University of Virginia Library

TO EDMUND RANDOLPH.[1]

Dear Sir,—Extract of a letter from Carleton and
Digby to General Washington, August the second:
" We are acquainted, sir, by authority, that negotiations
for a general peace have already commenced at
Paris, and that Mr. Grenville is invested with full
powers to treat with all parties at war, and is now at
Paris in execution of his commission. And we are
likewise, sir, further made acquainted, that His
Majesty, in order to remove all obstacles to that
peace which he so ardently wishes to restore, has
commanded his ministers to direct Mr. Grenville that
the independency of the Thirteen Provinces should
be proposed by him, instead of making it a condition
of a general treaty; however, not without the highest
confidence that the loyalists shall be restored to their
possessions, or a full compensation made them for
whatever confiscations may have taken place."

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This is followed by information that transports are
preparing to convey all American prisoners in England
to the United States, and a proposition for a
general exchange, in which seamen are to be placed
against seamen as far as they will go, and the balance
in favor of Great Britain to be redeemed by land
prisoners—the former to be free, the latter not to
serve in war against the Thirteen Provinces for one
year. An embarcation is taking place at New York
for Charleston, either to reinforce that garrison or
replace it.

The preceding letter was published in New York,
at the same time it was sent to General Washington.
I commit this intelligence to your discretion, making
no other remark than that it clearly calls for our
watchfulness, at the same time that it flatters our
expectations.