Tliese  signatures  were  attached  to  a  copy  on
Xjaper.  It  was  engrossed  on  parchment  and  again
signed  on  the  2d  of  August.  Tn  o  others  after-
wards signed  it  —  one  in  September,  and  the
other  later  in  autumn.  Immediately  after  it
was  adopted  it  was  printed  and  sent  through-
out the  cidonies,  with  only  the  names  of  John
H.incock,  President  of  Congress,  and  Charles
Thcmiscm,  the  Secretary,  attached  to  it.  In
January,  1777,  it  was  printed  on  a  "broadside,"
with  the  names  of  all  the  signei-s,  and  sent  to
the  several  asseinblie.-;  and  to  the  several  com-
manding officers  of  the  Continental  troops.  (See
fac-simile  on  following  page.)

Declaration  of  Independence,  The,  in
Fkance.  Veigennes.  the  French  minister  for
foreign  affairs,  was  not  a  man  of  high-toned
morality,  but  was  a  keen  diplomat,  and  never
scrupulous  in  regard  to  measures  that  would
favmably  affect  the  interests  of  France.  He
was  eager  to  promote  and  prolong  the  quarrel
of  Great  Biitain  with  her  colonies  and  push  it
to  a  separation,  for  it  would  weaken  the  power
of  the  "  natural  enemy  of  France."  He  favored
secret  aid  to  the  strnggling  colonists  (see  Beau-
viarchaw),  and  when  the  Declaration  of  Inde-
pendence reached  Versailles  (August,  1776)  he
read  to  the  king,  in  caliinet  council,  considera-
tions on  the  part  which  France  should  then
take  towards  England.  He  showed  the  advan-
tages of  war  with  that  nation.     "  The  war  will


DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE      372


DECLAEATION  OF  REBELLION


form,"  he  said,  "  between  France  and  North
America  a  connection  -wliich  ■will  not  grow  np
and  vanish  with  the  need  of  the  moment.  No
interest  can  divide  the  two  nations.  Commerce
will  form  between  them  a  very  durable,  if  not


youiig  king,  whose  decision  in  the  matter  -was
invoked,  too  weak  to  lea<l  in  affairs  of  such
magnitude,  hating  republicanism  and  fearing
revolution,  resolved  that  peace  with  Euglinid
should  not  be  broken  during  his  reign.     That


an  eternal,  chain;  vivifying  industry,  it  will
bring  into  our  harbors  the  commodities  which
America  formerly  poured  into  those  of  England,
■with  a  double  beuefit,  for  the  augmentation  of
our  national  labor  lessens  that  of  a  rival."    The


broken  peace  was  only  delayed  less  than  two
years,  not  prevented.
