of the Seven Years War.  Another day the same flag was seen on the mast of a small vessel leaving the harbor at Bordeaux and sailing for America.  The ship happened to bear the auspicious name of La Victoire, and it bore Lafayette.  Then it was the alliance of 1778, and the coming on the same year of the first envoy accredited by any nation to this country, my predecessor, Gerard de Rayneval, a staunch friend of America; then the peace of 1783, when, with the assent of the whole world, to the joy of every French heart, 13 stars shone on the American flag.

    France recovered, then, neither Louisiana nor Canada, nor
    anything.  But she never intended it.  She won a friend, and such
    a friend is better than any province.

She was very happy, having exactly fulfilled without change, bargain, or extenuation the task she had mapped out for herself in 1778, when she declared in the alliance treaty that the “direct and essential object of the same was efficaciously to maintain the freedom, sovereignty, and absolute and illimited independence of the United States.”  The joy was such in Paris at the news of American independence that performances in the theaters were interrupted; the great event was announced, and audiences rose to their feet to cheer the new-born Republic.  Festivities were given and colored prints were scattered all over France for the benefit of those who could not be present.  Such souvenirs were proudly kept in families.  One such came to the remote house of my own parents in the mountains, and it was carefully preserved and I possess it at this day.

France followed her destinies; in 1800 Louisiana was French again; three years later on the spontaneous proposal of the French Republic, not New Orleans alone, not a mere strip of land, but the whole country became forever American.

The treaty signed one hundred years and a day ago had little precedent in history; it dealt with territories larger than the Empire of Alexander; it followed no war; it was preceded by no shedding of human blood; the new possessions got a hundred times more than they even thought of demanding, and the negotiations were so simple, the good faith and mutual friendship so obvious, that all was concluded in a fortnight.  The simplest protocol on postal or sanitary questions takes nowadays more time.  Each party found its interest in the transaction, but something more than interest led the affair to a speedy conclusion and that was the deep-rooted sympathy of the French and American nations.

The French were simply continuing what they had begun; they had wished America to be free and they were glad to think that she would be great.  Money was paid, it is true; had this been the main consideration, Louisiana would have been preserved, for the money was not by far the equivalent of the buildings and lands belonging to the State.  Part of the money was employed in