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George III Acknowledges the United
States to Be Independent
Treaty of Paris 1783 - Transcript
This treaty is part of the
1783 Peace of Paris,
also called the 1783 Peace of
Versailles.
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It follows the English
transcript of the treaty.
For more information about the
treaty see
Treaty of Paris 1783
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Treaty of Paris
1783 - Seal Hartley, Adams, Franklin, and Jay
National Archives
and Records Administration |
Definitive Peace Treaty between
the United States and Great Britain
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
Brittanic 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 Britannic 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. *
*
National Archives and Records
Administration: "Some
online transcriptions of the treaty omit Delaware from the
list of former colonies, but the original text does list
Delaware."
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 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.
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
artillery 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.
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D. HARTLEY
(SEAL) |
JOHN ADAMS
(SEAL)
B. FRANKLIN (SEAL)
JOHN JAY (SEAL) |
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Source: Avalon Project, which in
turn draws from 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.
Compared with
Founders Online, National Archives, which in turn draws from
The Adams Papers, Papers
of John Adams, vol. 15, June 1783–January 1784, ed. Gregg L.
Lint, C. James Taylor, Robert F. Karachuk, Hobson Woodward,
Margaret A. Hogan, Sara B. Sikes, Mary T. Claffey, and Karen
N. Barzilay. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010,
pp. 245–251.
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