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they have made all their uses of us.’
But the
shortest way of defeating such a plan was to proceed at once to frame the treaty of peace with
England.
Franklin saw with dismay how fast the sands of
Shelburne's official life were running out, and that with his removal the only chance of a favorable peace now so nearly concluded would be lost; but his advice brought upon him the suspicions of
Jay.
Oswald not only communicated a copy of his commission, but a part of his instructions and a letter from the
secretary of state, promising in the king's name to grant to
America ‘full, complete, and unconditional independence in the most explicit manner as an article of treaty.’
But
Jay ‘positively refused to treat with
Oswald under his commission;’ so that the negotiation was wholly suspended and put to the greatest hazard.
It was time for the war in
America to come to an end. British parties, under leaders selected from the most brutal of mankind, were scouring the interior of the southern country, robbing, destroying,
and taking life at their pleasure.
‘On the twelfth of March,’ writes
David Fanning, the ruffian leader of one of these bands, ‘my men being all properly equipped, assembled together to give the rebels a small scourge, which we set out for.’
They came upon the plantation of
Andrew Balfour, of
Randolph county, who had been a member of the North Carolina assembly, and held a commission in the militia.
Breaking into his house, they fired at him in the presence of his sister and daughter, the first ball passing through his body, the second through his neck.
On their way to another militia officer, they
