While serving as U.S. minister to France, Benjamin Franklin attended a dinner in Paris shortly after the British surrendered at Yorktown in 1781. The French foreign minister, Vergennes, began the toasts, saluting his King: “To His Majesty, Louis XVI, who, like the moon, fills the earth with a soft, benevolent glow.”
The British ambassador rose: “To George III, who, like the sun at noonday, spreads his light and illumines the world.”
When it was his turn, Franklin offered his toast: “I cannot give you the sun nor the moon, but I give you George Washington, General of the armies of the United States, who, like Joshua of old, commanded both the sun and the moon to stand still, and both obeyed.”
Categories: Government, History, Humor, Personal Descriptions and Insults, Presidents, Royalty, US History
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