ender of Gibraltar, and she was ready to leave the question of
American independence undecided or decided against the colonies if she
could only get for herself the terms which she desired. There was a
period when France seemed ready to make peace on the basis of dividing
the Thirteen States, leaving some of them independent while others
should remain under the British King.

Congress was not willing to leave its affairs at Paris in the capable
hands of Franklin alone. In 1780 it sent John Adams to Paris, and John
Jay and Henry Laurens were also members of the American Commission. The
austere Adams disliked and was jealous of Franklin, gay in spite of his
years, seemingly indolent and easygoing, always bland and reluctant to
say No to any request from his friends, but ever astute in the interests
of his country. Adams told Vergennes, the French foreign minister, that
the Americans owed nothing to France, that France had entered the war
in her own interests, and that her alliance with America had greatly
strengthened her position in Europe. France, he added, was really
hostile to the colonies, since she was jealously trying to keep them
from becoming rich and powerful. Adams dropped hints that America might
be compelled to make a separate peace with Britain. When it was proposed
that the depreciated continental paper money, largely held in France for
purchases there, should be redeemed at the rate of one good dollar
for every forty in paper money, Adams declared to the horrified French
creditors of the United States that the proposal was fair and just. At
the same time Congress was drawing on Franklin in Paris for money to
meet its requirements and Franklin was expected to persuade the French
treasury to furnish him with what he needed and to an amazing degree
succeeded in doing so. The self interest which Washington believed to be
the dominant motive in politics was, it is clear, actively at work.
In the end the American Commissioners negotiated directly with Great
Britain, without asking for the consent of their French allies. On
November 30, 1782, articles of peace between Great Britain and the
United States were signed. They were, however, not to go into effect
until Great Britain and France had agreed upon terms of peace; and it
was not until September 3, 1783, that the definite treaty was signed. So
far as the United States was concerned Spain was left quite properly to
shift for herself.

Thus it was that the war