American Revolution Podcast - Rev250-112 Long Island Peace Conference

0:00You're listening to an AirWave Media Podcast. Hello, and thanks for joining Revolution 250, where we remember events that took place 250 years ago this week. It's a short bonus episode from the American Revolution Podcast to remember these important 250th anniversaries of the Revolutionary War. This week we remember the piece discussions that took place during the first week of September 1776. When Admiral Richard Howe came to America as the commander of the British Navy in America,

1:05he insisted that he and his brother, General William Howe, be given authority as peace commissioners to bring it into the rebellion. London officials granted him this authority, but gave the Howe's no power to make any concessions, other than granting pardons for past actions in the rebellion. Howe had reached out to American leaders as soon as he arrived in America, but found them unwilling to negotiate even on the issue of independence. Following the British victory on Long Island in late August, Admiral Howe tried again. He hoped that the proof that the American military could not possibly stand up to the British military would convince the American leadership that it might be time to talk. The British Army had captured several continental generals among its prisoners from the battle of Long Island. On August 26th, even before Washington had made his escape from Long Island, the Howe's invited two of their prisoners, General John Sullivan and Lawrence Sterling, to dine with them.

2:05The British had captured both officers in Brooklyn. The men discussed the course of events and whether they would carry a message to the continental congress, calling for a peace conference. Now that the Howe's had proven they could crush the continental army whenever they wanted, I hope to avoid further bloodshed by getting the continental congress to give up on all this independence nonsense and accept the sovereignty of the King and Parliament. General Sterling refused to cooperate with the enemy, but General Sullivan seemed convinced at least enough to deliver their message to Congress. Admiral Howe released Sullivan on parole and allowed him to return to the American lines in New York. Their Sullivan met with General Washington and received permission to go to Congress to deliver Admiral Howe's message. Washington still adamantly believed that peace negotiations were foolish. He also thought Sullivan was naive to think that the British would ever offer a negotiated settlement with any acceptable terms, but the negotiation process, apparently, put further

3:06British attacks on hold and gave Washington time to shore up his defenses in New York. Also, the decision for peace talks was one that Congress should make, not him. So Washington sent Sullivan to Philadelphia to deliver Howe's message. Congress received Sullivan on September 2nd and debated whether to send a delegation to Howe's proposed peace conference. It ended up sending a delegation made up of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Edward Rutledge. Even if they wanted to, the delegation did not have any authority from Congress to agree to anything. The members could listen to what Howe had to say, ask questions, and report back to Congress. On September 9th, the delegation left Philadelphia for New York. They arrived two days later on September 11th, where they took a British-controlled ferry from New Jersey to Staten Island. They met a delegation of British officers under a flag of truce. The British offered to leave one officer with the Americans as a hostage to guarantee their

4:07safer turn. Adams told Franklin he thought the idea absurd and requested that the officer return with them to Admiral Howe. Admiral Howe met with the congressional delegates. His brother General Howe did not participate. The Admiral hosted the meeting at the home of a Tory named Christopher Billup on Long Island. Howe was apparently greatly impressed that the congressional delegation had returned with their hostage, thus indicating that they trusted Howe's honor to return them safely. That however was probably the high point of the meeting. When Howe learned that the delegation did not have authority to agree to anything, he considered ending negotiations right away, but he really wanted to see if the talks had any possibility of leading anywhere, so he continued the discussion. The next hurdle was that Howe insisted on meeting with the men as private citizens, not recognizing them as a delegation from the continental congress, since that body was an illegal assembly without any valid authority. But the delegates insisted that they represented congress, and Howe once again allowed the discussions

5:12to proceed. The delegates insisted that there could be no negotiations until London recognized American independence. Franklin told Howe that there had been too much war and devastation for the colonies to return to the empire as the king's subjects. Howe knew that independence was a non-starter in London. Although Franklin knew that this was not going to go anywhere, he made the case for British acceptance of independence. The United States were growing into a major force in their own right and no longer trusted British rule. The only way Britain might maintain control would be to keep a large and expensive standing army in the colonies that would only impoverish both countries. If Britain accepted independence, it could resume trade with America, receiving all the goods and raw materials that benefited the British people. The men talked cordially for about three hours, enjoying a few glasses of wine and a nice dinner together, but it was obvious that there was no common ground for negotiation. Even that howe could not make any political concessions and the congressional delegations

6:16made clear that they would not accept anything less than independence, the war would have to continue. Howe returned the delegation back to New Jersey, and with his brother drafted a joint report for Secretary George Germain back in London. They noted that the American still insisted on recognition of independence. For officials in London, this seemed like a joke. When the king's forces crush you in battle, you subit. You don't continue to insist on getting your way. Clearly the army had to continue to smash the rebellion until its leaders got that point. Similarly, the delegates reported back to Congress that howe had zero authority to grant any political concessions and that continued talks were pointless. I hope you've enjoyed this Revolution 250 moment. For more context on this story, check out Episode 105 of the American Revolution Podcast at blog.ambrathpodcast.com. And please subscribe for free to the whole podcast on whatever platform you like.

7:17Thanks again for listening to this Revolution 250 moment on the American Revolution Podcast.