o power to
treat on the business of the Loyalists, was regarded as an allegation
that though they claimed to have full power, they were not
plenipotentiaries; that they were acting under thirteen separate
sovereignties, which had no common head. To meet the exigence, Shelburne
proposed either an extension of Nova Scotia to the Penobscot, or
Kennebec, or the Saco, so that a province might be formed for the
reception of Loyalists; or that a part of the money to be received from
sales of the Ohio lands might be applied to their subsistence."

"On the 29th of November, 1782, Strachey, Oswald, and Fitzherbert, on
the one side, and Jay, Franklin, Adams, and for the first time Laurens,
on the other, came together for their last word at the apartments of
Jay. The American Commissioners agreed that there should be no future
confiscations nor prosecutions of Loyalists, that all pending
prosecutions should be discontinued, and that Congress should recommend
to the several States and their Legislatures, on behalf of refugees,
amnesty and the restitution of their confiscated property." "On the
30th, the Commissioners of both countries signed and sealed fair copies
of the Convention." "The treaty was not a compromise, nor a compact
imposed by force, but a free and perfect solution and perpetual
settlement of all that had been called in question."[63]

Dr. Ramsay observes: "From the necessity of the case, the Loyalists were
sacrificed, nothing further than a simple recommendation for restitution
being stipulated in their favour. * * The case of the Loyalists was
undoubtedly a hard one, but unavoidable from the complex Constitution of
the United States. The American Ministers engaged, as far as they were
authorized, and Congress did all they constitutionally could; but this
was no more than simply to recommend their case to the several States,
for the purpose of making them restitution. To have insisted on more,
under such circumstances, would have been equivalent to saying that
there should be no peace. It is true, much more was expected from the
recommendations of Congress than resulted from them; but this was not
the consequence of deception, but of misunderstanding the principles of
the confederation. In conformity to the letter and spirit of the treaty,
Congress urged, in strong terms, the propriety of making restitution to
the Loyalists, but to procure it was beyond their power. * * There were
doubtless among the Loyalists many