ong inherited
distrust of the French, which characterized the Americans of the
revolutionary era, has been too much overlooked in the glow of
gratitude which followed the effectual sympathy and assistance then
given; but it was understood at the time, and France felt, that to
renew those pretensions might promote, between people of the same race
only recently alienated, a reconciliation by just concessions, which a
strong and high-minded party of Englishmen had never ceased to
advocate. She therefore did not avow, perhaps did not entertain, this
object. On the contrary, she formally renounced all claim to any part
of the continent which was then, or had recently been, under the power
of the British crown, but stipulated for freedom of action in
conquering and retaining any of the West India Islands, while all the
other colonies of Great Britain were, of course, open to her attack.
The principal objects at which France aimed were therefore the English
West Indies and that control of India which had passed into English
hands, and also to secure in due time the independence of the United
States, after they had wrought a sufficient diversion in her favor.
With the policy of exclusive trade which characterized that
generation, the loss of these important possessions was expected to
lessen that commercial greatness upon which the prosperity of England
depended,--to weaken her and to strengthen France. In fact, the strife
which should be greater may be said to have been the animating motive
of France; all objects were summed up in the one supreme end to which
they contributed,--maritime and political superiority over England.

Preponderance over England, in combination with France, was also the
aim of the equally humbled but less vigorous kingdom of Spain; but
there was a definiteness in the injuries suffered and the objects
specially sought by her which is less easily found in the broader
views of her ally. Although no Spaniard then living could remember the
Spanish flag flying over Minorca, Gibraltar, or Jamaica, the lapse of
time had not reconciled the proud and tenacious nation to their loss;
nor was there on the part of the Americans the same traditional
objection to the renewal of Spanish sovereignty over the two Floridas
that was felt with reference to Canada.

Such, then, were the objects sought by the two nations, whose
interposition changed the whole character of the American
Revolutionary War. It is needless to sa