nd they were supposed to be
especially friendly. They had had their own experience in America.
First the native Indian had appealed to their imagination. Then, at
an appropriate moment, they seemed to see in the Americans a living
embodiment of the philosophical theories of the time: they thought that
they had at last found "the natural man" of Rousseau and Voltaire;
they believed that they saw the social contract theory being worked
out before their very eyes. Nevertheless, in spite of this interest in
Americans, the French looked upon them as an inferior people over whom
they would have liked to exercise a sort of protectorate. To them the
Americans seemed to lack a proper knowledge of the amenities of life.
Commissioner Thieriot, describing the administration of justice in the
new republic, noticed that: "A Frenchman, with the prejudices of his
country and accustomed to court sessions in which the officers have
imposing robes and a uniform that makes it impossible to recognize
them, smiles at seeing in the court room men dressed in street clothes,
simple, often quite common. He is astonished to see the public enter and
leave the court room freely, those who prefer even keeping their hats
on." Later he adds: "It appears that the court of France wished to set
up a jurisdiction of its own on this continent for all matters involving
French subjects." France failed in this; but at the very time that
peace was under discussion Congress authorized Franklin to negotiate a
consular convention, ratified a few years later, according to which the
citizens of the United States and the subjects of the French King in
the country of the other should be tried by their respective consuls or
vice-consuls. Though this agreement was made reciprocal in its terms and
so saved appearances for the honor of the new nation, nevertheless
in submitting it to Congress John Jay clearly pointed out that it was
reciprocal in name rather than in substance, as there were few or no
Americans in France but an increasing number of Frenchmen in the United
States.

Such was the status of the new republic in the family of nations when
the time approached for the negotiation of a treaty of peace with the
mother country. The war really ended with the surrender of Cornwallis
at Yorktown in 1781. Yet even then the British were unwilling to concede
the independence of the revolted colonies. This refusal of recognition
was not merely a matter of pride; a division