and was scheming to submit this
country to the unconstitutional power of the English monarch. It was not
so much a contest between peoples as a conflict of principles, political
and religious, the latter of which contributed the active force that
brought on the revolt and gave it power.

III

Strange to relate, there came a decided reversal of position after the
formation of the French Alliance. No longer was the Catholic religion
simply tolerated; it was openly professed, and, owing in a great measure
to the unwearied labors of the Dominican and Franciscan friars, made the
utmost progress among all ranks of people. The fault of the Catholic
population was anything but disloyalty, it was found, and their manner
of life, their absolute sincerity in their religious convictions, their
generous and altruistic interest in matters of concern to the public
good, proved irrefutable arguments against the calumnies and
vilifications of earlier days. The Constitutions adopted by the several
states and the laws passed to regulate the new governments show that the
principles of religious freedom and equality had made progress during
the war and were to be incorporated as vital factors in the shaping of
the destinies of the new nation.

The supreme importance of the French Alliance at this juncture cannot be
overestimated. Coming, as it did, at a time when the depression of the
people had reached the lowest ebb, when the remnant of the army of the
Americans was enduring the severities of the winter season at Valley
Forge, when the enemy was in possession of the fairest part of the
country together with the two most important cities, when Congress could
not pay its bills, nor meet the national debt which alone exceeded forty
million dollars,--when the medium of exchange would not circulate
because of its worthlessness, when private debts could not be collected
and when credit was generally prostrated, the Alliance proved a benefit
of incalculable value to the struggling nation, not only in the
enormous resources which it supplied to the army but in the general
morale of the people which it made buoyant.

The capture of Burgoyne and the announcement that Lord North was about
to bring in conciliatory measures furnished convincing proof to France
that the American Alliance was worth having. A treaty was drawn up by
virtue of which the Americans solemnly agreed, in consideration of armed
support to be furnished by France, never to e