We have thought fit, by and with the advice of our Privy Council, to notify the same to all our loving subjects; and we do declare that our royal will and pleasure is, and we do hereby strictly charge and command all our officers, both at sea and land, and all our other subjects whatsoever, to forbear all acts of hostility, either by sea or land, against his Most Christian Majesty, the King of Spain, the States-General of the United Provinces, and the United States of America, their vessels, or subjects, from and after the respective times above mentioned, and under the penalty of incurring our highest displeasure.

Given at our Court at St. James, the fourteenth day of February, in the twenty-third year of our reign, and in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three.

God save the King.

ALLEYNE FITZHERBERT TO THE COMMISSIONERS.

Paris, February 18th, 1783.

Gentlemen,

I have the honor to transmit to you herewith a packet, containing one hundred passports for American vessels, which I have this moment received by a courier from England.

I take this opportunity of acquainting you that a proclamation was issued out in the King's name, on the 14th instant, making known the cessation of hostilities which has been agreed upon between the several belligerent Powers; and declaring further, that the several epochas at which the said armistice is to commence, between his Majesty and the United States of North America, are to be computed from the third day of this instant February, being the day on which the ratifications of the preliminaries were exchanged between his Majesty and the Most Christian King. I must add, that his Majesty was induced to take this step, under the firm expectation that you, gentlemen, would correspond to it on your parts, by adopting the same measure reciprocally, in the name of the States, your masters.

I have the honor to be, &c.,

ALLEYNE FITZHERBERT.

AMERICAN COMMISSIONERS' Declaration oF THE CESSATION OF

HOSTILITIES.

By the Ministers Plenipotentiary of the United States of America for making peace with Great Britain,

A Declaration

Of the cessation of arms, as well by sea as land, agreed upon between his Majesty the King of Great Britain and the United States of America.

Whereas preliminary articles were signed at Paris, on the thirtieth day of November last, between the Plenipotentiaries of his said Majesty the King of Great Britain and of the said States, to be inserted in, and to constitute the treaty of peace, to be concluded between his said Majesty and the said United States, when terms of peace should be agreed upon between his said Majesty and his Most Christian Majesty. And whereas, preliminaries for restoring peace, between his said Majesty the King of Great Britain and his Most Christian Majesty, were signed at Versailles, on the twentieth day of January last, by the respective Ministers of their said Majesties; and whereas, preliminaries for restoring peace, between his said Majesty the King of Great Britain and his Majesty the King of Spain, were also signed at Versailles, on the twentieth day of January last, by their respective Ministers; and whereas, for putting an end to the calamity of war, as soon and as far as possible, it has been agreed, between the King of Great Britain, his Most Christian Majesty, the King of Spain, the States-General of the United Provinces, and the United States of America, as follows, that is to say:

That such vessels and effects as should be taken in the Channel and in the North seas, after the space of twelve days, to be computed from the ratification of the said preliminary articles, should be restored on all sides; that the term should be one month, from the Channel and North seas as far as the Canary Islands, inclusively, whether the ocean or the Mediterranean; two months, from the said Canary Islands, as far as the equinoctial line, or equator; and, lastly, five months in all other parts of the world, without any exception, or any other more particular description of time or place;

And whereas, the ratifications of the said preliminary articles between his said Majesty the King of Great Britain and his Most Christian Majesty, in due form were exchanged by their Ministers, on the third day of this instant February, from which day the several terms above mentioned, of twelve days, of one month, of two months, and of five months, are to be computed relative to all British and American vessels and effects;

Now therefore, we, the Ministers Plenipotentiary from the United States of America, for making peace with Great Britain, do notify to the people and citizens of the said United States of America, that hostilities on their part against his Britannic Majesty, both by sea and land, are to cease at the expiration of the terms hereinbefore specified therefor, and which terms are to be computed from the third day of February instant. And we do, in the name and by the authority of the said United States, accordingly warn and enjoin all their officers and citizens to forbear all acts of hostility whatever, either by land or by sea, against his said Majesty the King of Great Britain or his subjects, under the penalty of incurring the highest displeasure of the said United States.

Given at Paris, the twentieth day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three, under our hands and seals.

JOHN ADAMS,
B. FRANKLIN,
JOHN JAY.

ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON TO THE COMMISSIONERS.

Philadelphia, March 25th, 1783.

Gentlemen,

I am now to acknowledge the favor of your joint letter by the Washington, together with a copy of the Preliminary Articles; both were laid before Congress. The articles have met with their warmest approbation, and have been generally seen by the people in the most favorable point of view.

The steadiness manifested in not treating without an express acknowledgment of your independence previous to a treaty, is approved, and it is not doubted but it accelerated that declaration. The boundaries are as extensive as we have a right to expect; and we have nothing to complain of with respect to the fisheries. My

sentiments as to English debts you have in a former letter. No honest man could wish to withhold them. A little forbearance in British creditors, till people have recovered in part from the losses sustained by the war, will be necessary to render this article palatable, and indeed to secure more effectually the debt. The article relative to the loyalists is not quite so accurately expressed as I could wish it to have been. What, for instance, is intended by real British subjects? It is clear to me that it will operate nothing in their favor in any State in the Union, but as you made no secret of this to the British Commissioners, they will have nothing to charge you with; and indeed, the whole clause seems rather to have been inserted to appease the clamor of these poor wretches than to satisfy their wants. Britain would have discovered more candor and magnanimity in paying to them three months' expense of the war establishment, which would have been an ample compensation for all their losses, and left no germ of dissatisfaction to bud and bloom and ripen into discontents here. Another mad Administration may think the non-compliance of the Legislatures with the recommendations of Congress on this subject a sufficient cause for giving themselves and us new troubles. You, however, were perfectly right in agreeing to the article the folly was theirs, who did not either insist upon more or give up this.

But, gentlemen, though the issue of your treaty has been successful, though I am satisfied that we are much indebted to your firmness and perseverance, to your accurate knowledge of our situation, and of our wants, for this success, yet I feel no little pain at the distrust manifested in the management of it; particularly in signing the treaty without communicating it to the Court of Versailles till after the signature, and in concealing the separate article from it even when signed. I have examined, with the most minute attention, akk the reasons assigned in your several letters to justify these suspicions. I confess they do not appear to strike me so forcibly as they have done you; and it gives me pain that the character for candor and fidelity to its engagements, which should always characterize a great people, should have been impeached thereby. The concealment was, in my opinion, absolutely unnecessary; for, had the Court of France disapproved the terms you had made after they had been agreed upon, they could not have acted so absurdly as to counteract you at that late day, and thereby put themselves in the power of an VOL. V.-31

enemy who would certainly betray them, and perhaps justify you in making terms for yourselves.

The secret article is no otherwise important than as it carries in it the seeds of enmity to the Court of Spain, and shows a marked preference for an open enemy. It would, in my opinion, have been much better to have fixed on the same boundaries for West Florida, into whatever hands it fell, without showing any preference, or rendering concealment necessary; since all the arguments in favor of the cession to England would then have operated with equa! force, and nothing have been lost by it; for there can be no doubt that, whether Florida shall at the close of the war be ceded to England or to Spain, it will be ceded as it was held by Britain. The separate article is not, I suppose, by this time a secret in Europe; it can hardly be considered as such in America. The treaty was sent out to the General, with this article annexed, by Sir Guy Carleton, without the smallest injunction of secrecy. So that, I dare say, it has been pretty generally read at head-quarters. Congress still conceal it here. I feel for the embarrassment explanations on this subject must subject you to, when this secret is known to your allies. I intended to have submitted this letter to Congress, but I find there is not the least prospect of obtaining any decision upon it in time to send by this conveyance, if at all. I leave you to collect their sentiments, as far as I know them, from the following state of their proceedings: After your joint and separate letters and the journals had been submitted to them by me, and had been read, they were referred back to me to report upon, when I wrote them a letter, and when it was taken into consideration motions were made and debated a whole day. After which the letter and motions were committed, and a report brought in. This was under consideration two days, when the arrival of a vessel from Cadiz, with letters from the Count d'Estaing and the Marquis de la Fayette, containing accounts that the preliminaries were signed, induced many members to think it would be improper to proceed in the report, and in that state it remains without any express decision. From this you will draw your own inferences.

I make no apology for the part I have taken in this business. I am satisfied you will readily acquit me for having discharged what I conceived to be my duty, upon such a view of things as you presented to me. In declaring my sentiments freely, I invite you to