Appointment of the Carlisle Peace Commission
- When
- 1778
- Where
- Britain's dispatch of commissioners to North America; publication in the Hartford Courant
- Episodes
- 2
In 1778, after the defeat at Saratoga and amid fears of French recognition of American independence, Lord North's government sent a British peace commission to North America to negotiate a settlement with the Continental Congress.
Episodes
- Appointment of the Carlisle Peace Commission
In 1778 Britain dispatched a peace commission to North America to negotiate terms with the Continental Congress during the American Revolutionary War.
- Commission Manifesto Circulated
The commissioners circulated a manifesto that was printed in the Hartford Courant on October 10, 1778.
Background and detail
Background. After the British defeat at Saratoga in October 1777, and fearful that France would recognize American independence, Prime Minister Lord North had Parliament repeal offensive measures such as the Tea Act and the Massachusetts Government Act and prepared a commission to seek a negotiated settlement with the Continental Congress.
Context of Earlier Negotiations. An earlier informal attempt, the Staten Island Peace Conference of September 1776, had seen a committee of the Second Continental Congress meet Admiral Lord Richard Howe, who held only limited powers to treat with the colonies individually. The 1778 commission represented a renewed British effort after armed conflict had begun in April 1775.
People involved
- King George III · British monarch during the period in which the peace commission was dispatched
- Lord North · British prime minister who sent the commission to seek a negotiated settlement
Sources
- Carlisle Peace Commission Wikipedia
- George III Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-28
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.