WEBVTT NOTE 65. Making Peace 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.000 Volume 4, Chapter 65, Making Peace 2 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:14.000 As peace negotiations got underway, it became clear that the diplomatic interests of the powers were drawing apart. 3 00:00:14.000 --> 00:00:24.000 France and Spain were less than enchanted about a potentially powerful United States that might eventually ally itself with England, 4 00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:30.000 and Spain understandably wished to keep its conquest in the American Southwest. 5 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:35.000 For its part, England, already reconciled to American independence, 6 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:40.000 began to see that a peace settlement favorable to the United States 7 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:44.000 would weaken the dangerous Franco-American alliance 8 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:50.000 and secure a well-disposed country instead of an embittered ex-colony. 9 00:00:50.000 --> 00:01:05.000 After much effort by France, Spain, despite its antipathy to the Revolution, had been induced to enter the war against Britain in the spring of 1779 by the lure of recapturing Gibraltar. 10 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:25.000 The secret treaty of Aranjuez between France and Spain in April 1779 had provided for Spain to enter the war, but violated France's terms of alliance with the United States by not insisting on American independence as a condition of peace. 11 00:01:25.000 --> 00:01:31.000 Furthermore, Spain flatly refused to recognize the independence of the United States, although 12 00:01:31.000 --> 00:01:36.320 it did send an envoy to the states who masqueraded as an observer. 13 00:01:36.320 --> 00:01:42.400 And as we have seen, Spain provided aid and supplies to the American cause. 14 00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:47.880 The most advanced doctrines of international law, set forth most recently in the American 15 00:01:47.880 --> 00:02:03.880 and Plan of 1776 and the Franco-American Treaty of 1778 made neutral shipping in wartime free from seizure, except for contraband, which was strictly limited to munitions. 16 00:02:04.880 --> 00:02:16.880 England, however, insisted on a far more restricted view of neutral rights and especially on the inclusion of naval stores, for example timber, in the category of contraband. 17 00:02:17.880 --> 00:02:25.880 Goaded beyond endurance, the major European neutral powers banded together in a league of armed neutrality. 18 00:02:25.880 --> 00:02:34.880 The league began on February 28, 1780, when the mercurial Empress Catherine II of Russia, after urging by France, 19 00:02:34.880 --> 00:02:40.880 issued a declaration setting forth the most advanced principles of neutrals' rights 20 00:02:40.880 --> 00:02:45.880 and promising the use of the Russian navy to defend Russian rights. 21 00:02:45.880 --> 00:02:54.880 Even more important, Catherine invited other European neutrals to enter into conventions with her to enforce this code. 22 00:02:54.880 --> 00:03:06.880 Denmark and Sweden accepted by August 1780, and their bilateral conventions were forged into a tripartite alliance for protection of their common rights. 23 00:03:06.880 --> 00:03:12.880 Rights, incidentally, which Spain, but not England, promptly pledged to accept. 24 00:03:12.880 --> 00:03:35.880 The Netherlands joined the armed neutrality in early January 1781. Britain, already enraged at the lucrative Dutch shipping and financial dealings with the United States, fell upon the Dutch at the end of 1780 in retaliation before Russian and other League ships could begin to protect the Dutch trade with America. 25 00:03:35.880 --> 00:03:43.880 At war, the Dutch were ironically deprived of the benefits of membership in the League of Armed Neutrality. 26 00:03:43.880 --> 00:03:52.880 Other powers joining the League later in the war were Prussia, Austria, Portugal and the two Sicilies. 27 00:03:52.880 --> 00:04:02.880 While the League did not exert armed weight against Britain, its very existence served as a useful deterrent to British depredations of their shipping, 28 00:04:02.880 --> 00:04:08.880 and it served to isolate and weaken Britain's position in Europe and the world. 29 00:04:08.880 --> 00:04:22.880 In July 1780, John Adams was appointed negotiator with the Netherlands where he was able, in April 1782, to win Dutch recognition of the independence of the United States. 30 00:04:22.880 --> 00:04:36.880 Now ministered to the Netherlands, Adams was able to negotiate a sizable loan from Amsterdam bankers and in October a treaty of amity and commerce between the Netherlands and the United States. 31 00:04:36.880 --> 00:04:51.880 This agreement was modeled on the French treaty and affirmed the libertarian principles of neutrals rights declared in the previous treaty and in many other recent documents, including the Declaration of Armed Neutrality. 32 00:04:51.880 --> 00:05:00.880 Spain's entry into the war in 1779 promptly highlighted an important problem with the future peace negotiations. 33 00:05:00.880 --> 00:05:06.880 What would be the territory of the new United States of America? 34 00:05:06.880 --> 00:05:09.880 East of the Appalachians there was no problem. 35 00:05:09.880 --> 00:05:15.880 The Americans would be recognized as holding the territory of the thirteen states. 36 00:05:15.880 --> 00:05:19.880 But what of the large and scarcely occupied lands of the West? 37 00:05:19.880 --> 00:05:41.880 Would America be granted these? Spain, with its vast empire over Central and South America, its large territory of Louisiana, and an inquisitive eye on Florida and the Southwest, was keenly and negatively interested in the possibilities of westward expansion of the United States. 38 00:05:41.880 --> 00:05:50.880 Rational principles of justice would have dictated that U.S. territory encompass settler lands and only a little more. 39 00:05:50.880 --> 00:05:58.880 This would have given to the U.S. only the territory east of the Appalachians and the settlements in Kentucky. 40 00:05:58.880 --> 00:06:04.880 Surely there was no valid reason for giving the Americans the territory north of the Ohio, 41 00:06:04.880 --> 00:06:11.160 Ohio, which was sparsely settled by Frenchmen, militarily controlled by Britain and peopled 42 00:06:11.160 --> 00:06:18.460 by Indians, and the area south of Kentucky was also populated by Indians and now militarily 43 00:06:18.460 --> 00:06:21.120 occupied by Spain. 44 00:06:21.120 --> 00:06:27.640 The other issue with Spain was a corollary to the Western land problem, navigation rights 45 00:06:27.640 --> 00:06:29.580 down the Mississippi. 46 00:06:29.580 --> 00:06:35.420 If the United States had received little or no land in the West, as was its just due, 47 00:06:35.420 --> 00:06:41.220 the Mississippi navigation problem would have been academic, since Spain at New Orleans 48 00:06:41.220 --> 00:06:46.280 controlled at the very least the mouth of the river and there would have been little 49 00:06:46.280 --> 00:06:49.140 American use of the Mississippi. 50 00:06:49.140 --> 00:06:56.320 Even at its most pressing, however, any demand by the U.S. for freedom to navigate the Mississippi 51 00:06:56.320 --> 00:06:59.540 would be highly presumptuous. 52 00:06:59.540 --> 00:07:05.700 Peace terms to trade or navigate is pleasant and beneficial, of course, but any such demand 53 00:07:05.700 --> 00:07:10.780 is aggressive behavior when made of one state by another. 54 00:07:10.780 --> 00:07:17.780 America's first statement of its peace terms came in 1779 in response to a Spanish offer 55 00:07:17.820 --> 00:07:24.260 to mediate the conflict before she entered the war, an offer that failed because of the 56 00:07:24.260 --> 00:07:54.260 and the Intransigence of George III. The urging of France to define peace terms brought the Congress to a spirited five-month debate, March through August 1779, at which Conrad Girard, the French minister to the United States, used his considerable influence to try to induce the Americans to moderate their aggressive demands for the Mississippi as their western boundary and their old colonial right of access to the new 57 00:07:54.260 --> 00:07:56.260 The Newfoundland Fisheries 58 00:07:56.260 --> 00:08:13.260 Actually, the fishing rights spurred the most acrimonious debate, with New England and such radicals as Richard Henry Lee pressing an aggressive demand that war be pursued until the American right to the Newfoundland fisheries be guaranteed. 59 00:08:13.260 --> 00:08:21.260 France, of course, had no intention of fighting to the last for this arrogant claim, and neither did the southern delegates. 60 00:08:21.260 --> 00:08:27.780 Thomas Burke, himself a radical, spoke only common sense when he berated the New Englanders 61 00:08:27.780 --> 00:08:34.740 and announced his aim to prevent any obstruction to peace, but such as were unavoidable. 62 00:08:34.740 --> 00:08:41.720 The split between radical and conservative factions in Congress had, indeed, been precipitated 63 00:08:41.720 --> 00:08:47.660 by the establishment of diplomatic relations with France the year before. Shortly after 64 00:08:47.660 --> 00:08:54.180 After ratification of the Franco-American Treaty in the spring of 1778, the French sent 65 00:08:54.180 --> 00:09:02.220 Conrad Girard as full-fledged minister to the United States, where he arrived in mid-July. 66 00:09:02.220 --> 00:09:06.020 America had been represented in France by a three-man commission. 67 00:09:06.020 --> 00:09:12.460 The commission originally consisted of Benjamin Franklin, Silas Dean, and Arthur Lee, and 68 00:09:12.460 --> 00:09:19.420 There soon developed a bitter split, Connecticut's ultra-conservative and eventually Tory Silas 69 00:09:19.420 --> 00:09:26.300 Deane and the opportunistic hedonist Franklin on the one side and the radical Arthur Lee 70 00:09:26.300 --> 00:09:28.220 on the other. 71 00:09:28.220 --> 00:09:34.660 Lee was particularly bitter at Deane's massive peculations at the public trough of war aid 72 00:09:34.660 --> 00:09:36.620 and war contracts. 73 00:09:36.620 --> 00:09:42.260 In particular, Lee insisted on telling the truth that French aid through Beaumarchais 74 00:09:42.260 --> 00:09:49.040 was intended as a gift whereas Dean and Franklin persisted in treating Beaumarchais as a legitimate 75 00:09:49.040 --> 00:09:52.520 merchant whom the Americans must repay. 76 00:09:52.520 --> 00:09:58.380 Lee cut to the heart of the matter in disclosing Dean's and Franklin's intimate business dealings 77 00:09:58.380 --> 00:10:04.380 with Beaumarchais as part of their pattern of plunder of the American taxpayer. 78 00:10:04.380 --> 00:10:11.380 When Dean was replaced by John Adams in 1778 and recalled to face congressional inquiry 79 00:10:11.380 --> 00:10:17.780 With Minister Girard ostentatiously siding with him, Congress rapidly split into two 80 00:10:17.780 --> 00:10:25.060 factions, the radical Adams Lee Junto, John and Sam Adams an author and Richard Henry 81 00:10:25.060 --> 00:10:30.280 Lee, was pitted against Robert Morris and the conservative. 82 00:10:30.280 --> 00:10:35.400 The major issue was whether Morris and his fellow oligarchs had the natural right to 83 00:10:35.400 --> 00:10:41.020 wax fat at the public trough, with little or no obligation to make an accounting to 84 00:10:41.020 --> 00:10:42.340 to the Public. 85 00:10:42.340 --> 00:10:47.900 Gleefully entering the fray was Thomas Paine, who had been secretary to Congress' Committee 86 00:10:47.900 --> 00:10:54.340 of Foreign Affairs, which in turn had evolved out of the old secret Committee of Correspondence 87 00:10:54.340 --> 00:10:57.500 in April 1777. 88 00:10:57.500 --> 00:11:05.920 Paine blasted the peculations and irregularities of accounts of Dean and, beyond him, of Morris, 89 00:11:05.920 --> 00:11:11.700 He also attacked the system of interlocking public-private finance and of public officials 90 00:11:11.700 --> 00:11:18.040 engaging in private trade that made the financial irregularities possible. 91 00:11:18.040 --> 00:11:25.440 He accurately termed these officials monopolizers and trenchantly added that one monopolizer 92 00:11:25.440 --> 00:11:32.000 confederates with another and defaulter with defaulter, yet still these men will talk of 93 00:11:32.000 --> 00:11:39.080 of Justice, that private vice should thus put on the mask of public good and even imprudence 94 00:11:39.080 --> 00:11:45.080 in guilt, assume the style of patriotism, are paradoxes. 95 00:11:45.080 --> 00:11:50.880 Joining Paine in a press war over the Dean affair were Henry Lawrence, the Lees, and 96 00:11:50.880 --> 00:11:57.880 the Pennsylvania radicals Timothy Matlack, David Rittenhouse, and Charles Wilson Peel, 97 00:11:57.880 --> 00:12:04.640 While Robert and Gouverneur Morris and William Dewar defended Dean, the result of this storm 98 00:12:04.640 --> 00:12:12.600 in Congress during 1778-79 was what all too often happens in such brawls, the decimation 99 00:12:12.600 --> 00:12:19.880 of the leaders of both sides, grave irregularities being found in his accounts, Dean was implicitly 100 00:12:19.880 --> 00:12:25.280 repudiated by Congress and openly defected to the British side. 101 00:12:25.280 --> 00:12:31.560 Mises prudently left Congress and devoted himself solely to his commercial empire. 102 00:12:31.560 --> 00:12:36.960 Payne was forced to resign as secretary of the committee for disclosing state secrets 103 00:12:36.960 --> 00:12:41.080 in his zeal to expose the truth about Dean. 104 00:12:41.080 --> 00:12:45.200 France and Spain declared author Lee persona non grata. 105 00:12:45.200 --> 00:12:47.320 His diplomatic career shattered. 106 00:12:47.320 --> 00:12:52.640 He became a congressman from Virginia and there led in the suspicion of France as an 107 00:12:52.640 --> 00:12:59.320 and the untrustworthy ally. Characteristically, the one man who emerged from the fracas with 108 00:12:59.320 --> 00:13:07.120 laurels was wily old Franklin. When Girard was sent as the French minister to the U.S., 109 00:13:07.120 --> 00:13:12.880 America had to appoint its own minister to France. With Dean gone, the old opportunist 110 00:13:12.880 --> 00:13:18.200 was the favorite of the French court, and France put severe pressure upon Congress to 111 00:13:18.200 --> 00:13:24.720 to Appoint Him, a wave of laudatory propaganda by France poured into Congress and lavish 112 00:13:24.720 --> 00:13:31.040 loans were pointedly made by the French to the United States through Franklin. 113 00:13:31.040 --> 00:13:38.040 Richard Henry Lee, slashingly and trenchantly, announced his disgust at Franklin as a wicked 114 00:13:38.040 --> 00:13:44.160 old man who labored under the idea of his being a philosopher. 115 00:13:44.160 --> 00:13:50.760 Precisely how wicked, even Lee did not know. Cecil Currie has recently discovered not only 116 00:13:50.760 --> 00:13:57.280 that Franklin was deeply involved in the Morris Dean embezzlements, but also that he served 117 00:13:57.280 --> 00:14:03.720 throughout his wartime stay in Paris as a conscious secret agent of Great Britain, Code 118 00:14:03.720 --> 00:14:10.680 No. 72 in the British Intelligence Archives. During the peace negotiations, he shifted 119 00:14:10.680 --> 00:14:17.200 to a pro-French role probably related to his own speculations in Western lands. 120 00:14:17.200 --> 00:14:23.960 Nevertheless, in mid-September 1778, Congress appointed him Minister de France, but by a 121 00:14:23.960 --> 00:14:26.360 slender majority. 122 00:14:26.360 --> 00:14:33.600 During the crucial 1779 session of Congress, the Adams-Lee radicals led the fight for maximum 123 00:14:33.600 --> 00:14:40.600 aggressiveness in peace demands and opposed Girard's attempts to moderate these demands 124 00:14:40.880 --> 00:14:47.880 on behalf of French and Spanish interests. Finally, on August 14, after much squabbling 125 00:14:48.240 --> 00:14:55.240 among the factions, Congress agreed to the following peace terms as a minimum, independence, 126 00:14:56.560 --> 00:15:02.160 the Mississippi as the western boundary of the new nation, and the thirty-first parallel 127 00:15:02.160 --> 00:15:08.920 as the southern frontier of the American West. It was assumed that Spain would demand East 128 00:15:08.920 --> 00:15:15.840 and West Florida, and the 31st parallel would grant the United States a large chunk of West 129 00:15:15.840 --> 00:15:22.240 Florida, south of the mouth of the Yazoo River. Girard had been able to moderate the fishing 130 00:15:22.240 --> 00:15:29.360 and Mississippi navigation terms, and the American drive to seize Canada and Nova Scotia 131 00:15:29.360 --> 00:15:34.760 to the status of conditional rather than absolute demands. 132 00:15:34.760 --> 00:15:39.920 In return for moderating their aggressive demands, the radicals expected to be able 133 00:15:39.920 --> 00:15:46.960 to name the minister plenipotentiary who would have the power to negotiate a peace based 134 00:15:46.960 --> 00:15:48.840 upon these terms. 135 00:15:48.840 --> 00:15:54.480 The radicals wanted Arthur Lee, but his support was too slight, and they were forced to swing 136 00:15:54.480 --> 00:16:02.480 They showed their strength to John Adams, whom they vastly preferred to his rival, conservative New York oligarch John Jay. 137 00:16:02.480 --> 00:16:16.480 Finally, on September 27, 1779, John Adams, an independent man strongly disliked by the French, was chosen by Congress as its negotiator for peace. 138 00:16:16.480 --> 00:16:31.480 France now launched a quiet but effective campaign to pressure and subborn the American Congress, a campaign led in the United States by the wily new French minister, the Chevalier de la Lucerne. 139 00:16:31.480 --> 00:16:45.480 During early 1781 when the war news was gloomy for the Allies, Vergen quietly prepared to betray America by being willing to settle for a truce based on existing military lines. 140 00:16:45.480 --> 00:16:58.480 He was prepared to use an Austro-Russian offer of mediation in the conflict to put this scheme into effect, and his pressure and quiet bribery weakened Congress's stand. 141 00:16:58.480 --> 00:17:07.480 Much of his influence on Congress was exerted through the well-known General John Sullivan of New Hampshire, who was on his secret payroll. 142 00:17:07.480 --> 00:17:24.480 La Lucerne's pressure and quiet bribery succeeded, by late 1781, in getting Congress to name his friend, the conservative New York oligarch Robert R. Livingston, to the vital new post of Secretary of Foreign Affairs. 143 00:17:24.480 --> 00:17:26.160 Affairs. 144 00:17:26.160 --> 00:17:32.320 After a studied campaign of calumny against John Adams, the French were able to induce 145 00:17:32.320 --> 00:17:39.140 Congress to replace him with a five-man commission to conduct the peace negotiations. 146 00:17:39.140 --> 00:17:44.960 In addition to Adams, the commission would consist of Franklin, John Jay, who had been 147 00:17:44.960 --> 00:17:50.160 negotiating in Spain, Henry Lawrence and Thomas Jefferson. 148 00:17:50.160 --> 00:17:55.560 But Jefferson was not able to leave for Europe in time, and Lawrence was a prisoner in England, 149 00:17:55.560 --> 00:18:02.120 and so this left the conservatives Franklin and Jay as a majority on the commission. 150 00:18:02.120 --> 00:18:09.840 La Lucerne's pressure also succeeded on June 15, 1781, in drastically modifying the American 151 00:18:09.840 --> 00:18:12.280 stance on peace. 152 00:18:12.280 --> 00:18:19.880 Congress rescinded its 1779 peace terms, and only independence remained as the minimum demand 153 00:18:19.880 --> 00:18:21.680 for Making Peace. 154 00:18:21.680 --> 00:18:26.680 Apart from independence, the Commission had absolute discretion to make whatever terms 155 00:18:26.680 --> 00:18:33.000 they wished, with the amazing proviso that no action could be taken without the knowledge 156 00:18:33.000 --> 00:18:40.440 and concurrence of the French, whose advice should be ultimately followed by the Commission. 157 00:18:40.440 --> 00:18:46.520 It seemed that America was binding itself to French dictation, and the composition of 158 00:18:46.520 --> 00:18:52.280 The New Commission, as well as the identity of the new Foreign Secretary, confirmed this 159 00:18:52.280 --> 00:18:59.280 view. The stunned Congressman, James Lovell, wrote to John Adams of these new instructions. 160 00:18:59.280 --> 00:19:03.200 Blush, blush, America! 161 00:19:03.200 --> 00:19:09.020 After the Battle of Yorktown, author Lee tried to get Congress to rescind these instructions, 162 00:19:09.020 --> 00:19:16.020 but it continued to cling heavily to an absolute trust that Vergin would be ever vigilant in 163 00:19:16.020 --> 00:19:26.020 and the pursuit of American interests. Fortunately, the victory at Yorktown made Vergen forget about betraying American independence. 164 00:19:26.020 --> 00:19:39.020 Peace negotiations began at the end of March 1782 as Shelburne sent the Scottish merchant and former Virginian Richard Oswald to France to confer with Franklin. 165 00:19:39.020 --> 00:19:49.020 Franklin secretly urged the sympathetic Oswald to cede Canada to the United States, a prospect France strongly opposed. 166 00:19:49.020 --> 00:20:01.020 But despite promises of immediate British recognition of their independence, the Americans steadfastly refused to betray their French ally by concluding a separate peace. 167 00:20:01.020 --> 00:20:15.020 Furthermore, Admiral Rodney's defeat of de Grasse's French fleet in West Indian waters in mid-April softened French demands and brought French and American goals closer into line. 168 00:20:15.020 --> 00:20:28.020 On July 1, 1782, Lord Rockingham died. His natural successor as Prime Minister was the charismatic Charles James Fox, the new leader of the Whig Party. 169 00:20:28.020 --> 00:20:36.220 But King George, who could not abide the strongly liberal Fox, instead chose Shelburne, and 170 00:20:36.220 --> 00:20:39.420 Fox and the Whigs went into opposition. 171 00:20:39.420 --> 00:20:46.380 Shelburne and his emissary Oswald were now in full charge of peace negotiations. 172 00:20:46.380 --> 00:20:51.460 Fox had urged the Ministry to grant American independence as a preliminary to the body 173 00:20:51.460 --> 00:20:53.340 of negotiations. 174 00:20:53.340 --> 00:21:00.100 By thus recognizing the United States unequivocally, a split might be created in the Franco-American 175 00:21:00.100 --> 00:21:01.540 alliance. 176 00:21:01.540 --> 00:21:07.380 For similar reasons, the Wiley-Vergen tried to delay such an immediate recognition of 177 00:21:07.380 --> 00:21:13.660 American independence, and it was John Jay who realized this while Franklin was being 178 00:21:13.660 --> 00:21:17.860 bemused, to put it kindly, by France. 179 00:21:17.860 --> 00:21:24.600 Both Jay and Franklin, however, quickly caved in on their demand for advanced recognition 180 00:21:24.600 --> 00:21:31.560 of independence before negotiations, a recognition that Shelburne had finally been prepared to 181 00:21:31.560 --> 00:21:34.540 grant by early September. 182 00:21:34.540 --> 00:21:40.900 Shelburne was even willing to accept the American terms for freedom of fishing in Newfoundland. 183 00:21:40.900 --> 00:21:46.740 Had Jay and Franklin held firm, independence would have been gained on the spot, with none 184 00:21:46.740 --> 00:21:51.620 One of the American concessions that were eventually imposed. 185 00:21:51.620 --> 00:21:58.220 John Adams, indeed, was so incensed at the retreat by Jane Franklin on advance recognition 186 00:21:58.220 --> 00:22:03.400 that he thought seriously of resigning from the Peace Commission. 187 00:22:03.400 --> 00:22:10.580 Serious divergences between the Allies also arose over America's western boundary. 188 00:22:10.580 --> 00:22:17.340 Spain made clear to Jay its claim to the area of the southwest, east of the Mississippi, 189 00:22:17.340 --> 00:22:23.660 as well as its opposition to any American pretensions north of the Ohio, which it saw 190 00:22:23.660 --> 00:22:28.580 as more cogently in British or even Indian hands. 191 00:22:28.580 --> 00:22:35.180 France supported Spain's position and, what is more, it privately advised the British that 192 00:22:35.180 --> 00:22:41.300 But it did not agree to America's independent claims to the fisheries or to the lands around 193 00:22:41.300 --> 00:22:44.980 the Mississippi or north of the Ohio. 194 00:22:44.980 --> 00:22:52.940 It was these hints of French opposition that panicked Jay into abandoning the advance independence 195 00:22:52.940 --> 00:22:58.900 clause in order to launch peace negotiations rapidly. 196 00:22:58.900 --> 00:23:06.020 As a result, Jay and Franklin were naively content with Oswald's authorization of September 197 00:23:06.020 --> 00:23:13.260 19 to treat with the commissioners of the thirteen United States and to accept independence 198 00:23:13.260 --> 00:23:15.440 as part of the treaty. 199 00:23:15.440 --> 00:23:22.780 But this was not ironclad recognition of American independence prior to and separate from the 200 00:23:22.780 --> 00:23:23.780 treaty. 201 00:23:23.780 --> 00:23:29.820 Moreover, Britain was further emboldened at the peace table by the relief of the French 202 00:23:29.820 --> 00:23:33.700 and allied siege of Gibraltar. 203 00:23:33.700 --> 00:23:39.740 With Franklin's support, Jay submitted a preliminary draft treaty to the British, which included 204 00:23:39.740 --> 00:23:45.620 Franklin's previous conditions plus freedom of navigation on the Mississippi. 205 00:23:45.620 --> 00:23:51.180 The latter clause was tied to a reciprocal freedom of trade for American shipping and 206 00:23:51.180 --> 00:23:54.180 and Commerce throughout the British Empire. 207 00:23:54.180 --> 00:24:00.180 Furthermore, American boundaries were supposed to include the Toronto Peninsula of Canada, 208 00:24:00.180 --> 00:24:05.180 as well as the southwest down to the 31st parallel. 209 00:24:05.180 --> 00:24:11.180 They had not relinquished claims to Canada in order to push for British acquiescence 210 00:24:11.180 --> 00:24:14.180 to America's attempt to grab the lands in the west. 211 00:24:14.180 --> 00:24:19.180 For its part, Britain felt strengthened by the victory at Gibraltar 212 00:24:19.180 --> 00:24:29.500 and raise the question of compensation of American Tories, as well as payment by the U.S. Government of pre-war private American debts to British creditors. 213 00:24:29.500 --> 00:24:36.100 Britain also let fall the idea of American trade obeying Britain's own Navigation Act. 214 00:24:36.100 --> 00:24:41.340 At the end of October, a veritable flurry of negotiations took place, 215 00:24:41.340 --> 00:25:00.340 Negotiations which Jay, Adams and Franklin, in defiance of their congressional instructions, conducted totally without consulting Vergennes, and indeed against his advice to moderate their presumptuous demands for territory and fishing rights. 216 00:25:00.340 --> 00:25:14.340 The peace treaty between the United States and Great Britain, one highly favorable for the US, was tentatively signed between the American and British negotiators on November 5, 1782. 217 00:25:14.340 --> 00:25:27.340 After some weakening of American fishing rights in Newfoundland, the final treaty was signed on November 30, and Franklin informed Vergenne of this fait accompli. 218 00:25:27.340 --> 00:25:34.940 The Frenchman's reaction was surprisingly mild, and he was placated by Franklin's reassurances 219 00:25:34.940 --> 00:25:41.460 that the French would have to conclude peace before the treaty could take effect. 220 00:25:41.460 --> 00:25:47.180 Probably Vergenne was relieved that America's signing a separate peace served to discourage 221 00:25:47.180 --> 00:25:53.340 Spain from trying to continue the war until she could recapture the now safely British 222 00:25:53.340 --> 00:25:55.380 Gibraltar. 223 00:25:55.380 --> 00:26:01.900 Dealing finances also made France eager for peace, and parallel French peace negotiations 224 00:26:01.900 --> 00:26:06.260 were by now almost finished in any case. 225 00:26:06.260 --> 00:26:11.780 Gibraltar was the final sticking point for the peace treaties with France and Spain. 226 00:26:11.780 --> 00:26:17.780 Shelburne was actually willing to concede Gibraltar, and a deal began to materialize 227 00:26:17.780 --> 00:26:24.780 for exchanging it for French-held Martinique, Guadeloupe and Santa Lucia in the West Indies. 228 00:26:25.380 --> 00:26:38.380 But news of the American Treaty, as well as the tenacious defense of Gibraltar, began to stir up a war fever among the British public, who were especially resistant to yielding Gibraltar. 229 00:26:39.380 --> 00:26:54.380 Finally, the Spanish ambassador to Paris, Pedro Aranda, decidedly unenthusiastic about a strong British presence in the West Indies, accepted a British offer of Menorca and East and West Florida. 230 00:26:55.380 --> 00:26:59.380 In turn, the Spanish sadly relinquished Gibraltar. 231 00:26:59.380 --> 00:27:11.380 All the obstacles to a general peace were now over, and both the Anglo-French and Anglo-Spanish preliminary peace treaties were signed on January 20, 1783. 232 00:27:11.380 --> 00:27:19.380 A general armistice was proclaimed which included the Netherlands, even though a peace treaty with the Dutch had not yet been signed. 233 00:27:19.380 --> 00:27:28.380 In February, Fox formed a coalition with his old enemy, Lord North, who was also in opposition, 234 00:27:28.380 --> 00:27:31.380 and together they pulled down the Shelburne Ministry. 235 00:27:31.380 --> 00:27:39.380 A Fox-North coalition ministry was formed in early April with both men as Secretaries of State, 236 00:27:39.380 --> 00:27:45.380 while the Whig Duke of Portland was the frontman as ineffectual Prime Minister. 237 00:27:45.380 --> 00:27:55.380 This maneuver to bring the Whigs back to power proved to be tactically shrewd, but it was strategically disastrous to Fox and the Whigs. 238 00:27:55.380 --> 00:28:09.380 Fox was never able to explain this unprincipled left-right coalition to his followers, and his radical mass base was split grievously and ultimately crushed as a result. 239 00:28:09.380 --> 00:28:26.380 Fox tried to reopen peace negotiations by insisting on a permanent military alliance between Britain and the U.S., but the Americans countered with their own demands for free trade, the protection of neutral rights and other concessions. 240 00:28:26.380 --> 00:28:45.380 The Peace Treaty was conclusively signed between the United States, France and her allies and Great Britain on September 3, 1783 with no change made from the 1782 Anglo-American draft. 241 00:28:45.380 --> 00:28:49.380 This Treaty of Paris featured the following provisions. 242 00:28:49.380 --> 00:29:04.380 1. U.S. independence was recognized. 2. Hostilities were to cease and all British land and sea forces were to be evacuated with all convenient speed. 243 00:29:04.380 --> 00:29:17.380 3. The United States was granted all the lands north of the Ohio River up to its present northern boundary and the territory southward to 31 degrees south. 244 00:29:17.380 --> 00:29:24.100 4. The Americans were given the right to fish, as they had during the colonial period, off 245 00:29:24.100 --> 00:29:30.900 Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, but the clause granting them the liberty to dry and cure the 246 00:29:30.900 --> 00:29:37.300 fish on the coast was ambiguous and proved a source of trouble for many decades. 247 00:29:37.300 --> 00:29:44.380 5. Congress would recommend to the state legislatures to restore all the rights and confiscated 248 00:29:44.380 --> 00:29:50.380 to States of Tories, a clause having no binding effect on the states. 249 00:29:50.380 --> 00:29:57.140 6. No future confiscation or other action would be taken against Tories, and imprisoned 250 00:29:57.140 --> 00:30:04.420 Tories were to be set free immediately. 7. All debts between citizens of either country 251 00:30:04.420 --> 00:30:12.340 were to meet no lawful impediment to repayment. 8. The navigation of the Mississippi would 252 00:30:12.340 --> 00:30:18.460 would be free to both countries, the U.S. and Great Britain, a meaningless clause since 253 00:30:18.460 --> 00:30:21.460 Spain effectively controlled that river. 254 00:30:21.460 --> 00:30:27.020 Congress, knowing full well that the Tory clause could be violated with impunity and 255 00:30:27.020 --> 00:30:36.020 that France was already placated, easily ratified the preliminary treaty on April 15 and unanimously 256 00:30:36.020 --> 00:30:44.540 ratified the final treaty on January 14, 1784, final ratifications being exchanged on May 257 00:30:44.540 --> 00:30:45.540 12. 258 00:30:45.540 --> 00:30:52.500 The United States of America had at last definitely won their Revolutionary War. 259 00:30:52.500 --> 00:30:56.180 They were now a new nation. 260 00:30:56.180 --> 00:31:01.700 On December 14, in accordance with the treaty, the British troops completed their evacuation 261 00:31:01.700 --> 00:31:08.700 of New York, taking with them 7,000 Tories, making a huge total of 100,000 Tories who 262 00:31:10.200 --> 00:31:17.200 had fled America for Europe or Canada. George Washington ceremonially entered New York City 263 00:31:18.380 --> 00:31:24.960 with Governor George Clinton, took leave of his officers at Francis Tavern, and resigned 264 00:31:24.960 --> 00:31:31.260 his commission as Commander-in-Chief before Congress on December 23rd. 265 00:31:31.260 --> 00:31:38.100 England's cavalier cession to the United States of the entire unconquered Western lands was 266 00:31:38.100 --> 00:31:45.720 part of her maneuvers against France and Spain, and was, of course, a gross betrayal of England's 267 00:31:45.720 --> 00:31:52.740 Indian allies. The failure of the United States to abide by the Spirit of the Tory Clause 268 00:31:52.740 --> 00:31:59.340 gave Great Britain the excuse to revoke, in effect, the cession of the Ohio lands and 269 00:31:59.340 --> 00:32:03.580 and to maintain its military garrisons intact. 270 00:32:03.580 --> 00:32:09.540 This appeased and strengthened Britain's Indian friends and preserved Indian control of the 271 00:32:09.540 --> 00:32:17.240 Ohio lands while Spain and its allied Indians threatened to contest the Southwest. 272 00:32:17.240 --> 00:32:22.740 And so the revolutionary United States of America threw off the British yoke and won 273 00:32:22.740 --> 00:32:30.460 and the first successful war of national liberation against Western imperialism. 274 00:32:30.460 --> 00:32:35.260 Many factors entered into the victory, but the most important was the firm support for 275 00:32:35.260 --> 00:32:39.440 the war by the great majority of the American people. 276 00:32:39.440 --> 00:32:46.220 It was that support which harassed, enveloped and finally destroyed the proud British armies 277 00:32:46.220 --> 00:32:53.500 These come to conquer and occupy in the name of traditionally legitimate government. 278 00:32:53.500 --> 00:33:00.140 It was a revolution fueled by fervent belief in libertarian natural rights ideology and 279 00:33:00.140 --> 00:33:08.180 by a cumulative reaction to growing British infringement on those rights, political, constitutional 280 00:33:08.180 --> 00:33:10.260 and economic. 281 00:33:10.260 --> 00:33:17.260 George Washington, the highly-touted father of his country, had a military impact that was negligible by the time of his death. 282 00:33:40.260 --> 00:34:07.260 Washington won only a single victory among his many battles—Trenton-Princeton—and 283 00:34:07.260 --> 00:34:13.780 That was precisely the only battle where Washington deigned to stoop to guerrilla tactics. 284 00:34:13.780 --> 00:34:21.100 The rest of the time, before and after Trenton, Washington was far too much the orthodox military 285 00:34:21.100 --> 00:34:27.740 leader yearning for a Prussian-style state army and a conventional victory in frontal 286 00:34:27.740 --> 00:34:29.780 confrontation. 287 00:34:29.780 --> 00:34:36.120 Hence his string of defeats and disasters in the New York and the Pennsylvania campaigns, 288 00:34:36.120 --> 00:34:43.440 The military victories in the war belonged to others, to Gates, to Morgan, to Greene, 289 00:34:43.440 --> 00:34:50.480 all of whom won by basically guerrilla strategy and tactics, and most of whom were either 290 00:34:50.480 --> 00:34:55.680 disgraced or placed in limbo by the jealous Washington. 291 00:34:55.680 --> 00:35:01.320 Not only did Washington fail to understand the purely military aspects of a people's 292 00:35:01.320 --> 00:35:17.320 of the First Revolutionary War, but he also failed to grasp the importance of the free and inspired individual soldier in such a war, and hence he wrecked morale and brought about mutinies by his Prussian discipline. 293 00:35:17.320 --> 00:35:23.320 The war was actually won despite Washington rather than because of him. 294 00:35:23.320 --> 00:35:37.320 To a large extent, finally, it was the genius whom he broke and discredited, the almost forgotten Charles Lee, who discerned the true nature of a revolutionary war and the way that it had to be won. 295 00:35:37.320 --> 00:35:47.320 The revolution was won because Lee's type of war was able to set aside the kind of war that Washington tried but failed to create. 296 00:35:47.320 --> 00:35:59.320 As Shy writes, intellectual that he was, Lee tried to see the revolution as a consistent whole, with every aspect in rational harmony with every other. 297 00:35:59.320 --> 00:36:03.320 It was a fight by free men for their natural rights. 298 00:36:03.320 --> 00:36:13.320 Neither the fighters nor the cause were suited to the military techniques of despotism, the linear tactics, the rigid discipline, the long enlistments, 299 00:36:13.320 --> 00:36:20.520 Resistance, the strict separation of the army from civic life that marked Frederic's Prussia. 300 00:36:20.520 --> 00:36:24.880 Lee envisioned a popular war of mass resistance. 301 00:36:24.880 --> 00:36:30.760 He sought a war that would use the new light infantry tactics already in vogue among the 302 00:36:30.760 --> 00:36:37.800 military avant-garde in Europe, the same tactics the free men at Lexington and Concord had 303 00:36:37.800 --> 00:36:40.400 instinctively employed. 304 00:36:40.400 --> 00:36:47.180 Much men could not be successfully hammered into goose-stepping automatons and made to 305 00:36:47.180 --> 00:36:54.380 fire by platoons, but properly trained and employed, they could not be defeated. 306 00:36:54.380 --> 00:36:59.980 Nathaniel Green's campaign in the South was to confirm Lee's prophetic insight. 307 00:36:59.980 --> 00:37:08.780 But to Washington, a practical man not given to theorizing, this was all madness. 308 00:37:08.780 --> 00:37:15.240 He never seriously considered resorting to a war of guerrilla bands drawn from the militia. 309 00:37:15.240 --> 00:37:18.240 He would have recoiled with horror from such an idea.