There was a period when France seemed ready to
make peace on the basis of dividing the Thirteen States, leaving
some of them independent while others should remain under the
British King.
Congress was not willing to leave its affairs at Paris in the
capable hands of Franklin alone. In 1780 it sent John Adams to
Paris, and John Jay and Henry Laurens were also members of the
American Commission. The austere Adams disliked and was jealous
of Franklin, gay in spite of his years, seemingly indolent and
easygoing, always bland and reluctant to say No to any request
from his friends, but ever astute in the interests of his
country. Adams told Vergennes, the French foreign minister, that
the Americans owed nothing to France, that France had entered the
war in her own interests, and that her alliance with America had
greatly strengthened her position in Europe. France, he added,
was really hostile to the colonies, since she was jealously
trying to keep them from becoming rich and powerful. Adams
dropped hints that America might be compelled to make a separate
peace with Britain. When it was proposed that the depreciated
continental paper money, largely held in France for purchases
there, should be redeemed at the rate of one good dollar for
every forty in paper money, Adams declared to the horrified
French creditors of the United States that the proposal was fair
and just.
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