Revolutionary War 250

It’s perhaps a too-cursory reading of this letter that gives rise to the belief that it was Franklin who suggested foxfire in the first place, which there’s no reason to suppose is true.

His intermediary Dr. Benjamin Gale writes to Silas Deane, asking Deane to approach Benjamin Franklin for help: “I write you this … to have you enquire of Dr. Franklin wr he knows of any kind of phosphorus which will give light in the dark and not consume the air.”

Of course, Bushnell can’t use any source of illumination that consumes fuel: “He has tried a candle, but that destroys the air so fast he cannot remain under water long enough to effect the thing.”

Bushnell “now finds that the frost wholly destroys that quality in that wood, of which he was before ignorant.” (‘Foxfire’ is a property of certain woods of providing bioluminescence as they decay, due to the presence of certain fungi consuming the decaying matter.)

A cross-section of the Turtle

7 DECEMBER 1775, KILLINGWORTH, CONNECTICUT: The Turtle, the Patriots’ highly secret, experimental submarine, has run into a problem: its designer, David Bushnell, “always depends on fox-wood, which gives light in the dark,” to illuminate the sub’s controls, but the wood has stopped giving light.

“Their Guard room and Alarm Post to be near Mill Bridge. This Company will mount a Guard every Evening and Patrol the Streets, and will take into Custody all Suspicious and Disorderly Persons found in the Streets at Improper hours.”

7 DECEMBER 1775, BOSTON: “Some Irish Merchants residing in Town … having Offered their Service for the Defence of the place,” William Howe forms them into the Loyal Irish Volunteers and orders them provided with arms.

Founders Online: [David Hartley] to Benjamin Franklin, 14 November 1775 [David Hartley] to Benjamin Franklin, 14 November 1775

He is, therefore, probably surprised when he concludes his speech by making a motion to implement the first step—cessation of hostilities—and the Commons votes overwhelmingly to reject it. founders.archives.gov/documents/Fr...

Hartley wrote to Benjamin Franklin in November, outlining his plan; in that letter he seems to take it for granted that both Franklin (and, by extension, the Continental Congress and the colonies) and Parliament will be happy to adopt it once he proposes it.

The final step will be an Act of Parliament for requisitions, whereby Parliament will set the amount annually that each colony should contribute to imperial maintenance, and the colony will then be free to raise the amount through whatever manner it chooses.

The fourth step is an act restoring relations between Parliament and the colonies to what they were before the Stamp Act 1765 was enacted; the fifth is an act of oblivion, removing the possibility of any colonists being prosecuted for actions in support of the Patriot cause.

Hartley’s first step is for Parliament to end hostilities in America; the second is to suspend the Massachusetts Government Act. The third is to pass an act granting all slaves in the American colonies the right to trial by jury, which he assumes each colony will subscribe to.

David Hartley, painted by George Romney

7 DECEMBER 1775, LONDON: David Hartley rises in the House of Commons to present his plan to end the war in America in six steps, through Acts of Parliament:

“We condemn, and with our arms in our hands,--a resource which Freemen will never part with,--we oppose the claim and exercise of unconstitutional powers, to which neither the Crown nor Parliament were ever entitled.” The reply will be published tomorrow.

“Allegiance to our King? Our words have ever avowed it,--our conduct has ever been consistent with it.

6 DECEMBER 1775, PHILADELPHIA: The Second Continental Congress responds to George III’s proclamation that the Thirteen Colonies are in rebellion. “What allegiance is it that we forget? Allegiance to Parliament? We never owed—we never owned it.”

“I could wish that no attemp was made upon Quebeck till the freezing of the lake admitted of our sending in a reinforcement, since there is no dependance to be placed upon the Canadians, & the first ill success will convert them into enemies.”

Nor does Livingston put much stock in the Canadians who have enlisted in the Continental Army’s invasion of Canada:

“The Offenders form the court martial & tho it may seem incredible yet mutiny, disarming the centries, & endeavouring to resque officers from the gaurd is punished only by a fine of 6/ [six shillings].”

“A great number of troops have been raised but when ordered upon Duty tho they had recd. pay the whole season for doing nothing they dwindled down to a handful, whole companies falling sick at once & yet full muster rolls being returned—You ask why this is not punished?

“You can form no judgment of the impositions on the publick by the Officers & troops of the New England Colonies. I speak this in confidence & without prejudice—

Founders Online: Robert R. Livingston to John Jay, 6 December 1775 Robert R. Livingston to John Jay, 6 December 1775

6 DECEMBER 1775, ALBANY, NEW YORK: Robert R. Livingston’s assessment of the New England troops in New York & Canada echoes the complaints George Washington has had about the New England troops besieging Boston: founders.archives.gov/documents/Ja...

“The unhappy necessity which subsists of dislodging the Ministerial Troops obliges me to carry on Hostilities against your city. … I find myself reduced to Measures which may overwhelm you with Distress!”

A nineteenth-century representation of Richard Montgomery by Alonzo Chappel

6 DECEMBER 1775, QUEBEC: The siege of Quebec begins by the Continental army of Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold. Montgomery issues a proclamation to “My friends and Fellow Subjects,” the inhabitants of Quebec:

Cover of William Franklin: Son of a Patriot, Servant of a King by Sheila L. Skemp

Persuading the assembly to send their own petition had been a significant victory for Governor Franklin; the reverse of course permanently ends his influence with them. Main source: Sheila L. Skemp, WILLIAM FRANKLIN

After hearing out the congressional ambassadors, the assembly debates for “some Time” before concluding that, because their previous petition to the King remains unanswered, there’s no point in sending another.

Now, the success of the American cause depends on presenting a face of absolute unity; a “Country so united cannot be conquered.” For individual colonies to still be conducting their own relations with the Crown would undermine that.

John Dickinson

Americans have already presented petition after petition, Dickinson says, even though, had they “drawn the Sword, and thrown away the Scabbard, all lovers of Liberty, all honest and virtuous Men would have applauded them.”

John Dickinson, John Jay and George Wythe have hurried from Philadelphia in an overnight trip. Dickinson’s speech is the longest and most important. A separate petition from New Jersey, he says, would confirm Parliament’s view that American unity is “a Rope of Sand.”

5 DECEMBER 1775, BURLINGTON, NEW JERSEY: A delegation from the Continental Congress address the provincial assembly & persuade them not send their own petition to George III, marking an effective end to the success Governor William Franklin has had in keeping New Jersey neutral.