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Paris
Peace Treaty
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 description 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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Done
at Paris, this third day of September in the year of our
Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three.
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