Canada, Congressional Committee To

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Canada, Congressional Committee To

CANADA, CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE TO. March-June 1776. Realizing that the Canada invasion was failing politically as well as militarily, Congress decided early in 1776 to send a special committee to do what it could to win over the people. Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase, and Charles Carroll of Carrollton (not then a member of Congress) were selected. Carroll, a Catholic who had been educated in France, persuaded his cousin John Carroll, a priest, to accompany them. The group left Philadelphia on 25 March and, after a rigorous trip, reached Montreal on 29 April. Their mission a failure, they returned in early June with firsthand accounts of the "shocking mismanagement" of military operations.

SEE ALSO Canada in the Revolution; Canada Invasion.

                        revised by Michael Bellesiles

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