The relations between the two countries had now arrived at a point so significant that Franklin returned to his long neglected home. His person was not safe in England--his services were needed in his now suffering country. He arrived in Philadelphia early in May 1775. He was received with great enthusiasm and immediately elected to the Continental Congress. To this august body he added fresh lustre and dignity. In England he had exhausted every source of prospective reconciliation between the two nations. He feared the colonies were too weak to achieve their Independence but his course was right onward with his colleagues--resolved on LIBERTY OR DEATH. The talents of Franklin were put in constant requisition. He was always selected to meet the agents of the crown who were at various times commissioned to offer terms of inglorious peace. He always proved himself the uncompromising advocate of Liberty--the shrewd and wary politician--the bold and zealous defender of the rights of his bleeding country--the unflinching friend of universal FREEDOM. The disasters of the American army during the campaign of 1777, induced Congress to apply to France for aid. All eyes were turned on Franklin to execute this important mission. In October 1777 he embarked to perform this delicate embassy and succeeded in concluding a treaty of alliance with that nation on the 4th of February 1778, to the great joy of himself and his suffering countrymen. When the news of the alliance reached England, the ministry was much alarmed and despatched messengers to Paris to endeavor to induce Franklin to enter into a compromise with Great Britain. The terms rendered the effort too abortive to make him the bearer of even a message to Congress. To Mr. Hutton and others who came to him with the olive branch of peace, wreathed with scorpions, he replied--"I never think of your ministry and their abettors, but with the image strongly painted in my view of their hands red and dropping with the blood of my countrymen, friends and relations. No peace can be signed with those hands unless you drop all pretensions to govern us--meet us on equal terms and avoid all occasions of future discord." He met all their intrigues at the threshold and convinced them that the hardy yoemanry of America could not be dragooned, flattered or driven from the bold position they had assumed. During the several interviews he had with these commissioners, Franklin was cautioned by Mr. Heartley to beware of his personal safety which had been repeatedly threatened. He thanked his friend and assured him he felt no alarm--that he had nearly finished a long life and that the short remainder was of no great value and ironically remarked--"Perhaps the best use such an old fellow can be put to is to make a martyr of him."