It was Monday, July 22, 1776.
Two days earlier, George Washington had told a British emissary that Americans who had committed no fault needed no pardon.
Now Washington told Congress what he thought of the Howe brothers’ commission.
In a July 22 letter, he wrote that “all that has been said about the Commissioners was illusory and calculated expressly to deceive and unguard” Americans and people in Britain who opposed the king’s war.
Congress had not yet seen Washington’s letter. But on the same day, it acted less like a group awaiting reconciliation and more like the government of a country already at war.
It created rules for exchanging prisoners, made Ethan Allen a priority, debated the nation’s first constitution, prepared another $5 million in paper money and advanced funds for a contract covering 1,000 tons of cannon.
In New York, Washington’s General Orders focused on another threat to the army: unhealthy latrines and a summer diet heavy in meat.
Britain came with pardons and promises. The Americans answered with prisoners, money, cannon, government and vegetables.
The DX Brief
- Washington called Britain’s peace commission illusory and designed to deceive and unguard Americans and British opponents of the war.
- He said combining military and civil authority in the Howe brothers suggested there would be little civil negotiation.
- Washington forwarded Congress a record of his July 20 meeting with Lt. Col. James Patterson and Henry Knox’s plan for more artillerists.
- Congress established a prisoner-exchange system based on equal rank and status.
- Congress directed commanders to exchange a captured British officer at or below the rank of colonel for Ethan Allen.
- Delegates debated the Articles of Confederation but reached no conclusion.
- Congress prepared to print another $5 million in bills of credit and advanced $8,000 under a contract for 1,000 tons of cannon.
- Washington’s General Orders addressed sanitation and allowed regiments to replace part of their meat ration with vegetables.
Washington calls the commission a deception
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, Washington and Benjamin Franklin had rejected Britain’s offer of pardons upon submission.
Washington sharpened that judgment in his July 22 letter to John Hancock.
Once Lord Howe’s letter and declaration reached the public, Washington wrote, even the strongest supporters of dependence on the Crown should see that the talk surrounding the commissioners was “illusory” and intended “to deceive and unguard.”
Washington pointed to what Britain had withheld. The commissioners had not publicly specified their powers because doing so would have exposed the difference between what Britain had promised and what the Howes could actually offer.
He also saw meaning in the decision to place civil and military authority in the same men. That arrangement, Washington wrote, showed “there is to be but little Negociation of the Civil Kind.”
Washington enclosed his memorandum of the Patterson meeting and submitted Henry Knox’s proposal for a larger, permanent corps of artillerists. He warned that the existing artillery force barely covered the army’s extensive posts.
The message was consistent. Washington did not expect pardons to end the conflict. He expected the army to need more trained men for a longer war.
Congress writes rules for prisoners
Congress spent July 22 turning prisoner exchanges into a system.
The congressional resolution authorized commanders in each department to exchange “one continental officer for one of the enemy of equal rank, either in the land or sea service, soldier for soldier, sailor for sailor, and one citizen for another citizen.”
Congress also recognized each state’s authority to arrange exchanges involving prisoners taken from it or captured by its forces.
The rules mattered because prisoners had already become both a military problem and a political weapon. Officers and enlisted men could spend months in distant jails, prison ships or enemy custody while commanders negotiated case by case.
Congress was trying to replace improvisation with an accepted standard.
Congress puts Ethan Allen first
One prisoner received special attention.
Congress directed American commanders to exchange any captured British officer at or below the rank of colonel for Ethan Allen. It also placed the men captured with Allen on the same footing as soldiers in Continental service and ordered their exchanges when opportunities arose.
Allen had been captured near Montreal on September 25, 1775, during the failed American invasion of Canada. He remained a British prisoner until May 1778, according to the Vermont Historical Society’s account.
The July 22 order did not free him immediately. It declared that recovering him had become a national priority.
A constitution, cannon and five million dollars
Congress also tried to define the government fighting the war.
Delegates resolved themselves into a committee of the whole to debate the Articles of Confederation. They made progress but reached no conclusion and agreed to continue the next day, the congressional record shows.
The debate forced the states to answer questions the Declaration had left open. Would representation depend on population, or would each state vote equally? How much authority would the states surrender to a central government?
Congress began confronting those disputes on July 22, according to the State Department’s historical summary. The final Articles would not be adopted until November 1777 and would require unanimous state ratification.
The Dickinson draft already used the name “the United States of America,” and the final Articles became the country’s first constitution.
Government required resources. Congress ordered the Treasury Board to prepare for another $5 million in bills of credit. It also advanced Daniel and Samuel Hughes $8,000 under a contract to supply 1,000 tons of cannon.
The new country was debating how its states would govern together while printing the money and buying the weapons needed to keep the debate alive.
Washington orders vegetables and cleaner camps
Washington’s July 22 General Orders returned to the daily work of keeping an army alive.
He warned that the condition of the city’s “necessary Houses,” the period term for latrines and privies, could endanger the health of troops quartered in New York. Officers and soldiers were told to reduce the danger and work through the barrack master when repairs or other measures were needed.
Washington praised the troops in the encampments for taking greater care of sanitation and urged them to continue for their health and “the credit of the army.”
He also responded to regiments that wanted less meat and more vegetables during the summer. Colonels could notify the commissary general, after which the regimental quartermaster could draw one-quarter of the usual ration in cash and spend it on vegetables.
The order was practical. An army could lose men to disease without a British shot being fired. Clean camps and a healthier diet belonged to the defense of New York as surely as cannon and fortifications did.
Why it mattered
July 22, 1776, showed independence becoming a system.
Washington rejected Britain’s attempt to describe the war as a rebellion that pardons could settle. He saw limited powers, concealed terms and military force behind the language of reconciliation.
Congress moved in the same direction by writing rules for prisoners, prioritizing Ethan Allen, debating a national government, financing the war and contracting for cannon.
Washington answered in camp by protecting the health of the soldiers who would have to carry those decisions into battle.
The Declaration had announced that the states were free and independent.
On July 22, the Americans began building the machinery needed to act like it.
Tomorrow on Road to Independence
July 23, 1776: Congress gave Washington broad discretion over troops at New York, the Flying Camp and Ticonderoga, while his General Orders threatened severe punishment for soldiers and officers who manipulated enlistments to collect new bounties.
Follow the full Road to Independence series here.
Provided by Dallas Express
