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British-American Diplomacy
The Paris Peace Treaty
of September 30, 1783

See
the Discussion of the Treaty in Jefferson's Autobiography

Art
1

Art
2

Art
3

Art
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Art
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Art
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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, 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)

Source:
Treaties and Other International Acts of
the United States of America.
Edited by Hunter Miller
Volume 2

Documents 1-40 : 1776-1818
Washington : Government Printing Office,
1931.

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