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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 o ther description shall have free liberty to go to any part or parts of any of the Thirteen United States, and therein to remain 12 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 pos-. session, 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 VI. That there shall be no future confiscations made, or 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 VII. There shall be a firm and perpetual peace between his Britannic 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 then immediately cease; all prisoners on both sides shall be set at liberty, and his Britannic 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 United States, and from every port, place and harbour

harbour within the same; leaving in all fortifications the Ame rican 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 VIII. The navigation of the river Missisippi, 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 IX. In case it should so happen that any place.or territory belonging to Great-Britain, or to the United States, should be conquered by the arms of either, from the other, before the arrival of these articles in America, it is agreed that the same shall be restored without difficulty, and without requiring any compensation.

Done at Paris, the thirtieth day of
November, in the year of our

Lord one thousand seven hun

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By the public prints we learn, that the following are the prin cipal articles of peace between the other powers. France is to retain Tobago and Senegal; but is to restore to Great-Britain, fort James, on the river Gambia, Grenada, the Grenadines, St. Vincent's, Dominica, St. Christopher's, Nevis and Montserrat. Great Britain is to restore to France, Goree, St. Lucie, St. Pierre and Miquelon. The fishery of France and Great-Britain on the coast of Newfoundland, to remain on the same footing on which they were by the treaty of 1763, except that part of the coast of Bonavista at Cape St. John's, which is to belong to the British.

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France is to be re-established in the East-Indians, as well in Bengal, as on the east and west coast of the Peninsula, as regulated by the trealy of 1763. The articles of all preceding treaties concerning the demolition of Dunkirk, are to be suppressed. Spain is to retain Minorca and West-Florida; and Great-Britain cedes East-Florida to Spain, An agreement is to be entered into between Spain and Great-Britain, about the cutting of wood in the bay of Honduras. St. Eustatia, Demarara and Issequibo, are to be restored by the French to the United Provinces.

At 12 o'clock on the 19th of April, the day which completed. the eighth year of the war, the cessation of hostilt es between the United States and Great-Britain was proclaimed in the American army by order of general Washington.

Though it is stipulated by the 7th article of the provisional treaty, that his Britannic Majesty shall, without carrying away any negroes, or other property of the American inhabitants, withdraw all his armies, garrisons, and fleets, from the United States," yet a considerable number of negroes belonging to the citizens of these states were carried off. This produced a conference between general Washington and Sir Guy Carleton on the subject, at Taapan on the 6th of May. Sir Guy principally insisted, that he conceived it would not have been the intention of the British government, by the treaty of peace, to reduce themselves to the necessity of violating their faith to the negroes, who came into the British lines under the proclamations of his predecessors. He forbore to express his sentiments on the propricty of these proclamations; but urged that delivering up the negroes to their former masters, would be delivering them up, some possibly to executions, and others to severe punishments, which in his opinion would be a dishonorable violation of the public faith pledged to the negroes in the proclamations. He observed, that if the sending away of the negroes should hereafter be declared an infraction of the treaty, compensation must be made to the owners by the crown of Great-Britain; and that he had taken measures to provide for this, by directing a register to be kept of all the negroes who were sent off, specifying the name, age, and occupation of the slave, and the name and place of residence of his former master. He remarked, that he was not by the treaty held to deliver up any property, but was only restrained from carrying it away. He concluded the conversation on the subject by saying, he imagined that the mode of compensating, as well as the accounts and other points with respect to which there was no express-provision made by the treaty, must be adjudged by commissioners to be hereafter appointed by the two nations. VOL. III.

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On the 26th of May congress resolved, that the American ministers plenipotentiary for negociating the peace should be directed to remonstrate on the subject to the court of Great-Britain, and to take proper measures for obtaining such reparation as the nature of the case would admit. The same day they resolved, that general Washington should be instructed to grant furloughs to the non-commissioned officers and soldiers who had in listed for the war, together with a proportionable number of commissioned officers of the different grades; and that the general and secreta ry at war should take the proper measures for conducting those troops home in such a manner as might be most convenient to themselves and to the states through which they might pass; and that the men thus furloughed should be allowed to take their arms with them. Something of a similar resolution was taken respecting the North-Carolina troops under general Greene. may think it worth recording, that Greene wrote on the 2d of Feb. from Charleston-" Ever since the enemy have been gone, we have been obliged to subsist the troops at the point of the bayonet. The state agents dropped the business the moment Charleston was evacuated, nor could the authority or influeuce of government induce them to continue a moment longer." More than three weeks before the soldiers were ordered to be furloughed, congress called upon the respective states to forward the collection of their taxes, that so the financier might have. wherewith to advance them a part of their pay before they left the field; and he at the same time was directed to make the necessary arrangements for carrying the views of congress into execution.

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The resolve of congress for furloughing the soldiers inlisted for the war, and a proportionate number of officers, and the order of the commander in chief founded upon it on the 2d of June, excited astonishment and chagrin in the generals and officers commanding regiments and corps in the cantonment on Hudson's-river. They addressed their commander upon the occasion on the 5th: solicited his further aid on their behalf; and entreated that his order might be so far varied, as that no officer or soldier should be obliged to receive a furlough, until congress could be apprized of the wretched situation into which the army must be plunged by a conformity to it. The next day general Washington returned them a satisfactory answer. He expressed his hope, that the financier's notes for three months pay to the army would soon arrive, and that the settlement of accounts might be completed in a very few days; by which the two subjects of the army's complaint would be removed.

Affairs were so regulated, that by the middle of June the soldiers were daily returning home with such good order as did

them

them great honor. On the 18th of the month, gen. Washington addressed a circular letter to the several governors and presidents of the United States, announcing his intended resignation of the command of the army, and expressing his thoughts as to those wise and salutary measures which he thought could alone make the states a great and flourishing people. There are four things (he said) which I humbly conceive are essential to the well-being, I may venture to say, to the existence of the United States as an independent power. 1st. An indissoluble union of the states under one foederal head. 2dly. A sacred regard to public justice. 3dly. The adoption of a proper peace establishment. And 4thly. The prevalence of that pacific and friendly disposition among the people of the United States, which will induce them to forget their local prejudices and politics; to make those mutual concessions which are requisite to the general prosperity; and, in some instances, to sacrifice their individual advantages to the interest of the community. These are the pillars on whicle the glorious fabric of our independency and national character must be supported." Toward the close, his words were "It remains then, to be my final and only request, that your excellency will communicate these sentiments to your legislature, at their next meeting, and that they may be considered as the legacy of one who has ardently wished, on all occasions, to be useful to his country, and who, even in the shade of retirement, will not fail to implore the divine benediction upon it."

A committee of congress having been appointed to enquire fully into the proceedings of the office of finance, reported on the 17th of June, that in examining the reforms which had been made in the public expenditures, their attention was necessarily called to the expenditures of former years; and that in compar ing these with the present, and making every allowance for the difference of times and circumstances, they were of opinion, that. the order and ceconomy which had been introduced since the esta blishment of this office, had been attended with great savings of public money, as well as many other beneficial consequences. The same was ordered to be entered on the journals.

The extravagance, waste and enormities in expences and charges among the British, being the subjects of conversation in company with several of the New-England delegates, these were led to remark upon the enormous expences of the American ar my, through waste, bad management, and other causes. After that, two of the Massachusetts delegates acknowledged, that it cost congress at the rate of 18 millions per annum, hard dollars to carry on the war, till Mr. Morris was chosen financier, and that then it cost them but about five millions.

LETTER

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