Having been also appointed in conjunction with Admiral Digby, a commissioner to negotiate a peace, he lost no time in conveying to General Washington copies of the votes of the British Parliament, and of a bill which had been introduced on the part of administration, authorizing his Majesty to conclude a peace or truce with those who were still denominated "the revolted colonies of North America." These papers, he said, would manifest the dispositions prevailing with the government and people of England towards those of America; and, if the like pacific temper should prevail in this country, both inclination and duty would lead him to meet it with the most zealous concurrence.

He had addressed to congress, he said, a letter containing the same communications, and he solicited a passport for the person who should convey it.
At this time, the bill enabling the British monarch to conclude a peace or truce with America had not become a law; nor was any assurance given that the present commissioners were empowered to offer other terms than those which had been formerly rejected.

General Carleton therefore could not hope that negotiations would commence on such a basis; nor be disappointed at the refusal of the passports he requested by congress, to whom the application was, of course, referred.

The letter may have been written for the general purpose of conciliation, and of producing a disposition in the United States on the subject of hostilities, corresponding with that which had been expressed in the House of Commons.

But the situation of the United States justified a suspicion of different motives; and prudence required that their conduct should be influenced by that suspicion.
The repugnance of the king to a dismemberment of the empire was understood; and it was thought probable that the sentiments expressed in the House of Commons might be attributable rather to a desire of changing ministers, than to any fixed determination to relinquish the design of reannexing America to the crown.
Under these impressions, the overtures now made were considered as opiates, administered to lull the spirit of vigilance which the guardians of the public safety laboured to keep up, into a state of fatal repose; and to prevent those measures of security which it might yet be necessary to adopt.
This jealousy was nourished by all the intelligence received from Europe.