The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1917-04-20

France loaned us 81 200,0 0O The cash
output of France in behalf of American
independence aggregated a sum far great
er than the States possessed in coin OF
their own or any kind during the entire
contest. To these advances should be
added the cost of the maintenance of the
ships, men and material while in Amer
lean waters. The latter expenses make,
with the above loans, the total of $685.
1853 $3.50. The loans were refunded, but
there was still an outlay OF $33,930,000
| in behalf of the States for which France
received no return.
Covertly at first France aided the
colonies, but after the surrender of Bur
goyne the treaty of alliance was signed
and France entered into the war with
Great Britain. The decisive force was
that which was landed at Newport in
1850, under Rochambeau. IL was dark
hour for the American cause. The first
fervor of resistance had cooled, the fight
ing had subsidized, Congress was weak,
and the treasury empty. 1t was with
the greatest difficulty that Washington
had kept the army organized. In the
language of General Porter our one time
minister to France, "Rochambeau came
to our shores with proud army, hand
somely equipped, brilliantly uniformed,
and disciplined in the rigid school of
leading military power of the old world,
to find himself associated with the mod
est yeomanry of the colonies, who con-
stituted the American forces, and who
were not supplied with clothing enough
to cover their honorable wounds, and
the march of whose shoeless battalions
could be traced by the blood which flowed
from their lacerated feet"
Washington was unable to meet Ro-
chambeau until fall, although he COM
menced a correspondence with him at
once on his arrival 1t seemed to the
French general that he should not move
without further reinforcements and no
plan was made to attack until the fol-
lowing year, when the Virginia campaign
was decided upon. Here CORVALLIS was
located with the main British army at
Yorktown. But one condition remained
to make an attack feasible--a fleet to
command the sea at the point where the
attack was to be made. This was soon |
supplied by the French fleet under De
Grasse. The French and American |
armies were hurried from New York to
the Chesapeake and thence to Yorktown.
The longed-for moment on the part of |
when he could unite the |
land and naval forces, was at hand. De /
Grasse held the bay while the allied
armies drew closer and closer toward the
British lines carrying them one by one
and compelling the surrender of Cornwall
lis and his army. The credit for this
decisive victory in the cause for our in
dependence is due to France, whose sol.
Hers outnumbered ours in the siege of
Yorktown, and whose feet prevented the
English fotilla from relieving CORVALLIS.
The English general rendered his sword
20 Rochambeau on the surrender of his
,rmy of 1000 men, but the latter mod
,stly refused to accept it and insisted
hat it be given to Washington.
France was the first object of German
attack in the present war. A march
lpon Paris was the Prussian order and
he trained hosts of the kaiser FASTENED
o overrun the fair land of the French
men. Had not Belgium stood in the way
Who knows what the fate of France
would have been? But she has withstood
ii onslaughts, although much of her ter
itory has been invaded, her homes have
,een destroyed, her sacred edifices de- ;
poiled, her fields laid waste and her
'eople ruined. Her young men have
allen by thousands and hundreds of
thousands in the defense of their coun-
ry. but the spirit of the nation is still
Ugh, strong, hopeful, and the invader is /,
eing driven out. But France is sorely
n need of our assistance and it should
e-and will be, we know-generously :
iven in financial aid, in material assist
nee, and, if need be- in men. And now
fter These many years, almost cen
ury and half, we win pay back to
rance what she gave when we were in
eed, through Lafayette, Roehambeau,
he Crosse, d. Estsing, De Gouchen and
he French soldiers and sailors who
ought in the cause of American freedom.
Ve will respond, too, in the same spirit
-hich moved Lafayette TO come to us
the long ago-then a new spirit of
ew time-the spirit of freedom and de-
Iocracy. We will go TO our sister re-
ublic's aid, too, in defense of the rights
small nations, the freedom of the
,ss, and the principles of liberty.
Frank L. Fish,
resident Vermont Sons of American
Revolution.