SEPARATE ARTICLE.

It is hereby understood and agreed that in case Great Britain, at the conclusion of the present war, shall recover, or be put in possession of West Florida, the line of north boundary between the said province and the United States shall be a line drawn from the mouth of the river Yassous, where it unites with the Mississippi, due east, to the river Apalachicola.

Done at Paris the thirtieth day of November, in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty-two.

ARMISTICE DECLARING A CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES.

Concluded January 20, 1783.

We, the undersigned Ministers Plenipotentiary of the United States of North America, having received from Mr. Fitz Herbert, Minister Plenipotentiary of his Britannic Majesty, a declaration relative to a suspension of arms to be established between his said Majesty and the said States, the tenor whereof is as follows:

"Whereas the preliminary articles agreed upon and signed this day, between his Majesty the King of Great Britain and his Majesty the Most Christian King on the one part, and likewise between his said Britannic Majesty and his Catholic Majesty on the other part, contain the stipulation of a cessation of hostilities between those three Powers, which is to take place after the exchange of the ratifications of the said preliminary articles: And whereas, by the provisional treaty signed on the thirtieth day of November last, between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of North America, it hath been stipulated that that treaty should take effect as soon as peace should be established between the said Crowns: The undersigned Minister Plenipotentiary of His Britannic Majesty does declare, in the name and by the express order of the King, his master, that the said United States of North America, their subjects, and their possessions, shall be comprehended in the above-mentioned suspension of arms. and that in consequence they shall enjoy the benefit of the cessation of hostilities at the same epochs and in the same manner as the three Crowns above mentioned, their subjects, and their respective possessions; the whole upon condition that on the part and in the name of the said United States of North America, a similar declaration shall be delivered, expressly declaring their assent to the present suspension of arms, and contain'g the assurance of the most perfect reciprocity on their part.

"In faith whereof we, the Minister Plenipotentiary of His Britannic Majesty, have signed the present declaration, and have caused the seal of our arms to be thereto affixed.

"VERSAILLES, Jan'y 20, 1783.

(Signed).

"ALLEYNE FITZ HERBERT. [SEAL.]

Have, in the name of the said United States of North America, and by virtue of the powers with which they have vested us, accepted the above declaration, do by these presents merely and simply accept it, and do reciprocally declare that the said States shall cause all hostilities to cease against his Britannic Majesty, his subjects, and his possessions, at the terms and epochs agreed upon between his said Majesty the King of Great Britain, His Majesty the King of France, and His Majesty the King of Spain, so, and in the same manner, as has been agreed between those three Crowns, and to produce the same effects. In faith whereof we, the Ministers Plenipotentiary of the United States, North America, have signed the present declaration, and have affixed thereto the seal of our arms.

VERSAILLES, January 20, 1783.

[SEAL.] [SEAL.]

JOHN ADAMS.
B. FRANKLIN.

Copy of the first and twenty-second of the preliminary articles, between France and Great Britain, signed at Versailles the 20th January, 1783.

ARTICLE I.

As soon as the preliminaries shall be signed and ratified, sincere friendship shall be re-established between His Most Christian Majesty and His Britannic Majesty, their kingdoms, states, and subjects, by sea and by land, in all parts of the world; orders shall be sent to the armies and squadrons, as well as to the subjects of the two Powers, to cease all hostilities and to live in the most perfect union, forgetting the past, according to the order and example of their sovereigns; and for the execution of this article sea-passes shall be given on each side to the ships which shall be dispatched to carry the news to the possessions of the said Powers.

ARTICLE XXII.

To prevent all the causes of complaint and dispute which might arise on account of the prizes which may be taken at sea after the signing of these preliminary articles, it is reciprocally agreed that the vessels and effects which may be taken in the Channel and in the North Seas, after the space of twelve days, to be computed from the ratification of the present preliminary articles, shall be restored on each side. That the term shall be of one month from the Channel and the North Seas to the Canary Islands inclusively, whether in the ocean or in the Mediterranean; of two months from the said Canary Islands to the equinoxial line or equator; and lastly, of five months in all other parts of the world without any exception, nor other more particular distinction of times and places.

1783.

DEFINITIVE TREATY OF PEACE.","

Concluded at Paris September 3, 1783; ratified by Congress January 14, 1784; proclaimed January 14, 1784.

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 Luneburg, Arch-Treasurer and Prince Elector of the Holy Roman Empire, &ca., 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 Nov'r, 1782, by the commissioners empowered on each part, which articles were agreed to be inserted in and to 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

a See note concerning treaties of 1782, 1783, 1794, and 1802. Page 580. Federal cases: Republica v. Gordon (1 Dall., 233), Georgia v. Brailsford (3 Dall., 1), Ware v. Hylton (3 Dall., 199), Hunter v. Fairfax (3 Dall., 305), Hopkirk v. Bell (3 Cranch, 454, 4 Cranch, 164), M'Ilvaine v. Coxe's Lessee (4 Cranch, 209), Higginson v. Mein (4 Cranch, 415), Owings v. Norwood's Lessee (5 Cranch, 344), Smith v. Maryland (6 Cranch, 286), Fairfax v. Hunter (7 Cranch, 603), Martin v. Hunter's Lessee (1 Wheat., 304), Orr v. Hodgson (4 Wheat., 453), Blight's Lessee v. Rochester (7 Wheat., 535), Society for Propagation of the Gospel v. New Haven (8 Wheat., 464), Harcourt v. Gaillard (12 Wheat., 523), Shanks v. Dupont (3 Pet., 242), Carver v. Jackson (4 Pet., 1), U. S. v. Repentigny (5 Wall., 211), Hylton's Lessee v. Brown (1 Wash. C. C., 298, 343), Gordon's Lessee v. Kerr( 1 Wash. C. C., 322), Fisher v. Harnden (1 Paine C. C., 55), Jones v. Walker (2 Paine C. C., 688), Dunlop v. Alexander (1 Cranch C. C., 498).

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, esq're, 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, esq're, 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 the 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 I.

His Britannic 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 II.

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 Saint 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 the 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 northwestern 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 north 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 strait to the head of St. Mary's River; and thence down along the middle of St. Mary's River to the Atlantic Ocean. East, by a line to be drawn along the middle of the river St. 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 St. 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 III.

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 Gulph 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 Britannic Majesty's dominions in America; and that the American fishermen shall have liberty to dry and cure fish in any of the unsettled bays, harbours 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 settlements, without a previous agreement for that purpose with the inhabitants, proprietors or possessors of the ground.

ARTICLE IV.

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 V.

It is agreed that the 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 of 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 endeavours to obtain the restitution of such of their estates, rights and