During a time when the form of dress signaled wealth, linage and sophistication, gentlemen of status typically wore a three-piece ensemble consisting of a long fitted coat, waistcoat, and knee-breeches, crafted from fine wool, velvet, silk brocades or embroidered satin. Breeches, fastened with buckles at the knee, were worn with silk stockings and heeled leather shoes. Powdered wigs (perukes) were essential for formal occasions and are still worn at court in England.
But Benjamin Franklin was an American, displaying the simpler tastes of colonies where society was less structured than that of England and most European countries. Franklin’s casual style became a hallmark of his persona and was never more evident than January 29, 1774, when he was hauled before the Privy Council to explain the publication of private letters between Massachusetts lieutenant governor Thomas Hutchinson and Andrew Oliver, his brother-in-law and British colonial secretary.
Franklin had been representing Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Georgia in London since 1757, advocating for their interests and protecting them from abuses by proprietors and government ministers. Nevertheless, he consistently labored to find reconciliation between the British government and its North American colonies, recalling later, “it often happened to me, that while I was thought in England to be too much of an American, I have in America deemed too much of an Englishman.” He “dreaded a war with the mother country…and attempted to take every measure in my power to prevent a rupture between the two countries, but it was not to be.”
As relations between Britain and its colonies deteriorated, Franklin remained “a mortal enemy to arbitrary government and unlimited power.” In September 1773, he published two fictional satires in the Public Advertiser in which he insinuated how the British government had alienated America. Although presented as a parody, it was laced with content which infuriated the ministry. To make matters worse, three months later British tea was thrown into Boston Harbor by patriots disguising themselves as Indians.
At the same time, the Hutchinson/Oliver letters were becoming a public scandal. Years before, the two men had written a series of letters to Thomas Whatley, an assistant to Prime Minister George Grenville, concerning the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts, the colonists’ violent protests, and how the government should respond. Hutchinson’s comment in one letter that “there must be an abridgement of what are called English liberties” in America and Oliver’s assertion in another that officers of the Crown should be made “in some measure independent” of the elected Massachusetts Assembly added fuel to the rebel cause.
The letters fell into the hands of Franklin who read them and concluded they “laid the foundation of most if not all our present grievances.” He sent the letters to Thomas Cushing, a member of the Committee of Correspondence in Boston, with the expressed instruction that they be kept in confidence for fear they might cause “some riot of mischievous consequence.” However, the letters were published in colonial newspapers in mid-June 1773, generating outrage in both the colonies and London.
The colonies petitioned the Board of Trade for Hutchinson’s removal from office, while in England debate raged over who had leaked the letters. At first, blame fell on William Whatley, Thomas Whatley’s brother, who had received the letters when Thomas died in 1772. William denied the allegation and suggested that John Temple, a custom’s officer, was at fault. Temple challenged William to a duel. Whatley was wounded, but neither man was satisfied. When Franklin learned of the duel and that it would be repeated, he “then thought it high time to interpose” and issued a public statement that he had been the one who had received the letters and sent them to Boston.
Days later, Franklin was notified that the Massachusetts petition would be heard by the Privy Council. But Alexander Wedderbutn, the British Solicitor General, deliberately chose to use the occasion to vilify Franklin, accusing him of thievery, sedition, dishonor, and being a lying insurrectionist who had duped the people of America. For an hour, Franklin stood silent and expressionless, wearing an old-fashioned suit of Manchester velvet, enduring what one witness described as “beyond all bounds and measure.” Another said it was “as is agreed on all hands… a scurrilous invective.” All the allegations were false, except that Franklin had received the letters.
The petition was denied. Franklin was stripped of his position as colonial Postmaster General, and Parliament passed the Coercive Acts, further eroding relations with the colonies. Franklin would return to America in May 1775; elected to the Continental Congress; assigned to the committee charged with drafting the Declaration of Independence; and serve as the United States ambassador to France where he negotiated the Treaty of Alliance recognizing the United States as an independent nation and providing for a military alliance against Great Britain.
When signing the treaty on February 6, 1778, Silas Dean noticed the old suit Franklin was wearing and had worn the previous day. When he asked him about it, Franklin replied, “To give it a little revenge. I wore this coat on the day Wedderburn abused me at White Hall.”