Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 18 Part 2c.djvu/268

 GREAT BRITAIN, 1782. 261 GREAT BRITAIN. GREAT BRITAIN, 1782. PROVISIONAL ARTICLES FOR TREA G STATES OF AMERICA AND HIS PARIS NOVEMBER 30, 178*2; PROCLAMATION ORDERED BY CONGRESS APRIL 11, 1783. Articles agreed upon, by and between Richard Oswald, Esquire, the Oommissicner of His Britannia Majesty, for treating of peace with the Commissioners of the United States of America, in behabf of his said Majesty on the one part, and-John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and Henry Laurens, four of the Commissioners of the said States for treating of peace with the Commissioner ofhis said Majesty, on their behay, on the other part. 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 is not to be concluded untill terms of a peace shall be agreed upon between Great Britain and France, and His Britannic Majesty shall be ready to conclude such treaty accordingly. Whereas reciprocal advantages and mutual convenience are found by Preamble. experience to form the only permanent foundation of peace and friendship between States, it is agreed to form the articles of the proposed treaty on such principles of liberal equity and reciprocity, as that partial advantages (those seeds of discord) being excluded, such a beneficial and satisfactory intercourse between the two countries may be established as to promise and secure to both perpetual peace and harmony. Aarxcnn I. His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United States, viz., Independence of New Hampshire, Massachuset’s Bay, Rhode Island and Providence the Umm} Stem Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Dela- “°k“°wl°‘]g°d‘ ware, 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, relinqui hes all claim to the Gouvernment, propriety, and territorial rights of the same and every part thereof; and that all disputes which might arise in future on the subject of the bonndariesof the said United States may be prevented, it is hereby agreed and declared that the following are and shall be their boundaries, viz: Anrronn II. From the northwest angle of Nova Scotia, viz., that angle which is t &Q¤];¤$*·Yi¤¤ ¤¤· formed by a line drawn due north from the source of St. Croix River to "’ "’ ‘ the Highlands; along the Highlands which divide those rivers that empty themselves into the river St. Lawrence, from those which fall into the Atlantic Qcean, to the northwesternmost head of Connecticut River; thence down along the middle of that river to the 45th degree of north latitude; from thence, by a line due west on said latitude untill it strikes the river Iroquois or Cataraquy; thence along the middle of said river into Lake Ontario, through the middle of said lake