But, with his undoubted zeal for liberty and his unquestioned love of country, Franklin never departed from the Quaker principles he affected and always tried to avoid a fight.

In these efforts, owing to his shrewdness and his willingness to compromise, he was generally successful.
John Adams, being then the American representative at The Hague, was the first Commissioner to be appointed.

Indeed, when he was first named, in 1779, he was to be sole commissioner to negotiate peace; and it was the influential French Minister to the United States who was responsible for others being added to the commission.

Adams was a sturdy New Englander of British stock and of a distinctly English type--medium height, a stout figure, and a ruddy face.

No one questioned his honesty, his straightforwardness, or his lack of tact.