Excerpt from The French Alliance: Address Delivered Before the Rhode Island State Society of the Cincinnati, at the State House at Newport, Rhode Island, on July 4, 1904<br><br>In celebrating, therefore, this independence which was achieved, our thoughts naturally turn to the forces and influences which enabled it to be achieved. Among such influences there were several, them selves the result of great underlying causes, ap parent in the long retrospect of the previous history of Europe, which played important parts in the final series of events which culminated in our independence. Not alone, as it now seems, could Washington and the other statesmen and patriots and the brave and long-suffering armies of the col onies have won the victory. Many circumstances combined to aid them; and important among these were the relations which existed between France and Spain and between each of those powers and Eng land at the time of the American Revolution. Ashas been well said, even the stars in their courses seemed to fight for American independence. And one of the greatest of the influences which at the end enabled that independence to be won was the alliance which was made between the thirteen colo nies, or, as they called themselves, the thirteen United States, and the King of France in February, 1778.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.