America’s first consequential September 11 date occurred this week in 1776 when three representatives of the rebellious American colonies, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Edward Rutledge, met with Admiral Richard Howe, who commanded the British Navy that had been sent to America to squash America’s nascent attempt at independence. Held on New York’s Staten Island, the meeting had been arranged by Howe in the wake of the recent Battle of Long Island in which he, together with his brother William Howe, the commander of the British Army in America, had produced a smashing British victory that — at least as the Howe brothers saw it — meant the end of America’s rebellion.
Yet the Howe brothers had never wanted to destroy America militarily. They admired the Americans and they sincerely considered them to be fellow Englishmen, with all the attendant rights that Englishmen possessed. Both Howes believed the colonists were merely misguided in their attempts to separate from the Mother Country, and they even agreed that Americans should have control over their internal affairs, including taxation.
To that end, Admiral Howe’s goal for the September 11 meeting was to fashion a diplomatic solution that restored the colonies to their rightful place in the British dominion. As Howe saw it, given the overwhelming British victory at the Battle of Long Island, what other choice did the Americans have?
For Franklin, Adams and Rutledge the issue wasn’t so cut-and-dry. Even granting that the British had won the battle at Long Island, the Americans saw it as just one battle — a temporary setback — and there would be other battles. But more important, both they and the members of the Continental Congress that had appointed them to meet with Howe believed America had long passed the point-of-no-return in terms of reconciling with Britain. And Howe’s professions of friendship and reconciliation notwithstanding, it was highly likely that any American agreement to end the revolution would result in John Adams — arguably the most notorious rebel in the 13 colonies — being hung for treason. And George Washington, John Hancock, Sam Adams and Thomas Jefferson, among others, might well join him.
And so the meeting went nowhere. Adams, Rutledge and Franklin told Howe that too much blood had been shed — at Long Island, but also at Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill. There was no turning back.
Howe was disappointed, especially since, he now believed, it meant he and his brother would have to crush the rebellion outright. “If America should fall,” he said sadly, “I should feel and lament it like the loss of a brother.”
To which the incomparable master of the witty rejoinder, Ben Franklin, replied, “My Lord, we will do our utmost to save you that mortification.”
