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January 18, 2010

Transcript of Treaty of Paris (1783)

The Definitive Treaty of Peace 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,
Delaware, 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)

Transcription courtesy of the Avalon
Project at Yale Law School.

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