Franklin earned the title of "The First American" for his early and tireless campaign for colonial unity, initially as an author and spokesman in Lond...on for various colonies. As the first United States ambassador to France, he exemplified the nascent American nation.2 Franklin was instrumental in defining the American ethos as a marriage of the practical values of thrift, hard work, education, community spirit, self-governing institutions, and opposition to political and religious authoritarianism, with the scientific and tolerant values of the Enlightenment. In the words of historian Henry Steele Commager, "In one Franklin you could fuse the virtues of Puritanism without its flaws, the enlightenment of the Enlightenment without its warmth."3 For Walter Isaacson, this makes Franklin "The most accomplished American of his age and the most influential in inventing the kind of society America would become