From that time, as Franklin suffered from a severe illness, Jay was the life of the negotiations, and the credit is generally given to him for the treaty which followed, and which was hurried through hastily for fear that a change in the British ministry would hazard its success.  It came near alienating France, however, since it had been distinctly understood that peace should not be made without the consent of all the contracting powers, and this treaty was made with England alone.  Franklin, in the transaction, was the more honest, and Jay the more astute.

Strictly speaking, all these three commissioners rendered important services in their various ways.  Franklin’s urbanity and frankness, and the high esteem in which he was held both in France and in England, made easy the opening of the negotiations, and he gained a special point in avoiding any agreement of indemnity to American royalists who had suffered in person or property during the war, while he maintained pleasant relations with France when Vergennes was pursuing his selfish policy to prevent the United States from becoming too strong, and when he became indignant that the treaty had been concluded with England irrespective of France.  Jay, with keen sagacity, fathomed the schemes of the French minister, and persistently refused to sign a treaty of peace unless it was satisfactory and promised to be permanent and mutually advantageous.  Adams was especially acquainted with the fisheries question and its great importance to New England; and he insisted on the right of Americans to fish on the banks of Newfoundland.  All three persisted in the free navigation of the Mississippi, which it was the object of Spain to prevent.  Great Britain, Spain, and France would have enclosed the United States by territories of their own, and would have made odious commercial restrictions.  By the firmness and sagacity of these three diplomatists the United States finally secured all they wanted and more than they expected.  The preliminary articles were signed November 30, 1782, and the final treaties of peace between England, France, and the United States on September 3, 1783.

These negotiations at last having been happily concluded, Franklin wished to return home, but he remained, at the request of Congress, to arrange commercial treaties with the various European nations.  Reluctantly at last his request to be relieved was granted, and he left France in July, 1785.  Thomas Jefferson was appointed to the position.  “You replace Dr. Franklin,” said the Count de Vergennes to the new plenipotentiary.  “I succeed him,” replied Jefferson; “no one can replace him.”