On This Day In 1776, Britain’s Fleet Swelled Off New York As Washington Warned ‘Delays Are Dangerous’

ROAD TO INDEPENDENCE

• On This Day In 1776, Adams Saw The Cost Of Independence
• On This Day In 1776, Jefferson Had A Draft And Washington Had A Crisis
• On This Day In 1776, Washington Sent A Life Guard Member To The Gallows For Betrayal
• On This Day In 1776, Jefferson’s Draft Reached Congress As War Erupted
• On This Day In 1776, Britain’s Fleet Appeared Off New York
• On This Day In 1776, Britain’s Fleet Swelled Off New York As Washington Warned ‘Delays Are Dangerous’
• On This Day In 1776, Independence Had A Majority But Not Unity
• On This Day In 1776, Congress Held The Actual Vote For Independence
• On This Day In 1776, The Vote Was Done But The Declaration Was Not
• On This Day In 1776, The Declaration Went To Print
• On This Day In 1776, The Declaration Hit The Newspapers
• On This Day In 1776, The Declaration Kept Moving As Washington Braced For Attack
• On This Day In 1776, Washington’s Army Heard The Declaration And New York Tore Down The King
• On This Day In 1776, Washington Warned His Army Independence Was Not A License For Riot
• On This Day In 1776, Washington Warned The British Could Strike At Any Moment
• On This Day In 1776, British Warships Fired Their Way Past Washington’s Guns
• On This Day In 1776, Washington Refused A British Letter That Would Not Call Him General
• On This Day In 1776, Congress Rushed Supplies As British Warships Threatened The Hudson
• On This Day In 1776, Congress Approved The Declaration. Now Read It.
• On This Day In 1776, Washington And Franklin Rejected Britain’s Pardon Offer
• On This Day In 1776, Congress Ordered The Declaration Onto Parchment As Washington Built Defenses
• On This Day In 1776, Boston Burned The King’s Arms As America Looked Beyond Britain
• On This Day In 1776, Washington Called Britain’s Peace Commission A Deception
• On This Day In 1776, Congress Told Washington To Deploy Troops As He Saw Fit
• On This Day In 1776, Washington Said British Troops Fought ‘To Enslave Us’
• On This Day In 1776, Washington Warned ‘The Sick Must Perish’ If The Market Failed
• On This Day In 1776, British Ships Closed In As Washington Waited For Nearly 7,000 Troops
• On This Day In 1776, A Jewish Merchant Sent The Declaration To Europe
• On This Day In 1776, Washington Warned Soldiers Not To Drink New York’s Water
• On This Day In 1776, Washington Tightened Password Security As British Ships Arrived
• On This Day In 1776, Washington Warned Troops Their Divisions Helped The Enemy
• On This Day In 1776, America’s Founders Signed Their Names Beneath The Declaration

It was Sunday, June 30, 1776.

The Declaration of Independence sat on the table in Philadelphia. Congress had read the draft two days earlier and adjourned until Monday.

New York did not get the same pause.

George Washington, 44, had learned on June 29 that roughly 45 to 50 British ships had reached the Hook near New York Harbor. By the next day, he told John Hancock, 39, that “one hundred and ten sail came in before Night,” with more seen offshore.

The British fleet was no longer coming.

It was there.

Washington now had to prepare New York for attack while also pressing officials to move William Franklin, about 46, Benjamin Franklin’s Loyalist son, out of New Jersey without delay.

“Delays are dangerous,” Washington warned.

The DX Brief

• Congress had read the Declaration draft on June 28 and adjourned until Monday.
• Washington told Hancock on June 30 that “one hundred and ten sail came in before Night,” with more seen offshore.
• He warned that a “hot Campaign” was likely about to begin.
• Washington also pressed officials to move William Franklin, Benjamin Franklin’s Loyalist son, out of New Jersey without delay.
• The day showed how quickly the military threat around New York was growing while the Declaration waited in Philadelphia.

Fleet grows at the Hook

Washington’s June 30 letter to Hancock changed the scale of the threat.

The day before, Washington had heard that roughly 45 to 50 British ships had reached the Hook. On June 30, he told Hancock the number had grown much larger.

“When I had the Honor of addressing you Yesterday, I had only been Informed of the arrival of Forty five of the Fleet in the Morning,” Washington wrote. “Since that I have received Authentic Intelligence from sundry persons, among them from General Greene, that one hundred and ten sail came in before Night.”

Washington said more ships appeared offshore around dusk.

“I have no doubt, but the whole that sailed from Hallifax, are now at the Hook,” he wrote.

That put New York on the edge of the campaign Washington had warned about for weeks.

The fleet was no longer rumor.

It was visible.

Washington warns of a hot campaign

Washington did not pretend the timing was good.

Congress had sent him resolutions to further augment the army. Washington welcomed the German battalion Congress had ordered and said it could be “a Corps of much service” if officers filled the enlistments quickly.

Then he pointed to the problem.

“It is an unlucky circumstance, that the Term of Inlistment of these three Companies and of the Rifle Battalion, should expire at this time, when a hot Campaign is in all probability about to commence,” Washington wrote.

That was the problem Washington saw.

Thomas Jefferson, 33, had written the draft that Congress read two days earlier. But on June 30, Congress had not voted for independence, and Washington was already staring at the British fleet while worrying that enlistments would expire just as the fight for New York began.

Canada still shadowed the war

Canada still hung over Washington’s thinking.

He told Hancock that Canada would have been an “Important acquisition,” but the Americans had failed to secure it.

The retreat did bring one relief.

Washington wrote that the army had escaped with relatively little loss after “such a variety of Distresses,” calling it “a most fortunate event.”

That was not victory.

It was damage control.

On June 30, Washington faced pressure from both directions: Canada slipping away in the north and Britain’s fleet massing near New York.

Adams wanted war supplies made at home

While Washington watched the British fleet gather near New York, John Adams, 40, was thinking about what the colonies needed to fight a long war.

In a June 30 letter to Cotton Tufts, Adams asked detailed questions about plans for a foundry, including who would run it, where it would be located, and whether it would cast brass, iron, or both.

“Musquetts and Bayonnetts are excessively wanted in all the Colonies,” Adams wrote.

He said the colonies had been badly short of powder a year earlier, but that crisis had eased. Arms were now “almost in as much Demand.”

Then Adams made the broader point.

“I cannot think that Country safe, which has not within itself every Material necessary for War, and the Art of making Use of those Materials,” he wrote.

Adams listed what he wanted the colonies to produce or secure in reliable supply: saltpetre, sulphur, flints, lead, cannon, mortars, ball, shells, muskets, and powder.

He added one more basic need.

“Another Thing my Heart is set upon is Salt,” Adams wrote.

While Washington watched the fleet, Adams was thinking about the supply chain needed to fight it.

Washington warns ‘Delays are dangerous’

The British fleet was not Washington’s only problem.

William Franklin, about 46, was Benjamin Franklin’s Loyalist son and New Jersey’s royal governor. The American Battlefield Trust identifies William Franklin as the last royal governor of New Jersey and a Loyalist who remained committed to the Crown.

That family split mattered politically and militarily.

Benjamin Franklin, 70, was helping lead the Patriot cause in Philadelphia. His son had become a Loyalist threat in New Jersey, sitting between Congress in Philadelphia and Washington’s army in New York.

The New Jersey convention had declared William Franklin “an Enemy to the Liberties of America” and ordered him sent under guard to Connecticut.

But on June 30, Washington learned Franklin’s escort had stopped at Hackensack.

Washington wanted him moved.

“I would enjoin it upon you to set off immediately, and carry the Resolve of Convention into Execution,” Washington wrote to the captain of Franklin’s guard. “Delays are dangerous.”

He told the officer to make “all possible Dispatch” and warned that if anything happened, the guard could not answer for the neglect.

That warning fit the moment.

British ships were gathering offshore. Loyalist activity had already alarmed Washington. The Hickey plot was fresh. Washington had no patience for delay when internal threats could help the enemy.

Declaration waits in Philadelphia

The Declaration stayed on the table June 30.

The National Park Service says Jefferson’s revised draft reached Congress on June 28. Congress would vote for independence on July 2 and approve the final text on July 4.

That made June 30 a waiting day in Philadelphia.

The draft had reached Congress, but the vote had not happened.

While delegates were away until Monday, Washington watched the British fleet gather near New York.

Why it mattered

June 30, 1776, shows the pause before the break.

In Philadelphia, the Declaration waited on the table.

In New York, Washington watched the British fleet grow from a few dozen ships to more than 100 sail.

He worried about expiring enlistments, the loss of Canada, and the Loyalist threat inside the colonies. Even Benjamin Franklin’s own son had become part of the problem.

The colonies were days away from approving the words that would define the break with Britain.

But on June 30, Washington had the immediate question in front of him.

Could his army hold New York when the British came?

Tomorrow on Road to Independence

July 1, 1776: Congress returned to the independence question. The first vote did not settle everything, and some colonies still hesitated.

Read yesterday’s installment: Britain’s Fleet Appeared Off New York.