In the name of the most holy and undivided Trinity.
It having pleased the Divine Providence to dispose the hearts of the
most serene and most potent Prince George the Third, by the grace of God,
king of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith, duke of
Brunswick and Lunebourg, arch- treasurer and prince elector of the Holy
Roman Empire etc., and of the United States of America, to forget all past
misunderstandings and differences that have unhappily interrupted the good
correspondence and friendship which they mutually wish to restore, and to
establish such a beneficial and satisfactory intercourse , between the two
countries upon the ground of reciprocal advantages and mutual convenience
as may promote and secure to both perpetual peace and harmony; and having
for this desirable end already laid the foundation of peace and
reconciliation by the Provisional Articles signed at Paris on the 30th of
November 1782, by the commissioners empowered on each part, which articles
were agreed to be inserted in and constitute the Treaty of Peace proposed
to be concluded between the Crown of Great Britain and the said United
States, but which treaty was not to be concluded until terms of peace
should be agreed upon between Great Britain and France and his Britannic
Majesty should be ready to conclude such treaty accordingly; and the
treaty between Great Britain and France having since been concluded, his
Britannic Majesty and the United States of America, in order to carry into
full effect the Provisional Articles above mentioned, according to the
tenor thereof, have constituted and appointed, that is to say his
Britannic Majesty on his part, David Hartley, Esqr., member of the
Parliament of Great Britain, and the said United States on their part,
John Adams, Esqr., late a commissioner of the United States of America at
the court of Versailles, late delegate in Congress from the state of
Massachusetts, and chief justice of the said state, and minister
plenipotentiary of the said United States to their high mightinesses the
States General of the United Netherlands; Benjamin Franklin, Esqr., late
delegate in Congress from the state of Pennsylvania, president of the
convention of the said state, and minister plenipotentiary from the United
States of America at the court of Versailles; John Jay, Esqr., late
president of Congress and chief justice of the state of New York, and
minister plenipotentiary from the said United States at the court of
Madrid; to be plenipotentiaries for the concluding and signing the present
definitive treaty; who after having reciprocally communicated their
respective full powers have agreed upon and confirmed the following
articles.
Article 1:
His Brittanic Majesty acknowledges the said United States, viz., New
Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations,
Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North
Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, to be free sovereign and independent
states, that he treats with them as such, and for himself, his heirs, and
successors, relinquishes all claims to the government, propriety, and
territorial rights of the same and every part thereof.
Article 2:
And that all disputes which might arise in future on the subject of the
boundaries of the said United States may be prevented, it is hereby agreed
and declared, that the following are and shall be their boundaries, viz.;
from the northwest angle of Nova Scotia, viz., that angle which is formed
by a line drawn due north from the source of St. Croix River to the
highlands; along the said highlands which divide those rivers that empty
themselves into the river St. Lawrence, from those which fall into the
Atlantic Ocean, to the northwesternmost head of Connecticut River; thence
down along the middle of that river to the forty-fifth degree of north
latitude; from thence by a line due west on said latitude until it strikes
the river Iroquois or Cataraquy; thence along the middle of said river
into Lake Ontario; through the middle of said lake until it strikes the
communication by water between that lake and Lake Erie; thence along the
middle of said communication into Lake Erie, through the middle of said
lake until it arrives at the water communication between that lake and
Lake Huron; thence along the middle of said water communication into Lake
Huron, thence through the middle of said lake to the water communication
between that lake and Lake Superior; thence through Lake Superior
northward of the Isles Royal and Phelipeaux to the Long Lake; thence
through the middle of said Long Lake and the water communication between
it and the Lake of the Woods, to the said Lake of the Woods; thence
through the said lake to the most northwesternmost point thereof, and from
thence on a due west course to the river Mississippi; thence by a line to
be drawn along the middle of the said river Mississippi until it shall
intersect the northernmost part of the thirty-first degree of north
latitude, South, by a line to be drawn due east from the determination of
the line last mentioned in the latitude of thirty-one degrees of the
equator, to the middle of the river Apalachicola or Catahouche; thence
along the middle thereof to its junction with the Flint River, thence
straight to the head of Saint Mary's River; and thence down along the
middle of Saint Mary's River to the Atlantic Ocean; east, by a line to be
drawn along the middle of the river Saint Croix, from its mouth in the Bay
of Fundy to its source, and from its source directly north to the
aforesaid highlands which divide the rivers that fall into the Atlantic
Ocean from those which fall into the river Saint Lawrence; comprehending
all islands within twenty leagues of any part of the shores of the United
States, and lying between lines to be drawn due east from the points where
the aforesaid boundaries between Nova Scotia on the one part and East
Florida on the other shall, respectively, touch the Bay of Fundy and the
Atlantic Ocean, excepting such islands as now are or heretofore have been
within the limits of the said province of Nova Scotia.
Article 3:
It is agreed that the people of the United States shall continue to
enjoy unmolested the right to take fish of every kind on the Grand Bank
and on all the other banks of Newfoundland, also in the Gulf of Saint
Lawrence and at all other places in the sea, where the inhabitants of both
countries used at any time heretofore to fish. And also that the
inhabitants of the United States shall have liberty to take fish of every
kind on such part of the coast of Newfoundland as British fishermen shall
use, (but not to dry or cure the same on that island) and also on the
coasts, bays and creeks of all other of his Brittanic Majesty's dominions
in America; and that the American fishermen shall have liberty to dry and
cure fish in any of the unsettled bays, harbors, and creeks of Nova
Scotia, Magdalen Islands, and Labrador, so long as the same shall remain
unsettled, but so soon as the same or either of them shall be settled, it
shall not be lawful for the said fishermen to dry or cure fish at such
settlement without a previous agreement for that purpose with the
inhabitants, proprietors, or possessors of the ground.
Article 4:
It is agreed that creditors on either side shall meet with no lawful
impediment to the recovery of the full value in sterling money of all bona
fide debts heretofore contracted.
Article 5:
It is agreed that Congress shall earnestly recommend it to the
legislatures of the respective states to provide for the restitution of
all estates, rights, and properties, which have been confiscated belonging
to real British subjects; and also of the estates, rights, and properties
of persons resident in districts in the possession on his Majesty's arms
and who have not borne arms against the said United States. And that
persons of any other decription shall have free liberty to go to any part
or parts of any of the thirteen United States and therein to remain twelve
months unmolested in their endeavors to obtain the restitution of such of
their estates, rights, and properties as may have been confiscated; and
that Congress shall also earnestly recommend to the several states a
reconsideration and revision of all acts or laws regarding the premises,
so as to render the said laws or acts perfectly consistent not only with
justice and equity but with that spirit of conciliation which on the
return of the blessings of peace should universally prevail. And that
Congress shall also earnestly recommend to the several states that the
estates, rights, and properties, of such last mentioned persons shall be
restored to them, they refunding to any persons who may be now in
possession the bona fide price (where any has been given) which such
persons may have paid on purchasing any of the said lands, rights, or
properties since the confiscation.
And it is agreed that all persons who have any interest in confiscated
lands, either by debts, marriage settlements, or otherwise, shall meet
with no lawful impediment in the prosecution of their just rights.
Article 6:
That there shall be no future confiscations made nor any prosecutions
commenced against any person or persons for, or by reason of, the part
which he or they may have taken in the present war, and that no person
shall on that account suffer any future loss or damage, either in his
person, liberty, or property; and that those who may be in confinement on
such charges at the time of the ratification of the treaty in America
shall be immediately set at liberty, and the prosecutions so commenced be
discontinued.
Article 7:
There shall be a firm and perpetual peace between his Brittanic Majesty
and the said states, and between the subjects of the one and the citizens
of the other, wherefore all hostilities both by sea and land shall from
henceforth cease. All prisoners on both sides shall be set at liberty, and
his Brittanic Majesty shall with all convenient speed, and without causing
any destruction, or carrying away any Negroes or other property of the
American inhabitants, withdraw all his armies, garrisons, and fleets from
the said United States, and from every post, place, and harbor within the
same; leaving in all fortifications, the American artilery that may be
therein; and shall also order and cause all archives, records, deeds, and
papers belonging to any of the said states, or their citizens, which in
the course of the war may have fallen into the hands of his officers, to
be forthwith restored and delivered to the proper states and persons to
whom they belong.
Article 8:
The navigation of the river Mississippi, from its source to the ocean,
shall forever remain free and open to the subjects of Great Britain and
the citizens of the United States.
Article 9:
In case it should so happen that any place or territory belonging to
Great Britain or to the United States should have been conquered by the
arms of either from the other before the arrival of the said Provisional
Articles in America, it is agreed that the same shall be restored without
difficulty and without requiring any compensation.
Article 10:
The solemn ratifications of the present treaty expedited in good and
due form shall be exchanged between the contracting parties in the space
of six months or sooner, if possible, to be computed from the day of the
signatures of the present treaty. In witness whereof we the undersigned,
their ministers plenipotentiary, have in their name and in virtue of our
full powers, signed with our hands the present definitive treaty and
caused the seals of our arms to be affixed thereto.
Done at Paris, this third day of September in the year of our Lord, one
thousand seven hundred and eighty-three.
D. Hartley (SEAL)
John Adams (SEAL)
B. Franklin (SEAL)
John Jay (SEAL)
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