To
Frenchmen zealous for the ideals of liberty and seeking military
careers in America he promised freely commissions as colonels and
even generals and was the chief cause of that deluge of European
officers which proved to Washington so annoying. It was through
Deane's activities that La Fayette became a volunteer. Through
him came too the proposal to send to America the Comte de Broglie
who should be greater than colonel or general--a generalissimo, a
dictator. He was to brush aside Washington, to take command of
the American armies, and by his prestige and skill to secure
France as an ally and win victory in the field. For such services
Broglie asked only despotic power while he served and for life a
great pension which would, he declared, not be one-hundredth part
of his real value. That Deane should have considered a scheme so
fantastic reveals the measure of his capacity, and by the end of
1776 Benjamin Franklin was sent to Paris to bring his tried skill
to bear upon the problem of the alliance. With Deane and Franklin
as a third member of the commission was associated Arthur Lee who
had vainly sought aid at the courts of Spain and Prussia. France
was, however, coy. The end of 1776 saw the colonial cause at a
very low ebb, with Washington driven from New York and about to
be driven from Philadelphia.
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