s had other sources of supply and other allies, for they
lacked nothing which could aid them in their efforts to exterminate the
settlers of Tennessee.

Neither France nor Spain wished to see an English-speaking republic
based on ideals of democracy successfully established in America. Though
in the Revolutionary War, France was a close ally of the Americans and
Spain something more than a nominal one, the secret diplomacy of the
courts of the Bourbon cousins ill matched with their open professions.
Both cousins hated England. The American colonies, smarting under
injustice, had offered a field for their revenge. But hatred of England
was not the only reason why activities had been set afoot to increase
the discord which should finally separate the colonies from Great
Britain and leave the destiny of the colonies to be decided by the House
of Bourbon. Spain saw in the Americans, with their English modes of
thought, a menace to her authority in her own colonies on both the
northern and southern continents. This menace would not be stilled but
augmented if the colonies should be established as a republic. Such an
example might be too readily followed. Though France had, by a secret
treaty in 1762, made over to Spain the province of Louisiana, she was
not unmindful of the Bourbon motto, "He who attacks the Crown of one
attacks the other." And she saw her chance to deal a crippling blow at
England's prestige and commerce.

In 1764, the French Minister, Choiseul, had sent a secret agent, named
Pontleroy, to America to assist in making trouble and to watch for
any signs that might be turned to the advantage of les duex couronnes.
Evidently Pontleroy's reports were encouraging for, in 1768, Johann
Kalb--the same Kalb who fell at Camden in 1780--arrived in Philadelphia
to enlarge the good work. He was not only, like several of the foreign
officers in the War of Independence, a spy for his Government, but he
was also the special emissary of one Comte de Broglie who, after the
colonies had broken with the mother country, was to put himself at the
head of American affairs. 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 be