86 ORIGINAL TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES 



States by massing to the westward the Spanish, the Indians, and 

 the English, leaving the territory of the colonies only a narrow 

 fringe pendant to the broad snowy mantle of the Dominion of 

 Canada, torn from its own shoulders in 1763, and perhaps with 

 the dim hope of its ultimate recovery amidst the strange inter- 

 national vicissitudes that attend defeat and victory. Regarding 

 the fisheries as " a great nursery for seamen," and seeing in them 

 a school for ultimate supremacy on the ocean, France joined 

 England in seeking to deprive the colonies of their hereditary 

 rights on the banks of Newfoundland and in the Gulf of St Law- 

 rence. The keen vision of Vergennes foreknew the future strug- 

 gle for the Mississippi valle} 7 and the possession of the Far West, 

 and, faithful to Spain, he ridiculed " the extravagance of the 

 American views and pretentions," and called the demands of 

 John Ja} r ''a delirium not to be seriously refuted." 



Happily for their country, the American commissioners saw a 

 way to peace without sacrificing the interests of their people, 

 and although threatened with a vote of censure in Congress for 

 their independent action and disregard of French counsel, "they 

 were brave and wise enough to maintain every just demand. 

 The Treaty of Versailles not only acknowledged the independence 

 of the United States, secured the rights of the fisheries, and 

 opened the free navigation of the Mississippi, but it confirmed 

 substantially the American claims in the matter of boundaries 

 and won a vast territorial empire for the United States. 11 It was 

 one of the greatest victories in the history of diplomacy and laid 

 the foundation of the nation's greatness. The Great Lakes and 

 the Mississippi became American highways, and the path to the 

 Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific was opened to American enter- 

 prise. The peace was received " with a burst of approbation " 

 in the United States, and the refrain was taken up — 



" No pent-up Utica confines our powers, 

 The whole unbounded continent is ours." 



The completeness of the victory was resented b} 7 Spain, com- 

 pelled to take Florida in place of Gibraltar, and regretted by 

 France, which got nothing at all. The baffled Aranda wrote to 

 his King : " This Federal Republic is born a pigmy. A day 

 will come when it will be a giant — even a colossus — formidable 

 to these countries. Liberiy of conscience, the facility of estab- 

 lishing a new population on immense lands, as well as the ad- 



11 See map of the Original Public Domain, 1787. 



