Quebec did not fall. All through the winter the Americans held on
before the place. They shivered from cold. They suffered from the
dread disease smallpox. They had difficulty in getting food. The
Canadians were insistent on having good money for what they
offered and since good money was not always in the treasury the
invading army sometimes used violence. Then the Canadians became
more reserved and chilling than ever. In hope of mending matters
Congress sent a commission to Montreal in the spring of 1776. Its
chairman was Benjamin Franklin and, with him, were two leading
Roman Catholics, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a great landowner
of Maryland, and his brother John, a priest, afterwards
Archbishop of Baltimore. It was not easy to represent as the
liberator of the Catholic Canadians the Congress which had
denounced in scathing terms the concessions in the Quebec Act to
the Catholic Church. Franklin was a master of conciliation, but
before he achieved anything a dramatic event happened. On the 6th
of May, British ships arrived at Quebec. The inhabitants rushed
to the ramparts. Cries of joy passed from street to street and
they reached the little American army, now under General Thomas,
encamped on the Plains of Abraham.
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