2

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program lest Great Britain should acknowledge America's independence and France thus lose the American gratitude which an open and effective alliance would win. Terms of a Treaty were quickly composed; signed by the Commissioners on February 6, 1778; ratified by the American Congress on May 4, 1778. There were two conventions: one, a commercial Treaty; the other, a political and defensive military alliance between France and America. It was the first, last and only Treaty of alliance ever made by the United States. It came at a critical moment when the scales of American destiny, despite Saratoga, balanced precariously in the hands of fate. When Gerard, the first resultant French Minister, arrived in America and was received by the Continental Congress that primitive parliament piously acknowledged "the hand of a gracious Providence in raising them up so powerful a friend." If the alliance did not actually save the American cause, it greatly shortened the struggle and in all human probability so far as such a speculation may be judged the overt appearance of France on the side of the Colonies, facilitating French support on

2 "The one entangling alliance of our history, the indispensable instrument of our deliverance as a nation.' Corwin's French Policy and the American Alliance, p. 358. 3 History of North America, Veditz and James, Vol. VI, p.

4 The American Nation, Van Tyne, Vol. IX, p. 226.

land and particularly on sea, was the turning point and the controlling factor in Revolutionary fortunes.

Since this survey aspires to no detail as an intimate Revolutionary chronicle-being concerned solely with an objective estimate of the part France played in liberating the Colonies-we may pass the indecisive era that followed from 1778 to 1780 and rely upon subsequent summaries for a sufficient picture. It is enough to say that the name of Lafayette-trade-marking the heroic heartfulness of France is written so constantly upon these pages that it is easily appreciable why fourteen decades later the faithful legend of historic Franco-American fraternity should have become articulate, in another century and on another continent, in the famous reciprocal apostrophe "Lafayette, we are here!" Though the

King withheld permission, though the British Minister to France protested, though family and home and kindred beckoned the youthful nobleman to return, he left all to fight the battle of freedom in this new and uncertain world. Fitting a vessel at his own expense, he eluded all patrols and with the brave De Kalb3 and a small company of adventurous followers he reached George

2

This pregnant address is commonly but erroneously attributed to General Pershing. As a matter of fact, it was uttered at the tomb of Lafayette July 4, 1917, by Colonel Charles E. Stanton, U. S. Army, now retired.

2 Ridpath's History of the United States.

3 De Kalb was wounded eleven times and finally killed at the Battle of Sanders Creek, South Carolina, August, 1780.

town, South Carolina, in April, 1777; he at once entered the patriot army as a volunteer and three months later was commissioned a Major General. He was only in his twentieth year-the same precocious age, it might be said parenthetically, as young Alexander Hamilton who was destined to become his great and constant friend and who is soon to loom large upon this trail of a tradition. Lafayette was no dress-parade cavalier. He became a partner in the Revolution's hardest travail and a veteran in its heaviest campaigning. He commanded Washington's right wing at Brandywine where he was severely wounded. He went through the terror and the sacrifice of Valley Forge. He led the cavalry at Monmouth when the British had evacuated Philadelphia after the first French fleet under d'Estaing had been despatched to America and up the Delaware. He was in the unsuccessful coup launched at Newport. Indeed, he was so constant a figure in every phase of the active Revolution that he richly deserves the canonization which American history and the emotions of the American heart have given him. Yet he was but one of many loyal Frenchmen-indeed, of many Knights not only from France but other foreign strandswho put their swords upon the altars of this momentous adventure in new freedom. To attempt the roll would either trespass too lengthily upon our space or threaten the injustice of cruel and ungrateful omissions. Suffice it to emphasise

Lafayette as our commonly accepted habits of thought always have done and present him as a type.

The Revolution moved into its final phase from July, 1780-when Admiral de Ternay arrived at Newport with his French squadron conveying 6,000 land troops under Count Rochambeau-to October, 1781, when the consolidated FrenchAmerican arms, by land and sea, won the convincing and conclusive Battle of Yorktown. For the purpose of estimating the importance of French aid in this final glorious Revolutionary epoch, we shall turn aside from beaten paths of history and consult an exhibit which here sees the light of day for the first time. It is particularly significant because it discloses the candid trepidation which controlled the high commanders of the Colonial forces even within a year of Yorktown. It bears emphatically upon the measure of French potency because it circumscribes the fateful area of final Revolutionary decision as being in the South, and confidentially confesses that France alone could be the source of Republican salvation there. And it fits into the ultimate scheme of this general inquiry-when we reach and pursue the main trail of this traditionbecause it is from the pen of Alexander Hamilton, destined to become the master pilot in charting the safe courses-whether domestic or foreignfor this new Ship of State.

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After Rochambeau and his French Army had debarked at Newport, it was agreed that Washington and the new French soldier-chieftain should confer upon co-operative strategy at Hartford, Connecticut, because this town was about equidistant between Newport and Washington's headquarters. Washington was accompanied to this vital rendezvous by Lafayette, Knox, Hamilton and five other aides. They reached Hartford on September 20 or 21, 1780. As a result of the deliberations, all jointly signed a memorandum asking the French government for further assistance both in men and money. They particularly sought a French naval force which might be sufficient to insure the success of future operations, and re-emphasised the pressing need for more

'According to the unpublished statistical record of the Continental Army under Washington's immediate command a huge manuscript folio in the Clements Library at the University of Michigan-Washington's headquarters at this time moved about in New Jersey and New York within a limited circle just beyond the British lines. In the summer and fall of 1780, this record notes Washington's headquarters on August 12 as Orangetown; on September 16 as Steenrapie; on October 14 as Totowa. Orangetown is on the Hudson just opposite Phillipsburg, a few miles above Yonkers. Totowa, according to a 1776 map, is a few miles above Hackensack on the Passaic River. We know, too, that Washington and his staff, including Hamilton, went to Hackensack to attend the funeral of General Poor on September 10, 1780.

2 France in the American Revolution, by James Breck Perkins, p. 314.