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Lot 61
CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNT OF THE MEETING WITH GENERAL HOWE FROM THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. BARTLETT, JOSIAH. 1729-1795. Autograph Letter Signed ("Josiah Bartlett") to William Whipple reporting on Staten Island peace conference with General Howe and an American delegation of Franklin, Adams, and Edward Rutledge,
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CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNT OF THE MEETING WITH GENERAL HOWE FROM THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.
BARTLETT, JOSIAH. 1729-1795. Autograph Letter Signed ("Josiah Bartlett") to William Whipple reporting on Staten Island peace conference with General Howe and an American delegation of Franklin, Adams, and Edward Rutledge, 3 pp, ink on 2 sheets of "LVG" watermarked paper, 330 x 210 mm, Philadelphia, September 14, 1776, tear to corners with minor loss.
Published: Force, American Archives, Fifth Series, 2:323-324, 1848.
VERY RARE ACCCOUNT OF THE STATEN ISLAND CONFERENCE FROM THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS FROM JOSIAH BARTLETT. The Staten Island peace conference was the result of months of attempts by the Howes to bring the Americans to the negotiating table. After months of refusing to meet unless the American Independence was first acknowledged, Congress agreed to send Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Edward Rutledge to meet with Howe, but only as representatives of Congress. Lord Howe was very gracious, but was not empowered to treat with Congress, just to issue individual pardons, dooming the conference before it began.
A contemporary account from the first-hand reports brought by the commissioners, Bartlett's letter gives a full description of the meeting, including Franklin's humorous remarks:
"Last Wednesday our Committee met Lord Howe on Staten Island where they ate and drank together. He treated them with great civility and politeness and after about three hours' conversation, they took their leave of each other, his Lordship's conversation was full of his friendship for America particularly the town of Boston for their respect to the memory of his brother. He said that the ravaging & destroying America would give him great pain & uneasiness. Dr. Franklin replied that we should take proper, & he hoped effectual, care to prevent his Lordship's feelings on that account. On the whole all the terms he had to propose were that we first of all lay down our arms & return to our allegiance and then he said the King & Parliament would consider the acts we formerly complained of, and if they judged it proper would alter or amend them. They told him that General Sullivan said that his Lordship in conversation told him that the King & Parliament would give up the right of taxation and of intermeddling with the internal police of the Colonies & desired to know what authority he had to say it. Lord Howe replied that General Sullivan must certainly have misunderstood him, as he had no right to say any such thing nor did he believe the Parliament would give up those claims. The Committee are about to publish the whole affair, which I hope will Stop the mouths of the weak & Credulous who have had great hopes of peace from the supposed great powers intrusted with Lord Howe as a Commissioner for that purpose."
Bartlett was closely identified with the peace committee, as it was his friend and fellow New Hampshire-ite General John Sullivan who delivered Howe's invitation. Captured at the Battle of Long Island, Sullivan was released on parole to take a message to Congress, and he went first to Bartlett, who wrote on September 3, "Yesterday General Sullivan arrived at my Lodgings, being on his parole. He says he has a verbal message to Congress...." While the meeting was widely acknowledged as offering little chance for resolve, it did offer the Americans some time to prepare for the British invasion of New York City, and show loyalist sympathizers, and those still unsure of the path of war, Congress's good will and reason in hearing Lord Howe. First-hand reports of this extraordinary event in World History are exceedingly rare, marking the final step into full-scale war between the Americans and Great Britain.
Published: Force, American Archives, Fifth Series, 2:323-324, 1848.
VERY RARE ACCCOUNT OF THE STATEN ISLAND CONFERENCE FROM THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS FROM JOSIAH BARTLETT. The Staten Island peace conference was the result of months of attempts by the Howes to bring the Americans to the negotiating table. After months of refusing to meet unless the American Independence was first acknowledged, Congress agreed to send Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Edward Rutledge to meet with Howe, but only as representatives of Congress. Lord Howe was very gracious, but was not empowered to treat with Congress, just to issue individual pardons, dooming the conference before it began.
A contemporary account from the first-hand reports brought by the commissioners, Bartlett's letter gives a full description of the meeting, including Franklin's humorous remarks:
"Last Wednesday our Committee met Lord Howe on Staten Island where they ate and drank together. He treated them with great civility and politeness and after about three hours' conversation, they took their leave of each other, his Lordship's conversation was full of his friendship for America particularly the town of Boston for their respect to the memory of his brother. He said that the ravaging & destroying America would give him great pain & uneasiness. Dr. Franklin replied that we should take proper, & he hoped effectual, care to prevent his Lordship's feelings on that account. On the whole all the terms he had to propose were that we first of all lay down our arms & return to our allegiance and then he said the King & Parliament would consider the acts we formerly complained of, and if they judged it proper would alter or amend them. They told him that General Sullivan said that his Lordship in conversation told him that the King & Parliament would give up the right of taxation and of intermeddling with the internal police of the Colonies & desired to know what authority he had to say it. Lord Howe replied that General Sullivan must certainly have misunderstood him, as he had no right to say any such thing nor did he believe the Parliament would give up those claims. The Committee are about to publish the whole affair, which I hope will Stop the mouths of the weak & Credulous who have had great hopes of peace from the supposed great powers intrusted with Lord Howe as a Commissioner for that purpose."
Bartlett was closely identified with the peace committee, as it was his friend and fellow New Hampshire-ite General John Sullivan who delivered Howe's invitation. Captured at the Battle of Long Island, Sullivan was released on parole to take a message to Congress, and he went first to Bartlett, who wrote on September 3, "Yesterday General Sullivan arrived at my Lodgings, being on his parole. He says he has a verbal message to Congress...." While the meeting was widely acknowledged as offering little chance for resolve, it did offer the Americans some time to prepare for the British invasion of New York City, and show loyalist sympathizers, and those still unsure of the path of war, Congress's good will and reason in hearing Lord Howe. First-hand reports of this extraordinary event in World History are exceedingly rare, marking the final step into full-scale war between the Americans and Great Britain.