Congress Responds to Lord Howe’s Declaration
The day after receiving Lord Howe’s declaration, along with his letters intended for the colonial governors, the Continental Congress decided to have them published in the newspapers, so that
the good people of these United States may be informed of what nature are the commissioners, and what the terms, with the expectation of which, the insidious court of Britain has endeavoured to amuse and disarm them, and that the few, who still remain suspended by a hope founded either in the justice or moderation of their late King, may now, at length, be convinced, that the valour alone of their country is to save its liberties.
Engrossing the Declaration of Independence
On the same day, they decided to have the Declaration of Independence “engrossed” — that is, written out fancily — on parchment, and “signed by every member of Congress.” (Before this, the official declaration was not intended for public display, so it wasn’t written out on the big sheet of parchment that’s on display in Washington today, and it was only signed by John Hancock and Charles Thomson, the president and secretary of Congress, on behalf of the whole Congress.) The signing took place on August 2.
Franklin’s Response to Lord Howe’s Letter
Benjamin Franklin, meanwhile, having gotten approval from Congress, replied to the letter that Lord Howe had sent him. In his letter, Franklin didn’t attack Howe personally — in fact, he assured Howe that he was still his friend — but he expressed himself very strongly about the idea of Britain offering pardons to Americans who had rebelled but were willing to submit to the King’s government again:
Directing Pardons to be offered the Colonies, who are the very Parties injured, expresses indeed that Opinion of our Ignorance, Baseness, and Insensibility which your uninform’d and proud Nation has long been pleased to entertain of us; but it can have no other Effect than that of increasing our Resentment. It is impossible we should think of Submission to a Government, that has with the most wanton Barbarity and Cruelty, burnt our defenceless Towns in the midst of Winter, excited the Savages to massacre our Farmers, and our Slaves to murder their Masters, and is even now bringing foreign Mercenaries to deluge our Settlements with Blood. These atrocious Injuries have extinguished every remaining Spark of Affection for that Parent Country we once held so dear…
Franklin made no bones about his feelings; he left no doubt as to where he stood, and hoped that Howe would give up “so hopeless a Business”:
I know your great Motive in coming hither was the Hope of being instrumental in a Reconciliation; and I believe when you find that impossible on any Terms given you to propose, you will relinquish so odious a Command, and return to a more honourable private Station.
Sources
- Journals of the Continental Congress, 5:590-593.
- “From Benjamin Franklin to Lord Howe, 20 July 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-22-02-0307. [Original source: The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 22, March 23, 1775, through October 27, 1776, ed. William B. Willcox. New Haven and London:: Yale University Press, 1982, pp. 518–521.]