After the election of a new, more pro-American Parliament, Great Britain soon gave in and accepted the terms of American independence. The British wanted to end the costly war, but peace negotiations stalled when England wouldn’t recognize United States independence – a point on which the American delegation refused to budge.
Peace negotiations between British and American diplomats began there in the spring of 1782 and continued into the fall. Jefferson, however, was not able to leave the United States for the negotiations, and Laurens had been captured by a British warship and held captive in the Tower of London until the end of the war, so the principal American negotiators were Franklin, Adams and Jay.įranklin, who served as America’s first ambassador to France, had been in Paris since the start of the Revolution and was instrumental in securing French assistance during the war. After Yorktown, the Continental Congress appointed a small group of statesmen to travel to Europe and negotiate a peace treaty with the British: John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson and Henry Laurens.
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