eclaration of Independence, the
inquiry was made of Franklin, "When is the Continental Congress by
general consent to be formed into a Supreme Legislature?" He replied,
"Nothing seems wanting but that general consent. The novelty of the
thing deters some; the doubt of success, others; _the vain hope of
reconciliation, many_. Every day furnishes us with new causes of
increasing enmity, and new reasons for _wishing an eternal separation_;
so that there is a rapid increase of the _formerly small party_ who were
for an independent government."[411]

From these words of Dr. Franklin, as well as from the facts stated in
the preceding pages, it is clear the Declaration of Independence was not
the spontaneous voice of a continent, as represented by many American
historians, but the result of a persistent agitation on the part of the
leaders in Congress, and their agents and partizans in the several
provinces, who _now_ represented every act of the corrupt Administration
in England as the act of the _nation_, and thus sought to alienate the
affections of the colonists from the mother country. Upon Dr. Franklin's
own authority, it is clear that he was opposed to any reconciliation
with England and in favour of an "eternal separation" months before the
Declaration of Independence; that the party "for an independent
government" were "the formerly small party," but had "a rapid increase,"
which Dr. Franklin and his friends knew so well how to promote, while
they amused and deceived the friends of the unity of the empire, in
both England and America, by professing an earnest desire for
reconciliation with the mother country.

The same double game was played against England by the French Government
and the secret leaders of the American Congress, the latter professing a
desire for reconciliation with England, and the former professing the
warmest friendship for England and disapprobation of the separation of
the colonies from England, while both parties were secretly consulting
together as to the means of dismembering the British empire. "It was,"
says Dr. Ramsay, "evidently the interest of France to encourage the
Americans in their opposition to Great Britain; and it was true policy
to do this by degrees, and in a private manner, lest Great Britain might
take the alarm. It is certain that Great Britain was amused with
declarations of the most pacific disposition on the part of France, at
the time the Americans were liberally supplie