to confer with
Lord and General Howe, as British Commissioners, without the previous
acknowledgment by the Commissioners of the independence of the United
States.[1]

Lord Admiral Howe, having spent some months with his fleet at Halifax,
did not arrive at Sandy Hook until the 12th of July, eight days after
the Declaration of Independence. "Besides the troops, Lord Howe had
brought with him a document which it was hoped might render them
unnecessary--the Royal warrant appointing himself and General Howe
Commissioners under the Act of Parliament for the pacification of
America. No doubt the selection of such men was most wisely made. The
memory of their elder brother, who had fallen gloriously in the wars
against the French in Canada, was endeared to the colonists, who had
fought by his side. Both Lord Howe and the General, but Lord Howe
especially, had ever since cultivated a friendly intercourse with
Americans, and now entertained a most earnest wish to conclude the
strife against them. But judicious as was the choice of the
Commissioners, the restricted terms of the Commission were certainly in
the highest degree impolitic. Lord Howe had laboured, but vainly, to
obtain its enlargement; it amounted, in fact, to little more than the
power, first, of receiving submissions, and then, but not till then, of
granting pardons and inquiring into grievances.[2] Yet, still, since
these terms had not been divulged, and were much magnified by common
rumour, the name of the Commission was not ill adapted for popular
effect. Had Lord Howe arrived with it a few weeks before, as he might
and should have done, we are assured by American writers that an
impression might have been produced by it, in some at least of the
thirteen colonies, to an extent which they 'cannot calculate,' or
rather, perhaps, which they do not like to own. But these few months had
been decisive in another direction. During these months both the feeling
and the position of the insurgents had most materially changed."[3]

"The two Royal Commissioners," says Dr. Ramsay, "Admiral and General
Howe, thought proper, before they commenced their military operations,
to try what might be done in their civil capacity towards effecting a
reunion between Great Britain and the colonies. It was one of the first
acts of Lord Howe to send on shore a circular letter to several of the
Royal Governors in America, informing them of the late Act of Parliament
'for restoring peace t