ch it
had lacked abroad, and it brought into full and effectual exercise the
diplomatic side of the struggle for independence. It was then that
Franklin showed himself another Washington. "On the great question of the
foreign relations of the United States," says Wharton, "it made no matter
whether he was alone or surrounded by unfriendly colleagues; it was only
through him that negotiations could be carried on with France, for to him
alone could the French government commit itself with the consciousness
that the enormous confidences reposed in him would be honorably guarded."
France, chiefly through the influence of Franklin, had given covert
assistance to the colonies from the beginning of the struggle, but the
French ministry hesitated to take a decisive step. Fear that the
Americans would succumb, and leave France to bear the weight of British
hostility, and apprehension that England might grant the demands of the
colonists and then turn her forces against European foes, deterred the
French government from avowed support of the American cause. The news
from Saratoga gave assurance that America would prove a steadfast as well
as a powerful ally, and that with the aid of the United States the
British empire might be dismembered, and France avenged for her losses
and humiliations on the American continent. Nor was revenge the only
motive which led France to cast her lot with the revolted colonies.
England was already stretching forth to establish her power in India, and
France felt that with North America and India, both subject to the
British, the maritime and commercial superiority of England would be a
menace to other powers.

France did not act without long and careful premeditation on the part of
the French crown and its ministers, for the relations between England and
her American colonies had been carefully and acutely considered by the
statesmen of Versailles long before the point of open revolt was reached.
Even when France concluded to throw her resources into the scale on the
side of the United States she did not altogether abandon her cautious
attitude. The French government acknowledged the United States as a
sovereign and treaty-making power; but while the treaty of commerce of
February 6, 1778, was absolute and immediate in its effects, the treaty
of alliance of the same date was contingent on war taking place between
Great Britain and France. It is interesting to note that Benjamin
Franklin was the subj