Complete Bookshop/CompleteWorkshop.iso/history/hist-doc/paristre.txt

Text File | 1991-08-26 | 4KB | 76 lines

****** THE PARIS PEACE TREATY (PEACE TREATY of 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    "!Q
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.,bQ
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 61+kQr plenipotentiary c"+)e.%

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 articlY.)x

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, èand 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 thYj%1
of