uction,
that we are, still in our opinion it would ill become the dignity of
Congress to treat with Mr Oswald under it.

"It is evident, that the design of the commission was, if possible, to
describe the United States, the Congress, and their Commissioners, by
such circumlocutory, equivocal, and undeterminate words and
appellations, as should with equal propriety apply to the Thirteen
States considered as British Colonies and territories, or as
independent States, to the end, that Great Britain might remain in a
capacity to say, that they either had the one or the other meaning, as
circumstances and convenience might in future dictate.

"As Congress have no doubts of their own independence, they cannot
with propriety sanctify the doubts of others, and, therefore, cannot
admit the sufficiency or decency of any commission that contains them.

"It being well known, that the United States have vested in Congress
the exclusive right to make peace, this commission, by authorising Mr
Oswald to treat with them _separately_, and even with parts of them,
and with any person or persons whatsoever, offers such open and direct
violence to the honor and prerogatives of Congress, as to be better
calculated to excite their resentment than their acquiescence. Nor can
we conceive it very decent in Great Britain to expect that Congress,
after having so long firmly and uniformly maintained the rights of
independence, should now consent to deviate from that character by
negotiating with her for peace, in any other capacity than the one in
which they have carried on the war with her.

"It seems agreed on all hands, that the commission does not
acknowledge us to be independent, and though the King of Great Britain
consents to make it the _first article_ of the proposed treaty, yet,
as neither the first nor the last article of the treaty can be of
validity till the conclusion of it, can it be reasonably expected,
that we should consent to be viewed during all that interval as
British subjects, there being no middle capacity or character between
subjection and independence? Neither Congress nor their servants, if
so inclined, have a right to suspend the independence of the United
States for a single moment, nor can the States themselves adopt such a
measure, while they remember the solemn manner in which they pledged
to each other their lives, their fortunes, and their _sacred honor_,
to support their independence.

"It gives us pleasure