James Chalmers and Plain Truth

“Can we be so deluded, to expect aid from those princes [France and Spain], which inspiring their subjects with a relish for liberty, might eventually shake their arbitrary thrones…Can we believe that those princes will offer an example so dangerous to their subjects and colonies, by aiding those provinces to independence? If independent, aggrandized by infinite numbers from every part of Europe, this Continent would rapidly attain power astonishing to imagination. Soon, very soon would we be conditioned to conquer Mexico, and all their West India settlements, which to annoy, or possess, we indeed are most happily situated. Simple and obvious as these truths are, can they be unknown to the people and princes of Europe?

• James Chalmers, Plain Truth (1776)

1. Why did Chalmers believe that foreign nations would not come to the aid of the Americans during the Revolutionary War? Was Chalmers prediction correct? Provide a specific example to explain your answer.

2. Did Chalmers believe that the U.S. could not defeat the British without foreign help?

3. Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence that the new nation, “as Free and Independent States…have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.” Would this statement eased or intensified Chalmers’ anxiety? Explain.