the effects of
the treaty upon the public mind. General Tryon caused copies of it to
be printed in New York and circulated through the country. He sent
several of them to General Washington, 15th April, with a request that
they should be communicated to the officers and privates of his army.
Washington felt the singular impertinence of the request. He
transmitted them to Congress, observing that the time to entertain
such overtures was past. "Nothing short of independence, it appears to
me, can possibly do. A peace on other terms would, if I may be allowed
the expression, be a peace of war. The injuries we have received from
the British nation were so unprovoked, and have been so great and so
many, that they can never be forgotten." These and other objections
advanced by him met with the concurrence of Congress, and it was
unanimously resolved that no conference could be held, no treaty made
with any commissioners on the part of Great Britain, until that power
should have withdrawn its fleets and armies, or acknowledged in
positive and express terms the independence of the United States.

On the following day, April 23d, a resolution was passed recommending
to the different States to pardon, under such restrictions as might be
deemed expedient, such of their citizens as, having levied war against
the United States, should return to their allegiance before the 16th
of June.

The tidings of the capitulation of Burgoyne had been equally
efficacious in quickening the action of the French cabinet. The
negotiations, which had gone on so slowly as almost to reduce our
commissioners to despair, were brought to a happy termination, and on
the 2d of May, ten days after the passing by Congress of the resolves
just cited, a messenger arrived express from France with two treaties,
one of amity and commerce, the other of defensive alliance, signed in
Paris on the 6th of February by M. Girard on the part of France, and
by Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee on the part of the
United States. This last treaty stipulated that, should war ensue
between France and England, it should be made a common cause by the
contracting parties, in which neither should make truce or peace with
Great Britain without the consent of the other, nor either lay down
their arms until the independence of the United States was
established.

These treaties were unanimously ratified by Congress, and their
promulgation was celebrated by public rejo