The Dominion's Dilemma: The United States of British America Read Online Free PDF

Wilder was silent as he thought back over the beginnings of the conversation.  “Sir, we know the warship.”
     “ Irresistible .”
     “Yes sir, HMS Irresistible left Baltimore the night before the plebiscite results were publicly announced and is reported to be on her way to London.  London has traditionally stayed out of plebiscite campaigns. How quickly have the results been reported to England after previous plebiscites?”
     “With the first departing merchantman, Lieutenant. Even in ’28, when London was clearly concerned that General Jackson might get hold of the Residency, there was no RN vessel standing by to speed the results to England.”
      “But General, it doesn’t make much sense. It was pretty much a foregone conclusion that the Governor-General would win again. London must have known that.”
      Scott nodded. “Yes, all indications were that Andrew Jackson would win again. And I’m certain our friends over at the Liaison Office have been informing London of that fact since early summer. So that still leaves us with the ‘why,’ Lieutenant. Why is London so impatient to get the news?
      “I want you to go back over all the correspondence we have on file from and to the various military ministries in London. Do the same across the street. Analyze anything that appears the least bit odd, or different.  Somewhere, there may be a request or order that will tie in to this puzzle. I want you to find it and bring it to me post-haste. Is that understood?” Scott looked directly at the younger officer, who nodded his head vigorously.
     “Yes, General. I’ll begin reviewing all correspondence, both here and at The Residency. If there’s anything there, it will come out.” He stood, saluted, turned and headed out. Scott smiled to himself. That boy has the makings of a fine officer. Even if I doubt he’ll ever figure out how to properly sight a cannon…

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    THE COLONIAL COMPACT OF 1776

    Washington’s stunning victory at Boston in early 1776 astounded the British populace and led to the immediate fall of Lord North’s government. The Earl of Chatham, William Pitt the Elder, who had led the call for reconciliation with the Colonies, was the obvious choice to reoccupy #10 Downing Street. King George III, not yet fully in the throes of the mental illnesses that would eventually destroy him, reluctantly sent for Pitt. The Earl had been in regular contact with Benjamin Franklin, who until the previous year had been in London as the agent (later generations would have described him as the “lobbyist”) for Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and a number of other rebellious American colonies. Franklin had finally thrown up his hands in disgust at the autocratic attitude of the North government and returned to North America, where he had taken his seat in the Continental Congress.
   Pitt had immediately rushed Edmund Burke, the outspoken orator and colonial proponent, to Philadelphia by fastest naval transportation, with a stunning secret compromise proposal for Franklin. The ship docked on June 3, 1776.
    Burke and Franklin hammered out, over a period of several days’ intensive negotiation, the document that became known as the Colonial Compact. Burke had arrived in Philadelphia as the Continental Congress struggled with the truly unthinkable concept of separation from the Mother Country and---always lurking in the background---the question of slavery. With a collective sigh of relief, the majority of the delegates---John and Samuel Adams of Massachusetts not among them---grasped eagerly at the Compact, when Franklin presented it in secret session, as a way out of the dilemma. They quickly agreed to the armistice offered by the Pitt government. By the fall of ’76, Washington’s army, which had marched south to New York in anticipation