" By the secret treaty with Spain, furthermore, France
had agreed to continue the war until Gibraltar should be taken,
and--if the British should be driven from Newfoundland--to share
the fisheries only with Spain, and to support Spain in demanding
that the Thirteen States renounce all territory west of the
Alleghanies. The American States must by no means achieve a
genuine independence but must feel the need of sureties, allies,
and protection.*
* See John Jay, "On the Peace Negotiations of 1782-1788 as
Illustrated by the Secret Correspondence of France and England,"
New York, 1888.
So intent was Vergennes on these aims that he sent a secret
emissary to England to further them there. This act of his
perhaps gave the first inkling to the English statesmen* that
American and French desires were not identical and hastened
England's recognition of American independence and her agreement
to American demands in regard to the western territory. When, to
his amazement, Vergennes learned that England had acceded to all
America's demands, he said that England had "bought the peace"
rather than made it. The policy of Vergennes in regard to America
was not unjustly pronounced by a later French statesman "A VILE
SPECULATION."
* "Your Lordship was well founded in your suspicion that the
granting of independence to America as a previous measure is a
point which the French have by no means at heart and perhaps are
entirely averse from.
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