Forlorn Hope - Chapter 6
Instructions to the Commissioners to Canada of March 20th 1776
The Unveiling of Canadian History - Volume 2
FORLORN HOPE
Quebec and Nova Scotia, and the War for Independence, 1775 – 1785
‘The Death of General Montgomery in the Attack on Quebec, by John Trumbull (1786)
Chapter 6 - Instructions to the Commissioners to Canada of March 20th 1776
On February 12th, the Continental Congress “being informed that a gentleman was arrived from Canada, who had some matters of consequence to communicate, ordered the Committee of Correspondence do confer with him and report to Congress”. After meeting with Prudent Lajeunesse, the report (written in Dr. Franklin’s handwriting) said that:
“He says that when the Canadians first heard of the Dispute they were generally on the American side; but that by the influence of the Clergy and the Noblesse, who have been continually preaching and persuading them against us, they are now brought into a State of Suspence or Uncertainty which Side to follow … the common People being generally unable to read … That he therefore thinks it would be of great Service if some Persons from the Congress were sent to Canada, to explain viva voce to the People there the Nature of our Dispute with England, which they do not well understand”.
On February 15th, the Continental Congress resolved
“that a committee of three, on the reports of the committee of correspondence, (two of whom to be members of Congress) be appointed to proceed to Canada, there to pursue such instructions as shall be given them by Congress: the members chosen, Dr. Benjamin Franklin, Mr. Samuel Chase, and Mr. Charles Carroll of Carrollton”, and
“that Mr. Carroll be requested to prevail on Mr. John Carroll to accompany the committee to Canada, to assist them in such matters as they shall think useful”.
Nine months ago, on May 5th 1775, Dr. Franklin had arrived in Philadelphia, after sailing from London to return to America. The next morning, he was chosen by the Pennsylvania Assembly to be one of their deputies to the (second) Continental Congress, which was to meet in Philadelphia in four days.
He was appointed to all the most important committees in Congress. Appointed by Congress as chairman of a committee to establish a postal system, he brought in their report and the next day was elected Postmaster General at a salary of $1,000 a year – which he gave for the relief of wounded soldiers. He was assigned to committees to report the petition to the king, to promote the manufacture of saltpetre for gunpowder in the colonies, to draw up the declaration by Washington on taking command, to arrange for the printing of paper money, to devise ways and means to protect the trade of the colonies, to have charge of the Indians living west of Pennsylvania and Virginia, to make inquiries about lead and lead ore throughout the colonies and the cheapest and easiest way of making salt, was appointed chairman of a committee to consider Lord North’s February motion for conciliation, and when Congress resolved itself into a committee of the whole to take into consideration the state of America, he read his Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union which he had drawn up for the United Colonies of North America.
Congress did not adjourn until August 1st and returned September 13th. He had also been elected to the Pennsylvania Assembly and when the assembly adjourned from July to September, it appointed a Committee of Safety to defend the province during the recess, and the Committee elected him president – working on a project to furnish a model for a pike for infantrymen, on machines for the interruption of navigation across a river, on building armed boats with a brass canon, on building a fort near Gloucester with a watchman to signal from the lighthouse on the approach of armed vessels. The Committee of Safety took no recess.
When Congress resumed, he was appointed to the secret committee for the importation of gunpowder and to the committee on American trade, was chosen as a delegate to go to confer with Washington and the New England authorities on the support of the army – where the council sat for four days planning the reorganization of the army, revising the articles of war, making rules for the exchange of prisoners and for the disposal of prizes taken at sea by the armed schooners, was appointed to committees to arrange for two swift packets for the mails, to deal with vessels and cargoes of the enemy taken by the colonies, to deal with persons who refused to accept the Continental currency, and to the Committee of Secret Correspondence with “the sole purpose of corresponding with our friends in Great Britain, Ireland and other parts of the world” – he also met with a secret agent of France, Achard de Bonvouloir. When Congress voted to send Silas Deane to represent Congress to France, he carried instructions written by Dr. Franklin and letters to all Dr. Franklin’s friends in Paris.
Now at seventy years of age, Dr. Franklin was asked to go to Canada with thirty-five year-old Samuel Chase, also a member of Congress, and with thirty-seven year-old Charles Carroll, a rich and influential Catholic layman, and his cousin, John Carroll, a Jesuit priest – both because they were Catholic and had been educated in France. Dr. Franklin would leave it to the two Carroll’s to keep a record of their journey.
Also travelling to Montreal around the same time was Fleury Mesplet, a French printer from Philadelphia. On February 26th, the Continental Congress resolved:
“Mons. Mesplet, Printer, be engaged to go to Canada, and there set up his press and carry on the printing business, and the Congress engage to defray the expense of transporting him, his family and printing utensils to Canada, and will moreover pay him the sum of two hundred dollars”.
He left Philadelphia on March 18th with five wagons and his printing equipment, and arrived at Lake George on April 8th, and at Montreal on May 6th, setting up his press in the Chateau de Ramezay.
On March 6th, the Congress confirmed Washington’s appointment of Brigadier General John Thomas to command the army in Canada, and Congress also promoted Thomas to Major General. On March 16th, Congress appointed Baron de Woedtke to Brigadier General, and directed him to go to Albany and to wait there for the commissioners and to accompany them to Canada. And on March 19th, Congress authorized that $50,000 be sent to Schuyler for the Canada campaign.
Being now too occupied with this work in Congress, Dr. Franklin resigned from the Pennsylvania Assembly and Committee of Safety. Dr. Franklin also thought that Congress should take charge of boundary disputes between the colonies and of the planting of new colonies “when proper”. And so, just before he left for Canada, Dr. Franklin chaired a meeting on March 20th of the Ohio Company!
On March 20th, the Continental Congress agreed to the instructions for the commission to Canada:
“Represent to them, that the arms of the United Colonies, having been carried into that province for the purpose of frustrating the designs of the British court against our common liberties … that we shall put it into the power of our Canadian brethren, to pursue such measures for securing their own freedom and happiness, as a generous love of liberty and sound policy shall dictate to them … that the people of Canada may set up such a form of government, as will be most likely, in their judgment, to produce their happiness.”
In the last week of March, the commissioners for Canada set out on their mission, first travelling to New York – where General Washington was also travelling.
In January, Colonel Henry Knox had returned to Cambridge with 60 tons of heavy artillery that had been captured from the British at Fort Ticonderoga, travelling on sledges over the frozen Hudson and Connecticut rivers. On March 2nd Washington used them to begin bombing the British in Boston, and on March 5th moved some of the canon to Dorchester Heights, where they were now within range of the British fleet. Feeling that their ships and their troops were now at risk, General Howe(24) decided to evacuate Boston, with orders for the troops to burn the town if there were any disturbances while they were loading the ships. On March 17th the British fleet of 120 ships with over 11,000 on board, left the harbour and sailed for Halifax.
On March 25th, Congress, upon receiving Washington’s letter informing them of the British evacuation, now instructed Washington to send four additional battalions to Canada, “as soon as he shall be of opinion that the safety of New York … will permit”. But Washington feared a possible British attack on New York and on April 4th he left Cambridge with his army for Manhattan.
On March 29th, the Congress “took into consideration the report of the committee on the means of supplying the troops in Canada: whereupon” it was “resolved that a deputy commissary general of stores and provisions be appointed for the army of the United Colonies in Canada”. Mr. J. Price was elected. And on April 3rd, Congress resolved to advance the sum of $64,358.60 to Messrs. Price and Haywood on settlement of their account of supplies to the army of Canada.
After two days in New York, the commissioners took a sloop for Albany on April 2nd and arrived on April 7th where they met General Schuyler, staying two days in Albany, and on April 9th the commissioners travelled with the Schuyler family to their house at Saratoga, where they spent a week. On April 16th they rowed up the Hudson and spent the night at a frontier inn at Fort Edward, and the next day they travelled by horseback and spent the night at Wing’s tavern, half way to Fort George, and arrived at Fort George the next day, where they joined General Schuyler, who had left for Fort George ahead of them. Here they embarked on Lake George in open flatboats that had to fight their way through the ice, spending the night on shore where Dr. Franklin slept under an awning on one of the boats. On April 25th they reached Lake Champlain, after a tedious portage at the end of Lake George, and continuing in the boats, finally reached Fort St. Jean on April 27th, where they drove in caleches toward LaPrairie, crossed the St. Lawrence river in boats, and finally reached Montreal on the 29th, where the commissioners stayed at the house of Thomas Walker.
Footnotes for Chapter 6.
(24) General Howe had arrived in Boston in May 1775 with 4000 troops to reinforce General Gage and his 5000 troops who were besieged in Boston. Howe replaced Gage as commander-in-chief when Gage was recalled to London in October 1775.
[next week - chapter 7 - Letters of the Commissioners in Canada, May 1st to May 11th 1776]
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