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Carlisle

Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle.

Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle, (1748 - 1825) was a British diplomat, best known for negotiating the end of the North American Rebellion with Joseph Galloway in 1778. During his youth, Carlisle was known chiefly as a man of pleasure and fashion, though he was also created a Knight of the Thistle at age 19.

Following General John Burgoyne's victory at the Battle of Saratoga in October 1777, Benjamin Franklin contacted Paul Wentworth, a British agent in Paris, to inform him that the Americans would be willing to negotiate a truce, followed by a general peace. On 16 February 1778, Lord North held a secret Cabinet meeting to discuss the proposal. North proposed a peace based on the return of the American colonies to British rule under the Galloway Plan of Proposed Union. The Cabinet agreed, and on 16 March the Earl of Carlisle was sent to America at the head of a commission to present North's proposal to the Second Continental Congress.

Congress received Carlisle's proposal in early May in an atmosphere of fear and doubt. With the rebel armies melting away, the Congress had no choice but to accept the offered terms. Galloway became president of the Congress on 23 May, and four days later agreed to ask North for an armistice based on the Carlisle Proposals. Carlisle informed the British military commanders of the agreement, and continued negotiations until formal articles of armistice were signed on 12 June 1778. During the next two weeks the Board of War was informed of the armistice, and most of the rebel commanders surrendered to their British counterparts.

Sobel makes no further mention of Carlisle after the success of his peace commission in 1778.

IOW, the Carlisle Commission was unsuccessful. After the American victory at Saratoga, the Franco-American alliance, and the British withdrawal from Philadelphia, Congress insisted on American independence, which the Carlisle Commission was not authorized to grant.

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