Marc Liebman's Blog, page 29

Interview in the TEXAS JEWISH POST

In early December 2020, Deb Silverthorn from the Texas Jewish Post interviewed me. This is the link to the interview….

Retired Navy officer Marc Liebman debuts new novel

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Getting to THE Terms of the Treaty of Paris

When negotiations began with the British in April 1782, the American team of Benjamin Franklin, John Jay and John Adams were diplomatic novices. Franklin’s experience in negotiating the Treaty of Alliance that bound France to the fledgling United States was the sum total of their experience. Yet, as things turned out, the United States and Great Britain were the clear winners.

Once the Americans learned that the French had violated the Treaty of Alliance by signing the Treaty of Aranjuez and by starting secret negotiations with the British, Franklin and company focused on getting a deal done by the British. The British negotiators also knew that the French treasury was empty and King Louis XVI was limited in what he could borrow.

With the siege of Gibraltar going badly for the French and the Spanish and British reinforcements sent to the Caribbean poised to hold existing possessions and recover the islands lost to the French, the British felt that they were negotiating from a position of strength. Lord Shelburne decided to let the French and Spanish sort out their demands for a peace treaty and focus first on a deal with the Americans.

Lord Shelburne believed that if the Americans had land to expand, they would be a huge market for English goods. Franklin’s proposal to give Canada to the U.S. was replaced by an offer of all British territory south of Canada based on its post Seven Years War boundaries, north of Florida and extending west to the Mississippi.

The issue of personal debts and property seized by both sides was a thorny problem for both sides. The British wanted any Loyalists who did not leave the U.S. protected from any legal action and the Americans wanted repayment for the destruction of property caused by the British Army’s scorched earth policy in the southern colonies.

What emerged were 10 points acceptable to the Americans, British and ultimately the French. In November 1782, after the French/Spanish attempt to seize Gibraltar failed, the French agreed to the terms hammered out by the Americans and the British of what is known as the Treaty of Paris.

A precis of the points follows:

The Thirteen Colonies will be known as the United States of American and be free and independent. The British Crown relinquishes all claims to property and territory within the U.S. boundaries.
The new U.S. borders are south of Canada, north of Florida and extend west from the Atlantic to the Mississippi.
The U.S. has fishing rights off Canada’s east coast.
Debts under lawful contracts are to be paid by both countries.
The Continental Congress will urge all 13 states to restore property rights to the Loyalists for any property confiscated.
The U.S. states will prevent any future confiscation any Loyalist property.
POWs are to be released within six weeks of signing of the treaty and all British Army property left in the U.S. will be forfeited.
Great Britain and the U.S. each have perpetual rights to the Mississippi River.
Territory captured after the signing of the treaty will be returned to its rightful owner without compensation.
Ratification of the treaty will occur within six months of its signing.

The Treaty of Paris, one of four signed to end the war started at Lexington and Concord, was signed on September 3rd, 1783, ratified by the Continental Congress on January 14th, 1784 and went into effect on May 12th, 1784. Finally, we were independent.

Image courtesy of Wikipedia – Plaque in Paris on the building at 53 Rue de Jacob commemorating the date and place where the Treaty of Paris was signed.

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Getting to Terms That Ended the Revolutionary War

In the spring of 1782, Lord Rockingham and Lord Shelburne’s first priority was to seek peace with England’s four opponents – France, Spain, The Netherlands, and us. When negotiations began, the British knew France was almost bankrupt and had secretly signed the Treaty of Aranjuez with Spain which committed them to fighting England until Gibraltar and Menorca was recaptured and had opened peace talks with England. In doing this, the French had violated their agreement with Spain. (See post French Diplomatic Duplicity During the American Revolution- https://marcliebman.com/french-diplomati…rican-revolution/)

The American team of Benjamin Franklin, John Jay and John Adams did not know about the Treaty of Aranjuez nor the English/French talks when they officially laid out the conditions which had to be met before which they would agree to a peace treaty. One, total independence from England. Two, territory to expand westward. Three, property seized by England and Loyalists had to be returned along with compensation and freedom from any reparations paid to Loyalists for property seized during the war. Four, return of our POWs. Five, fishing rights off Newfoundland and in the Gulf of Mexico. The French, in the treaty that ended the Seven Years War, retained fishing rights of Eastern Canada.

The British diplomat sent to negotiate with the French suggested that if France wants to secure independence for the Americans as per the Treaty of Alliance, they could return English possessions taken during the war. Shelburne’s offer was rejected by the French. He did not know that Franklin had already proposed that Britain give Canada to the Americans.

By now, the Americans knew about the Treaty of Aranjuez and the British discussions with the French. Negotiations stalled even though Shelburne had agreed to full independence, a fact he did not share with his fellow members of the British government. Lord Rockingham sudden death disrupted the negotiations while Lord Shelburne put together a new government that he led as became prime minister.

By September 1782, the combined French/Spanish effort to seize Gibraltar had failed. This let the British and American negotiators continue peace talks while the French and the Spanish argued over what to next about their mutual commitments in the Treaty of Aranjuez.

Without the French at the negotiating table, the American and British negotiators hammered out agreements on several issues. The compromise over reparations was vague in that the new “national” American government would, under the Articles of Confederation, encourage the individual states to reimburse individual Loyalists.

The issue of territory was solved when John Jay proposed that England retain Canada based on its pre-Seven Years War boundaries and the U.S. be given all British territory in North America between the Atlantic Coast and the Mississippi south of Canada. The Americans wanted Florida but at the time, it was partly controlled by Spain and the British couldn’t include the land in the treaty. The British agreed to the American demands for land because they were based on the original territorial claims by the colonists when their colonies were granted charters by the English crown.

The teams weren’t finished negotiating, but by the fall of 1782, the framework for a peace treaty that would give the Thirteen Colonies full independence was well on its way, but there was still much more work to do.

 

Image – map of the U.S. as per the 1783 Treaty of Paris published in 1919 by the Modern School Supply Company.

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French Diplomatic Duplicity During the American Revolution

The Oswald/Laurens meetings in the Tower of London that were supported by Lord Shelburne set the stage for negotiations to end the war on terms that were agreeable to the United States. Laurens convinced Oswald and Shelburne that the Thirteen Colonies were not going to give in. With backing from the French, Dutch and Spanish, we had the money to continue fighting for some time, if not indefinitely.

Lord North’s government fell in March 1781 and was replaced by one led by Lord Rockingham. With Laurens now in Amsterdam to ensure continued Dutch support and loans, the American negotiating team of Benjamin Franklin, John Jay and John Adams began meeting with officials of the British government in Paris.

At the time, Adams/Franklin/Jay did not know that the French signed the Treaty of Aranjuez in April 1779 and the British and French were already having secret talks to the end of the war. Negotiated by Carl Grazier, the Comte de Vergennes and French Foreign Minister, the Treaty of Aranjuez committed France to help Spain recapture Gibraltar, Florida and the island of Menorca, one of the Balearic Islands held by Britain. The Franco/Spanish siege of Gibraltar began in June 1789 two years before Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown in October 1781 that provided the impetus for serious peace talks between the rebelling colonists and the mother country.

France’s signature on the Treaty of Aranjuez in April 1779 was significant because it violated three terms of the Treaty of Alliance between France and the United States. Article IV of the Treaty of Alliance committed France to cede all British territory in North America to the United States once it was independent. Returning Florida to Spain and the commitment for a French/Spanish invasion of Newfoundland which was a territory of Britain violated Article IV.

Article X of the Treaty of Alliance stated the French/American partnership would continue to fight England until the United States gained its independence and neither nation would agree to peace until American independence was guaranteed. In the Treaty of Aranjuez, France committed to fight the English only until Gibraltar and Minorca were recaptured.

Article XII of the Treaty of Alliance required any nation who joined the fight for American independence would also commit to fighting England until Britain gave the U.S. its independence. Spain made no such commitment in the Treaty of Aranjuez.

All this is significant because the Treaty of Aranjuez and the secret French/British negotiations without the U.S. at the table gave the Franklin, Adams and Jay the freedom to open direct negotiations with the British without the French being present. Still, seven months of negotiations were needed before the Americans and the British could reach an agreement to end the American Revolution.

The French duplicity represented by the Treaty of Aranjuez had a long-term effect of U.S. foreign relations. Diplomatically and as a matter of foreign policy, the U.S., the Treaty of Aranjuez created a distrust of “foreign entanglements” military alliances that lasted until the end of the Second World War.

 

Image: Charles Gravier, the Compte de Vergennes, the French Foreign minister from 1774 – 1787. Image courtesy of Wikipedia

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Under the Verrazano Bridge

One sunny summer afternoon, I was the aircraft commander and had a helicopter and four and a half hours of fuel to burn. We, i.e. the crew, needed to log flight time to ensure we reached the minimum of 110 hours per year. For the record, 120 was desired and 140 hours was the real number.

Our SH-3A didn’t have an operating sonar so we couldn’t go out into the Atlantic and practice dipping, i.e. lowering our sonar dome and listening for submarines. Other than the engines and rotor system, only the UHF radio and transponder worked, but not the tactical air navigation (TACAN) system. The limited our options to a VFR (visual flight rules) cross-country or spending 4.5 hours shooting touch and goes or practice hovering.

So what’s there to see within 225 nautical miles of Lakehurst, NJ? One could fly up and down the Hudson and East River of New York past West Point. Or venture into the mountains of eastern Pennsylvania. Or take a beach tour down the Jersey and Delaware shores.

We knew where all the nudist colonies and their beaches were on the East coast from Brunswick, Maine all the way down to Key West, Florida and were very careful to avoid them like the plague unless we were above 1,000 feet. Why? Our helicopters had large numbers on the side and if we flew too close, lifeguards on the nudist beach with their binoculars plenty of time to record our number and call the Navy or the FAA. The result was not pretty, i.e. one was asked to leave the squadron and the Navy.

After discussing the best way to spend our 4.5 hours, we decided on a low level sightseeing trip up the Hudson River past Manhattan to around Kingston, NY and then weave our way through the mountains of Northern New Jersey back to Lakehurst. As a helicopter, we didn’t have any altitude or route restrictions.

Viewed from either the New York Harbor or the Atlantic side, from sea level or standing on the short, the Verrazano Narrows bridge is an imposing structure that towers above you. At its highest point, the base of the roadway is 228 feet above the water at mean high water. In other words, when one is flying at 100 feet above the water, the base of the bridge is 100+ feet above you.

Understand that flying around Manhattan over the Hudson and East Rivers, helicopters are restricted to 500 feet. We were expected to fly over or around the George Washington, Manhattan, 59th Street and Williamsburg bridges even though there were heliports on both sides of the island. Some were restricted to police and NY Port Authority helos, others were open to the public.

One time, we were sent to the East Side Heliport on 34th Street and that was a hoot. That’s a story for another time and place.

We’d been following the Jersey shore north toward New York City at 500, supposedly a quarter mile off the beach. Flying past Sandy Hook, we descended to 100 feet. Rather than climb or go over the Verrazano Narrow Bridge or fly around it, for reasons known only to broccoli and God, I decided to fly under the bridge. At the time, my co-pilot and I thought this would be a cool thing to do.

Approach the bridge, we could see scaffoldings on the sides and below the lower roadway. We could see by the different shades of the structure, workers were painting the bridge. Again, no big deal until I realized they were along the entire underside of the bridge. Being the hard charging, confident Naval Aviator, rather than turn around, fly out over the harbor entrance and climb to get over or around the bridge, we continued straight ahead.

Halfway under the bridge, to my surprise and horror, I saw a ladder and a bucket of paint tumble from the scaffolding. Both passed less than 50 yards from the helicopter. Thankfully, there wasn’t a body following or preceding the paint and ladder.

Had that ladder or paint bucket come down through our rotor blades, I wouldn’t be writing this story and my survivors, as well as those of my crewmembers, would be cursing my stupid decision to fly under a bridge. I still get the chills thinking about that moment, 50 odd years ago. What in God’s green earth was I thinking?

By the way, I have not flown under a bridge since then!

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Attempts to Negotiate an End to the American Revolution

On February 20th, 1775, sensing that war might break out in the Thirteen Colonies, Lord North ushered through Parliament a resolution he thought would prevent a rebellion. The act known as The Conciliatory Resolution stipulated that any of the Thirteen Colonies that contributed to the common defense of the colonies and did not rebel would be exempt from any taxes other than import duties and tariffs.

A letter was explaining the resolution was sent to each colonial legislature and the Second Continental Congress. The letter was ignored.

After the fighting started at Lexington and Concord on April 19th, 1775, there were some in the Second Continental Congress who believed that we could not win a war with England. Led by John Dickinson, the Olive Branch Petition was originally written by Thomas Jefferson. Dickinson thought it too “radical” and rewrote the document which was passed on July 5th, 1775 and sent to King George III. The king and parliament ignored the petition that said the colonists were upset with his ministerial policies which led to the colonies desire to be independent.

Admiral Lord Howe was appointed as King George III’s Peace Commissioner in 1776 right after he defeated Washington at the Battle of Long Island. In what is known as the Staten Island Conference, Howe met with Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Edward Rutledge. The Americans insisted on full independence and Howe said he was not ‘authorized’ to grant independence. Within days, he resumed his campaign against the Continental Army.

In 1777, after Burgoyne was defeated at the Battle of Saratoga, Lord North managed to have Parliament repeal The Tea Act and the Massachusetts Government Act which revoked the colony original charter granted in 1691. The members of the Second Continental Congress saw this as much too little and way too late.

Lord North was afraid a Franco-American alliance would become a reality and sent Fredrick Howard, the 5th Earl of Carlisle, and two others to negotiate with the Americans in early 1778. The British offered trade concessions, debt relief and limited self-rule. The Carlisle Peace Commission was the first official British recognition of the Second Continental Congress as the ruling body of the Thirteen Colonies. The Congress rejected the offer because Howard said he was not authorized to grant independence.

Howard’s failure led to the British shift to its southern strategy to force Washington to divide his army so the British could defeat him piecemeal. In 1780, the British commander in North America, General Sir Henry Clinton and his Royal Navy counterpart, Vice Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot were appointed as “Commissioners to Restore Peace to the Colonies and Plantations in North America.” They offered a pardon to any colonist who had rebelled or was rebelling against English rule. The offer fell on deaf ears.

Which brings us to the beginnings of peace negotiations that started with Richard Oswald and an American prisoner in the Tower of London, Henry Laurens. Oswald was a close friend of the opposition leader in Parliament, Lord Shelburne and had been meeting the Laurens in his ‘two room suite’ in the Tower of London. (see Blog Post The Rocky Road to Peace – https://marcliebman.com/the-rocky-road-to-peace-talks/). With Shelburne’s approval, the two men hammered out the beginnings of a peace agreement.

Unfortunately, Shelburne was powerless to offer peace or independence to the Thirteen Colonies until Lord North’s government fell. Finally, in March, 1782, the North Government fell paving the way for negotiations to officially begin.

 

Image is the signature page of the Olive Branch Petition. Note John Hancock’s name at the top. Source – Wikipedia

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The Rocky Road To Peace Talks

Little did anyone on either H.M.S. Vestal or the Continental Navy packet Mercury know that the capture of the packet in December 1779 would help set the stage for peace negotiations. By chance, the papers Henry Laurens tossed over the side were picked up by the British. Among the papers was a draft of a treaty negotiated by Laurens in which the Dutch would recognized the Thirteen Colonies as an independent country and loan us money.

When he was captured, Laurens was enroute to the Netherlands to be our ambassador. Now that they knew about the treaty, British declared war on the Dutch (starting the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War).

Laurens was imprisoned in the Tower of London as a traitor and his  former business partner, Richard Oswald, lobbied for Laurens’ release. Before the war, Oswald and Laurens owned the largest slave trading firm in the Thirteen Colonies and England and the profits made both extremely wealthy.

While Laurens was being held in ‘the Tower,’ Oswald frequently visited him Laurens was released in December 1781 in exchange for Lord Cornwallis. Before he left for Amsterdam, Laurens stayed at Oswald’s house in London and was introduced to Lord Shelburne whom Oswald knew well. These discussions well before the official peace talks began in April 1782 laid the groundwork for what ultimately became the Treaty of Paris.

However, nothing official could occur while Lord North was in power. When North’s government finally fell in March 1782, Shelburne preferred to let Lord Rockingham become prime minister and joined the government with Charles Fox, a man he hated. Fox was one of the strongest supporters of American independence and on several occasions, appeared in parliament dressed as George Washington.

Lord Rockingham died suddenly in July 1782 and King George was forced to ask Lord Shelburne, a man he disliked intensely, to form a government. Shelburne did and immediately fired Fox who joined forces Lord North in the loyal opposition. The Fox/North alliance caused problems for Lord Shelburne’s government as it tried to negotiate the British out of a war they were losing.

Fox was replaced by Oswald who became the principal negotiator for the British. Laurens joined the American team of John Jay, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams.

One would think that negotiations would be easy. They weren’t because any peace treaty had to unravel a web of alliances, i.e. the treaties between the U.S. and France, the U.S. and Spain, France and Spain, and the U.S. and the Dutch.

Early on, Lord Shelburne agreed to full independence for the Thirteen Colonies who were now calling themselves the United States of America. However, Spain balked because King Carlos III realized that time was running out on his country’s goal of retaking Gibraltar, a.k.a. “The Rock.”

Lost in 1705 to the British, recapturing Gibraltar was the  primary reason Spain entered the war on our side in the spring of 1779. With French help, Spanish forces began a siege of Gibraltar in June 1779. Heavily outnumbered, the British held on.

With peace negotiations underway, the Spanish launched another series of attacks, hoping to either capture the fortress or cause the British to acquiesce to giving Gibraltar back to Spain. Neither happened.

The French and Spanish gave up in February 1783 paving the way for peace between England and Spain, England and France and most important, England and the new United States of America.

Image – Portrait of Henry Laurens by John Singleton Copley hanging in the National Gallery in Washington, DC

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England Finally Faces Reality in Early 1782

Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown on October 19th, 1781 was the second shockwave that rattled the British political and military establishment in the fall of 1781. The first occurred on September 5th, 1781 off the mouth of Chesapeake Bay when the Royal Navy while not defeated, was forced away from rescuing Cornwallis by the French Navy.

The British parliament didn’t learn of Cornwallis’ defeat until November 1781. In the late 18th Century, there was no internet, email, or telephones. Communication was by letters that had to be sent across the Atlantic. A fast trip from New York to London took three weeks. Westbound voyages often took four or more.

When the bad news arrived, Parliament about to debate how much would be spent prosecuting a war that was not going well. In a cabinet meeting, Lord North supposedly exclaimed when he heard the news about Cornwallis, “Oh my God, it’s over!!!” Well, not exactly.

Lord North’s government changed the British strategy. No longer would there be campaigns away from well defended bases a la the ones that ended in defeat at Saratoga and Yorktown. The focus was holding onto what they had, i.e. Charleston, New York and Savannah.

In January, the British learned that the French had captured two more islands in the Caribbean and a third was hanging on by a thread. In the Mediterranean, Menorca had fallen to the French and Spanish. Graves defeat off the coast of Virginia and the losses in the Caribbean caused Parliament to demand an inquiry of the “administration of the Royal Navy.” The First Lord of the Admiralty, the 18th Century equivalent of the current U.S. Secretary of the Navy, Lord Sandwich narrowly escaped dismissal on a vote on February 20th, 1782.

The Colonial Secretary, Lord Germain was not so lucky. He was replaced by a very hawkish, pro-war, Welbore Ellis.

In Parliament, Lord North was facing an anti-war faction led by Charles Watson-Wentworth, the Marquess of Rockingham (Lord Rockingham) and William Petty Fitzmaurice, Earl of Shelburne (Lord Shelburne). Neither had the votes to force North out of power. Hence, the worldwide fighting continued including in the Thirteen Colonies.

The first nail in the coffin of Lord North’s ministry was the vote in Parliament on February 27th, 1782 for no more war in America. The motion passed by 19 votes. The majority in Parliament felt that continuing to fight would weaken England’s ability to defend itself from its traditional enemies on the continent.

Sensing victory, Lords Rockingham and Shelburne attempted to win a “vote of no confidence” The first vote failed by 10 votes. A second a week later, lost by nine votes.

Finally, on March 20th, 1782, hours before Parliament was about to vote again, Lord North convinced King George III to allow him to resign. The king knowing that Lord Shelburne and Benjamin Franklin were friends, asked him to form a government. Shelburne, who had publicly stated he would never allow the Thirteen Colonies to become independent, refused. King George III was then forced to ask Lord Rockingham, a man he hated, to lead the government.

The new government would include Shelburne and a man he disliked intensely, Charles Fox. Rockingham’s priority was to get Britain out of a war in which she faced four enemies – us (the Thirteen Colonies, plus the French, Spanish and Dutch – and was losing.

Image is a James Gillray cartoon from 1782 courtesy of Wikipedia.

 

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The Convention Army

After 19 days of off and on fighting, the Battle of Saratoga ended on October 7, 1777 with British Army General John Burgoyne surrendering his army. Burgoyne’s 6,200+ man force was made up of British soldiers, Canadian men mostly from Quebec and German mercenaries from Hesse-Cassel, Hesse-Hanau and Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.

The surrender document Burgoyne signed is known as the Convention of Saratoga. Under its terms, the European troops would be returned home on British ships and would not be allowed to return to North America until after the war ended.

Saratoga is in upstate New York was a long way from any port that could handle enough ships to carry 6,200+ men. The prisoners were marched south to Cambridge, MA (outside of Boston) where, for the next year they were kept in crude barracks used by the Continental Army during the siege of Boston.

When General Burgoyne refused to provide a list of his officers, the Continental Congress revoked the terms of the surrender terms, a.k.a. Saratoga Convention in 1778. Suddenly, the Continental Army had a large number of prisoners on its hands with neither the money nor the resources nor the facilities to house the prisoners long term.

By the spring of 1779, approximately 1,500 prisoners had escaped to live  in the new United States. The Continental Congress decided to move the POWs 700 miles south of Cambridge to Charlottesville, VA. Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Crockett’s Western Battalion was assigned to guard what was now dubbed “The Convention Army.”

General Sir Henry Clinton learned of the march and attempted free his soldiers when The Convention Army crossed the Hudson River where it narrows considerably at Stony Point, NY. The attempt was aborted and The Convention Army continued south.

They arrived in Charlottesville in January 1779 in the midst of one of the area’s coldest winters in history. Despite the miserable conditions, about 600 more prisoners escaped captivity.

The Continental Congress had little or money to pay for a stockade or any other type of enclosure so the prisoners started building their own huts and fencing to improve the poor accommodations at what was known as the Albemarle Barracks. Under the Articles of Confederation, the Continental Congress couldn’t levy taxes to pay for supporting the POWs and had to beg the states for money to feed and house the prisoners. Or, the Congress could demand money from England to pay for their upkeep.

Contributions by the relatives of the prisoners provide money to feed, clothe and house the prisoners. Thomas Jefferson estimated that the donations from relatives added about Continental $30,000 week to the local economy.

Security was lax and the number of men held continued to drop. Again, most stayed in what would become the U.S.

As the British Army started moving north out of South Carolina, the Convention Army was again escorted by the Western Battalion to Frederick, Maryland where they were held until repatriated. These prisoners as well as those captured at Yorktown became an issue during the peace negotiations.

Of the 6,200 who were originally taken prisoner at Saratoga, about 2,000 returned home to England, Canada and Germany after the Treaty of Paris was signed. Of the other 4,200 members of The Convention Army, some died from disease and exposure, the majority escaped and “immigrated” the new United States.

Source of the image – Etching of the Albemarle Barracks was created in 1789 and the artist is unknown. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress

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Preble Hall: Navy Helicopters & The Gulf War and writing Historical Fiction

Podcast courtesy of Preble Hall – U.S. Naval Academy Museum

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