digious addition of strength, wealth, and arts from the
emigration of Europe; and it is thought that to lessen or prevent
such emigrations, the tyrannies established there must relax, and
allow more liberty to their people. Hence it is a common
observation here that our cause is the _cause of all mankind_, and
that we are fighting for their liberty in defending our own. It is
a glorious task assigned us by Providence, which has, I trust,
given us spirit and virtue equal to it, and will at last crown it
with success."

The statesmanship of the time-honored European school, ably practiced by
de Vergennes, was short-sighted and blundering in comparison with this
broad appreciation of the real vastness and far-reaching importance of
that great struggle betwixt the Old and the New.

CHAPTER X

MINISTER TO FRANCE, II PRISONERS: TROUBLE WITH LEE AND OTHERS

No sooner had the war taken on an assured character than many quick-eyed
and adventurous Americans, and Franklin among the first, saw
irresistible temptation and great opportunity in that enormous British
commerce which whitened all the seas. The colonists of that day, being a
seafaring people with mercantile instincts, were soon industriously
engaged in the lucrative field of maritime captures. Franklin
recommended the fortifying of three or four harbors into which prizes
could be safely carried. Nothing else, he said, would give the new
nation "greater weight and importance in the eyes of the commercial
states." Privateering is not always described by such complimentary and
dignified language, but the practical-minded rebel spoke well of that
which it was so greatly to the advantage of his countrymen to do. After
arriving in France he found himself in a position to advance this
business very greatly. Conyngham, Wickes, with others only less famous,
all active and gallant men as ever trod a deck, took the neighboring
waters as their chosen scene of action, and very soon were stirring up
a commotion such as Englishmen had never experienced before. They
harried the high, and more especially the narrow, seas with a success at
least equal to that of the Alabama, while some of them differed from
Semmes and his compeers in being as anxious to fight as the Southern
captains were to avoid fighting. Prize after prize they took and carried
into port, or burned and sank; prisoners they had more than they knew
what to do with; they f