Page:Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies, from the papers of Thomas Jefferson - Volume 1.djvu/61

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the cares below to one, and those above to the other, and had never spoken to, or seen, one another since.

But to return to our Congress at Annapolis. The definitive treaty of peace which had been signed at Paris on the 3rd of Sep tember, 1783, and received here, could not be ratified without a House of nine states. On the 23d of December, therefore, we addressed letters to the several Governors, stating the receipt of the definitive treaty ; that seven states only were in attendance, while nine were necessary to its ratification ; and urging them to press on their delegates the necessity of their immediate attend ance. And on the 26th, to save time, I moved that the Agent of Marine (Robert Morris) should be instructed to have ready a ves sel at this place, at New York, and at some Eastern port, to carry over the ratification of the treaty when agreed to. It met the ge neral sense of the House, but was opposed by Dr. Lee, on the ground of expense, which it would authorize the Agent to incur for us ; and, he said, it would be better to ratify at once, and send on the ratification. Some members had before suggested, mat seven states were competent to the ratification. My motion was there fore postponed, and another brought forward by Mr. Read, of South Carolina, for an immediate ratification. This was debated the 26th and 27th. Read, Lee, Williamson and Jeremiah Chase, urged that ratification was a mere matter of form, that the treaty was conclusi 1 ^ from the moment it was signed by the ministers ; that, although the Confederation requires the assent of nine states to enter into a treaty, yet, that its conclusion could not be called the entrance into it ; that supposing nine states requisite, it would be in the power of five states to keep us always at war ; that nine states had virtually authorized the ratification, having ratified the provisional treaty, and instructed their ministers to agree to a de finitive one in the same terms, and the present one was, in fact, substantially, and almost verbatim, the same ; that there now re main but sixty-seven days for the ratification, lor its passage across the Atlantic, and its exchange ; that there was no hope of our soon having nine states present ; in fact, that this was the ultimate point of time to which we could venture to wait ; that if the rati fication was not in Paris by the time stipulated, the treaty would become void ; that if ratified by seven states, it would go under our seal, without its being known to Great Britain mat only seven had concurred ; that it was a question of which they had no right to take cognizance, and we were only answerable for it to our constituents ; that it was like the ratification which Great Britain had received from the Dutch, by the negociations of Sir William Temple.