Skip to main content

1782 Two Hundred Years Ago

March 2023
1min read


Ever since the news of Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown had reached England late in November, the war government of Lord North had come under increasing attack. Although the prime minister had been against the war from the beginning, and for the past three years had known victory was hopeless, his sovereign, the intractable George III, was determined to keep the Colonies.

Marshaling such allies as he still possessed, the king embarked on a holding action. He provoked the resignation of the highly unpopular Lord George Germain, who, as secretary of state for the American Colonies, was responsible for running the war. (The king wanted him out so badly that, despite his lamentable record, Germain was able to extort a peerage in return.)

George III replaced him with Welbore Ellis, a malleable “hack,” according to Horace Walpole, who combined the “circumstantial minuteness of a church warden and the vigour of another Methusalem.” But getting rid of Germain postponed the inevitable for a few weeks only. On February 22 a motion in the House of Commons against further prosecution of the war failed by a single vote; on the twenty-seventh it was carried. A week later the House passed a resolution condemning as “enemies to the country” all those who continued to promote the war “for the purpose of reducing the colonies to obedience by force.”

George III, furious, refused to give up and even went so far as drafting an announcement of his abdication.

On March 15 a vote of no confidence missed defeating North by a scant nine votes. Soon afterward a group of country gentlemen who had been supporting the war dropped away. With another vote looming on the twentieth, North told the king it was finally over. “Your majesty is well apprized,” he wrote, “that in this country the Prince of the Throne cannot with prudence oppose the deliberate resolution of the House of Commons.”

The king sulkily replied that if North resigned precipitantly, he would “for ever forfeit my regard.” But on March 20 North stepped down.

He was succeeded by Lord Rockingham, whose ministry two days later decided to open direct negotiations with America.

We hope you enjoy our work.

Please support this 72-year tradition of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to American Heritage.

Donate

Stories published from "February/March 1982"

Authored by: Carmine A. Prioli

In the shadow of Bunker Hill, bigots perpetrated an atrocity that showed a shocked nation that the fires of the Reformation still burned in the New World

Authored by: Charles B. Strozier

To stave off despair, the President relied on a sense of humor that was rich, self-deprecating—and surprisingly bawdy

Authored by: The Editors

about foreign policy, his opponent, the voters, and the polls

Authored by: The Editors

and plans a counterattack

Authored by: The Editors

The Combat Art of Albert K. Murray

Authored by: Oscar V. Armstrong

Once again, Americans are learning the delicate art of trading with the biggest market on earth. Here’s how they did it the first time.

Authored by: James Wunsch

—More than a century ago, the city of St. Louis enacted a well-thought-out plan to legalize vice. What went wrong? Everything .

Authored by: The Editors

The sad story of a magazine born eighty years too soon

Authored by: The Editors

Far from home and in the face of every kind of privation, the Civil War soldier did his best to re-create the world he left behind him

Featured Articles

Famous writers including Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, and the Alcotts turned Sleepy Hollow Cemetery into our country’s first conservation project.

Native American peoples and the lands they possessed loomed large for Washington, from his first trips westward as a surveyor to his years as President.

In his Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln embodied leading in a time of polarization, political disagreement, and differing understandings of reality.

A hundred years ago, America was rocked by riots, repression, and racial violence.

During Pres. Washington’s first term, an epidemic killed one tenth of all the inhabitants of Philadelphia, then the capital of the young United States.

Now a popular state park, the unassuming geological feature along the Illinois River has served as the site of centuries of human habitation and discovery.  

The recent discovery of the hull of the battleship Nevada recalls her dramatic action at Pearl Harbor and ultimate revenge on D-Day as the first ship to fire on the Nazis.

Our research reveals that 19 artworks in the U.S. Capitol honor men who were Confederate officers or officials. What many of them said, and did, is truly despicable.

Here is probably the most wide-ranging look at Presidential misbehavior ever published in a magazine.

When Germany unleashed its blitzkreig in 1939, the U.S. Army was only the 17th largest in the world. FDR and Marshall had to build a fighting force able to take on the Nazis, against the wishes of many in Congress.

Roast pig, boiled rockfish, and apple pie were among the dishes George and Martha enjoyed during the holiday in 1797. Here are some actual recipes.

Born during Jim Crow, Belle da Costa Greene perfected the art of "passing" while working for one of the most powerful men in America.