THE POWER OF WORDS

Benjamin Franklin knew the power of words. Five months after the British surrendered at Yorktown Franklin was in Paris brokering a peace treaty between Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands and the United States. To bolster his position he printed two counterfeit issues of the Boston Independent Chronicle newspaper. One issue detailed the atrocities committed by Indians at the urging of the British. The other contained a letter from John Paul Jones describing the treatment of captured American sailors by the British.