ule they had abjured." 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." Letter from Fitzherbert to Grantham, September 3, 1782.

Through England's unexpected action, then, the Bourbon cousins had
forever lost their opportunity to dominate the young but spent and
war-weakened Republic, or to use America as a catspaw to snatch English
commerce for France. It was plain, too, that any frank move of the
sort would range the English alongside of their American kinsmen. Since
American Independence was an accomplished fact and therefore could no
longer be prevented, the present object of the Bourbon cousins was to
restrict it. The Appalachian Mountains should be the western limits of
the new nation. Therefore the settlements in Kentucky and Tennessee must
be broken up, or the settlers must be induced to secede from the Union
and raise the Spanish banner. The latter alternative was held to be
preferable. To bring it about the same methods were to be continued
which had been used prior to and during the war--namely, the use of
agents