Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/112

 82 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS The feeling of Spain toward the United States was intensely hostile, and the French government was much more in sympathy with the former than with the latter. On the other hand, the new British government w is not ill-disposed toward the Ameri cans, and was extremely ready to make liberal con cessions to them for the sake of thwarting the schemes of France. In the background stood George III., surly and irreconcilable, hoping that the negotiations would fail; and amid these diffi culties they doubtless would have failed had not all the parties by this time had a surfeit of blood shed. The designs of the French government were first suspected by John Jay, soon after his arrival in Paris. He found that Vergennes was sending a secret emissary to Lord Shelburne under an assumed name; he ascertained that the right of the United States to the Mississippi valley was to be denied; and he got hold of a despatch from Mar- bois, the French secretary of legation at Phila delphia, to Vergennes, opposing the American claim to the Newfoundland fisheries. As soon as Jay learned these facts he proceeded, without the knowledge of Franklin, to take steps toward a separate negotiation between Great Britain and the United States. When Adams arrived in Paris, October 26, he coincided with Jay s views, and the two together overruled Franklin. Mr. Adams s be-