This Broglie had been for years one of
Louis XV's chief agents in subterranean diplomacy, and it is not
to be supposed that he was going to attempt the stupendous task
of controlling America's destiny without substantial backing.
Spain had been advised meanwhile to rule her new Louisiana
territory with great liberality--in fact, to let it shine as a
republic before the yearning eyes of the oppressed Americans, so
that the English colonists would arise and cast off their
fetters. Once the colonies had freed themselves from England's
protecting arm, it would be a simple matter for the Bourbons to
gather them in like so many little lost chicks from a rainy yard.
The intrigants of autocratic systems have never been able to
understand that the urge of the spirit of independence in men is
not primarily to break shackles but to STAND ALONE and that the
breaking of bonds is incidental to the true demonstration of
freedom. The Bourbons and their agents were no more nor less
blind to the great principle stirring the hearts of men in their
day than were the Prussianized hosts over a hundred years later
who, having themselves no acquaintance with the law of liberty,
could not foresee that half a world would rise in arms to
maintain that law.
When the War of Independence had ended, the French Minister,
Vergennes, and the Spanish Minister, Floridablanca, secretly
worked in unison to prevent England's recognition of the new
republic; and Floridablanca in 1782 even offered to assist
England if she would make further efforts to subdue her "rebel
subjects.
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