was foreign to the principles of the American alliance with France, and of the system of union between France and Spain, as well as inconsistent with the interests of the latter power; and he formally declared "that his king would not prolong the war one single day to secure to the United States the possessions which they coveted."

"Besides, the extent of their territory rendered already a good administration difficult; so enormous an increase would cause their immense empire to crumble under its own weight." Gerard terminated his very long conversation by declaring the strongest desire "that the United States might never be more than thirteen."

On the fifteenth of February, Gerard in a private audience represented to congress that the price which Spain put upon her friendship was Pensacola and the exclusive navigation of the Mississippi; if her wishes were not complied with, there was danger that Spain and England might make common cause against America.

Two days after this private interview congress referred the subject of the terms of peace to a special committee of five, composed of Gouverneur Morris of New York, Burke of North Carolina, Witherspoon of New Jersey, Samuel Adams of Massachusetts, and Smith of Virginia.

On the twenty-third the committee reported their opinion that the king of Spain was disposed to enter into an alliance with the United States, and that consequently independence must be finally acknowledged by Great Britain. This being effected, they proposed as their ultimatum that their territory should extend from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, from the Floridas to Canada and Nova Scotia; that the right of fishing and curing fish on the banks and coasts of Newfoundland should belong equally to the United States, France, and Great Britain; and that the navigation of the Mississippi should be free to the United States down to their southern boundary, with the benefit of a free port below in the Spanish dominions.

Congress, in committee of the whole, on the nineteenth of March agreed substantially to the report on boundaries, yet with an option to adopt westward from Lake Ontario the parallel of the forty-fifth degree of latitude. It was readily

agreed by ten states against Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Connecticut being divided, that the right to navigate the Mississippi need not find a place in the treaty of peace with Great Britain, for, according to the American intention, Great Britain was not to possess any territory on the Mississippi from its source to its mouth.

The right to the fisheries was long under discussion. The first decision was a merely negative vote that the common right of the United States to fish on the coasts, bays, and banks of Nova Scotia, the banks of Newfoundland and Gulf of St. Lawrence, the straits of Labrador and Belle-Isle, should in no case be given up.

By the efforts of Gerry, who was from Marblehead, Richard Henry Lee was able to bring up the subject anew; and, avoiding a collision with the monopoly of France, he proposed that the right of fishing on the coasts and banks of North America should be reserved to the United States as fully as they enjoyed the same when subject to Great Britain. This substitute prevailed by the vote of Pennsylvania and Delaware with the four New England states.

But the state of New York, guided by Jay and Gouverneur Morris, altogether refused to insist in the treaty of peace on a right to the fisheries; and Gouverneur Morris, on the eighth of May, calling to mind "the exhausted situation of the United States, the derangement of their finances, and the defect of their resources," moved that the acknowledgment of independence should be the sole condition of peace. The motion was declared to be out of order by the votes of the four New England states, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, against the unanimous delegations of New York, Maryland, and North Carolina; while Delaware, Virginia, and South Carolina were equally divided.

The French minister intervened; and, on the twentyseventh of May, congress went back to its first resolve, "that by no treaty of peace should the common right of fishing be given up."

On the third of June, Gerry again appeared as the champion of the American right to the fisheries on banks or coasts, as exercised during their political connection with Great Brit

ain. He was in part supported by Sherman; but New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island were left by Connecticut, and, though Pennsylvania came to their aid, the "Gallican party," by a vote of seven states against the four, set aside the main question.

The necessity of appeals to France for aid promoted obsequiousness to its wishes. On the fifteenth of June 1779, congress solicited supplies from its ally to the value of nearly three millions of dollars, to be paid for, with interest, after the peace.

Four days later, Gerry, evading a breach of the rules of congress by a change in form, moved resolutions that the United States have a common right with the English to the fisheries on the banks of Newfoundland, and the other fishingbanks and seas of North America. A most stormy and acrimonious debate ensued. The friends of France resisted the resolutions as sure to alienate Spain, and contrary to the general longing for peace. Four states read a sketch of their protest on the subject. Congress gave way in part, but by the votes of the four New England states and Pennsylvania against New York, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, with New Jersey, Delaware, and South Carolina divided, they affirmed the common right of the Americans to fish on the Grand Banks; and for this right, to which Vergennes owned their indisputable title, they asked the guarantee of France in the form of an explanatory article of existing treaties.

He

The persevering French minister sought an interview with president Jay and two other members of congress well disposed to the wishes of France. Finding them inclined to yield to New England, he remarked that disunion from the side of New England was not to be feared, for its people carried their love of independence even to delirium. added: "There would seem to be a wish to break the connection of France with Spain; but I think I can say that, if the Americans should have the boldness* to force the king of France to choose between the two alliances, his decision will not be in favor of the United States; he will certainly not expose himself to consume the remaining resources of the king

* In his report to Vergennes, Gerard uses the word "l'audace."

dom for many years, only to secure an increase of fortune to a few ship-masters of New England. I shall greatly regret, on account of the Americans, should Spain enter into the war without a convention with them."

The interview lasted from eight o'clock in the evening till an hour after midnight; but Jay and his friends would not themselves undertake to change the opinion of congress; and the result was a new interview on the twelfth of July between Gerard and members of congress in committee of the whole. Of the committee on foreign affairs, eight accepted the French policy. Jay, with other members, gained over votes from the "Anti-Gallican" side; and, after long debates and many divisions, the proposition to stipulate a right to the fisheries in the treaty of peace was indefinitely postponed by the votes of eight states against New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania, Georgia alone being absent.

As to the future boundaries of the United States, Spain passionately desired to recover the Floridas so as to have the whole shore of the Gulf of Mexico. The United States had no traditional wish for their acquisition, and from the military point of view Washington preferred that Spain should possess them rather than Great Britain. Here, therefore, no serious difficulty arose; but Spain dreaded the extension of the United States to the Mississippi. The Quebec act had transferred to Canada the territory west and north-west of the Ohio. Spain indulged the hope that England would insist on its right to that region; but as to the Americans, their backwoodsmen were already settled in the country, and it would have been easier to extirpate the game in its forests than to drive the American settlers from their homes. Spain, with the support of France, wished that the country north-west of the Ohio river should be guaranteed to Great Britain; but such a proposition could never gain a hearing in congress. France, renouncing for herself all pretensions to Canada and Nova Scotia, joined Spain in opposing every wish of the Americans to acquire them. In this congress acquiesced.

The French minister desired to persuade congress to be willing to end the war by a truce, after the precedents of the Swiss cantons and the United Netherlands. Burke of North

Carolina, seconded by Duane of New York, wished no more than that independence should be tacitly acknowledged; but congress required that, previous to any treaty of peace, the independence of the United States should, on the part of Great Britain, be "assured."

Further, Gerard wished America to bring about the acces sion of Spain to the alliance by trusting implicitly to the magnanimity of the Spanish king; otherwise, he said, "you will prevent his Catholic majesty from joining in our common cause, and from completing the intended triumvirate." Congress escaped from an immediate decision by resolving to send a plenipotentiary of its own to Spain.

The minister to be chosen to negotiate a peace was, by a unanimous vote, directed to require "Great Britain to treat with the United States as sovereign, free, and independent," and the independence was to be confirmed by the treaty. Nova Scotia was desired; but the negotiator might leave the northeastern boundary "to be adjusted by commissioners after the peace." The guarantee of an equal common right to the fisheries was declared to be of the utmost importance, but was not made an ultimatum, except in the instructions for the treaty of commerce with England. At the same time, the American minister at the court of France was directed to concert with that power a mutual guarantee of their rights in the fisheries as enjoyed before the war.

The plan for a treaty with the king of Spain lingered a month longer. On the seventeenth of September congress offered to guarantee to him the Floridas, if they should fall into his power, "provided always that the United States should enjoy the free navigation of the Mississippi into and from the sea." The great financial distress of the states was to be made known to him, in the hope of a subsidy or a guarantee of a loan to the amount of five millions of dollars.

On the twenty-sixth, congress proceeded to ballot for the minister to negotiate peace, John Adams being nominated by Laurens of South Carolina, while Smith of Virginia proposed Jay who was favored by the French minister. On two ballots no election was made. A compromise reconciled the rivalry; Jay, on the twenty-seventh, was elected envoy to