Treaties, Franco-American
In September, 1776, the Continental Congress, after weeks of deliberation, adopted an elaborate plan of a treaty to be proposed to
France.
They wanted
France to engage in a separate war with
Great Britain, and so give the
Americans an opportunity for establishing their independence.
They renounced in favor of
France all eventual conquests in the.
West Indies, but claimed the sole right of acquiring British Continental America, and all adjacent islands, including the Bermudas, Cape Breton and
Newfoundland.
They proposed arrangements concerning the fisheries; avowed the principle of
Frederick the
Great that free ships made free goods, and that a neutral power may lawfully trade with a belligerent.
Privateering was to be restricted, not abolished; and while the
Americans were not willing to make common cause with the
French, they were willing to agree not to assist
Great Britain in the war on
France, nor trade with that power in goods contraband of war. The commissioners sent to negotiate the treaty were authorized to promise that, in case
France should become involved in the war, neither party should make a definitive treaty of peace without six months notice to the other.
Franklin,
Deane, and
Lee were
United States commissioners at the French Court at the close of 1776.
The Continental Congress had elaborated a plan of a treaty with
France, by which it was hoped the States might secure their independence.
The commissioners were instructed to press for an immediate declaration of the
French government in favor of the
Americans.
Knowing the desire of the
French to widen the breach and cause a dismemberment of the
British Empire, the commissioners were to intimate that a reunion of the colonies with
Great Britain might be the consequence of delay.
But
France was then unwilling to incur the risk of war with
Great Britain.
When the defeat of
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Burgoyne was made known at
Versailles, assured thereby that the
Americans could help themselves, the French Court were ready to treat for an alliance with them.
The presence of an agent of the
British ministry in
Paris, on social terms with the
American commissioners, hastened the negotiations, and, on Feb. 6, 1778, two treaties were secretly signed at
Paris by the
American commissioners and the
Count de Vergennes on the part of
France.
One was a commercial agreement, the other an alliance contingent on the breaking out of hostilities between
France and
Great Britain.
It was stipulated in the treaty of alliance that peace should not be made until the mercantile and political independence of the
United States should be secured.
The conciliatory bills of Lord North made the
French monarch anxious, for a reconciliation between
Great Britain and her colonies would thwart his scheme for prolonging the war and dismembering the
British Empire; and he caused the secret treaties to be officially communicated to the
British government, in language so intentionally offensive that the anonuncement was regarded as tantamount to a declaration of war, and the
British ambassador at the French Court was withdrawn.
Because the treaties with
France had been repeatedly violated; the just claims of the
United States for the reparation of injuries to persons and property had been refused; attempts on the part of the
United States to negotiate an amicable adjustment of all difficulties between the two nations had been repelled with indignity; and because, under the authority of the
French government, there was yet pursued against the
United States a system of predatory violence infracting those treaties, and hostile to the rights of a free and independent nation—Congress, on July 7, 1797, passed an act declaring the treaties heretofore concluded with
France no longer obligatory on the
United States.
