On New Year’s Eve 250 years ago, Josiah Quincy, Jr. on his mission to Britain to inform British leaders “of the true situation of political affairs” in Massachusetts, met in Bath, England with Catherine Macauley. Quincy wrote that he
visited the celebrated Mrs. Macaulay: delivered my letters to her, and was favoured with a conversation of about an hour and a half, in which I was much pleased with her good sense and liberal turn of mind. She is indeed an extraordinary woman.
On this day in London, Benjamin Franklin provided to Lord Richard Howe the proposals that he considered could reach a resolution between America and Britain:
That Britain should show some Confidence in these Declarations, by repealing all the Laws or Parts of Laws that are requested to be repeal’d in the Petition of the Congress to the King.
And that at the same time Orders should be given to withdraw the Fleet from Boston, and remove all the Troops to Quebec or the Floridaes, that the Colonies may be left at perfect Liberty in their future Stipulations.
. . .
And to give the Colonies an immediate Opportunity of demonstrating the Reality of their Professions, let their propos’d ensuing Congress be authoriz’d by Government, (as was that held at Albany in 1754) and a Person of Weight and Dignity of Character be appointed to preside at it on Behalf of the Crown.
Source: “Franklin’s Proposals to Lord Howe for Resolving the Crisis, [between 28 and 31 December 1774],” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-21-02-0224. [Original source: The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, vol. 21, January 1, 1774, through March 22, 1775, ed. William B. Willcox. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1978, pp. 408–411.] available at https://founders.archives.gov/?q=%2231%20December%201774%22&s=1111311111&sa=&r=1&sr=
On This Day In The Revolution 