When the United States of America adopted the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the American diplomacy was put before a new, unprecedented task – to gain more supporters of its independence among the European powers and acquire international recognition and respect. The new young country had to abandon the simplistic uniqueness of diplomatic informality and master the strict rules of courtesies and court etiquette in Europe. The rules of diplomatic courtesy had to be abided by, even by former adversaries, with the European sophistication and stiffness on one side and the American absence of niceties on the other. Having to respect European protocol was not an easy task for the ministers of the new country. Some of the formalities were incomprehensibly grotesque to the first American diplomats. Franklin had to succumb to the French fashion of white faces and curly wigs, yet, thus gaining incredulous popularity among the French Bohemians. Upon arriving at the French Court to negotiate military assistance for the colonies, he described his shock with the powdered faces of the European nobility in his letters to the Congress, calling them clowns and refusing to accept false moles on his face. Silas Dean almost became a victim to his absence of diligence in note writing, but his diplomatic farsightedness and lavish gifts to the wife of Louis XVI won him deep respect at the French court. John Adams embarked on a diplomatic career with scarcely any knowledge of the French language and culture, and his idea that diplomatic representation could be unilateral resulted in several diplomatic mishaps which were detrimental to the American early foreign policy. Despite the fact that the American early ministers were not always keen or apt to accept the court protocols of the Old World, frequently even resenting what they believed was artificiality and phoniness, they were aware of the fact that the new country they represented, albeit inexperienced in protocol matters, must inevitably join the diplomatic order and international courtesies had they wanted to gain recognition and international acceptance.