lows to the commissioners: "I have received the letter from your Excellencies, dated the 9th instant, with the enclosures, and laid them before Congress. Nothing but an earnest desire to spare the further effusion of human blood could have induced them to read a paper containing expressions so disrespectful to his Most Christian Majesty, the good and great ally of these States, or to consider propositions so derogatory to the honor of an independent nation. The acts of the British Parliament, the commission from your sovereign, and your letter, suppose the people of these States to be subjects of the crown of Great Britain, and are founded on the idea of dependence, which is utterly inadmissible. I am further directed to inform your Excellencies, that Congress are inclined to peace, notwithstanding the unjust claims from which this war originated, and the savage manner in which it hath been conducted. They will therefore be ready to enter upon the consideration of a treaty of peace and commerce, not inconsistent with treaties already subsisting, when the king of Great Britain shall demonstrate a sincere disposition for that purpose. The only solid proof of this disposition will be an explicit acknowledgment of these States, or the withdrawing his fleets and armies."
The British commissioners remained several months in the country,[1] made many and various attempts to accomplish the objects of their mission; but without success. They were compelled to return to England baffled and disappointed. Thus the Americans,—as an eloquent historian suggests—steady in their resolutions, chose rather to trust to their own fortune, which they had already proved, and to the hope they placed in that of France, than to link themselves anew to the tottering destiny of England; abandoning all idea of peace, war became the sole object of their solicitude. Such was the issue of the attempts to effect an accommodation; and thus were extinguished the hopes which the negotiation had given birth to in England. By not consenting to concessions until the time for them was passed, the English themselves furnished a justification of the refusal of the Americans, It cannot be positively affirmed that these overtures, on the part of England, were only an artifice, to divide the Americans among themselves, to detach them from France, and to have them afterwards at their discretion; but it is certain, that after so many rancorous animosities, so many sanguinary battles,
- ↑ The commissioners published their final manifesto and proclamation to the Americans, on the 3d of October, and on the 10th, Congress issued a cautionary declaration in reply. No overtures were made to the commissioners from any quarter; and not long after they embarked for England. Thacher, in his "Military Journal," states, that "Governor Johnstone, one of the commissioners, with inexcusable effrontery, offered a bribe to Mr. Reed, a member of Congress. In an interview with Mrs. Ferguson, at Philadelphia, whose husband was a royalist, he desired she would mention to Mr. Reed, that if he would engage his interest to promote the object of their commission, he might have any office in the colonies, in the gift of his Britannic majesty, and ten thousand pounds in hand. Having solicited an interview with Mr. Reed, Mrs. Ferguson made her communication. Spurning the idea of being purchased, he replied, "that he was not worth purchasing, but such as he was. the king of Great Britain was not rich enough to do it."
