anada or the English West Indies. As it would
probably not be agreeable to the colonies to have foreign troops in
their country, the design was to furnish only naval aid. It would be
left open for Spain to accede to the treaties at any time. Nothing could
have been more agreeable and encouraging than these arrangements, by
which France did all the giving and America all the receiving. A few
days later Gerard said that the king would not only acknowledge, but
would support American independence, and that the condition precluding
the Americans from making a separate peace, if France should be drawn
into the war, would be waived.

On January 18 Gerard came to the envoys with drafts which he had
prepared for the two treaties, and which he left for them to consider at
their leisure. It took them much longer to consider than it had taken
him to devise these documents. Lee said that the delay was all
Franklin's fault; but at least Franklin illumined it by one of his
_mots_. There was sent to the envoys a large cake inscribed: "Le digne
Franklin." Deane said that, with thanks, they would appropriate it to
their joint use; Franklin pleasantly replied that it was obviously
intended for all three, only the French donor did not know how to spell
"Lee, Deane, Franklin" correctly. But the uneasy jealousy of Lee
suggested a counter-argument:

"When they remember us," _i. e._, himself and Deane, he said, "they
always put you first." Lee, who in his lifetime could never endure being
second to Franklin, must be astounded indeed if, in another existence,
he sees the place which judicial posterity has assigned to him!

In their discussions concerning the treaty the commissioners fell into a
contention over one article. Their secret instructions directed them to
"press" for a stipulation that no export duties should be imposed by
France upon molasses taken from the French West Indies into the States;
but they were not to let the "fate of the treaty depend upon obtaining
it." Of all merchandise imported into the States molasses was the most
important to their general trade; it was the "basis on which a very
great part of the American commerce rested."[50] In exchange for it they
sent to the islands considerable quantities of pretty much all their
products, and they distilled it in enormous quantities into rum. Every
man who drank a glass of rum seemed to be advancing _pro tanto_ the
national prosperity, and the zeal with which those godly