as, for the first time, transmitted to General
Washington, with a request that he would inclose it by the Marquis,
with his observations on it, to Doctor Franklin.

This very extensive plan of military operations for the ensuing
campaign, prepared entirely in the cabinet, without consulting, so far
as is known, a single military man, consisted of many parts.

Two detachments, amounting, each, to sixteen hundred men, were to
march from Pittsburg and Wyoming against Detroit, and Niagara.

A third body of troops, which was to be stationed on the Mohawk during
the winter, and to be powerfully reinforced in the spring, was to
seize Oswego, and to secure the navigation of Lake Ontario with
vessels to be constructed of materials to be procured in the winter.

A fourth corps was to penetrate into Canada by the St. Francis, and to
reduce Montreal, and the posts on Lake Champlain, while a fifth should
guard against troops from Quebec.

Thus far America could proceed unaided by her ally. But, Upper Canada
being reduced, another campaign would still be necessary for the
reduction of Quebec. This circumstance would require that the army
should pass the winter in Canada, and, in the mean time, the garrison
of Quebec might be largely reinforced. It was therefore essential to
the complete success of the enterprise, that France should be induced
to take a part in it.

The conquest of Quebec, and of Halifax, was supposed to be an object
of so much importance to France as well as to the United States, that
her aid might be confidently expected.

It was proposed to request his Most Christian Majesty to furnish four
or five thousand troops, to sail from Brest, the beginning of May,
under convoy of four ships of the line and four frigates; the troops
to be clad as if for service in the West Indies, and thick clothes to
be sent after them in August. A large American detachment was to act
with this French army; and it was supposed that Quebec and Halifax
might be reduced by the beginning or middle of October. The army
might then either proceed immediately against Newfoundland, or remain
in garrison until the spring, when the conquest of that place might be
accomplished.

It had been supposed probable that England would abandon the farther
prosecution of the war on the continent of North America, in which
case the government would have a respectable force at its disposal,
the advantageous employment of which had engaged in part the att