From his position of political and intellectual influence in Pennsylvania, Franklin easily passed into the larger field of general Colonial policies and public service. In 1754, he was made one of the commissioners to a joint congress of seven colonies, which met at Albany; from beginning to end of that meeting he was the leading spirit, and he prepared what is practically the first plan for a Federal Constitution. This was to include a Grand Council, which is the earliest suggestion of a national legislature. The Congress of Albany liked the plan and approved it, but the home government frowned upon it, and Franklin records that “the Assemblies did not adopt it, as they all thought there was too much prerogative in it; and in England it was judged to have too much of the democratic.” Franklin called to mind the Confederation of the Iroquois and marveled that the “Six Nations of ignorant slaves[A] should be capable of forming a scheme for such a union and be able to execute it in such a manner, so that it has subsisted for ages, and appears indissoluble; and yet that a like union should be impracticable for ten or a dozen English colonies.” [A] The word “slaves” is no doubt used here in the sense of “savages.” [Illustration: ANOTHER DUPLESSIS PORTRAIT OF FRANKLIN] [Illustration: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN From the original painting by Chappel] [Illustration: BUST OF FRANKLIN By P. J. Chartigny In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York] In the war that followed, Franklin showed himself almost the only vigorous administrator. He was the man who found the wagons necessary for Braddock’s expedition, he was even chosen colonel of a militia regiment. Then, in 1757, he was sent by the Pennsylvania Assembly to be the agent of the Colony in England, and thus entered on a new and important career. [Illustration: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN From the portrait by Martin, painted in England in 1765] [Illustration: STATUE OF FRANKLIN, NEW YORK Designed by E. Classman] [Illustration: STATUETTE OF FRANKLIN White metal. French, nineteenth century. Metropolitan Museum of Art] [Illustration: FRANKLIN MONUMENT IN NEW ORLEANS] Many Englishmen found their way to the American Colonies and made reputations there. Franklin was one of the few Americans that became renowned in England. For years he stood for the thought that Englishmen in Great Britain and the Colonies were alike citizens of a common Anglo-Saxon empire, which might look forward to a glorious future. He even ventured to assert that “the foundations of the future grandeur and stability of the British empire lie in America.”