portunity to gain any ideas on the subject beyond such as a
well-educated man could glean from reading the scant historical
literature which existed in those days. It was difficult also for
Congress to know how to judge and discriminate concerning the material
which it found at its disposal. There had been nothing in the careers of
the prominent patriots to indicate whether or not any especial one among
them had a natural aptitude for diplomacy. The selection must be made
with little knowledge of the duties of the position, and with no
knowledge of the responsive characteristics of the man. It was only
natural that many of the appointments thus blindly made should turn out
ill. After they were made, and the appointees had successfully crossed
the ocean through the dangerous gauntlet of the English cruisers, there
arose to be answered in Europe the embarrassing question: What these
self-styled representatives represented. Was it a nation, or only a
parcel of rebels? Here was an unusual and vexatious problem, concerning
which most of the cautious royal governments were in no hurry to commit
themselves; and their reticence added greatly to the perplexities of the
fledgling diplomats. Nearly all cabinets felt it a great temptation to
assist the colonies of the domineering mistress of the seas to change
themselves from her dependencies into her naval rivals. But the attempt
and not the deed might prove confounding; neither could a wise monarch
assume with entire complacency the position of an aider and an abettor
of a rebellion on the part of subjects whose grievances appeared chiefly
an antipathy to taxation.

From the earliest moment France had been hopefully regarded by the
colonists as probably their friend and possibly their ally. To France,
therefore, the first American envoy was dispatched with promptitude,
even before there was a declaration of independence or an assumption of
nationality. Silas Deane was the man selected. He was the true Yankee
jack-at-all-trades; he had been graduated at Yale College, then taught
school, then practiced law, then engaged in trade, had been all the
while advancing in prosperity and reputation, had been a member of the
First and Second Congresses, had failed of reelection to the Third, and
was now without employment. Mr. Parton describes him as "of somewhat
striking manners and good appearance, accustomed to live and entertain
in liberal style, and fond of showy equipage and appointmen