When the news of his death reached the National Assembly of France,
Mirabeau rose and said:--
"Franklin is dead!
"The genius, which gave freedom to America, and scattered torrents of
light upon Europe, is returned to the bosom of the Divinity.
"The sage, whom two worlds claim; the man, disputed by the history of
the sciences and the history of empires, holds, most undoubtedly, an
elevated rank among the human species.
"Political cabinets have but too long notified the death of those who
were never great but in their funeral orations; the etiquette of
courts has but too long sanctioned hypocritical grief. Nations ought
only to mourn for their benefactors; the representatives of free men
ought never to recommend any other than the heroes of humanity to
their homage.
"The Congress hath ordered a general mourning for one month throughout
the fourteen confederated States on account of the death of Franklin;
and America hath thus acquitted her tribute of admiration in behalf of
one of the fathers of her constitution.
"Would it not be worthy of you, fellow-legislators, to unite
yourselves in this religious act, to participate in this homage
rendered in the face of the universe to the rights of man, and to the
philosopher who has so eminently propagated the conquest of them
throughout the world?
"Antiquity would have elevated altars to that mortal who, for the
advantage of the human race, embracing both heaven and earth in his
vast and extensive mind, knew how to subdue thunder and tyranny.
"Enlightened and free, Europe at least owes its remembrance and its
regret to one of the greatest men who has ever served the cause of
philosophy and liberty.
"I propose, therefore, that a decree do now pass, enacting that the
National Assembly shall wear mourning during three days for Benjamin
Franklin."