Page:Dramatic Moments in American Diplomacy (1918).djvu/74

54 some of our common friends, I have thought him the fittest for the purpose. He is a pacifical man and conversant in these negotiations, which are most interesting to mankind. * * * He is fully appraised of my mind, and you may give full credit to everything he assures you of. At the same time, if any other channel occurs to you, I am ready to embrace it. I wish to retain the same simplicity and good faith which existed between us in transactions of less importance."

Of course, the truth of the matter was that King George in his battle for autocratic power had been even worse beaten in England than in America, and that Franklin and Jay were not dealing with enemies at all. Shelburne's inclination, as well as far-sighted policy, was to create as powerful an independent country as possible, founded upon the same liberal ideals of government and conscience as his own, and knit as firmly to the old English stock as inheritance and language, tradition, religion, literature and commerce, laws,