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NEW HAMPSHIRE, MASSACHUSSETTS, RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS, CONNECTICUT, NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY, PENNSYLVANIA, DELAWARE, MARYLAND, VIRGINIA, NORTH CAROLINA, SOUTH CAROLINA, AND GEORGIA.

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HEIR High Mightineffes the States-General of the United Netherlands, and the United States of America, to wit, New Hampshire, Maffachusetts, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, defiring to afcertain, in a permanent and equitable manner, the rules to be observed relative to the commerce and correfpondence which they intend to establish between their refpective States, countries and inhabitants, have judged, that the faid end cannot be better obtained, than by establishing the most perfect equality and reciprocity for the bafis of their agreement, and by avoiding all those burthenfome preferences, which

are

are usually the fources of debate, embarraffment and discontent; by leaving alfo each party at liberty to make, refpecting commerce and navigation, fuch ulterior regulations, as it fhall find moft convenient to itself; and by founding the advantages of commerce folely upon reciprocal utility, and the just rules of free intercourfe; referving withal to each party, the liberty of admitting, at its pleafure, other nations to a participation of the fame advantages.

On thefe principles, their faid High Mightineffes the States General of the United Netherlands have named for their plenipotentiaries, from the midft of their affembly, Meffieurs their Deputies for the foreign affairs; and the faid United States of America, on their part, have furnished with full powers, Mr. John Adams, late Commiffioner of the United States of America at the court of Versailles, heretofore Delegate in Congress from the State of Maffachusetts-Bay, and Chief Justice of the faid State, who have agreed and concluded as follows: to wit,

ARTICLE I.

There fhall be a firm, inviolable, and univerfal peace and fincere friendship between their High Mightineffes the Lords the States General of the United Netherlands and the United States of America, and between the fubjects and inhabitants of the faid parties, and between the countries, iflands, cities, and places fituated under the jurifdiction of the faid United Netherlands and the faid United States of America, their fubjects and inhabitants of every degree, without exception of perfons or places.

ARTICLE II.

The fubjects of the faid States General of the United Netherlands fhall pay in the ports, havens, roads, countries, iflands, cities or places of the

United States of America, or any of them, no other nor greater duties or impofts, of whatever nature or denomination they may be, than those which the nations the moft favoured are or fhall be obliged to pay and they fhall enjoy all the rights, liberties, privileges, immunities and exemptions in trade, navigation, and commerce, which the said nations do, or fhall enjoy, whether in paffing from one port to another in the faid States, or in going from any of thofe ports to any foreign port of the world, or from any foreign port of the world to any of those ports.

ARTICLE III.

The fubjects and inhabitants of the faid United States of America fhall pay in the ports, havens, roads, countries, iflands, cities or places of the faid United Netherlands, or any of them, no other, nor greater duties or impofts, of whatever nature or denomination they may be, than those which the nations the moft favoured are or fhall be obliged to pay and they fhall enjoy all the rights, liberties, privileges, immunities and exemptions in trade, navigation, and commerce, which the faid nations do, or fhall enjoy, whether in paffing from one port to another in the faid States, or from any one towards any one of thofe ports, from or to any foreign port of the world. And the United States of America, with their fubjects and inhabitants, shall leave to thofe of their High Might ineffes, the peaceable enjoyment of their rights in the countries, iflands, and feas, in the East and West Indies, without any hindrance or moleftation.

ARTICLE IV.

There fhall be an entire and perfect liberty of confcience allowed to the fubjects and inhabitants of each party, and to their families and no one fhall be molefted in regard to his worship, provided he submits, as to the public demonstration of it, to the laws

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of the country. There fhall be given moreover liberty, when any subjects or inhabitants of either party fhall die in the territory of the other, to bury them in the ufual burying-places, or in decent and conve nient grounds, to be appointed for that purpose, as occafion shall require. And the dead bodies of those who are buried, fhall not in any wife be mo lefted and the two contracting parties fhall provide, each one in his jurifdiction, that their refpective fubjects and inhabitants may henceforward obtain the requifite certificates, in cafes of deaths, in which they shall be interested.

ARTICLE V.

Their High Mightineffes the States General of the United Netherlands, and the United States of America, fhall endeavour, by all the means in their power, to defend and protect all veffels and other effects belonging to their fubjects and inhabitants refpectively, or to any of them, in their ports, roads, havens, internal feas, paffes, rivers, and as far as their jurifdiction extends at fea; and to recover, and cause to be reftored to the true proprietors, their agents, or attornies, all fuch veffels and effects which fhall be taken under their jurisdictión: and their veffels of war and convoys, in cafes when they may have a common enemy, fhall take under their protection all the veffels belonging to the subjects and inhabitants of either party, which shall not be laden with contraband goods, according to the description which shall be made of them hereafter, for places with which one of the parties is in peace and the other at war, nor destined for any place blocked, and which fhall hold the fame course, or follow the fame route: and they fhall defend fuch veffels, as long as they fhall hold the fame course, or follow the fame route, against all attacks, force, and violence of the common enemy, in the fame manner as they ought to protect and defend

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