Carlisle Peace Commission

(noun)

A group of British negotiators who were sent to North America in 1778, during the American War of Independence, with an offer of self-rule within the British Empire.

Related Terms

Examples of Carlisle Peace Commission in the following topics:

  • Peace Overtures and the Evacuation of Philadelphia

    • In response to the defeat at Saratoga, Parliament dispatched the Carlisle Peace Commission to negotiate peace with Congress.
    • The commission was empowered to offer the colonies the semblance of self-rule, or what later became Commonwealth status.
    • The commission was headed by the Earl of Carlisle and included William Eden, a British statesman and diplomat, and George Johnstone, former Governor of West Florida.
    • Congress rejected the peace terms, which did not include recognition of the Declaration of Independence.
    • Portrait of Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle by Sir Joshua Reynolds 1769

  • The Aftermath of Saratoga

    • This defeat prompted Lord North to issue a proposal for peace terms in Parliament.
    • These terms were brought to the Second Continental Congress by the Carlisle Peace Commission in June 1778 and immediately rejected on the grounds that the British were unwilling to recognize the independence of the states.
    • Though it was a failure, the Carlisle Peace Commission marked the first time the British government formally agreed to negotiate with the Second Continental Congress.

  • Conclusion: The Fight for Independence

    • Britain also attempted to negotiate for peace in June 1778 when Lord Frederick North, Britain’s Prime Minister, dispatched the Carlisle Peace Commission to North America.
    • The Commission offered the colonists self-rule within the British Empire, but refused to acknowledge the full independence of the states.
    • Congress predictably refused the British peace terms.

  • The Peace Accords and the Legacy of Defeat

    • The 1973 Paris Peace Accords on "Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam" officially ended direct U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
    • The Paris Peace Accords of 1973 intended to establish peace in Vietnam and end the Vietnam War.
    • The governments of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam), the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam), and the United States, as well as the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) that represented indigenous South Vietnamese revolutionaries, signed the Agreement on Ending the War and Restoring Peace in Vietnam on January 27, 1973.
    • As a result of the accord, the International Control Commission (ICC) was replaced by International Commission of Control and Supervision (ICCS) to carry out the agreement.
    • After two clashes that left 55 South Vietnamese soldiers dead, President Thiệu announced on January 4 that the war had restarted and that the Paris Peace Accord was no longer in effect.

  • Judicial Review and Marbury v. Madison

    • The case resulted from a petition to the Supreme Court by William Marbury, who President John Adams had appointed as justice of the peace in the District of Columbia, but whose commission was not subsequently delivered.
    • An ardent Federalist and vigorous supporter of the Adams presidency, Marbury was appointed justice of the peace in the District of Columbia.
    • Without the commissions, the appointees were unable to assume their appointed offices.
    • In Jefferson's opinion, any commissions that were not delivered were void.
    • Jefferson was not pleased, but regardless, Marbury did not get his commission.

  • The Paris Peace Conference

    • The Paris Peace Conference determined the terms of peace after World War I between the victorious Allies and defeated Central Powers.
    • President Wilson recommended an international commission of inquiry to ascertain the wishes of the local inhabitants.
    • Eventually it became the purely American King-Crane Commission, an investigatory commission that toured all of Syria and Palestine during the summer of 1919, taking statements and sampling opinion.
    • World War I involved most the world, and subsequently peace negotiations did as well.
    • Analyze the contentious negotiations between the U.S., Britain, and France at the Paris Peace Conference.

  • Economic Hardship and Labor Upheaval During the Transition to Peace

    • The nation needed to turn from a wartime climate to domestic peace following the war.
    • The Wilson administration did not fully plan for the process of demobilization following the war and even with some advisers attempting to direct the president's attention to "reconstruction," his tepid support for a federal commission to oversee the change evaporated after the election of 1918.
    • Rather than consenting to the appointment of commission members to counter Republican gains in the Senate, Wilson favored the prompt dismantling of wartime boards and regulatory agencies.

  • The John F. Kennedy Administration

    • As one of his first presidential acts, Kennedy asked Congress to create the Peace Corps.
    • Since 1961, over 200,000 Americans have joined the Peace Corps, serving in 139 countries.
    • During his time in office, he signed the executive order creating the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women on December 14, 1961.
    • Former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt led the commission.

  • The XYZ Affair

    • When Adams sent a three-man delegation, Charles Pinckney, John Marshall, and Elbridge Gerry, to Paris to negotiate a peace agreement with France, French agents demanded major concessions from the United States as a condition for continuing diplomatic relations.
    • Realizing that the release of the negotiation dispatches would play in his favor, Adams decided to release government dispatches that detailed how France had demanded bribes from the United States before any peace settlement would be discussed.
    • Several weeks prior to the meeting with X, Y, and Z, the dispatches detailed how the American commission had met with French foreign minister Talleyrand to discuss French retaliation against the Jay Treaty, which the French government perceived as evidence of an Anglo-American alliance.
    • However, Adams continued to hope for a peaceful settlement with France and avoided pushing Congress towards a formal declaration of war.

  • The League of Nations

    • The League of Nations, created by the Treaty of Versailles following World War I, was an organization formed to promote diplomacy and preserve world peace.
    • The League of Nations was an international, governmental organization founded through negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, which officially brought an end to the First World War.
    • The league was the first permanent international organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace.
    • The Paris Peace Conference approved the proposal to create the League of Nations in January 1919, and the league was established by Part I of the Treaty of Versailles.
    • Members of the Commission of the League of Nations in Paris, France, 1919.