In August 1775, King George III declared all the colonies to be in rebellion. In October, as a head of the committee of three, Franklin met with General George Washington in Massachusetts to confer with the general about his most pressing needs. Washington received the support of Franklin and the others to impose severe discipline in the troops innocent of military regimen. Franklin inclined in the direction of complete separation, but his son, William, royal governor of New Jersey, moved in the opposite direction. In January 1776, Thomas Paine produced the most widely read tract of the American Revolution, Common Sense. After Franklin had succeeded in February 1778 in signing treaties of amity, commerce, and military alliance with France, he spent the remainder of his time in France living comfortably with servants. He was appointed to a Peace Commission in the early summer of 1781.