Episode 19: The Gambit

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Jim Ambuske: This episode of
Worlds Turned Upside Down is

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made possible with support from
a 2024 grant from the National

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Endowment for the Humanities.

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Caroline Howe busied herself
preparing her drawing room in

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her home at 12 Grafton Street in
London. She was expecting the

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arrival of a new acquaintance, a
scientist, printer, and

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politician, and they were to
play a game of chess. It was

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December 2, 1774.

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Howe was fifty-three years old
as she set out the board and

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readied the pieces. Her
husband, John, had been dead now

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for five years, making her a
widow by the time she moved into

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her fashionable and recently
built townhome on Grafton

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Street. Her younger brother and
her mother lived just nearby.

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As the eldest daughter of
Emanual Scrope Howe, 2nd

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Viscount Howe, and his wife,
Charlotte, Caroline Howe had

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lived a comfortable life as a
member of the British elite. As

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a young girl she displayed a
competitive streak, one that

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would only become stronger with
time.

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Yet, the Howe family’s life was
not without tragedy. On any

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given day, Howe could visit the
memorial erected by the colony

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of Massachusetts Bay in
Westminster Abbey to honor her

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eldest brother, Lord George
Augustus Howe, who had fallen in

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battle against French and
Indigenous forces in northern

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New York in the summer of 1758.

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To commemorate Lord Howe, the
sculptor carved a crest-fallen

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woman in mourning out of white
marble. She rests atop a tablet,

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inscribed with the colony’s
tribute to the popular general,

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supported at the base by two
menacing lions. Behind it, an

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obelisk bore the family’s coat
of arms. British flags and

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regimental colors reminded
visitors that Lord Howe had died

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for the empire. So did the
inscription. As his sister would

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have read, Massachusetts Bay
commissioned the memorial:

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Caroline Howe: “In testimony of
the sense they had of his

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services and military virtues,
and of the affection their

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officers and soldiers bore to
his command. He lived respected

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and beloved: The publick
regretted his loss; to his

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family it is irreparable.”

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Jim Ambuske: The memorial was a
reminder of the most painful of

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the many ties that bound the
Howe family to British America.

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From the bay windows of her
Grafton Street home, Howe could

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see the comings and goings of
London society, and from within

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her drawing room, good friends
and family could often be found,

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whispering the latest political
gossip, planning the next

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charitable venture, or
discussing the latest troubling

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news from the colonies.

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Despite the fervent hopes of her
friend, Lord Dartmouth, His

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Majesty’s Secretary of State for
the Colonies for their

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acquiescence, many British
Americans had risen up in

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protest against the Boston Port
Act, condemned the rest of the

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Coercive Acts, and feared the
restoration of New France in

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Quebec.

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By the summer of 1774, colonists
were organizing new protests and

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calling for a congress to meet
in Philadelphia to debate a

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united response among some of
the king’s aggrieved dominions.

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Extra legal conventions elected
extra legal delegates to a

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congress with no constitutional
authority, no legal existence in

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British law, a congress some
colonists worried had a

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pretension to power it did not
have.

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At this congress’ urging,
committees in local communities

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began enforcing the Continental
Association, a boycott of

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British goods and a ban on
provincial exports. These extra

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legal committees demanded access
to merchants’ ledgers, coerced

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the speech of reluctant
colonists, and chided them for

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enjoying life’s pleasures,
leaving many to question the

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loyalties of the king’s
subjects.

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And with Parliament seemingly
unwilling to compromise unless

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colonists fully acknowledged its
authority, of its right to

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legislate for the colonies “in
all cases whatsoever”, and an

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unconstitutional Congress in
Philadelphia issuing new demands

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for the Mother Country to
retreat, the prospects for peace

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in the empire appeared grim.

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But there were Britons on both
sides of the Atlantic who

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believed in charting a different
course, in finding a middle

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ground that redressed all their
grievances and restored the

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promise of Great Britain’s
Empire of Liberty.

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As a woman in the eighteenth
century, Caroline Howe could

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play no part in the
deliberations of the king’s

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privy council, nor debate
politics in Parliament or

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command soldiers in the field,
like her brothers did.

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But Howe could play games of
chess. And she was an avid

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player, a determined, even
ferocious, competitor, who

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delighted in winning, especially
when the stakes were high and

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her opponents were formidable.

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And she could play games that
everyone could see, and other

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games, most could not.

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For when her guest, Benjamin
Franklin, rapped on her door at

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12 Grafton Street that December
day, the aging Boston-born

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Philadelphian did not yet
realize that Howe’s invitation

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was a clever ruse to bring the
most well-known British American

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through her door. This was more
than just an invitation for a

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simple game of chess and the
promise of passing the day in

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polite company, it was an
opening gambit, the first move,

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in the beginnings of secret
talks to stave off the horrors

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of imperial civil war.

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I’m Jim Ambuske, and this is
World Turned Upside Down, a

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podcast about the history of the
American Revolution.

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Episode 19: The Gambit

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In late January 1774, nearly
twelve months before calling on

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Caroline Howe for a game of
chess, Benjamin Franklin walked

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into a trap.

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On January 29th, Franklin
arrived at the palace of

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Whitehall for a meeting with the
king’s privy council. Acting as

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an agent on behalf of the colony
of Massachusetts Bay, Franklin

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expected to discuss a petition
from the colony’s assembly

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requesting the removal of
Governor Thomas Hutchinson, a

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man widely loathed by
Bostonians.

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By now long accustomed to public
notoriety, and with a reputation

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in Britain as a leading
authority on colonial affairs,

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Franklin may not have thought
much of the crowd gathering in

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the gallery, nor realized they
had come to watch a spectacle.

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Dressed in a velvet suit,
Franklin entered a chamber known

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as the cockpit, a room
constructed by King Henry VIII

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to host fowl bloodsports.

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Nine days earlier, Londoners had
learned that a mob of Boston men

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had dumped nearly 50 tons of
East India Company tea into

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Boston Harbor, drowning goods
worth nearly £1.2 million in our

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own time. The destruction
appalled the king’s ministers,

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members of Parliament, and
residents in the imperial

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capital, leaving them in no mood
to hear Franklin defend the

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colony’s request to see its
governor removed.

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Thirty-five privy councilors,
including the prime minister,

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Lord North, awaited him. The
Earl of Hillsborough was there

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as well. Once Secretary of State
for the Colonies, Hillsborough

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believed firmly in Parliament’s
supremacy and the uncompromising

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enforcement of its laws. His
more pragmatic and conciliatory

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successor, the Earl of
Dartmouth, appeared, as did

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Edmund Burke, a member of
Parliament and agent for the

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colony of New York. Major
General Thomas Gage, soon to

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become governor of Massachusetts
Bay took a seat as well. Even

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the Archbishop of Canterbury
came to watch from the gallery,

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as an unsuspecting Franklin took
his place in the corner of the

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cockpit, and the government’s
solicitor general, Alexander

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Wedderburn, rose to begin.

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Julie Flavell: Franklin was
agent from Massachusetts at this

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time, and his remit was to
appear before the Privy Council

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to defend a petition from
Massachusetts calling for

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removal of Governor Thomas
Hutchinson. It was, of course,

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very unpopular. Julie Flavell,
independent scholar. Some of

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Hutchinson's letters to a
British official in London had

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been sent to Boston, and they
appeared to show the governor

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endorsing stricter control of
Massachusetts by the British

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government, which made him more
unpopular than ever. So the

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colony was now petitioning for
his removal.

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Jim Ambuske: Franklin had been
the one who had leaked those

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letters. That was public
knowledge, though he never

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revealed how he got hold of
them. News of the tea’s

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destruction in Boston
transformed Franklin’s meeting

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with the privy council from a
simple hearing into a tribunal.

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Julie Flavell: The mood in
London was that it was time to

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stop compromising with
troublemakers in the colonies,

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especially trouble making
Boston. Within the next few

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months, Boston Port was going to
be closed as a punishment, and

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the Coercive Acts would be
enacted. So Franklin's meeting

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with the Privy Council, which
was meant to be a rather minor

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affair, was transformed into a
showcase for Metropolitan anger

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at the Bostonians who'd gotten a
reputation for themselves ever

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since the Stamp Act riot as
particularly violent protesters

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and Frank. Franklin himself
already had a bad reputation as

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someone who stirred up
discontent in the colonies, in

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the minds of a lot of people in
London.

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Jim Ambuske: As Franklin stood
in silence, his prosecutor

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directed more than 8,000 words
at him.

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Julie Flavell: In a tirade
lasting an hour, the government

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Solicitor General Alexander
Wedderburn publicly demolished

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Franklin's character. He called
the American malignant, a man

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without honor, an incendiary who
inflamed the innocent people of

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Massachusetts against British
rule. Because the British

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retained this idea that there
was a nest of conspiratorial

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troublemakers and that normal
farmers and so forth weren't

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interested in these kinds of
things. Onlookers actually

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audibly laughed as Franklin was
humiliated, and he kept his face

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carefully neutral throughout the
harangue. Somebody described him

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as his face was as if made of
wood. And for about a week

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afterwards, the west end card
parties buzzed with the American

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business, but it would be many
months before the full

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implications of Franklin's
ordeal before the Privy Council

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would become clear. Because, of
course, a very serious crisis in

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America had emerged, and the
most influential colonial

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spokesman ever to serve in
London had been discredited

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right at the outset.

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Jim Ambuske: The Privy Council
dismissed the petition from

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Massachusetts Bay. Two days
later, the government removed

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Franklin as deputy postmaster
general of North America. He

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resigned as agent for his native
New England colony, and

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contemplated sailing home to
Pennsylvania.

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With Franklin’s encounter with
Wedderburn in the cockpit, and

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the general clamour and uproar
in the capital over what the

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Bostonians had done in their
harbor, the empire was on the

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precipice of disaster.

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But even as the prime minister
and Parliament began writing the

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first of the Coercive Acts,
Britons wrote letters, drew up

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innovative imperial plans, and
negotiated in secret to save the

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empire.

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So, how did Britons seek a way
out of the imperial morasses?

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How did personal relationships
shape prospects for peace? And

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why did those efforts fail to
bring about their desired ends?

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To begin answering these
questions, we’ll first sail back

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and forth across the Atlantic,
to exchange letters between

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Britons struggling to find a
middle ground, we’ll then head

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into the halls of Parliament and
the Continental Congress, to

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rewrite the history of the
empire’s past in order to save

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its future, before returning to
12 Grafton Street in London, to

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play games of chess on which the
fate of the empire depended.

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In the early 1760s, an aspiring
lawyer from Pennsylvania named

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Joseph Reed ventured to London
to study the law. Reed was in

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his mid-twenties when he arrived
in the capital. Soon, he met

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seventeen-year-old Esther
DeBerdt, and they quickly fell

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in love. Esther was the daughter
of Dennys, a London merchant,

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who was then the agent for
Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut,

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and Delaware. The elder DeBerdt
did business with the Reed

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family firm, making it only
natural that the younger Reed

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would call on him to renew those
old Atlantic ties.

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Though impressed by the young
colonist’s ambition, DeBerdt was

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not thrilled with his
infatuation with Esther nor was

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he pleased that his daughter
equally admired Reed. To the

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dismay of both, DeBerdt denied
Reed’s proposal for Esther’s

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hand, though his objections had
more to do with Esther’s age and

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the state of the Reed family
finances than his own

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impressions of the law student.

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Nevertheless, Esther and Reed
continued a secret

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correspondence, one that spanned
the Atlantic after Reed sailed

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for New Jersey in the mid-1760s
to help shore up his father’s

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ailing firm. With more than
3,000 miles now separating Reed

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and Esther, DeBerdt’s estimation
of Reed once began to rise,

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especially as he proved adept at
righting the family business and

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supplying him with information
on the state of the colonies

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00:14:11,255 --> 00:14:12,875
during the Stamp Act crisis.

228
00:14:13,580 --> 00:14:17,240
DeBerdt relayed some of Reed’s
reflections to his own patron,

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00:14:17,300 --> 00:14:19,520
William Legge, Earl of
Dartmouth.

230
00:14:20,240 --> 00:14:24,560
In the mid-1760s, Lord Dartmouth
was President of the Board of

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00:14:24,560 --> 00:14:27,800
Trade, the government body
entrusted with the management of

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00:14:27,800 --> 00:14:31,940
colonial affairs. From this
vantage point, Dartmouth read

233
00:14:31,940 --> 00:14:35,180
trade reports coming from the
colonies, new laws passed by

234
00:14:35,180 --> 00:14:38,585
colonial assemblies, and letters
from governors on the state of

235
00:14:38,585 --> 00:14:42,545
their provinces. They offered
him a portrait of the empire

236
00:14:42,545 --> 00:14:44,345
that few could ever see.

237
00:14:44,345 --> 00:14:48,125
Although a member of the
Anglican Church, Dartmouth had

238
00:14:48,125 --> 00:14:52,205
an intense interest in
evangelical Methodism. He became

239
00:14:52,205 --> 00:14:55,565
a supporter of the itinerant
preacher George Whitefield as

240
00:14:55,565 --> 00:14:58,385
well Eleazar Wheelock, who
founded a school in New

241
00:14:58,385 --> 00:15:01,610
Hampshire to educate Indigenous
people that would later bear

242
00:15:01,670 --> 00:15:02,630
Dartmouth’s name.

243
00:15:03,290 --> 00:15:06,110
Reed may have briefly met
Dartmouth when he lived in

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00:15:06,110 --> 00:15:11,930
London, although the evidence is
unclear. Certainly, by May 1766,

245
00:15:11,990 --> 00:15:15,230
when DeBerdt passed on some of
Reed’s “sensible accounts of

246
00:15:15,230 --> 00:15:17,990
American Affairs” Dartmouth knew
of him.

247
00:15:18,470 --> 00:15:23,495
By the early 1770s, much had
changed for both men. Reed

248
00:15:23,495 --> 00:15:26,975
returned to London to finally
marry Esther, though the joy of

249
00:15:26,975 --> 00:15:30,275
their union was dampened by the
sudden passing of her father.

250
00:15:30,875 --> 00:15:34,535
After settling Dennys DeBerdt’s
affairs, Reed sailed home with

251
00:15:34,535 --> 00:15:37,415
his new wife and his
mother-in-law to begin a new

252
00:15:37,415 --> 00:15:38,675
life in New Jersey.

253
00:15:38,675 --> 00:15:46,340
In 1772, two years after
DeBerdt’s death, King George III

254
00:15:46,340 --> 00:15:49,520
appointed Dartmouth secretary of
state for the colonies.

255
00:15:49,880 --> 00:15:53,660
Dartmouth replaced Lord
Hillsborough, who was not well

256
00:15:53,660 --> 00:15:57,740
loved by British Americans.
Hillsborough had ordered troops

257
00:15:57,740 --> 00:16:01,760
to Boston in 1768 after
colonists rioted over the

258
00:16:01,760 --> 00:16:05,420
Townshend Acts, and commanded
provincial governors to suspend

259
00:16:05,420 --> 00:16:08,900
or dissolve their assemblies if
they made common cause with

260
00:16:08,900 --> 00:16:13,325
Massachusetts Bay. Even the king
thought Hillsborough a little

261
00:16:13,325 --> 00:16:14,165
too rigid.

262
00:16:14,885 --> 00:16:18,005
British Americans welcomed
Dartmouth’s appointment almost

263
00:16:18,005 --> 00:16:21,305
as much as they did
Hillsborough’s demise. Some

264
00:16:21,305 --> 00:16:24,545
British Americans saw his
lordship as a friend to the

265
00:16:24,545 --> 00:16:25,265
colonies.

266
00:16:25,865 --> 00:16:28,985
The West African-born Boston
poet Phillis Wheatley

267
00:16:28,985 --> 00:16:32,105
congratulated Dartmouth on his
new office, writing him in

268
00:16:32,105 --> 00:16:35,930
October 1772 that colonists were
not:

269
00:16:36,050 --> 00:16:38,030
Phillis Wheatley: “insensible of
the Friendship so much

270
00:16:38,030 --> 00:16:41,450
exemplified in your endeavours
in their behalf, during the late

271
00:16:41,450 --> 00:16:45,230
unhappy disturbances. I
sincerely wish your Lordship all

272
00:16:45,230 --> 00:16:48,710
Possible Success, in your
undertakings for the Interest of

273
00:16:48,710 --> 00:16:49,430
North America.”

274
00:16:49,490 --> 00:16:53,390
Jim Ambuske: The following year,
Wheatley met with Dartmouth in

275
00:16:53,390 --> 00:16:57,515
London when she visited the
capital. For Wheatley, who knew

276
00:16:57,515 --> 00:17:01,235
what it meant to be actually
enslaved, Dartmouth’s tenure

277
00:17:01,235 --> 00:17:05,555
heralded new possibilities for
the future. In a poem dedicated

278
00:17:05,555 --> 00:17:07,415
to him, Wheatley rhymed:

279
00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:26,284
Julie Flavell: Dartmouth, in a
way, an ambiguous character, he

280
00:17:07,380 --> 00:17:10,954
Phillis Wheatley: No more,
America, in mournful strain Of

281
00:17:11,045 --> 00:17:15,902
wrongs, and grievance
unredress’d complain, No longer

282
00:17:15,994 --> 00:17:21,309
shalt thou dread the iron chain,
Which wanton Tyranny with

283
00:17:21,401 --> 00:17:26,900
lawless hand Had made, and with
it meant t’ enslave the land

284
00:17:26,284 --> 00:17:33,805
definitely supported the
principle of parliamentary

285
00:17:33,805 --> 00:17:38,185
supremacy. Some of the moderate
thinkers in Britain supported

286
00:17:38,185 --> 00:17:41,425
the principle of parliamentary
supremacy, but at the same time,

287
00:17:41,725 --> 00:17:44,965
they were simply realistic. They
didn't think that armed

288
00:17:44,965 --> 00:17:47,965
suppression of the colonies
would work. Some believed that

289
00:17:47,965 --> 00:17:51,565
eventually America would become
very wealthy and powerful and

290
00:17:51,565 --> 00:17:55,150
would gradually move away from
control by Britain, and that the

291
00:17:55,150 --> 00:17:58,450
ideal thing to do was to keep
avoiding conflicts, which, of

292
00:17:58,450 --> 00:18:01,570
course, had happened in the two
previous crises, and let it

293
00:18:01,570 --> 00:18:04,870
occur naturally and keep America
as an ally. And I think

294
00:18:04,870 --> 00:18:06,610
Dartmouth would belong in this
camp.

295
00:18:07,030 --> 00:18:10,090
Jim Ambuske: Joseph Reed’s
existing ties to Dartmouth and

296
00:18:10,090 --> 00:18:13,390
the belief that the secretary of
state would welcome informed

297
00:18:13,390 --> 00:18:17,575
observations from the provinces
convinced the common colonist to

298
00:18:17,575 --> 00:18:22,135
open lines of communication with
the noble lord. Reed had other

299
00:18:22,135 --> 00:18:25,195
good reasons for attempting to
influence the cabinet minister

300
00:18:25,195 --> 00:18:29,515
as well. Dartmouth was the
stepbrother of Lord North, the

301
00:18:29,515 --> 00:18:30,295
prime minister.

302
00:18:30,295 --> 00:18:32,875
Mary Beth Norton: Joseph Reed,
who becomes a leader of the

303
00:18:32,875 --> 00:18:37,255
revolution in Pennsylvania, but
is a moderate person. Was back

304
00:18:37,255 --> 00:18:41,800
channeling to Dartmouth who he
knew, Mary Beth Norton, I'm the

305
00:18:41,860 --> 00:18:45,940
Mary Donlon Alger Professor
Emeritus at Cornell University.

306
00:18:46,300 --> 00:18:50,260
He thought, if I can tell
Dartmouth the truth about what's

307
00:18:50,260 --> 00:18:53,380
happening, because Dartmouth was
thought to be an ally of the

308
00:18:53,380 --> 00:18:57,400
Americans, that he could
convince Dartmouth not to adopt

309
00:18:57,400 --> 00:18:58,840
major coercive measures.

310
00:18:59,200 --> 00:19:04,045
Jim Ambuske: Reed first wrote to
Dartmouth on December 22, 1773,

311
00:19:04,525 --> 00:19:08,305
three days before the ship Polly
arrived in the Delaware River

312
00:19:08,545 --> 00:19:13,165
with East India Company tea. The
now thirty-two-year-old Reed

313
00:19:13,165 --> 00:19:17,005
repeated long-tried arguments
that the Townshend Acts and the

314
00:19:17,005 --> 00:19:18,025
tea duties were:

315
00:19:18,445 --> 00:19:20,725
Joseph Reed: “generally
considered as a law imposing a

316
00:19:20,725 --> 00:19:23,845
tax without the consent of the
Americans, and therefore to be

317
00:19:23,845 --> 00:19:24,025
resisted.”

318
00:19:24,960 --> 00:19:27,420
Jim Ambuske: And he emphasized
to Dartmouth that much had

319
00:19:27,420 --> 00:19:30,720
changed in recent years since
the passage of the Stamp Act and

320
00:19:30,720 --> 00:19:34,620
its swift repeal. Discontent
over the tea and Parliament’s

321
00:19:34,920 --> 00:19:38,640
persistence in passing such
obnoxious and unconstitutional

322
00:19:38,640 --> 00:19:40,980
laws had reached dangerous
heights:

323
00:19:40,980 --> 00:19:43,500
Joseph Reed: “The opposition to
the Stamp Act was not so

324
00:19:43,500 --> 00:19:46,860
general, and I cannot but think
any attempt at present to crush

325
00:19:46,860 --> 00:19:48,705
it would be attended with
dreadful effects.”

326
00:19:49,365 --> 00:19:52,125
Jim Ambuske: But he counseled
Dartmouth not to believe talk of

327
00:19:52,125 --> 00:19:53,865
disloyalty in Pennsylvania:

328
00:19:54,705 --> 00:19:57,345
Joseph Reed: “Notwithstanding
any contrary representations, I

329
00:19:57,345 --> 00:20:00,825
cannot but be firmly persuaded
that the repeal of this whole

330
00:20:00,825 --> 00:20:04,005
act would ensure the future
submission of the inhabitants of

331
00:20:04,005 --> 00:20:06,765
this part of America, to any
other act of the British

332
00:20:06,765 --> 00:20:07,845
Parliament now in force.”

333
00:20:08,445 --> 00:20:11,130
Jim Ambuske: Reed wrote again
two days after the tea ship

334
00:20:11,130 --> 00:20:14,130
arrived in Philadelphia, warning
Dartmouth that:

335
00:20:14,550 --> 00:20:17,490
Joseph Reed: “how general and
unanimous the opinion is, that

336
00:20:17,490 --> 00:20:20,490
no article subject to a duty,
for the purpose of raising

337
00:20:20,490 --> 00:20:24,150
revenue, ought to be received in
America. Nor is it confined to

338
00:20:24,150 --> 00:20:27,210
this city; your Lordship will
see by the papers herewith, that

339
00:20:27,210 --> 00:20:30,630
the same opposition is made at
New York, Charleston and Boston,

340
00:20:30,870 --> 00:20:33,870
and you may rely upon it, the
same prevails throughout the

341
00:20:33,870 --> 00:20:38,775
country. Any further attempt to
enforce this act, I am humbly of

342
00:20:38,775 --> 00:20:41,055
opinion, must end in blood.”

343
00:20:41,715 --> 00:20:46,215
Jim Ambuske: Four months later,
in April 1774, Reed put pen to

344
00:20:46,215 --> 00:20:49,515
paper again, as British
Americans waited to learn of

345
00:20:49,515 --> 00:20:53,595
Parliament’s response to the tea
insurrections. Sensing that the

346
00:20:53,595 --> 00:20:57,480
British government would react
harshly, Reed counseled patience

347
00:20:57,540 --> 00:20:59,580
while offering Dartmouth
flattery:

348
00:20:59,580 --> 00:21:02,940
Joseph Reed: “I know of no Cloud
rising in our political

349
00:21:02,940 --> 00:21:06,000
Hemisphere, unless our Conduct
respecting the Tea should

350
00:21:06,000 --> 00:21:10,440
produce any. Of this your
lordship is the best judge. We

351
00:21:10,440 --> 00:21:13,560
hope & trust we have not
forfeited your Lordships Favour

352
00:21:13,560 --> 00:21:17,100
& Protection; this would be a
loss which I am sure every

353
00:21:17,100 --> 00:21:20,685
judicious American would
deplore, as I may say with great

354
00:21:20,685 --> 00:21:24,645
truth, that no minister ever
stood better in the affection

355
00:21:24,645 --> 00:21:27,045
and esteem of America than your
lordship.”

356
00:21:27,705 --> 00:21:30,585
Jim Ambuske: The cloud Reed
feared rose in response to the

357
00:21:30,585 --> 00:21:34,485
Coercive Acts. As he told
Dartmouth in June, that cloud

358
00:21:34,485 --> 00:21:35,385
had become:

359
00:21:35,445 --> 00:21:37,845
Joseph Reed: “a perfect and
complete union between the

360
00:21:37,845 --> 00:21:40,245
Colonies to oppose the
parliamentary claims of

361
00:21:40,245 --> 00:21:43,470
taxation, and relieve the
distress of the town of Boston.”

362
00:21:44,610 --> 00:21:47,730
Jim Ambuske: As concerning for a
moderate like Reed, who imagined

363
00:21:47,730 --> 00:21:50,970
that more pragmatic colonists in
Pennsylvania and New York could

364
00:21:50,970 --> 00:21:52,950
broker a resolution to the
crisis:

365
00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:56,260
Joseph Reed: “The severity of
the administration, and the mode

366
00:21:56,260 --> 00:22:00,160
of condemnation, gain [the
radicals] many advocates, even

367
00:22:00,160 --> 00:22:02,800
among those who acknowledge
their conduct criminal.”

368
00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:05,740
Jim Ambuske: And he noted with
some exaggeration that:

369
00:22:05,800 --> 00:22:09,100
Joseph Reed: “This union or
confederacy, which will probably

370
00:22:09,100 --> 00:22:13,600
be the greatest ever seen in
this country, will be cemented

371
00:22:13,600 --> 00:22:17,665
and fixed in a general congress
of deputies from every province,

372
00:22:18,025 --> 00:22:20,905
and I am inclined to think that
strong efforts will be made to

373
00:22:20,905 --> 00:22:24,745
perpetuate it by annual or
triennial meetings, a thing

374
00:22:24,745 --> 00:22:40,270
which is entirely new.”

375
00:22:41,350 --> 00:22:43,090
Mary Beth Norton: When I read
these letters, I said, Oh, my

376
00:22:43,090 --> 00:22:46,570
God. If Samuel Adams had known
someone was writing these things

377
00:22:46,570 --> 00:22:50,110
to England, he would have been
in deep, deep trouble, because

378
00:22:50,110 --> 00:22:53,290
he tried to explain what the
radicals were doing and why they

379
00:22:53,290 --> 00:22:57,250
were doing it. And I was just
astonished. It was almost like a

380
00:22:57,250 --> 00:22:59,290
spy in the midst of the
Americans

381
00:22:59,830 --> 00:23:02,170
Jim Ambuske: Reed knew from his
brother-in-law that Dartmouth

382
00:23:02,170 --> 00:23:05,335
had received his letters. That
he was not advised to

383
00:23:05,335 --> 00:23:08,575
discontinue his correspondence
meant that Dartmouth was happy

384
00:23:08,575 --> 00:23:12,415
to receive them. Dartmouth noted
this when he replied to Reed in

385
00:23:12,415 --> 00:23:16,855
July 1774 with his own
perspective on the crisis:

386
00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:20,980
Lord Dartmouth: “I will assure
you, I hope [for] better things.

387
00:23:21,340 --> 00:23:24,580
I know that the complexion of
some measures which have been

388
00:23:24,580 --> 00:23:27,400
taken of late in some of the
Colonies, has induced a

389
00:23:27,400 --> 00:23:30,580
persuasion in the minds of many
discreet and dispassionate

390
00:23:30,580 --> 00:23:33,880
people, that they have totally
forgotten the nature of that

391
00:23:33,880 --> 00:23:37,060
connexion by which they are held
to the Mother Country, and that

392
00:23:37,060 --> 00:23:40,885
they mean not to acknowledge a
dependence upon her in any sense

393
00:23:40,885 --> 00:23:45,745
whatever: for my own part, I
will not believe it till it is

394
00:23:45,745 --> 00:23:47,305
no longer to be denied.”

395
00:23:48,260 --> 00:23:50,900
Jim Ambuske: The secretary of
state appealed to moderates like

396
00:23:50,900 --> 00:23:51,440
Reed:

397
00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:56,600
Lord Dartmouth: “that a little
time will convince you and all

398
00:23:56,600 --> 00:24:00,800
that can think with coolness and
temper, that the liberties of

399
00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:03,560
America are not so much in
danger from any thing that

400
00:24:03,560 --> 00:24:07,400
Parliament has done, or is
likely to do here, as from the

401
00:24:07,400 --> 00:24:13,265
violence and misconduct itself.
I am persuaded I need not take

402
00:24:13,265 --> 00:24:18,005
pains to convince you of the
absurdity of the idea which as

403
00:24:18,005 --> 00:24:21,665
been held out to the common
people in inflammatory papers on

404
00:24:21,665 --> 00:24:24,785
your side of the water, that the
intention of Government is to

405
00:24:24,785 --> 00:24:30,065
enslave the people of America:
we wish you to enjoy all the

406
00:24:30,065 --> 00:24:33,425
freedom and all the rights which
belong to British subjects.”

407
00:24:33,425 --> 00:24:37,070
Jim Ambuske: Prominent
colonists like Benjamin Franklin

408
00:24:37,070 --> 00:24:40,970
weren’t helping matters either.
Aware that Reed and others were

409
00:24:40,970 --> 00:24:44,390
angered by reports of Franklin’s
treatment in the cockpit, and

410
00:24:44,390 --> 00:24:47,930
Dartmouth present for the verbal
assault, the secretary of state

411
00:24:47,930 --> 00:24:51,590
regretted the distress it caused
British Americans, but:

412
00:24:52,070 --> 00:24:53,930
Lord Dartmouth: “Whatever
respect I may have for that

413
00:24:53,930 --> 00:24:57,395
gentleman on other accounts, I
cannot applaud his conduct on

414
00:24:57,395 --> 00:24:59,015
the occasion of Mr. Hutchinson’s
letters.”

415
00:24:59,195 --> 00:25:03,215
Jim Ambuske: Dartmouth believed
that many British Americans had

416
00:25:03,215 --> 00:25:06,935
been deluded from their proper
duty to the king and all common

417
00:25:06,935 --> 00:25:11,735
sense by the ill designs of
radical men. In his view, the

418
00:25:11,735 --> 00:25:15,455
Coercive Acts were not
intolerable. Instead, they were

419
00:25:15,455 --> 00:25:18,875
proportional to the actions of a
New England province bordering

420
00:25:18,875 --> 00:25:22,940
on rebellion. Like almost every
Briton in the Mother Country,

421
00:25:23,180 --> 00:25:26,480
Dartmouth believed deeply in
Parliament’s supreme authority,

422
00:25:26,660 --> 00:25:29,780
the protection it provided for
the people’s liberties, and its

423
00:25:29,780 --> 00:25:31,820
right to legislate for the
empire:

424
00:25:31,820 --> 00:25:35,180
Lord Dartmouth: “The question
then is whether these laws are

425
00:25:35,240 --> 00:25:39,500
to be submitted to? If the
people of America say no, they

426
00:25:39,500 --> 00:25:43,625
say in effect that they will no
longer be a part of the British

427
00:25:43,625 --> 00:25:48,185
Empire; they change the whole
ground of the controversy,--they

428
00:25:48,185 --> 00:25:51,245
no longer contend that
Parliament has not a right to

429
00:25:51,245 --> 00:25:54,125
enact a particular
provision,--they say that it has

430
00:25:54,125 --> 00:25:56,885
not right to consider them as at
all within its jurisdiction.”

431
00:26:00,245 --> 00:26:03,005
Jim Ambuske: Lord Dartmouth’s
correspondence with Joseph Reed

432
00:26:00,501 --> 00:26:33,513
Burke claimed that British
Americans had hardly noticed and

433
00:26:03,125 --> 00:26:06,545
reflected hardening political
ideas about the fundamental

434
00:26:06,590 --> 00:26:07,790
nature of the empire.

435
00:26:07,790 --> 00:26:12,470
Dartmouth championed the rights
of an imperial Parliament to

436
00:26:12,470 --> 00:26:16,850
legislate for the colonies as it
saw fit, though he believed that

437
00:26:16,850 --> 00:26:19,910
the firm application of that
power ought to be tempered with

438
00:26:19,910 --> 00:26:23,990
prudence and wisdom. Reed shared
the view of many British

439
00:26:23,990 --> 00:26:27,290
Americans that colonists wished
to remain dependent on the

440
00:26:27,290 --> 00:26:30,875
Mother Country and the crown,
but that Parliament’s power was

441
00:26:30,875 --> 00:26:36,035
not absolute. Parliament could
regulate the empire’s trade, but

442
00:26:34,072 --> 00:27:02,608
readily complied with these
Navigation Acts, as the

443
00:26:36,035 --> 00:26:39,575
only the provincial assemblies
had the constitutional power to

444
00:26:39,575 --> 00:26:40,655
tax colonists.

445
00:26:40,655 --> 00:26:44,855
Each man labored to convince the
other of the righteousness of

446
00:26:44,855 --> 00:26:48,395
their respective positions. The
one that Parliament should

447
00:26:48,395 --> 00:26:52,955
relent, the other that the
colonies should submit. Yet,

448
00:26:52,955 --> 00:26:57,920
neither had given up hope by the
summer of 1774. They continued

449
00:26:57,920 --> 00:26:59,120
writing to each other.

450
00:26:59,840 --> 00:27:03,320
But their sentiments embodied
more than just debates about

451
00:27:03,168 --> 00:27:37,858
regulations were collectively
known, conveniently ignoring the

452
00:27:03,320 --> 00:27:06,860
political philosophy and
constitutional power, they were

453
00:27:06,860 --> 00:27:13,460
also deeply historical. By 1774,
Britons on both sides of the

454
00:27:13,460 --> 00:27:16,625
Atlantic had begun writing and
rewriting the history of the

455
00:27:16,625 --> 00:27:20,225
British Empire in North America
to explain the origins of the

456
00:27:20,225 --> 00:27:24,425
present crisis, and in some
cases, justify their resistance.

457
00:27:25,445 --> 00:27:28,625
Edmund Burke hoped that by
delivering a history lesson on

458
00:27:28,625 --> 00:27:31,565
the floor of the House of
Commons, he might help bring

459
00:27:31,565 --> 00:27:34,685
about the “better things” that
Dartmouth longed for.

460
00:27:35,645 --> 00:27:40,310
By 1774, the Dublin-born Burke
was a well known orator and

461
00:27:38,418 --> 00:28:09,751
colonists’ penchant for
smuggling and evasion. But, with

462
00:27:40,310 --> 00:27:44,270
political philosopher, one who
celebrated the measured use of

463
00:27:44,270 --> 00:27:47,030
government power and
constitutional constraints on

464
00:27:47,030 --> 00:27:47,870
its excesses.

465
00:27:47,870 --> 00:27:51,830
Like Dartmouth, Burke had
witnessed Benjamin Franklin’s

466
00:27:51,830 --> 00:27:56,150
trial in the cockpit. And like
Franklin, Burke was also a

467
00:27:56,150 --> 00:28:00,575
colonial agent. The New York
assembly hired him in 1770 to

468
00:28:00,575 --> 00:28:03,815
represent the colony's interests
to Parliament and in meetings

469
00:28:03,815 --> 00:28:05,135
with the king’s ministers.

470
00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:09,920
In April, as Parliament debated
a number of new coercive acts to

471
00:28:09,920 --> 00:28:13,160
compel the colonists’ obedience
in the wake of the destruction

472
00:28:10,311 --> 00:28:39,966
Britain’s victory in the Seven
Years’ War, successive

473
00:28:13,160 --> 00:28:16,940
of the tea in Boston, Burke and
a few other members believed

474
00:28:16,940 --> 00:28:20,120
that tempering the government’s
thirst for coercion with

475
00:28:20,120 --> 00:28:28,685
measures of

476
00:28:28,685 --> 00:28:32,765
support the repeal of the tea
duty – the last surviving tax of

477
00:28:32,765 --> 00:28:36,125
the late Charles Townshend’s
revenue measures — as a sign of

478
00:28:36,185 --> 00:28:39,785
Parliament’s good faith. Burke
and others hoped that the tea

479
00:28:39,845 --> 00:28:43,025
duty’s repeal would lessen the
sting of the Boston Port Act,

480
00:28:40,525 --> 00:29:12,978
Parliaments and prime ministers
had ushered in a series of

481
00:28:43,265 --> 00:28:45,965
and weaken colonists’ stomach
for resistance.

482
00:28:46,925 --> 00:28:50,105
Like other Britons in the Mother
Country, Burke believed that

483
00:28:50,105 --> 00:28:53,750
Parliament was the supreme
legislature of the empire, and

484
00:28:53,750 --> 00:28:58,130
that it had the right to tax the
colonies. Yet, as he argued in

485
00:28:58,130 --> 00:29:01,730
the Commons, using the full
extent of those powers was

486
00:29:01,730 --> 00:29:05,330
unwise unless the empire faced a
dire threat.

487
00:29:05,870 --> 00:29:09,770
In a long and extemporaneous
speech, Burke traced the history

488
00:29:09,770 --> 00:29:20,975
of the British
of the colonies through a system

489
00:29:13,537 --> 00:29:48,228
dramatic and jarring breaks with
the past. As he argued in the

490
00:29:20,975 --> 00:29:24,875
of regulated trade since the
early seventeenth century. This

491
00:29:24,875 --> 00:29:28,895
commercial monopoly grew as the
empire did, benefitting Britons

492
00:29:28,895 --> 00:29:33,395
on both sides of the Atlantic.

493
00:29:33,635 --> 00:30:01,100
Edmund Burke: “This nation never
thought of departing from that

494
00:29:48,788 --> 00:29:58,300
House of Commons:

495
00:30:01,145 --> 00:30:03,905
choice until the period
immediately on the close of the

496
00:30:03,905 --> 00:30:07,685
last war. Then a scheme of
government new in many things

497
00:30:07,685 --> 00:30:11,465
seemed to have been adopted….At
that period the necessity was

498
00:30:11,465 --> 00:30:15,005
established of keeping up no
less than twenty new regiments,

499
00:30:15,125 --> 00:30:19,085
with twenty colonels capable of
seats in this House. This scheme

500
00:30:19,085 --> 00:30:22,385
was adopted with very general
applause from all sides, at the

501
00:30:22,385 --> 00:30:25,730
very time that, by your
conquests in America, your

502
00:30:25,730 --> 00:30:29,210
danger from foreign attempts in
that part of the world was much

503
00:30:29,210 --> 00:30:31,010
lessened, or indeed rather quite
over.”

504
00:30:31,840 --> 00:30:34,360
Jim Ambuske: In Burke’s view,
the passage of the Stamp Act in

505
00:30:34,360 --> 00:30:40,060
1765 had been an abrupt if not
radical departure from the past,

506
00:30:40,300 --> 00:30:44,440
an unnecessary measure to pay
for an unnecessary army in North

507
00:30:44,440 --> 00:30:48,700
America. Yet, the prospect of
taxing British Americans to fund

508
00:30:48,700 --> 00:30:52,720
the costs of the military proved
alluring, even to those members

509
00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:56,245
of Parliament who feared the
dangers of standing armies among

510
00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:59,660
Edmund Burke: “When this huge
encrease of military

511
00:30:56,245 --> 00:30:56,485
them.

512
00:30:59,660 --> 00:31:03,080
establishment was resolved on, a
revenue was to be found to

513
00:31:03,080 --> 00:31:06,560
support so great a burthen.
Country gentlemen, the great

514
00:31:06,560 --> 00:31:09,560
patrons of occonomy, and the
great resisters of a standing

515
00:31:09,560 --> 00:31:12,980
armed force, would not have
entered with much alacrity into

516
00:31:12,980 --> 00:31:16,700
the vote for so large and so
expensive an army, if they had

517
00:31:16,700 --> 00:31:20,360
been very sure, that they were
to continue to pay for it. But

518
00:31:20,360 --> 00:31:24,065
hopes of another kind were held
out to them; and in particular,

519
00:31:24,125 --> 00:31:27,485
I well remember, that Mr.
Townshend, in a brilliant

520
00:31:27,485 --> 00:31:31,325
harangue on this subject, did
dazzle them, by playing before

521
00:31:31,325 --> 00:31:34,025
their eyes the image of a
revenue to be raised in

522
00:31:34,025 --> 00:31:34,745
America."

523
00:31:35,465 --> 00:31:38,585
Jim Ambuske: For Burke, the
Stamp Act, the Townshend Acts,

524
00:31:38,585 --> 00:31:41,825
and more recent laws like the
Tea Act were all part of a

525
00:31:41,825 --> 00:31:46,490
chaotic, incoherent imperial
plan with no clear precedent in

526
00:31:46,490 --> 00:31:50,690
the empire’s history. Worse, it
threatened the empire’s future.

527
00:31:51,110 --> 00:31:54,290
Was it any wonder, then, that
British Americans resisted it?

528
00:31:54,890 --> 00:31:58,010
Edmund Burke: “Could anything be
a subject of more just alarm to

529
00:31:58,010 --> 00:32:02,030
America, than to see you go out
of the plain high road of

530
00:32:02,030 --> 00:32:05,855
finance, and give up your most
certain revenues and your

531
00:32:05,855 --> 00:32:09,635
clearest interests, merely for
the sake of insulting your

532
00:32:09,635 --> 00:32:14,555
Colonies? No man ever doubted
that the commodity of Tea could

533
00:32:14,555 --> 00:32:18,095
bear an imposition of
three-pence. But no commodity

534
00:32:18,095 --> 00:32:21,995
will bear three-pence, or will
bear a penny, when the general

535
00:32:21,995 --> 00:32:25,475
feelings of men are irritated,
and two millions of people are

536
00:32:25,475 --> 00:32:27,515
resolved not to pay.”

537
00:32:28,380 --> 00:32:30,780
Jim Ambuske: In the immediate
wake of the tea’s destruction in

538
00:32:30,780 --> 00:32:33,660
Boston, though, and with a
growing belief in Britain that

539
00:32:33,660 --> 00:32:37,200
Massachusetts Bay was a province
bordering on rebellion and a

540
00:32:37,200 --> 00:32:40,500
corrupting influence on the
other colonies, Parliament was

541
00:32:40,500 --> 00:32:45,060
in no mood to hear Burke’s plea
or his history lesson. The

542
00:32:45,060 --> 00:32:48,900
repeal of the tea duty failed,
and Parliament pressed on with

543
00:32:48,900 --> 00:32:51,120
bringing Massachusetts Bay to
heel.

544
00:32:53,520 --> 00:32:56,205
For all the blame that Edmund
Burke placed on the king’s

545
00:32:56,205 --> 00:32:59,985
ministers for suddenly and
irresponsibly redirecting the

546
00:32:59,985 --> 00:33:03,225
British Empire onto a different
path, his reading of this

547
00:33:03,225 --> 00:33:07,005
history – and the empire’s
future prosperity – relied on

548
00:33:07,005 --> 00:33:10,965
shared transatlantic past and a
common British identity.

549
00:33:11,500 --> 00:33:15,100
Michael Hattem: These colonists
used British history to

550
00:33:15,160 --> 00:33:20,020
reinforce their British identity
comes largely through the

551
00:33:20,020 --> 00:33:25,300
history of England. And that's
because colonists in the 18th

552
00:33:25,300 --> 00:33:29,080
century thought of themselves as
British, proudly British, and

553
00:33:29,080 --> 00:33:33,100
they thought of the British
past, or history of Britain, as

554
00:33:33,100 --> 00:33:38,065
their history. Michael Hattem,
I'm the Associate Director of

555
00:33:38,065 --> 00:33:41,425
the Yale New Haven Teachers
Institute. Most importantly,

556
00:33:41,425 --> 00:33:44,605
they identified with the
Glorious Revolution of 1688,

557
00:33:44,605 --> 00:33:48,925
because it ended the tyranny and
absolutism of the Stuart

558
00:33:48,925 --> 00:33:52,465
monarchs, because it increased
the power of Parliament at the

559
00:33:52,465 --> 00:33:56,245
expense of the crown. And that's
a doctrine that we know as

560
00:33:56,245 --> 00:33:59,590
parliamentary supremacy. And
that meant that Parliament now

561
00:33:59,590 --> 00:34:02,350
had essentially total
legislative power, and that

562
00:34:02,350 --> 00:34:06,430
there was no other body to
appeal to if anyone disagreed

563
00:34:06,430 --> 00:34:08,950
with something that Parliament
did, because only Parliament

564
00:34:08,950 --> 00:34:12,550
could repeal a law passed by a
previous parliament. British

565
00:34:12,550 --> 00:34:15,070
subjects, including the
colonists, saw the Glorious

566
00:34:15,070 --> 00:34:19,090
Revolution as having laid the
foundation and the principles

567
00:34:19,210 --> 00:34:23,095
that would allow Britain could
ultimately emerge later as one

568
00:34:23,095 --> 00:34:25,615
of the most powerful empires in
the world.

569
00:34:25,915 --> 00:34:28,375
Jim Ambuske: Britons in the
Mother Country including King

570
00:34:28,375 --> 00:34:32,635
George III venerated the history
of the Glorious Revolution and

571
00:34:32,635 --> 00:34:36,235
the triumph of Parliament over
the tyranny of absolutist kings.

572
00:34:36,535 --> 00:34:40,735
The memory of Stuart monarchs
like Charles I and James II, and

573
00:34:41,035 --> 00:34:44,200
the civil wars that ravaged the
British Isles in the seventeenth

574
00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:48,280
century, burned brightly in the
British mind. Here’s Julie

575
00:34:48,060 --> 00:34:51,960
Julie Flavell: If you're looking
for a British politician who is

576
00:34:48,280 --> 00:34:48,760
Flavell:

577
00:34:51,960 --> 00:34:54,660
at all mainstream, who didn't
believe in parliamentary

578
00:34:54,660 --> 00:34:57,960
supremacy, you'd look in vain,
because in the 18th century,

579
00:34:58,020 --> 00:35:01,080
members of parliament were still
faced with. The real possibility

580
00:35:01,080 --> 00:35:04,080
that a crown that could get
revenue by means other than

581
00:35:04,080 --> 00:35:07,080
parliament, for example, through
colonial contributions that went

582
00:35:07,080 --> 00:35:09,780
directly to the crown or so
forth, could still become

583
00:35:09,900 --> 00:35:10,620
tyrannical.

584
00:35:11,160 --> 00:35:14,145
Jim Ambuske: And even if some
politicians like Edmund Burke

585
00:35:14,205 --> 00:35:17,445
argued against Parliament’s
swift departure from the past,

586
00:35:17,565 --> 00:35:20,745
the demands of the present
required different choices.

587
00:35:21,165 --> 00:35:23,325
Michael Hattem: After the Seven
Years' War, the British are

588
00:35:23,325 --> 00:35:26,865
faced with this newly enlarged
empire that they have to find a

589
00:35:26,865 --> 00:35:30,525
way to administer, and if it
takes some unprecedented

590
00:35:30,525 --> 00:35:35,265
legislation to administer this
unprecedentedly large empire,

591
00:35:35,565 --> 00:35:37,950
well then that makes sense to
them. They're not going to be

592
00:35:37,950 --> 00:35:42,150
bound by precedents necessarily
from the past that don't fit

593
00:35:42,150 --> 00:35:43,470
present circumstances.

594
00:35:43,950 --> 00:35:45,990
Jim Ambuske: British Americans
celebrated the Glorious

595
00:35:45,990 --> 00:35:49,050
Revolution, no less than their
fellow subjects across the

596
00:35:49,050 --> 00:35:49,530
water.

597
00:35:49,890 --> 00:35:52,470
Michael Hattem: But of course,
when the 1760s come and

598
00:35:52,470 --> 00:35:56,010
Parliament starts passing all of
this unprecedented legislation,

599
00:35:56,310 --> 00:36:01,335
it signals to them, in a sense,
that Parliament is no longer

600
00:36:01,335 --> 00:36:06,675
bound by the authority of the
past or by precedent, and once

601
00:36:06,675 --> 00:36:09,735
they realized that, they also
realized, well, that means that

602
00:36:09,795 --> 00:36:13,095
they can essentially do
anything. You can't possibly

603
00:36:13,095 --> 00:36:15,915
predict what they can do,
because they're not limited in

604
00:36:15,915 --> 00:36:20,955
any way. And when they try to
appeal to Parliament against the

605
00:36:20,955 --> 00:36:24,060
Stamp Act, against the Townsend
acts, Parliament refuses to

606
00:36:24,060 --> 00:36:27,000
receive their petitions because
they question Parliament's

607
00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:30,540
authority, and parliament is
supreme. Colonists start to

608
00:36:30,540 --> 00:36:34,080
realize that this glorious
revolution that they had

609
00:36:34,080 --> 00:36:36,900
celebrated and had been the
center of their British identity

610
00:36:37,020 --> 00:36:40,560
for three quarters of a century,
that the defining feature of the

611
00:36:40,560 --> 00:36:43,140
Glorious Revolution was the
creation of parliamentary

612
00:36:43,140 --> 00:36:47,025
supremacy, and in doing that, it
had effectively meant that

613
00:36:47,145 --> 00:36:52,125
Parliament could act as
arbitrarily and as absolute as

614
00:36:52,125 --> 00:36:55,965
any Stuart monarch in the 17th
century, because there was

615
00:36:55,965 --> 00:36:59,445
nowhere to appeal to beyond
parliament. And once they

616
00:36:59,445 --> 00:37:03,165
realize that, they start to
think very differently about

617
00:37:03,225 --> 00:37:05,985
what the Glorious Revolution
means and what it wrought,

618
00:37:06,150 --> 00:37:10,170
especially for the colonies,
they're rethinking an event that

619
00:37:10,170 --> 00:37:13,230
has been central to their
identity as British subjects,

620
00:37:13,290 --> 00:37:15,990
and so that brings their British
identity into question.

621
00:37:16,500 --> 00:37:19,440
Jim Ambuske: Questioning their
identity as British subjects led

622
00:37:19,440 --> 00:37:22,800
some colonists to reconsider the
historical origins of the

623
00:37:22,800 --> 00:37:26,160
colonies, and the English rights
their ancestors brought with

624
00:37:26,160 --> 00:37:27,240
them to North America.

625
00:37:27,240 --> 00:37:33,480
In the summer of 1774, as
Virginia’s delegates to the

626
00:37:33,480 --> 00:37:36,960
Continental Congress, including
the planter and retired militia

627
00:37:36,960 --> 00:37:40,185
colonel George Washington, made
arrangements to travel to

628
00:37:40,185 --> 00:37:43,425
Philadelphia, a young planter
and lawyer named Thomas

629
00:37:43,425 --> 00:37:46,905
Jefferson wrote a lengthy
overview of Virginia and British

630
00:37:46,905 --> 00:37:50,985
American history to guide the
delegation in their work. Though

631
00:37:50,985 --> 00:37:55,005
not a delegate himself,
Jefferson, like Washington was a

632
00:37:55,005 --> 00:37:58,425
member of the House of
Burgesses, and both were deeply

633
00:37:58,425 --> 00:38:00,165
invested in the empire.

634
00:38:00,705 --> 00:38:04,410
Frank Cogliano: They are both
imperial Virginians. They are

635
00:38:04,410 --> 00:38:09,570
proud of Virginia. They are men
made by Virginia, but they're

636
00:38:09,570 --> 00:38:14,370
also cognizant of Virginia's
place in a wider British Empire,

637
00:38:14,610 --> 00:38:19,410
which both of them are committed
to in different ways. Frank

638
00:38:19,410 --> 00:38:22,350
Cogliano, Professor of American
History at the University of

639
00:38:22,350 --> 00:38:25,575
Edinburgh. They were born
members of that Virginia

640
00:38:25,575 --> 00:38:28,815
planting elite. If they're not
at the very top of the society,

641
00:38:28,815 --> 00:38:31,875
they're not far off, and they'll
both get there by marrying very

642
00:38:31,875 --> 00:38:37,335
wealthy widows from that elite.
They represent the elite of

643
00:38:37,335 --> 00:38:41,895
their society, and they're men
used to commanding wealth and

644
00:38:41,895 --> 00:38:44,895
authority, and they exercise
authority, and they have

645
00:38:44,895 --> 00:38:48,435
political and social and
economic power and capital. But

646
00:38:48,435 --> 00:38:51,360
they're also mindful that they
are part of something larger, or

647
00:38:51,360 --> 00:38:53,760
Virginia is part of something
larger, which is this British

648
00:38:53,760 --> 00:38:56,580
Empire. And at least early in
their lives, they're both

649
00:38:56,580 --> 00:39:00,420
committed to that Washington, of
course, sought and wished for a

650
00:39:00,420 --> 00:39:05,280
career in the British Army, and
Jefferson, as a young planter,

651
00:39:05,280 --> 00:39:08,880
cum lawyer, was committed to the
British imperial project as

652
00:39:08,880 --> 00:39:09,240
well.

653
00:39:09,900 --> 00:39:13,125
Jim Ambuske: In his advice to
Virginia’s delegation, Jefferson

654
00:39:13,125 --> 00:39:17,265
reimagined the British American
past to explain Virginia’s place

655
00:39:17,265 --> 00:39:21,705
in the empire and why Parliament
never had the right to legislate

656
00:39:21,705 --> 00:39:22,125
for it.

657
00:39:22,720 --> 00:39:24,520
Frank Cogliano: If you read the
summary view of the rights of

658
00:39:24,520 --> 00:39:27,280
British America, it's published
anonymously on his behalf in

659
00:39:27,280 --> 00:39:32,380
1774 you get some insight into
that question. Jefferson wrote

660
00:39:32,380 --> 00:39:35,920
what became the summary view as
a series of instructions to

661
00:39:35,920 --> 00:39:40,900
Virginia's delegation to the
Continental Congress. He wasn't

662
00:39:40,900 --> 00:39:45,276
attending the Continental
Congress, but he wrote what

663
00:39:45,276 --> 00:39:45,808
became a lengthy pamphlet to
situate themselves in that

664
00:39:45,808 --> 00:39:48,505
Imperial moment in 1774 and in
it, he outlines the grievances

665
00:39:48,505 --> 00:39:52,465
of the colonists, or
particularly Virginians. He also

666
00:39:52,525 --> 00:39:56,845
outlines the history of Virginia
and the history of the rights of

667
00:39:57,025 --> 00:40:00,145
Virginians. And here I'm talking
about free white Virginians. Of

668
00:40:00,145 --> 00:40:04,225
course, and in that he makes the
argument. He says, basically, we

669
00:40:04,225 --> 00:40:09,070
are like the Saxons who in the
early Middle Ages migrated from

670
00:40:09,070 --> 00:40:13,210
Europe to Britain and took with
them their rights and liberties.

671
00:40:13,390 --> 00:40:18,250
We Virginians are Britons who
emigrated in the 17th century,

672
00:40:18,490 --> 00:40:21,910
and we brought our rights and
liberties with us, just as our

673
00:40:21,910 --> 00:40:26,890
Saxon forebears did, and we are
British people, really English

674
00:40:26,890 --> 00:40:30,070
people. We have the rights of
Englishmen that we have brought

675
00:40:30,070 --> 00:40:35,155
with us to North America and
that we are Britons who live in

676
00:40:35,155 --> 00:40:39,715
a different place, but we are
equal to and on a par with our

677
00:40:39,715 --> 00:40:43,675
fellow subjects back in the home
islands. He lays all this out in

678
00:40:43,675 --> 00:40:47,155
the summary view. And when he
writes the summary view, he's

679
00:40:47,155 --> 00:40:49,615
still trying to make the case
that we're the real British

680
00:40:49,615 --> 00:40:52,135
subjects. We understand British
liberties or the rights of

681
00:40:52,135 --> 00:40:54,565
Englishmen in a way that people
in Britain have lost. It's not a

682
00:40:54,565 --> 00:40:59,800
call for independence in 1774 he
lays out a theory of the case in

683
00:40:59,800 --> 00:41:03,820
making a case, legal and
historical case for the

684
00:41:03,820 --> 00:41:07,900
Britishness of Virginians. So
he's not cling to that. He

685
00:41:07,900 --> 00:41:08,440
believes it.

686
00:41:09,040 --> 00:41:11,980
Jim Ambuske: In Jefferson’s
re-reading of history, Virginia

687
00:41:11,980 --> 00:41:15,220
and the other colonies had never
been subordinate to Parliament.

688
00:41:15,760 --> 00:41:18,985
They were just as British as
their fellow subjects in Europe,

689
00:41:19,225 --> 00:41:22,765
united by a common king. And
while Parliament was the

690
00:41:22,765 --> 00:41:26,125
legislature in Great Britain,
the colonists were subject to

691
00:41:26,125 --> 00:41:29,845
the laws made by their own
assemblies. Parliament and the

692
00:41:29,965 --> 00:41:34,345
king’s ministers claimed powers
they never had, and worse, they

693
00:41:34,345 --> 00:41:37,465
were corrupting the king’s mind
against his British American

694
00:41:37,465 --> 00:41:42,790
subjects. Jefferson entreated
the king to intervene before it

695
00:41:42,790 --> 00:41:43,690
was too late:

696
00:41:44,110 --> 00:41:46,690
Thomas Jefferson: “Open your
breast Sire, to liberal and

697
00:41:46,690 --> 00:41:51,010
expanded thought. Let not the
name of George the third be a

698
00:41:51,010 --> 00:41:52,330
blot in the page of history.”

699
00:41:54,520 --> 00:41:58,600
Jim Ambuske: In the fall of
1774, these competing histories,

700
00:41:58,660 --> 00:42:01,300
these conflicting British
identities, and these

701
00:42:01,300 --> 00:42:04,780
contradictory claims about
Parliament’s power and authority

702
00:42:04,840 --> 00:42:06,340
seemed irreconcilable.

703
00:42:06,640 --> 00:42:09,520
When the Continental Congress
convened in Philadelphia in

704
00:42:09,520 --> 00:42:12,880
September, radical, moderate,
and conservative delegates

705
00:42:12,940 --> 00:42:16,585
argued over the origins of their
rights. Did they come from the

706
00:42:16,585 --> 00:42:20,605
laws of nature or did they come
from political society? Did

707
00:42:20,605 --> 00:42:23,665
their ancestors carry with them
all the rights of English

708
00:42:23,665 --> 00:42:27,445
subjects across the ocean, or
were they more limited? Were

709
00:42:27,445 --> 00:42:30,745
they British subjects like their
brethren in Britain, or when

710
00:42:30,745 --> 00:42:34,225
their ancestors emigrated in the
early seventeenth century, did

711
00:42:34,225 --> 00:42:37,645
they create a separate British
people united under the crown?

712
00:42:37,645 --> 00:42:42,370
But how to secure their rights
and satisfy Parliament’s demands

713
00:42:42,430 --> 00:42:46,510
were more difficult questions.
One delegate believed he had the

714
00:42:46,510 --> 00:42:49,630
beginnings of an answer. Here’s
Mary Beth Norton:

715
00:42:49,630 --> 00:42:52,150
Mary Beth Norton: Joseph
Galloway, who became the leading

716
00:42:52,150 --> 00:42:55,270
conservative at the First
Continental Congress, presented

717
00:42:55,270 --> 00:42:57,610
what's known as the Galloway
Plan of Union.

718
00:42:58,090 --> 00:43:00,190
Jim Ambuske: Galloway was
speaker of the Pennsylvania

719
00:43:00,190 --> 00:43:04,615
Assembly and a dominant force in
local politics. Unlike his

720
00:43:04,615 --> 00:43:07,795
fellow Pennsylvania delegate,
John Dickinson, Galloway

721
00:43:07,795 --> 00:43:11,395
believed that Parliament could
tax the colonies, though their

722
00:43:11,395 --> 00:43:14,455
lack of representation in
Westminster was a serious

723
00:43:14,455 --> 00:43:15,055
problem.

724
00:43:15,655 --> 00:43:19,015
He was suspicious of the
seductive rhetoric of radical

725
00:43:19,015 --> 00:43:22,675
delegates like Patrick Henry,
who boasted in early September:

726
00:43:23,095 --> 00:43:27,220
“I am not a Virginian, but an
American” and that the colonies

727
00:43:27,220 --> 00:43:30,400
had returned to a state of
nature now that “Government is

728
00:43:30,400 --> 00:43:34,660
at an end.” Galloway believed
the imperial crisis could

729
00:43:34,660 --> 00:43:38,140
finally come to an end if the
colonies united with Great

730
00:43:38,140 --> 00:43:42,580
Britain under a new constitution
that harmonized the past with

731
00:43:42,580 --> 00:43:43,120
the present.

732
00:43:43,120 --> 00:43:47,680
In late September, Galloway
proposed the creation of a Grand

733
00:43:47,680 --> 00:43:51,025
Council – a kind of American
Parliament – with members

734
00:43:51,025 --> 00:43:53,965
elected by each of the colonial
assemblies – and a

735
00:43:53,965 --> 00:43:57,805
crown-appointed President
General. Together, the President

736
00:43:57,805 --> 00:44:00,325
General and the Grand Council
would legislate for North

737
00:44:00,325 --> 00:44:03,805
America, providing the local
control that British Americans

738
00:44:03,805 --> 00:44:08,065
desired, yet they were to “be an
inferior and distinct branch of

739
00:44:08,065 --> 00:44:10,585
the British legislature,”
maintaining Parliament’s

740
00:44:10,825 --> 00:44:14,770
supremacy. Both legislatures
would have to assent to laws

741
00:44:14,770 --> 00:44:18,310
concerning British America
before they took effect, giving

742
00:44:18,310 --> 00:44:21,370
colonial representatives
significant say in imperial

743
00:44:21,370 --> 00:44:24,310
affairs, while preserving
Parliament’s authority.

744
00:44:24,000 --> 00:44:26,460
Mary Beth Norton: It was still
something that the Brits would

745
00:44:26,460 --> 00:44:30,180
never accept, because it
provided for a governor general

746
00:44:30,180 --> 00:44:34,560
over all the colonies and a
legislature elected by all the

747
00:44:34,560 --> 00:44:39,360
colonies legislatures, and that
that body would have to agree to

748
00:44:39,420 --> 00:44:42,660
policies that Britain was
adopting about the colonies and

749
00:44:42,660 --> 00:44:44,160
the British would never agree to
that.

750
00:44:44,700 --> 00:44:47,925
Jim Ambuske: The Continental
Congress nearly did. On

751
00:44:47,925 --> 00:44:52,905
September 29, Galloway’s Plan of
Union failed by one vote.

752
00:44:53,625 --> 00:44:57,225
By then, however, Congress had
already adopted the more

753
00:44:57,225 --> 00:45:00,765
aggressive Suffolk Resolves that
called for a boycott of British

754
00:45:00,765 --> 00:45:04,725
goods and regular militia
drills. It was preparing a

755
00:45:04,725 --> 00:45:08,025
Declaration of Rights and
Grievances, which endorsed the

756
00:45:08,025 --> 00:45:11,670
kind of British past that Thomas
Jefferson had imagined, and it

757
00:45:11,670 --> 00:45:15,510
was drafting a petition to the
king. Galloway signed onto the

758
00:45:15,510 --> 00:45:19,170
Continental Association, the
framework for enforcing trade

759
00:45:19,170 --> 00:45:22,290
restrictions, though he later
claimed he was coerced into

760
00:45:22,290 --> 00:45:26,970
doing so. When Congress closed
in late October, Galloway’s Plan

761
00:45:26,970 --> 00:45:31,350
of Union was dead and the
colonies seemed to be preparing

762
00:45:31,530 --> 00:45:32,130
for war.

763
00:45:32,130 --> 00:45:38,655
It would take weeks for ships
crossing the ocean to bring news

764
00:45:38,655 --> 00:45:43,035
of congress’s proceedings to
London. In the meantime, Lord

765
00:45:43,035 --> 00:45:46,635
Dartmouth was searching for a
way to broker a compromise and

766
00:45:46,635 --> 00:45:50,775
avoid a civil war. His
correspondence with Joseph Reed,

767
00:45:50,835 --> 00:45:53,955
provincial governors, and other
colonial officials gave him a

768
00:45:53,955 --> 00:45:57,915
perspective on the colonial mood
and mindset. As Julie Flavell

769
00:45:57,960 --> 00:46:01,320
explains, Dartmouth and other
more moderate politicians:

770
00:46:01,720 --> 00:46:04,660
Julie Flavell: Thought that
there could be a way of having

771
00:46:04,660 --> 00:46:07,480
some kind of contact with a
meeting like the Congress on a

772
00:46:07,480 --> 00:46:11,440
temporary basis in order to have
some kind of discussion about

773
00:46:11,500 --> 00:46:14,740
measures that might mediate some
kind of solution without

774
00:46:14,740 --> 00:46:17,920
actually having to have a power
struggle. But the difficulty

775
00:46:17,920 --> 00:46:21,460
was, colonial governments
weren't foreign governments, the

776
00:46:21,460 --> 00:46:24,280
British government wasn't going
to negotiate with them on equal

777
00:46:24,280 --> 00:46:29,065
terms, and angry British
politicians were very sensitive

778
00:46:29,245 --> 00:46:32,725
to the idea of treating upstart
colony governments like they

779
00:46:32,725 --> 00:46:36,025
were equals. And an upstart
Congress in Philadelphia was

780
00:46:36,025 --> 00:46:39,805
even worse as far as they were
concerned. So some kind of

781
00:46:39,805 --> 00:46:43,585
arrangement was needed to defuse
the fighting and start looking

782
00:46:43,585 --> 00:46:47,005
for some kind of compromise that
didn't ruffle British feathers.

783
00:46:47,590 --> 00:46:50,050
Jim Ambuske: Dartmouth knew that
the government could have no

784
00:46:50,050 --> 00:46:53,890
formal contact with Congress, an
extra legal body with no

785
00:46:53,890 --> 00:46:58,030
constitutional authority. He
also knew that his stepbrother,

786
00:46:58,030 --> 00:47:01,510
the Prime Minister Lord North,
could not openly negotiate with

787
00:47:01,510 --> 00:47:04,930
British Americans. To do so
would give the colonists the

788
00:47:04,930 --> 00:47:07,990
appearance of legitimacy,
weakening the idea of

789
00:47:08,050 --> 00:47:10,675
Parliament’s supremacy, and
eroding the prime minister’s

790
00:47:10,675 --> 00:47:12,715
standing in the House of
Commons.

791
00:47:13,135 --> 00:47:15,775
Dartmouth could not lead
negotiations himself for the

792
00:47:15,775 --> 00:47:19,915
same reasons. As secretary of
state for the colonies, he spoke

793
00:47:19,915 --> 00:47:23,875
for the government on colonial
affairs. Any talks would have to

794
00:47:23,875 --> 00:47:28,015
be held at arm's length, out of
public view, involving people

795
00:47:28,015 --> 00:47:31,315
who shared an affection for
British America and believed in

796
00:47:31,315 --> 00:47:33,955
the promise of a united British
Empire.

797
00:47:34,315 --> 00:47:37,660
Benjamin Franklin remained the
obvious choice to speak on

798
00:47:37,660 --> 00:47:40,840
behalf of colonists,
notwithstanding his humiliation

799
00:47:40,840 --> 00:47:44,080
before the king’s privy council
in the cockpit at Whitehall

800
00:47:44,260 --> 00:47:48,520
nearly a year earlier. After
mulling over his return to

801
00:47:48,520 --> 00:47:51,820
Pennsylvania, Franklin had
decided to stay in London,

802
00:47:51,940 --> 00:47:54,640
enjoying the pleasures of the
city, and occasionally

803
00:47:54,640 --> 00:47:56,680
corresponding with government
officials.

804
00:47:56,680 --> 00:47:59,845
Julie Flavell: He was the most
prestigious American in London

805
00:47:59,845 --> 00:48:02,545
in the decade before
independence, the best known in

806
00:48:02,545 --> 00:48:05,005
fact, some people have said he
was the most prestigious

807
00:48:05,005 --> 00:48:08,545
American ever to serve as any
sort of ambassador in Europe up

808
00:48:08,545 --> 00:48:12,025
to the present time, he had
international recognition in

809
00:48:12,025 --> 00:48:15,445
Europe as a scientist because of
his experiments in electricity.

810
00:48:15,865 --> 00:48:19,105
He was a fellow of the Royal
Society. He belonged to numerous

811
00:48:19,150 --> 00:48:23,470
clubs and societies. He came
closer than any other individual

812
00:48:23,530 --> 00:48:27,610
to being a spokesman for all the
American colonies. He'd been

813
00:48:27,610 --> 00:48:31,330
interviewed before the House of
Commons in February 1766, during

814
00:48:31,330 --> 00:48:35,050
the Stamp Act crisis, and at
that point, he put forward in

815
00:48:35,050 --> 00:48:39,490
very powerful terms the image of
the colonists as loyal Britons

816
00:48:39,670 --> 00:48:42,070
who wanted the Stamp Act
repealed, but who would not

817
00:48:42,070 --> 00:48:45,715
quibble over constitutional
issues, and his views on the

818
00:48:45,715 --> 00:48:48,715
controversy between Britain and
America had been put forward in

819
00:48:48,715 --> 00:48:51,895
numerous pamphlets and
newspapers, so a lot of people

820
00:48:51,895 --> 00:48:55,735
had read his views by the time
of the Tea Party, he was colony

821
00:48:55,735 --> 00:48:58,915
agent for four colonies, which
was unusual, Pennsylvania, New

822
00:48:58,915 --> 00:49:02,275
Jersey, Massachusetts and
Georgia. And he's sometimes

823
00:49:02,275 --> 00:49:05,980
referred to by historians as an
ambassador for America, which he

824
00:49:05,980 --> 00:49:09,280
certainly was not, but he came
as close as anyone to filling

825
00:49:09,280 --> 00:49:09,880
that role.

826
00:49:10,360 --> 00:49:12,640
Jim Ambuske: But drawing
Franklin into negotiations

827
00:49:12,640 --> 00:49:16,420
without the public noticing
would require a discreet circle

828
00:49:16,420 --> 00:49:19,600
of friends, and no small amount
of subterfuge.

829
00:49:19,600 --> 00:49:23,680
Caroline Howe became the key to
all of it.

830
00:49:25,220 --> 00:49:27,740
Julie Flavell: Caroline was
quite a remarkable person

831
00:49:27,740 --> 00:49:30,680
throughout her life. She was
described as having a mind like

832
00:49:30,680 --> 00:49:34,580
a man, which shows the mindset
of those days. She was clever.

833
00:49:34,760 --> 00:49:38,900
She liked maths. She was self
educated. She understood Latin,

834
00:49:38,900 --> 00:49:42,580
French, Greek. She read widely.
She'd read anything, classics,

835
00:49:42,580 --> 00:49:46,300
novels, travel literature, but
she was also athletic for the

836
00:49:46,300 --> 00:49:49,360
day she lived in and in fact,
she was the only female member

837
00:49:49,360 --> 00:49:53,020
listed for the beaver fox
hunting group that operated out

838
00:49:53,020 --> 00:49:56,620
of Rutland castle in the 18th
century. And I don't think this

839
00:49:56,620 --> 00:49:59,320
was because she loved blood
sports. I think it's because

840
00:49:59,320 --> 00:50:03,060
riding. Was a physical activity
that was acceptable for ladies

841
00:50:03,060 --> 00:50:06,120
at that time. And she also loved
to gamble, and that brought her

842
00:50:06,120 --> 00:50:08,760
into contact with some of the
leading figures of the day.

843
00:50:09,000 --> 00:50:12,480
Jim Ambuske: The Howe family had
many ties to British America.

844
00:50:12,900 --> 00:50:16,200
Caroline’s eldest brother, Lord
George Augustus Howe, had been

845
00:50:16,320 --> 00:50:20,880
killed in 1758 at the Battle of
Fort Ticonderoga in northern New

846
00:50:20,880 --> 00:50:24,180
York. Her younger brother,
Richard, served in the Royal

847
00:50:24,180 --> 00:50:27,600
Navy during the Seven Years’
War, commanding ships in battle

848
00:50:27,600 --> 00:50:31,380
off the French coast. He
inherited George’s title after

849
00:50:31,380 --> 00:50:35,505
his death, becoming the 4th
Viscount Howe. Their younger

850
00:50:35,505 --> 00:50:38,865
brother William had fought with
Major General James Wolfe at the

851
00:50:38,865 --> 00:50:42,345
Battle of Quebec in September
1759.

852
00:50:42,825 --> 00:50:47,505
By 1774, Lord Richard Howe was
an admiral and William was a

853
00:50:47,505 --> 00:50:51,825
major general. Both were members
of Parliament. Neither wanted a

854
00:50:51,825 --> 00:50:55,005
civil war. And the memorial to
their fallen brother in

855
00:50:55,005 --> 00:50:58,590
Westminster Abbey reminded all
the Howe siblings of what their

856
00:50:58,590 --> 00:51:00,690
family had sacrificed for the
empire.

857
00:51:00,870 --> 00:51:04,590
Julie Flavell: But historians
have been unable to find any

858
00:51:04,590 --> 00:51:08,070
connection between Dartmouth and
the house, but that's because

859
00:51:08,070 --> 00:51:11,490
they've limited their search to
the men directly involved in the

860
00:51:11,490 --> 00:51:15,210
whole business, and widening the
lens to look at the how men in

861
00:51:15,210 --> 00:51:18,255
the context of their families
and their social circles, would

862
00:51:18,255 --> 00:51:22,695
have given the answer. 18th
century Britain was governed by

863
00:51:22,695 --> 00:51:27,075
a small set of titled wealthy
families whose women were very

864
00:51:27,075 --> 00:51:30,495
active in promoting all sorts of
family interests behind the

865
00:51:30,495 --> 00:51:34,455
scenes. And in a day when there
was no dedicated government

866
00:51:34,455 --> 00:51:37,215
buildings other than the Houses
of Parliament, a lot of

867
00:51:37,215 --> 00:51:40,755
political business was conducted
in private settings, at dinners,

868
00:51:40,815 --> 00:51:44,940
house parties, afternoon visits,
even over cards and gambling and

869
00:51:44,940 --> 00:51:47,580
women were present at these
events. And in fact, they often

870
00:51:47,580 --> 00:51:51,960
controlled the guest list, so
hostesses of large salons like

871
00:51:51,960 --> 00:51:55,440
the famous Duchess of Devonshire
were important connections for

872
00:51:55,440 --> 00:51:58,800
any man who wanted an enter
politics. And it was Caroline

873
00:51:58,800 --> 00:52:01,860
Howe, who was the elder sister
to Admiral Howe, who actually

874
00:52:01,860 --> 00:52:03,780
knew the Dartmouth. She was the
connection.

875
00:52:04,260 --> 00:52:08,805
Jim Ambuske: Two pregnancies in
1774 gave birth to a secret plot

876
00:52:08,805 --> 00:52:10,485
with Caroline Howe at its heart.

877
00:52:10,485 --> 00:52:13,785
Julie Flavell: Her closest
friend, Lady Georgiana Spencer

878
00:52:13,845 --> 00:52:17,565
in the early 1770s started an
unusual charity called the

879
00:52:17,565 --> 00:52:21,525
ladies charitable society, and
this was the first charity ever

880
00:52:21,525 --> 00:52:25,905
to use means testing to assess
applicants for relief. And the

881
00:52:25,905 --> 00:52:29,190
reason for the means testing was
because wealthy ladies in London

882
00:52:29,190 --> 00:52:33,390
were routinely sent begging
letters, and because they had no

883
00:52:33,390 --> 00:52:35,730
local knowledge anymore, they
weren't in their country

884
00:52:35,730 --> 00:52:39,210
setting, they were unable to
distinguish genuine charity

885
00:52:39,210 --> 00:52:44,310
cases from basically swindlers.
Lady Spencer's idea was to vet

886
00:52:44,310 --> 00:52:48,210
applications and send visitors
to assess each case. And the

887
00:52:48,210 --> 00:52:51,630
charity was also unusual because
it was organized almost entirely

888
00:52:51,675 --> 00:52:55,095
by women. A large number of
aristocratic women were

889
00:52:55,095 --> 00:52:58,215
involved, and Caroline Howe
undertook a lot of the

890
00:52:58,215 --> 00:53:02,055
administration, especially when
Lady Spencer was pregnant and

891
00:53:02,055 --> 00:53:07,275
unable to be involved in autumn
1774 when the crisis was

892
00:53:07,275 --> 00:53:09,555
escalating and the First
Continental Congress was

893
00:53:09,555 --> 00:53:13,155
meeting, Caroline was in charge
of the charity and society

894
00:53:13,200 --> 00:53:16,440
business, took her to the home
of Lord and Lady Dartmouth. And

895
00:53:16,440 --> 00:53:20,460
there, Lady Dartmouth had just
given birth to her ninth child,

896
00:53:20,700 --> 00:53:24,000
a girl, the only girl that
Dartmouth ever had. So when she

897
00:53:24,000 --> 00:53:27,360
was born, a courtier said Lord
Dartmouth's over the moon, he's

898
00:53:27,360 --> 00:53:31,080
finally got a daughter. She was
born on October the fourth, When

899
00:53:31,080 --> 00:53:34,260
Caroline called On November the
first, the baby was desperately

900
00:53:34,260 --> 00:53:38,325
ill with scarlet fever, and Lord
Dartmouth was in the family

901
00:53:38,325 --> 00:53:42,285
drawing room wringing his hands.
Now, poor Dartmouth had had a

902
00:53:42,285 --> 00:53:46,425
very bad day, because earlier in
that same day, he'd been in the

903
00:53:46,425 --> 00:53:49,305
government offices, and he'd
received word that the

904
00:53:49,305 --> 00:53:51,945
Continental Congress in
Philadelphia had endorsed the

905
00:53:51,945 --> 00:53:55,245
Suffolk Resolves. And of course,
the Suffolk Resolves threatened

906
00:53:55,245 --> 00:53:58,425
armed resistance if Britain
didn't repeal the Coercive Acts.

907
00:53:58,425 --> 00:54:01,530
So there was absolutely no room
for any kind of peaceful

908
00:54:01,530 --> 00:54:04,710
compromise. A visitor to
Dartmouth's office on that

909
00:54:04,710 --> 00:54:08,010
morning described him as
thunderstruck. Then he went home

910
00:54:08,010 --> 00:54:12,150
to the sickness in the house and
in his home on that afternoon,

911
00:54:12,450 --> 00:54:15,990
was Dr father Gill, who was
called in as a physician to the

912
00:54:15,990 --> 00:54:19,770
baby Charlotte. And from this
chance meeting, this chance

913
00:54:19,770 --> 00:54:23,175
bringing together of Dartmouth
Fothergill and Caroline Howe.

914
00:54:23,415 --> 00:54:26,415
Can be dated the beginning of
Caroline's overtures to Ben

915
00:54:26,415 --> 00:54:29,595
Franklin that went in in the
secret talks with Admiral Howe.

916
00:54:30,200 --> 00:54:32,300
Jim Ambuske: Dr. John
Fothergill, the Dartmouths’

917
00:54:32,600 --> 00:54:35,180
doctor, had known the family for
years.

918
00:54:35,360 --> 00:54:37,160
Julie Flavell: Dr. John
Fothergill was a Quaker

919
00:54:37,160 --> 00:54:41,240
physician. He had a very
successful practice in London, a

920
00:54:41,240 --> 00:54:44,660
lot of his clients were
aristocrats. He had a lot of

921
00:54:44,660 --> 00:54:48,320
contacts with the Philadelphia
Quaker Meeting too. He was an

922
00:54:48,320 --> 00:54:51,740
active member of the meeting in
London. He was a fellow of the

923
00:54:51,740 --> 00:54:55,085
Royal Society. And he was a
longtime friend of Benjamin

924
00:54:55,085 --> 00:54:55,565
Franklin,

925
00:54:55,925 --> 00:54:58,445
Jim Ambuske: Like his friend,
the merchant and banker David

926
00:54:58,445 --> 00:55:01,685
Barclay, Fothergill was
sympathetic to British American

927
00:55:01,685 --> 00:55:04,745
complaints about taxation
without representation.

928
00:55:04,745 --> 00:55:10,085
We have no record of what Lord
Dartmouth, Dr. Fothergill, and

929
00:55:10,085 --> 00:55:13,625
Caroline Howe discussed in the
Dartmouth home on November 1st,

930
00:55:13,805 --> 00:55:16,445
but they soon set their plans in
motion.

931
00:55:16,730 --> 00:55:19,550
Julie Flavell: Because within
days, Caroline enlisted her

932
00:55:19,550 --> 00:55:22,250
friend Matthew Rapier, who was
also a fellow of the Royal

933
00:55:22,250 --> 00:55:26,210
Society and knew Franklin to
invite Dr. Franklin to play

934
00:55:26,210 --> 00:55:29,750
chess with her. And Franklin
recalled the invitation. There

935
00:55:29,750 --> 00:55:33,530
was a certain lady Mr. Rapier
told him who had a desire of

936
00:55:33,530 --> 00:55:36,830
playing with me at chess,
fancying she could beat me

937
00:55:36,830 --> 00:55:40,415
Jim Ambuske: Matthew Rapier
advised Franklin to call on

938
00:55:40,415 --> 00:55:43,655
Caroline Howe at 12 Grafton
Street by himself.

939
00:55:44,080 --> 00:55:46,900
Julie Flavell: And Franklin
found that a bit awkward, so he

940
00:55:46,900 --> 00:55:49,900
put it off. And while he was
putting it off, he was

941
00:55:49,900 --> 00:55:53,440
approached by John Fothergill
and David Barclay, who asked him

942
00:55:53,440 --> 00:55:57,220
to set out a list of terms the
colonists might accept to end

943
00:55:57,220 --> 00:56:00,760
the crisis. And they informed
him that they were acting on

944
00:56:00,760 --> 00:56:03,760
behalf of Lord Dartmouth and
Lord Hyde, who was a member of

945
00:56:03,760 --> 00:56:06,280
the Privy Council and was a
friend of the house, actually,

946
00:56:06,280 --> 00:56:08,365
although Franklin wouldn't have
been aware of that.

947
00:56:08,900 --> 00:56:11,660
Jim Ambuske: Fothergill and
Barclay asked Franklin to keep

948
00:56:11,660 --> 00:56:13,460
their discussions a secret.

949
00:56:13,820 --> 00:56:19,400
By then, matters made secret
talks all the more urgent. At

950
00:56:19,400 --> 00:56:23,660
around 1 o’clock in the morning
on November 18th, King George

951
00:56:24,020 --> 00:56:28,040
III wrote privately to Lord
North. After reviewing recent

952
00:56:28,040 --> 00:56:31,100
dispatches from British
officials in the colonies, it

953
00:56:31,100 --> 00:56:33,785
had become clear to the king
that:

954
00:56:34,085 --> 00:56:35,705
King George III: “the New
England Governments are in a

955
00:56:35,705 --> 00:56:39,545
State of Rebellion, blows must
decide whether they are to be

956
00:56:39,545 --> 00:56:41,525
subject to the Country or
independant.”

957
00:56:41,525 --> 00:56:45,305
Jim Ambuske: When the king
opened Parliament on November

958
00:56:45,365 --> 00:56:49,565
30th, he delivered a determined
speech from the throne that left

959
00:56:49,565 --> 00:56:53,885
no doubt where he stood on “the
unlawful combinations” and the

960
00:56:53,885 --> 00:56:57,590
“most daring spirit of
resistance, and disobedience to

961
00:56:57,590 --> 00:57:00,230
the law.” He pledged his:

962
00:57:00,890 --> 00:57:03,470
King George III: “Firm and
stedfast resolutions to

963
00:57:03,470 --> 00:57:06,950
withstand every attempt to
weaken or impair the supreme

964
00:57:06,950 --> 00:57:10,970
authority of this legislature
over all the dominions of My

965
00:57:11,090 --> 00:57:11,270
crown.”

966
00:57:12,800 --> 00:57:15,320
Julie Flavell: In early
December, raper approached

967
00:57:15,320 --> 00:57:18,860
Franklin again and reminded him
of his promise to play chess

968
00:57:18,860 --> 00:57:22,460
with Caroline, and this time, he
took him personally to

969
00:57:22,460 --> 00:57:26,180
Caroline's front door. That was
on December 2. And over the next

970
00:57:26,180 --> 00:57:29,900
few weeks, the two played chess
regularly, frequently enough so

971
00:57:29,900 --> 00:57:32,960
the neighbors got used to seeing
Franklin going in and out of

972
00:57:32,960 --> 00:57:36,065
Caroline's front door. He was an
easy to recognize figure with

973
00:57:36,065 --> 00:57:39,485
his shoulder length hair and his
glasses. And people watched who

974
00:57:39,485 --> 00:57:41,945
went in and out of people's
houses quite closely in that

975
00:57:41,945 --> 00:57:42,365
period.

976
00:57:42,365 --> 00:57:45,125
Jim Ambuske: Normalizing
Franklin’s presence at Howe’s

977
00:57:45,245 --> 00:57:48,545
townhome concealed the fact that
a game was afoot in her drawing

978
00:57:48,545 --> 00:57:51,785
room, one even Franklin did not
know he was playing.

979
00:57:51,785 --> 00:57:55,145
Julie Flavell: Caroline lived in
a recent development on Grafton

980
00:57:55,145 --> 00:57:58,385
Street that was designed by the
architect Robert Taylor. He

981
00:57:58,385 --> 00:58:01,850
designed houses for wealthy
people in the elegant Palladian

982
00:58:01,850 --> 00:58:05,690
style of the period, the houses
on Grafton Street didn't have

983
00:58:05,690 --> 00:58:10,370
much space to extend at the
back, so Taylor designed storied

984
00:58:10,370 --> 00:58:13,430
bow windows, which are very
common now, but were unusual at

985
00:58:13,430 --> 00:58:16,550
the time. So Caroline, standing
in her drawing room, would have

986
00:58:16,550 --> 00:58:19,790
a view right down Albemarle
Street, which came up and met

987
00:58:19,790 --> 00:58:22,895
with Grafton Street. She was at
a T junction, and in either

988
00:58:22,895 --> 00:58:26,135
direction, she'd see Grafton
Street on her right and her

989
00:58:26,135 --> 00:58:29,315
left. Her brother, the admiral,
lived at number three, which was

990
00:58:29,315 --> 00:58:32,675
a larger building. All those
houses along that development

991
00:58:32,675 --> 00:58:36,635
had luxury features. They had
ornate plaster work, cornicing,

992
00:58:36,935 --> 00:58:40,655
decorative marble fireplaces and
all the public rooms, and her

993
00:58:40,655 --> 00:58:43,775
drawing room was on the first
floor. Her portrait shows a

994
00:58:43,775 --> 00:58:46,760
little bit of her drawing room.
There was an extensive bookshelf

995
00:58:46,760 --> 00:58:50,960
in that room. In her portrait,
she's seated at a large wooden

996
00:58:50,960 --> 00:58:55,460
writing desk with a fence border
design that creates a defined

997
00:58:55,460 --> 00:58:58,640
workspace for her, and she has
numerous little drawers with

998
00:58:58,640 --> 00:59:01,880
locks on them for privacy, and
that's how people who dropped in

999
00:59:01,880 --> 00:59:05,180
on Caroline often found her at
this very large desk, and behind

1000
00:59:05,180 --> 00:59:08,765
the desk in the portrait is a
card table that's folded out of

1001
00:59:08,765 --> 00:59:13,445
the way until wanted now, both
Franklin and Caroline loved

1002
00:59:13,445 --> 00:59:17,525
chess, and they were both very
competitive. According to his

1003
00:59:17,525 --> 00:59:20,645
opponents, he was known to
resort to tricks like drumming

1004
00:59:20,645 --> 00:59:23,345
his fingers on the table to
distract people because he

1005
00:59:23,345 --> 00:59:27,665
wanted to win. And Caroline also
loved to win, and she couldn't

1006
00:59:27,665 --> 00:59:30,950
help bragging in her letters to
Lady Spencer about her various

1007
00:59:30,950 --> 00:59:35,210
victories over different people
at chess. Unfortunately,

1008
00:59:35,270 --> 00:59:39,290
Franklin, who wrote a very full
account of his meetings with the

1009
00:59:39,290 --> 00:59:42,650
house, didn't leave any record
of who won. Makes me wonder

1010
00:59:42,650 --> 00:59:43,550
whether Caroline won.

1011
00:59:43,550 --> 00:59:47,750
Jim Ambuske: Franklin found Howe
charming and a worthy opponent.

1012
00:59:48,350 --> 00:59:50,930
Howe played Franklin very
carefully.

1013
00:59:51,650 --> 00:59:54,455
Julie Flavell: Now, in these
meetings, they barely discussed

1014
00:59:54,455 --> 00:59:57,995
politics. There was one very
brief reference to the American

1015
00:59:57,995 --> 01:00:01,415
crisis in their second meeting,
which had a flirty, toned to it,

1016
01:00:01,655 --> 01:00:04,895
where Caroline told Franklin
that she thought he was the best

1017
01:00:04,895 --> 01:00:07,955
man qualified to settle the
American dispute, and she

1018
01:00:07,955 --> 01:00:10,955
followed up this flattery with,
I hope we are not to have a

1019
01:00:10,955 --> 01:00:14,735
civil war, to which Franklin
answered, we should kiss and be

1020
01:00:14,735 --> 01:00:18,380
friends. What can we do better?
Looking closely at her letter,

1021
01:00:18,380 --> 01:00:21,260
shortly after Franklin would
visit her, she would have lady

1022
01:00:21,260 --> 01:00:24,740
Dartmouth to her home on society
business, there was a cover,

1023
01:00:24,740 --> 01:00:28,460
basically. And these two women
were the go betweens, between

1024
01:00:28,520 --> 01:00:30,260
members of government and
Franklin.

1025
01:00:30,980 --> 01:00:34,280
Jim Ambuske: Near the end of the
year, Caroline Howe cornered her

1026
01:00:34,000 --> 01:00:39,100
Julie Flavell: On Christmas Day
1774 he came to Caroline for a

1027
01:00:34,280 --> 01:00:34,880
opponent.

1028
01:00:39,100 --> 01:00:42,160
game, and she suddenly said,
Would you like to meet my

1029
01:00:42,160 --> 01:00:45,700
brother, Lord Howe? She was sure
we should like each other, she

1030
01:00:45,700 --> 01:00:49,480
said. And Admiral Lord Howe
obviously had been waiting right

1031
01:00:49,480 --> 01:00:51,880
in the next room. He came
quickly, and they were

1032
01:00:51,880 --> 01:00:55,360
introduced, and then he got to
the point. He said he and other

1033
01:00:55,360 --> 01:00:58,060
men in government circles were
alarmed at the situation in

1034
01:00:58,105 --> 01:01:01,945
America. They wanted to avert an
armed conflict, and they thought

1035
01:01:01,945 --> 01:01:05,785
Franklin was the best man to
reconcile the two sides. And

1036
01:01:05,785 --> 01:01:09,145
again, he was asked to draw up a
set of terms that would be

1037
01:01:09,145 --> 01:01:12,685
acceptable to the colonies. He
proposed meeting again in three

1038
01:01:12,685 --> 01:01:16,345
days at Caroline's house. And it
was at the second meeting that

1039
01:01:16,345 --> 01:01:19,945
he told Franklin that Lord
Dartmouth and Lord Norris, of

1040
01:01:19,945 --> 01:01:22,930
course, the Prime Minister were
the people he was working with,

1041
01:01:23,290 --> 01:01:26,410
and he also showed that he was
aware of Franklin's secret talks

1042
01:01:26,410 --> 01:01:28,750
with Fothergill and Barclay,
which Franklin said, as an

1043
01:01:28,750 --> 01:01:30,250
aside, so much for the secret

1044
01:01:30,790 --> 01:01:32,950
Jim Ambuske: With her brother
now engaged in talks with

1045
01:01:32,950 --> 01:01:34,390
Franklin, Howe:

1046
01:01:34,510 --> 01:01:36,730
Julie Flavell: Offered to
withdraw from the meetings, but

1047
01:01:36,730 --> 01:01:39,670
Franklin requested her to say,
because he said he had every

1048
01:01:39,670 --> 01:01:43,690
confidence in her prudence, and
thereafter, she was always there

1049
01:01:43,690 --> 01:01:46,855
at every meeting that took place
over the next few months. And

1050
01:01:47,095 --> 01:01:50,395
she was also an intermediary in
one other very important way,

1051
01:01:50,395 --> 01:01:54,355
because this was a time when
handwriting was a fairly sure

1052
01:01:54,355 --> 01:01:58,555
way of detecting the author of
an anonymous document. The

1053
01:01:58,555 --> 01:02:02,035
British Post Office intercepted
letters regularly, and they got

1054
01:02:02,035 --> 01:02:05,935
to know handwritings of various
people. So Caroline transcribed

1055
01:02:06,100 --> 01:02:10,300
all of Franklin's correspondence
in order to protect the secret

1056
01:02:10,300 --> 01:02:13,600
of his involvement, and also, if
she gave him a letter from Lord

1057
01:02:13,600 --> 01:02:16,780
Howe, she'd then take it back
again so he didn't have letters

1058
01:02:16,780 --> 01:02:19,420
from Lord Howe saying anything
about this business.

1059
01:02:20,140 --> 01:02:22,720
Jim Ambuske: After a few
meetings, Franklin presented

1060
01:02:22,720 --> 01:02:25,540
Lord Howe with several
suggestions for resolving the

1061
01:02:25,540 --> 01:02:26,080
crisis:

1062
01:02:26,140 --> 01:02:29,020
Julie Flavell: One of them was
that Britain should agree not to

1063
01:02:29,020 --> 01:02:32,080
intervene in the domestic
matters of the colonies, and

1064
01:02:32,080 --> 01:02:35,620
could raise American revenue,
but only during wartime, and it

1065
01:02:35,620 --> 01:02:38,560
would have to be limited to a
percentage of what was raised

1066
01:02:38,560 --> 01:02:41,980
from Britain itself. And of
course, with agreement of

1067
01:02:41,980 --> 01:02:45,205
Parliament, but he also agreed
with Lord Howe that sending a

1068
01:02:45,205 --> 01:02:49,165
commissioner to inquire into
grievances might be a good way

1069
01:02:49,165 --> 01:02:51,985
of stopping the slide to war,
which at this point was the key

1070
01:02:51,985 --> 01:02:55,585
thing. And it's important to
realize that this group of

1071
01:02:55,585 --> 01:02:59,065
people working in London behind
the scenes at this time didn't

1072
01:02:59,065 --> 01:03:02,485
necessarily think that some kind
of final solution to the

1073
01:03:02,485 --> 01:03:05,785
constitutional dispute would be
hammered out in that year. They

1074
01:03:05,785 --> 01:03:08,950
just wanted to end the crisis
without fighting, even if it

1075
01:03:08,950 --> 01:03:12,070
ended inconclusively, because
that's how the last two crises

1076
01:03:12,070 --> 01:03:12,610
had ended.

1077
01:03:16,690 --> 01:03:19,990
Jim Ambuske: As the secret
negotiations continued, one of

1078
01:03:19,990 --> 01:03:24,190
Lord Howe’s allies William Pitt,
Earl of Chatham, presented a

1079
01:03:24,190 --> 01:03:29,155
conciliatory proposal to
Parliament in late January 1775.

1080
01:03:29,575 --> 01:03:33,175
Chatham, the prime architect of
Britain’s victory in the Seven

1081
01:03:33,235 --> 01:03:36,655
Years’ War, wanted to stop the
slide towards civil war.

1082
01:03:36,655 --> 01:03:39,775
Julie Flavell: He wanted to
allow talks with the Continental

1083
01:03:39,775 --> 01:03:43,255
Congress as a temporary body.
The British didn't want an

1084
01:03:43,255 --> 01:03:45,955
alternative Parliament on the
other side of the Atlantic, but

1085
01:03:45,955 --> 01:03:49,195
Chatham said, look, let's use
that as a vehicle for discussing

1086
01:03:49,255 --> 01:03:53,500
a solution. Chatham believed in
parliamentary sovereignty, but

1087
01:03:53,500 --> 01:03:57,940
he wanted parliament to concede
on the issue of taxation. So it

1088
01:03:57,940 --> 01:04:00,640
was to be a concession from a
sovereign British Parliament.

1089
01:04:01,360 --> 01:04:04,180
The colonies would be assured
that they would not be taxed by

1090
01:04:04,180 --> 01:04:07,000
Parliament, that it wouldn't
interfere in their internal

1091
01:04:07,000 --> 01:04:10,240
affairs, but that Parliament
would regulate the Empire,

1092
01:04:10,480 --> 01:04:15,265
regulate trade, and possibly the
colonies might vote a permanent

1093
01:04:15,265 --> 01:04:17,125
revenue to the support of the
Empire.

1094
01:04:17,725 --> 01:04:20,785
Jim Ambuske: Parliament rejected
Chatham’s plan overwhelmingly.

1095
01:04:21,445 --> 01:04:25,285
Days later it declared that in
light of Massachusetts Bay’s

1096
01:04:25,405 --> 01:04:28,765
continued resistance to “the
authority of the supreme

1097
01:04:28,765 --> 01:04:33,205
legislature, that a rebellion at
this time actually exists within

1098
01:04:33,205 --> 01:04:33,865
the said province.”

1099
01:04:33,865 --> 01:04:38,185
Prime Minister Lord North, who
knew about the secret talks

1100
01:04:38,230 --> 01:04:42,310
between Franklin and Lord Howe,
and so forcefully championed the

1101
01:04:42,310 --> 01:04:46,510
Coercive Acts months earlier,
made one last effort to avoid a

1102
01:04:46,510 --> 01:04:46,690
war.

1103
01:04:46,870 --> 01:04:49,450
Julie Flavell: Franklin thought
he detected the influence of

1104
01:04:49,450 --> 01:04:53,110
some of his ideas on North's
conciliatory proposal, which was

1105
01:04:53,110 --> 01:04:57,670
February 20. He proposed that if
a colony paid for its own civil

1106
01:04:57,670 --> 01:05:01,090
government and defense, parle.
Parliament would not tax it.

1107
01:05:01,495 --> 01:05:04,675
That would have to be subject to
parliamentary approval, which

1108
01:05:04,735 --> 01:05:08,035
Franklin didn't particularly
like, and any revenues raised

1109
01:05:08,035 --> 01:05:10,375
through the regulation of trade
would be returned to the

1110
01:05:10,375 --> 01:05:12,895
colonies. So Parliament would
still regulate trade, but it

1111
01:05:12,895 --> 01:05:16,495
would have no motive to over tax
the colonies. But North's

1112
01:05:16,495 --> 01:05:19,855
proposal, by now, fell far short
of colonial demands, and at the

1113
01:05:19,855 --> 01:05:23,268
same time, it gave up a lot more
than British members of

1114
01:05:23,268 --> 01:05:26,140
parliament were willing to
grant. And the fact is that at

1115
01:05:26,140 --> 01:05:29,260
this point, the mood in the
metropolis was that Britain had

1116
01:05:29,260 --> 01:05:32,740
compromised too often in the
past, that that had encouraged

1117
01:05:32,740 --> 01:05:36,580
colonial unrest, and there was
no doubt in the minds of most

1118
01:05:36,580 --> 01:05:40,360
men in Britain that any contest
of strength between Britain and

1119
01:05:40,360 --> 01:05:44,620
her colonies would end in easy
victory over the colonies. So

1120
01:05:44,620 --> 01:05:49,465
North's conciliatory proposal,
even as limited as it was, was

1121
01:05:49,465 --> 01:05:53,125
greeted with cries that it was a
show of weakness, and proposing

1122
01:05:53,125 --> 01:05:56,605
any sort of Peace Commission or
negotiation at this point was

1123
01:05:56,605 --> 01:05:57,685
just not going to happen.

1124
01:05:57,685 --> 01:06:00,925
Jim Ambuske: Lord North’s
proposal managed to pass in

1125
01:06:00,925 --> 01:06:04,045
Parliament, but neither the
government’s supporters nor

1126
01:06:04,045 --> 01:06:06,925
members sympathetic to the
colonies thought it would do

1127
01:06:06,925 --> 01:06:07,825
much good.

1128
01:06:08,245 --> 01:06:11,950
Nor would the plan proposed by
Joseph Reed have found much

1129
01:06:11,950 --> 01:06:16,570
support either. After learning
of the King’s militant speech in

1130
01:06:16,570 --> 01:06:20,830
Parliament, Reed wrote what
became his final letter to Lord

1131
01:06:20,830 --> 01:06:25,690
Dartmouth. As a compromise, he
wrote, British Americans would

1132
01:06:25,690 --> 01:06:29,290
pay for the destroyed tea in
exchange for the repeal of the

1133
01:06:29,290 --> 01:06:33,475
Coercive Acts. Parliament need
not surrender its right to tax

1134
01:06:33,475 --> 01:06:39,115
the colonies, only declare “the
Inexpediency of Taxation.” He

1135
01:06:39,115 --> 01:06:42,355
warned Dartmouth that the
Continental Congress had more

1136
01:06:42,355 --> 01:06:46,255
support than others had led him
to believe, and:

1137
01:06:46,855 --> 01:06:51,115
Joseph Reed: “This Country will
be deluged with Blood before it

1138
01:06:51,115 --> 01:06:54,115
will submit to any other
Taxation than by their own

1139
01:06:54,115 --> 01:06:54,295
Assemblies.”

1140
01:06:54,295 --> 01:06:58,900
Jim Ambuske: By early spring,
the Howe siblings knew that they

1141
01:06:58,900 --> 01:07:02,560
might be among the families
spent to spill it. The

1142
01:07:02,560 --> 01:07:05,800
government was sending William
Howe, Caroline and Richard’s

1143
01:07:05,800 --> 01:07:10,060
younger brother, to the colonies
to take command of an army. The

1144
01:07:10,060 --> 01:07:13,060
major general had quietly let
the government know he was

1145
01:07:13,060 --> 01:07:17,980
willing to go if he could be of
some service. Lord Howe expected

1146
01:07:17,980 --> 01:07:20,425
to be given a naval command in
the future.

1147
01:07:21,325 --> 01:07:27,145
On March 7, 1775, Lord Howe,
Benjamin Franklin, and Caroline

1148
01:07:27,145 --> 01:07:29,965
Howe met for one last time.

1149
01:07:30,325 --> 01:07:32,425
Julie Flavell: I think there was
a little bit of a sad feeling to

1150
01:07:32,425 --> 01:07:37,045
that they all met at number 12
Grafton Street. Lord Howe told

1151
01:07:37,045 --> 01:07:41,005
Franklin that his intentions had
been good, that he regretted the

1152
01:07:41,005 --> 01:07:44,410
failure to establish a
commission, but he said things

1153
01:07:44,410 --> 01:07:48,670
might yet take a more favorable
term. And as he understood, ay,

1154
01:07:48,670 --> 01:07:51,850
that is, Franklin was going soon
to America, if he should chance

1155
01:07:51,850 --> 01:07:55,210
to be sent thither on that
important business, he hoped he

1156
01:07:55,210 --> 01:07:59,470
might still expect my
assistance. And so ended the

1157
01:07:59,470 --> 01:08:02,950
negotiation with Lord Howe and
Franklin left for America.

1158
01:08:11,875 --> 01:08:15,115
Jim Ambuske: Fifteen years after
Caroline Howe welcomed her

1159
01:08:15,115 --> 01:08:19,075
brother William home from a war
in North America, she bid him

1160
01:08:19,075 --> 01:08:25,135
goodbye once again. In all
likelihood, he was sailing into

1161
01:08:25,135 --> 01:08:29,500
another one. The British were
sending William Howe along with

1162
01:08:29,500 --> 01:08:33,220
Henry Clinton and John Burgoyne
with additional regiments to

1163
01:08:33,220 --> 01:08:37,360
British America to reinforce
General Gage, who seemed to be

1164
01:08:37,360 --> 01:08:39,820
rapidly losing control of the
situation.

1165
01:08:39,820 --> 01:08:44,200
Some members of Parliament and
the British public remarked on

1166
01:08:44,200 --> 01:08:48,340
the almost cruel irony of
sending William Howe to Boston,

1167
01:08:49,060 --> 01:08:52,165
to subdue a province that had
raised a monument to Howe

1168
01:08:52,585 --> 01:08:53,545
siblings’ late brother.

1169
01:08:53,545 --> 01:08:58,165
Major General William Howe
embarked for North America on

1170
01:08:58,225 --> 01:09:04,825
April 15, 1775. He had barely
put to sea when what they had

1171
01:09:04,825 --> 01:09:08,965
all feared had finally come:
war.

1172
01:09:13,640 --> 01:09:17,120
Thanks for listening to Worlds
Turned Upside Down. Worlds is a

1173
01:09:17,120 --> 01:09:20,900
production of R2 Studios, part
of the Roy Rosenzweig Center for

1174
01:09:20,900 --> 01:09:23,840
History and New Media at George
Mason University.

1175
01:09:24,560 --> 01:09:26,720
I’m your host, Dr. Jim Ambuske.

1176
01:09:26,720 --> 01:09:30,567
This episode of Worlds Turned
Upside Down is made possible

1177
01:09:30,567 --> 01:09:33,245
with support from a 2024 grant
from the National Endowment for

1178
01:09:33,245 --> 01:09:34,025
the Humanities.

1179
01:09:34,505 --> 01:09:38,345
Head to r2studios.org to find a
complete transcript of today’s

1180
01:09:38,345 --> 01:09:41,105
episode and suggestions for
further reading. ​

1181
01:09:41,585 --> 01:09:45,005
Worlds is researched and written
by me with additional research,

1182
01:09:45,005 --> 01:09:47,225
writing, and script editing by
Jeanette Patrick.

1183
01:09:47,825 --> 01:09:50,885
Jeanette Patrick and I are the
Executive Producers. Grace

1184
01:09:50,885 --> 01:09:52,865
Mallon is our British
Correspondent.

1185
01:09:53,765 --> 01:09:57,290
Our lead audio editor for this
episode is Curt Dahl of cd

1186
01:09:57,290 --> 01:09:57,890
squared.

1187
01:09:58,490 --> 01:10:00,890
Annabelle Spencer is our
graduate assistant.

1188
01:10:01,610 --> 01:10:05,090
Our thanks to Julie Flavell,
Mary Beth Norton, Michael

1189
01:10:05,090 --> 01:10:08,450
Hattem, and Frank Cogliano for
sharing their expertise with us

1190
01:10:08,450 --> 01:10:09,230
in this episode.

1191
01:10:09,230 --> 01:10:15,050
Thanks also to our voice actors
Grace Mallon, Amber Pelham, Evan

1192
01:10:15,050 --> 01:10:18,350
McCormick, Adam Smith, Craig
Gallagher, and John Terry.

1193
01:10:18,350 --> 01:10:22,955
Special thanks to Chad Wollerton
and Hannah Zimmerman at Thomas

1194
01:10:23,015 --> 01:10:24,095
Jefferson’s Monticello.

1195
01:10:24,815 --> 01:10:28,775
Subscribe to Worlds on your
favorite podcast app. Thanks,

1196
01:10:28,775 --> 01:10:30,035
and we’ll see you next time.