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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. Article 6:
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.
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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