Staten Island Peace Conference

The Staten Island Peace Conference was a brief meeting held in the hope of bringing an end to the American Revolutionary War. The conference took place on September 11, 1776, at Billop Manor, the residence of Colonel Christopher Billop, on Staten Island, New York. The participants were the British Admiral Lord Richard Howe, and members of the Second Continental Congress John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Edward Rutledge.

Since Lord Howe's authority was, by design, extremely limited, the Congressional delegation was pessimistic about the meeting's outcome. The conference, held in the days after the British capture of Long Island, lasted just three hours and was a failure. The Americans insisted on recognition of their recently declared independence, and Howe's limited authority was inadequate to deal with that development. After the conference, the British continued their military campaign for control of New York City.

When British authorities were planning how to deal with their rebellious North American colonies in late 1775 and early 1776, they decided to send a large military expedition to occupy New York City. Two brothers, Admiral Lord Richard Howe and General William Howe, were given command of the naval and land aspects of the operation respectively. Since they believed it might still be possible to end the dispute without further violence, the Howe brothers insisted on being granted diplomatic powers in addition to their military roles. Admiral Howe had previously discussed colonial grievances informally with Benjamin Franklin in 1774 and 1775, without resolution. General Howe believed that the problem of colonial taxation could be resolved while retaining the supremacy of Parliament. At first King George III reluctantly agreed to grant the Howes limited powers, but Lord George Germain took a harder line, and insisted that the Howes not be given any powers that might be seen as giving in to the colonial demands for relief from taxation without representation or the so-called Intolerable Acts. As a consequence, the Howes were only granted the ability to issue pardons and amnesties, but not to make any substantive concessions. The commissioners were also mandated to seek dissolution of the Continental Congress, re-establishment of the pre-war colonial assemblies, acceptance of the terms of Lord North's Conciliatory Resolution regarding self-taxation, and to promise a further discussion of colonial grievances. No concessions could be made unless hostilities were ended and colonial assemblies made specific admissions of Parliamentary supremacy.

...
Wikipedia