Developing a foreign policy proved difficult for Congress. Early in the war, a search for foreign allies was unthinkable because many colonists still hoped for reconciliation with the mother country. Even when the hostility of the King and Parliament became manifest and the United States declared its independence, Congress had to overcome strong reluctance to turn to Bourbon France and Spain. The Catholic and absolute monarchs of these countries hardly seemed natural allies to the Americans. Fighting the Spanish and French had been a long-standing tradition. The French had proved themselves especially formidable foes to the colonists. A pragmatism born of necessity would lead Congress to make friends of former enemies.

In November 1775, Congress created a Committee of Secret Correspondence to establish contacts overseas. This body secured the services of Arthur Lee, a commercial agent for Massachusetts living in London. In March 1776, Congress sent Silas Deane to France. His mission was to purchase munitions and explore the possibility of a French alliance. Deane was able to ship some weapons back home. He also commissioned privateers from French ports. But Deane was unsuccessful in dealing with the French government, which did not take him seriously.

On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee submitted a resolution calling for independence and urged Congress to seek foreign alliances. A congressional committee worked on a plan for treaties with foreign powers. It submitted its report on July 14, but dissension kept it from being approved with some changes until September 17. A little more than a week later, on September 26, Congress approved a commission to seek an alliance with France. Arthur Lee, Silas Deane, and Benjamin Franklin were appointed commissioners.

Benjamin Franklin arrived in France on December 6. Franklin was seventy years old, ancient by the standards of the day. He doubted his own usefulness, writing, “I am old and good for nothing, but as the store-keepers say of their remnants of cloth, I am but a fag end, and you may have me for what you please to give.” In fact, Franklin was well prepared to be an enormously effective diplomat. He had served for years as Pennsylvania's agent in London and learned a great deal about the ways of dealing with officialdom. Even more important, Franklin was an instinctive master of public relations. The literary persona he had created with Poor Richard's Almanack made him financially independent well before the revolution. He knew how to give people what they wanted and had no scruples about doing so.

In France, Franklin was famous as an Enlightenment sage. His writings and the results of his experiments with electricity had been translated into French. He found a public heavily influenced by Jean Jacques Rousseau's celebration of the natural life. Many were inclined to see him as the embodiment of the rustic simplicity and virtue Rousseau associated with America. Franklin responded readily to this by wearing plain clothes and carrying a staff made of apple wood. He gave up his wig, let his long gray hair hang naturally, and wore a fur cap. Franklin's ability to appear simultaneously a sophisticated man of science and a natural man made him the toast of Paris. People paid to secure spots along routes he walked. A new feminine hairstyle appeared, the “coiffure a la Franklin,” which imitated the effect of his fur hat. Franklin's portrait was painted repeatedly and appeared on handkerchiefs, watches, and snuff boxes.

Franklin took advantage of his fame to advocate for the American cause. A master of propaganda, he published a series of fictitious letters making outrageous charges about the enemy, claiming among other things that the British were paying Indians for bales of American scalps and that German princes hoped their soldiers would be killed so they would receive a higher bounty for them. Thanks to Franklin's efforts, the French government looked the other way as Americans made French ports bases for privateering or shipped weapons home. However, Franklin's legendary charm could not achieve his main aim of persuading the French to recognize the United States. French support for the American revolution would ultimately depend upon cold calculations of national interest.