Beschreibung:

Thomson, CharlesAutograph Document signed ("Cha Thomson Secry.") as Secretary of the Continental Congress, being Thomson's official copy, extracted from the minutes, of the congressional proceedings concerning Admiral Lord Richard Howe's peace overtures of 1776
5 1/2 pages (322 x 196 mm) on 3 leaves of paper, [Philadelphia,] 2–17 September 1776, docketed on verso of final leaf ("Act of Congress | Interview with Ld Howe"); some marginal wear and repair, one quadrant of last leaf quite soiled.
"We gave it as our opinion to his lordship that return to the domination of great Britain was not to be expected": a gripping account of the fruitless Staten Island Peace Conference.
The Howe brothers—Admiral Lord Richard and General Lord William—had hopes of achieving an to the Revolution without further combat, and so had insisted on being given diplomatic powers in addition to their military commands. But this concession was given reluctantly by George III and limited by Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord George Germain. Admiral Howe made advances to George Washington and to Benjamin Franklin but was rebuffed by both. But Howe seized on another opportunity when General John Sullivan was among the prisoners taken by the British during the Battle of Long Island, 27 August 27 1776. Sullivan was convinced to accept a parole in order to carry to the Continental Congress a proposal for a peace conference. The resulting conference is detailed here in Thomson’s extracts from the congressional minutes.
This highly significant and dramatic document begins with an entry from 2 September 1776, reporting that "Congress being informed that general Sullivan who was taken prisoner on Long island came to Philadelphia with a design to communicate a message from Lord Howe. Ordered that he be admitted & heard before Congress[,] General Sullivan … delivered a verbal message he had in charge from Lord Howe, which he was desired to reduce to writing and then withdrew[.]"
The following day's minutes include Sullivan’' written version of the verbal message from Admiral Howe: "That though he could not, at present, treat with Congress as such, yet he was very desirous of having a conference with some of the members, whom he would consider for the present only as private gentlemen and treat them himself as such at such place as they should appoint[.]
"That he in conjunction with general Howe has full power to compromise the dispute between great Britain and America upon terms advantageous to both, the obtaining of which delay’d him near two months in England and prevented his arrival at this place before the declaration of independency took place[.]
"That he wished a compact might be settled at this time, when no decisive blow was struck and neither party would say that they were compelled to enter into such agreement[.]
"That in case congress were disposed to treat, many things, which they had not as yet asked, might and ought to be granted, and that if upon the conference, they found any probable ground of an accommodation, the authority of Congress must be afterwards acknowledged, otherwise the compact could not be compleat[.]"
On 5 and 6 September, Congress resolved that Sullivan should inform Lord Howe that "this Congress being the representatives of the free and independent states of America cannot with propriety send any of its members to confer with his lordship in their private characters," but that they were willing to send "a committee of their body" to have an authorized conversation regarding peace. A committee of three was then elected: for the purpose: Benjamin Franklin John Adams and John Rutledge. On 13 September, this committee returned from its conference with Admiral Howe and was ordered to submit a written report on the meeting; this report appears under the entry for 17 September:
"In obedience to the order of Congress, we have had a meeting with lord Howe. It was on Wednesday last upon Staten island opposite the Amboy, where his lordship received and entertained use with the utmost politeness." Much of the beginning of the meeting was consumed by the question of whether the American triumvirate was attending in a private or congressional capacity, with Franklin, Adams, and Rutledge insisting that "we could consider ourselves in no other character than 7in which we were placed by Congress." Even so, "His lordship then entered into a discourse of a considerable length, which contained no explicit proposition of peace except on remedy that the colonies return to their allegiance & obedience to the government of great Britain. The rest consisted principally of his assurances that there was an exceeding good disposition in the king & his ministers to make that government easy to us, with the intimations that in case of our submission, they would cause the offensive acts of parliament to be revised & the instructions to governors to be reconsidered. … We gave it as our opinion to his lordship that return to the domination of great Britain was not to be expected. We mentioned the repeated humble petitions of the colonies to the King & parliament, which has been treated with contempt & answered only by additional injuries; … & that it was not till the last act of parliament … put us out of the Kings protection that we declared our independence; that this declaration had been called for by the people of the colonies in general; that every colony has approved of it when made; and all now considered themselves as Independent states. …"
The meeting concluded with Howe "saying that he was sorry to find that no accommodation was like to take place," a conclusion with which the American commission agreed: "Upon the whole it did not appear … that his lordships commission contained any other authority than that expressed in the act of parliament, namely that of granting pardons. … we apprehended any expectations … would have been too uncertain and precarious to be relied on by America, had she still continued in her state of dependance." The extracts conclude with the order that the committee’s report, as well the message from Lord Howe as delivered by General Sullivan, be published.
In his Autobiography, Benjamin Rush recalled sitting next to John Adams "while Genl. Sullivan was delivering a request to Congress from Lord Howe for an interview with a committee of the House in their private capacities, after the defeat of the American Army on Long Island on: the 26th of August 1776. Mr. Adams, under a sudden impression of the design, and dread of the consequences of the measure, whispered to me a wish 'that the first ball that had been fired on the day of the defeat of our army, had gone through his head.' When he rose to speak against the proposed interview, he called Genl. Sullivan 'a decoy duck, whom Lord Howe has sent among us to seduce us into a renunciation of our independance' (The Autobiography of Benjamin Rush: His "Travels through Life," ed. George W. Corner [Princeton, 1948] , p. 140).
PROVENANCE:Abraham Tomlinson — Mercantile Library Association of New York City (stamp and discard stamp on verso) — The Elsie O. and Philip D. Sang Foundation (Sotheby Parke Bernet, 26 April 1978, lot 277) — Sotheby's New York, 26 April 1983, lot 85C (undesignated consignor; sold as part of "The Treaty of Paris Collection")