fical man and conversant in these negotiations, which are most interesting to mankind. This has made me prefer him to any of our speculative friends, or to any person of higher rank. He is fully apprised of my mind, and you may give full credit to everything he assures you of. At the same time, if any other channel occurs to you, I am ready to embrace it. I wish to retain the same simplicity and good faith which subsisted between us in transactions of less importance."

1

It is due to the British minister and negotiator to say that throughout the negotiations the spirit expressed in this letter was maintained, and their conduct was in marked contrast to that of the Colonies' allies, France and Spain. There existed, however, a divergence of views in the British cabinet, and while Oswald was designated by Shelburne to confer with Franklin, Fox, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, sent Grenville over to Paris to watch the proceedings on his behalf. As the British government had no diplomatic representative in Paris, Grenville resorted to the good offices of Franklin to secure him an audience with the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Accompanying him to Versailles, says Bancroft, "The dismissed Postmaster-General for America, at the request of the British Secretary of State, introduced the son of the author of the American Stamp Act as the British plenipotentiary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Bourbon king. Statesmen at Paris and Vienna were amused on hearing that the envoy of the 'rebel' Colonies was become the introducer' of the representative of Great Britain at the court of Versailles." 2

1 5 Dip. Cor. Rev. 536. 210 Bancroft's U. S. (ed. 1874) p. 542.

Oswald carried back with him to London the views of Franklin respecting terms of peace, and a memorandum suggesting the cession of Canada to the United States and compensation to the loyalists out of the sale of its public lands. This proposition as to Canada is cited as an evidence of the great foresight of Franklin, and it has been said that if he had been properly supported by his colleagues, Adams and Jay, Canada would have been then included in American territory; but I have been unable to find any substantial basis for such a statement in the history of the negotiations. It appears that Oswald not only approved of the proposition, but laid it before Shelburne; but there is no evidence that it was ever considered by the British cabinet, and nothing further was heard of it during the negotiations.

While these proceedings were in progress, Jay arrived in Paris in June, 1782. He appears to have been very favorably impressed at first with his residence in Paris. He writes: "What I have seen of France pleases me exceedingly. . . . No people understand doing civil things as well as the French; "2 but intercourse with the officials brought about a revulsion of feeling. Four months later Adams arrived in Paris to join in the negotiations, and he records in his diary: "Mr. Jay likes Frenchmen as little as Mr. Lee and Mr. Izard did (who were openly hostile). He says they are not a moral people; they know not what it is; he don't like Frenchman. .. Our allies don't play fair, he told Of Franklin, Mr. Jay, on his arrival, wrote:

me." 3

1 5 Dip. Cor. Rev. 541.

8 3 J. Adams's Works, 303.

2 Ib. 523.

any

"His mind appears more vigorous than that of any man of his age I have known. He certainly is a valuable minister and an agreeable companion." Franklin was then seventy-six and Jay thirty-seven years of age.

Oswald had returned from London, bringing with him a commission to treat with any commissioners named by the Colonies. Jay objected to the terms of the commission, and insisted that it should specially mention the United States, and make it clear that he was not to treat with them as Colonies. Franklin thought the commission was sufficient to justify negotiations, and he was strongly supported in this view by Vergennes. But Jay was unmoved. Referring to the arguments advanced by Vergennes, he wrote: "Neither of these considerations had weight with me; for as to the first, I could not conceive of any event which would render it proper, and therefore possible, for America to treat in any other character than as an independent nation; and as to the second, I could not believe Congress intended we should follow any advice which might be repugnant to their dignity and interest."2 Jay had his

way,

and Oswald wrote to Shelburne: "The American commissioners will not move a step until independence is acknowledged."

But new complications arose. First, Rayneval, private secretary to Vergennes, who had been designated to confer with Jay as to the terms of peace, revealed the fact that France favored giving Spain both sides of the Mississippi up to 31°; the territory from thence east of the Mississippi and up to the Ohio to be an Indian 1 5 Dip. Cor. Rev. 517.

26 Ib. 20.

Showing the Boundaries of the UNITED STATES, CANADA, and the SPANISH POSSESSIONS, according to the proposals of the Court of France in 1782.