June 11, 1776: Congress resolves to name committees to "prepare a plan of treaties to be proposed to foreign powers," and "to prepare and digest the form of a confederation to be entered into between these colonies." These panels are in addition to the one drafting the Declaration of Independence.
June 11, 1776: The news reaches London of the Continental Congress’ decision to outfit privateers to seize British ships. The French chargé d'affaires, Charles-Jean Garnier writes promptly to Paris of the advantages this brings for France in the West Indies trade.
June 11, 1776: Responding to reports that bands of people are roaming New York’s streets attacking suspected loyalists, the Provincial Congress condemns these acts. However, it rationalizes that "a real regard to liberty" is causing the mob behavior. 1/2
June 11, 1776: Notorious loyalist John Goodrich, a privateer who has seized hundreds of ships in the Chesapeake, is found guilty by the Virginia Convention of bearing arms against the colony. His property will be seized; once his health permits, he is to be jailed in Charlottesville.
”…that we and you may be as one people, and have but one heart, and be kind to one another like brethren.” The king of Great Britain, it’s explained, “is angry with us, because we will not let him take away from us our land…and because we will not do everything that he bids us.” 2/3
