Madelaine Drohan#OTD February 26, 1776, the Continental Congress agreed to pay the expenses of French printer Fleury Mesplet and to give him “25 Half Joes to remove Himself, his Family and Types to Canada and there set up a free Press.”
Mesplet would eventually found the Montreal Gazette newspaper. But his purpose on this trip was to help Benjamin Franklin persuade the French Canadians to join the American Revolution.
He was left behind with his printing press when Franklin and the Continental Army fled for home in May 1776. (The half joe was a Portuguese gold coin commonly used in the 13 colonies.)
