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1783
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)
  
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