Detail of Silas Deane, Esqr.Commissioner from Congress in France – Connecticut Historical Society
Silas Deane (1737-1789)
Silas Deane was a politician and diplomat credited with successfully soliciting the foreign aid the colonies needed to defeat the British during the Revolutionary War. Prior to that, he represented Wethersfield in the Connecticut Assembly. He also served as Secretary of the Connecticut Committee of Correspondence and as a delegate to the Continental Congress. After receiving an appointment to France, he was part of a delegation that signed the Treaty of Alliance, which brought the French into the Revolutionary War in 1778. Congress recalled Deane from his appointment, however, to discuss charges that he embezzled funds. To clear his name, Deane returned to Europe to gather documents necessary for his defense but died before making it back to America.
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The Rise and Fall of Silas Deane, American Patriot
Esteemed by his fellow patriots as a savvy diplomat who helped cement a strategic alliance with France during the American Revolution, Deane spent his final years under a cloud of suspicion. …[more]
