Lead:  The events surrounding the recall of Silas Deane in 1778 revealed the first public exposure of political and personal divisions among the leaders of the new American Republic. Congress began airing its dirty linen and hasn’t stopped since.

Intro.: A Moment in Time with Dan Roberts.

Content: Connecticut native Silas Deane had been in Paris during the early months of 1776 sent by Congress to open trade, buy munitions for the Army on credit, and work for French recognition of American independence. He was very successful in large part because the government of Louis XVI was looking for a path of revenge against Britain for France’s losses in the Seven Years War, which ended in 1763. Even before the crucial Battle of Saratoga, New York in 1777 demonstrated that the Americans might just pull off this Revolution, a supposedly neutral France secretly sent supplies to help.

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