Key figures: Richard Howe, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Edward Rutledge
Summary
The Staten Island Peace Conference was a brief, informal negotiation held on September 11, 1776, between British Admiral Lord Richard Howe and a three-member committee of the Second Continental Congress — Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Edward Rutledge. It took place at Billop Manor (the Conference House) on Staten Island, days after the British victory at the Battle of Long Island (August 27, 1776) had put Howe’s brother, General William Howe, in control of the approaches to New York City. Following that defeat, Howe paroled captured American General John Sullivan and sent him to Philadelphia with an invitation to discuss reconciliation, prompting Congress to appoint the committee on September 6.
Congress instructed its delegates only “to ask a few Questions and take [Howe’s] Answers,” giving them no authority to negotiate or concede independence. Franklin, Rutledge, and Adams (the latter traveling on horseback while the others rode in carriages) journeyed from Philadelphia on September 9 and met Howe for roughly three hours on September 11. Howe explained that his commission empowered him only to grant pardons upon submission and to discuss American grievances, colonial governors’ instructions, and specific acts of Parliament — not to recognize American independence. When Howe remarked that the loss of America would feel to him “like the loss of a brother,” Franklin replied that the delegates “will do our utmost endeavors to save your lordship that mortification.” When Howe said he could consider the Americans only as British subjects, Adams responded that Howe “may consider me in what light you please, … except that of a British subject.”
The Americans made clear that Congress would treat only on the basis of independence already declared; Howe, lacking authority to grant that, could offer nothing beyond pardon and a resumption of colonial status under Parliament’s supremacy. With the two sides’ positions irreconcilable, the conference ended without agreement, and Congress reported to the public that Howe had “no propositions to make” beyond unconditional submission.
Significance
The conference was the last substantive attempt at a negotiated end to the Revolutionary War in 1776 and confirmed that Britain would not recognize American independence short of military defeat. Its failure removed any near-term prospect of reconciliation, hardening both sides’ commitment to a fight resolved by arms rather than diplomacy — a resolve underscored four days later when British forces landed at Kip’s Bay and began the occupation of New York City. The episode is also remembered for Franklin’s and Adams’s terse exchanges with Howe, later recounted in Adams’s autobiography as an early landmark of American diplomatic resolve.