d its security from their love!

Nothing could have demonstrated more clearly the wisdom of Franklin's
confidence in the sincerity of the French Government than the generous
and liberal terms of the treaty. No present advantage was taken of the
dependent condition of their new ally; no prospective advantage was
reserved for future contingencies. Only one condition was
stipulated,--and that as much in the interest of the Colonies as of
France,--that they should never return to their allegiance. Only one
reciprocal obligation was assumed,--that neither party should make peace
with England without the knowledge and consent of the other. All the
rest was full and free reciprocation in the future, and the assurance of
efficient aid in the present; no ambiguities, no doubtful expressions,
no debatable ground for interpretation to build upon and weave the mazes
of her subtile web,--but clear, distinct, and definite, a mutual
specification of mutual duties and mutual rights. Equal could not have
treated more firmly with equal than this new power, as yet unrecognized
in the congress of nations, with the oldest monarchy of Europe.

I have already alluded to the rage for treaties which prevailed for a
while in Congress. It was this that sent William and Arthur Lee upon
their bootless errands to Vienna and Berlin, Francis Dana to St.
Petersburg, John Jay to encounter embarrassment and mortification at
Madrid, and gave Ralph Izard an opportunity to draw an unearned salary,
through two successive years, from the scanty funds of the Congressional
banker at Paris.

Jay's situation was peculiarly trying. He had been Chief Justice of New
York, President of Congress, had written some of the most eloquent state
papers that were issued in the name of that body whose state papers were
ranked by Chatham among the best that ever were written, and, at a
personal sacrifice, had exchanged a position of honor and dignity at
home for a doubtful position abroad. A clear-headed, industrious,
decided man, he had to contend for more than two years with the two
qualities most alien to his nature,--habitual dilatoriness and
diplomatic reticence.

Spain, like France, had marked out a path for herself, and it was
impossible to move her from it. Jay obtained some money to help him pay
some of the drafts of Congress, but neither treaty nor recognition.
"They have taken four years," wrote Franklin, "to consider whether they
would treat with us. I would gi