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 nagle 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)