Franklin. It is not appreciable even as a gift when one
recalls what Lafayette, Rochambeau, de Grasse, and their gallant
comrades were to us, and what they did for us; when one sees in
historical perspective the great share of France in securing American
independence, looming always larger from our own point of view, in
comparison with what we did for ourselves.
But take it for your country as a token that with all the changing
manners of the passing years, with all the vast and welcome influx of
new citizens from all the countries of the earth, Americans have not
forgotten their fathers and their fathers' friends.
Know by it that we have in America a sentiment for France; and a
sentiment, enduring among a people, is a great and substantial fact to
be reckoned with.
We feel a little closer to you of France because of what you were to
Franklin. Before the resplendence and charm of your country's
history--when all the world does homage to your literature, your art,
your exact science, your philosophic thought--we smile with pleasure, for
we feel, if we do not say: "Yes, these are old friends of ours; they were
very fond of our Ben Franklin and he of them."
Made more appreciative, perhaps, by what France did for us when this old
philosopher came to you, a stranger, bearing the burdens of our early
poverty and distress, we feel that the enormous value of France to
civilization should lead every lover of mankind, in whatever land,
earnestly to desire the peace, the prosperity, the permanence, and the
unchecked development of your national life.
We, at least, can not feel otherwise; for what you were to Franklin we
would be--we are--to you: always true and loyal friends.