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Show 200 Years ago this week On March 25, 1776, the Continental Con-tinental Congress voted thanks and a gold medal to General George Washington. The official thanks and the medal were in recognition of Washington's achievements in breaking the seige of Boston and forcing the British to flee the city. General Howe's fleet - (Howe commanded the forces that had held Boston for nearly 11 months) mon-ths) - sailed from Boston Harbor enroute to Halifax, Nova Scotia ,on March 27. With the departure of General Howe, his men and the Boston loyalists who left with them, British military forces had been temporarily eliminated from the 13 colonies, with the exception of scattered loyalists units, and the threatening presence of British General Clinton's forces on shipboard off the North Carolina coast. A Congressional diplomatic mission left for Canada on March 25. The diplomatic delegates, Benjamin Franklin, Charles Carroll, and Samuel Chase, left Philadelphia as Congressional envoys to negotiate with the Canadians. Their negotiations achieved no positive results. (There were several reasons for the lack of results in the negotiations. Among them were: The American drive to bring Canada under military control, and break English military dominance of the northern part of the American continent, had failed at the end of 1775 when' American soldiers were defeated in their attempt to capture Quebec, so the Canadians werey naturally leary of the military competence of the 13 United Colonies. Also, duringy4he American drive into Canada, the Canadian people had seen ragtag rag-tag Americans troops and had gotten a rather distorted picture of the typical American Soldier. And, England had recently taken actions in Parliment that had solidified support of Canadian landowners for the British Crown.) |