r
plenipotentiaries, though bound by our treaty with France not to
conclude peace apart from her, for making the preliminary arrangements
with England privately. At last, on November 30, 1782, Franklin, Jay,
and John Adams set their signatures to preliminary articles, which were
incorporated in a treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United
States, France, and Spain, signed at Paris on September 3, 1783. David
Hartley signed for England. Our Congress ratified on February 14, 1784.

The treaty recognized the independence of the United States. It
established as boundaries nearly the present Canadian line on the north,
the Mississippi on the west, and Florida, which now returned to Spain
and extended to the Mississippi, on the south. Despite the wishes of
Spain, the free navigation of the Mississippi, from source to mouth, was
guaranteed to the United States and Great Britain. Fishery rights
received special attention. American fishermen were granted the
privilege of fishing, as before the war, on the banks of Newfoundland,
in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and in all other places in the sea where
the inhabitants of both countries had been accustomed to fish. Liberty
was also granted to take fish on such parts of the coast of Newfoundland
as British fishermen should use, and on the coasts, bays, and creeks of
all other British dominions in America. American fishermen could dry and
cure fish on the unsettled parts of Nova Scotia, Labrador, and the
Magdalen Islands. America agreed, for the protection of British
creditors, that debts contracted before the war should be held valid,
and should be payable in sterling money. It was also stipulated that
Congress should earnestly recommend to the several States the
restitution of all confiscated property belonging to loyalists.

[Illustration: Image of treaty signatures.]
"Done at Paris, this third Day of September,
In the Year of our Lord one thousand and seven hundred & eighty three.--
D. Hartley, John Adams, B. Franklin, John Jay"
Facsimile of Signatures to Treaty of Peace

[1783]

Peace came like a heavenly benediction to the country and the army,
exhausted by so long and so fierce a struggle. No general engagement
took place after the siege of Yorktown; but the armies kept close watch
upon each other, and minor skirmishes were frequent. Washington's 10,000
men were encamped near the Hudson, to see that Clinton's forces in New
York did no harm. In the South, Greene'