treat me with equal candor in your letters, and, in sending original papers, I guard against misrepresentations that might give you pain. Upon the whole, I have the pleasure of assuring you that the services you have rendered your country, in bringing this business to a happy issue, are very gratefully received by them, however we may differ in sentiments about the mode of doing it.

I am sorry that the extreme negligence of the different States has prevented, and will probably long prevent, my being able to send you a state of the injury done to real property, and the number of slaves destroyed and carried off by the British troops and their allies, though no pains have been or shall be wanting, on my part, to urge them to it.

I have the honor to be, gentlemen,

ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.

PROCLAMATION OF CONGRESS DECLARING A CESSATION OF ARMS.

By the United States of America in Congress assembled.

A Proclamation

Declaring the cessation of arms, as well by sea as by land, agreed upon between the United States of America and his Britannic Majesty, and enjoining the observance thereof.

Whereas, provisional articles were signed at Paris on the 30th day of November last, between the Ministers Plenipotentiary of the United States of America for treating of peace and the Minister Plenipotentiary of his Britannic Majesty, to be inserted in and to constitute the treaty of peace proposed to be concluded between the United States of America and his Britannic Majesty, when terms of peace should be agreed upon between their Most Christian and Britannic Majesties; and whereas, preliminaries for restoring peace between their Most Christian and Britannic Majesties were signed at Versailles, on the 20th day of January last, by the Ministers of their Most Christian and Britannic Majesties; and whereas, preliminaries. for restoring peace between the said King of Great Britain and the King of Spain, were also signed at Versailles, on the same 20th day

of January last. By which said preliminary articles it has been agreed, that as soon as the same were ratified, hostilities between the said Kings, their kingdoms, States, and subjects, should cease in all parts of the world; and it was further agreed, that all vessels and effects that might be taken in the Channel and in the North seas, after the space of twelve days from the ratification of the said preliminary articles, should be restored; that the term should be one month from the Channel and North seas as far as the Canary Islands, inclusively, whether in 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 more particular description of time or place.

And whereas, it was declared by the Minister Plenipotentiary of the King of Great Britain, in the name and by the express order of the King his master, on the said 20th day of January last, that the said United States of America, their subjects, and their possessions, shall be comprised in the abovementioned suspension of arms at the same epochs, and in the same manner as the three Crowns above mentioned, their subjects, and possessions respectively; upon condition that, on the part and in the name of the United States of America, a similar declaration shall be delivered, expressly declaring their assent to the said suspension of arms, and containing an assurance of the most perfect reciprocity on their part;

And whereas the Ministers Plenipotentiary of these United States did, on the 20th day of January, in the name and by the authority of the said United States, accept the said declaration, and declare that the said States should cause all hostilities to cease against his Britannic Majesty, his subjects, and his possessions, at the terms and epochs agreed upon between his said Majesty the King of Great Britain, his Majesty the King of France, and his Majesty the King of Spain, so and in the same manner as had been agreed upon between those three Crowns, and to produce the same effects;

And whereas, the ratifications of the said preliminary articles between their Most Christian and Britannic Majesties, were exchanged by their Ministers on the 3d day of February last; and between his Britannic Majesty and the King of Spain, on the 9th day of February last;

And whereas it is our will and pleasure that the cessation of hostilities between the United States of America and his Britannic

Majesty should be conformable to the epochs fixed between their Most Christian and Britannic Majesties:

We have thought fit to make known the same to the citizens of these States; and we hereby strictly charge and command all our officers, both by sea and land, and other subjects of these United States, to forbear all acts of hostility, either by sea or by land, against his Britannic Majesty or his subjects from and after the respective times agreed upon between their Most Christian and Britannic Majesties, as aforesaid.

And we do further require all Governors and others, the executive powers of these United States respectively, to cause this our proclamation to be made public, to the end that the same may be duly observed within their several jurisdictions.

Given under the seal of the United States. Witness his Excellency ELIAS BOUDINGT, President, this twelfth day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three, and of the sovereignty and independence of the United States the seventh.

ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON TO THE COMMISSIONERS.

Philadelphia, April 21st, 1783.

Gentlemen,

Upon the receipt of the provisional articles, and a subsequent account brought by a vessel, despatched by Count d'Estaing, I wrote letters to Sir Guy Carleton and Admiral Digby, to which I received answers. You will find them cold and distant. Those they wrote to the Minister of France, in answer to similar communications made by him, were still more so, and contain the same illiberal doubts which are mentioned in mine, expressed in much stronger terms. When they received an authentic account of the treaty, they sent a copy of it (no part being omitted) to Congress, through the General. When the proclamation for the cessation of hostilities was received at New York, it was sent to me by an officer with a letter, to which I returned an answer.

After this, two great questions were agitated in Congress. 1st. Whether they should proceed to the immediate ratification of the provisional articles; and, 2dly. Whether they should release their prisoners. Some maintained, with respect to the first of these points,

that they knew not in what light to consider the provisional articles, whether as preliminaries or a definitive treaty. That the preamble said they were to constitute the treaty, while at the same time they were only to be inserted in it. These terms they considered as contradictory; and they wished to have explanations from you on this head, to know what the operation of a ratification would be, and they inferred from your silence that none was necessary. They observed that no time was set for the evacuation of New York; that the ratification would in some measure compel them to release their prisoners, and thus strengthen their hands, when it was possible a definitive treaty might not take effect between Great Britain and France; and that the ratification and the restoration of prisoners, if it left us nothing more to do, was in some sort to desert our allies. To this it was answered that the provisional articles were only to be received as preliminary, that from the very nature of them they could not be definitive; that the ratification would not alter the nature of them, but confirm them as they stood; that they were confessedly very advantageous to us; that the neglecting any such acceptation of them as was necessary on our part, would give the enemy a pretence for violating the stipulations they contained; that the principal points between France and Great Britain being settled, we had no reason to apprehend a failure of a definitive treaty; that it was important to show that we were determined to adhere in every particular to the engagements you had made. These arguments prevailed, and a resolution passed directing the ratification which I enclose. It is probable that the definitive treaty will be signed before this can reach you, otherwise it would be extremely desirable that some ambiguities in the provisional articles should be cleared up, and other objects, which have been at different times touched upon in my public letters, attended to.

The sixth article is not so precisely expressed as to point out to what time the word future refers, whether to the signature of the provisional articles, whether to the act which gave it the force of a treaty, or to the definitive treaty. Though I should suppose the second to be the intention from the opposition between the words now and the time of the ratification in America.

The seventh article leaves the time for the evacuation of New York upon so loose a footing that I fear our troublesome guests will long continue to be such, unless a day is fixed on for their departure

in the definitive treaty. You can easily conceive the impatience that the distressed inhabitants of New York feel at every moment's delay, and the fears and jealousies that prevail among them lest it should be meant to retain these posts as pledges for the performance of the stipulations in favor of the Tories. By the debates in Parliament on the 3d of March, it is evident that they had then no orders

to evacuate.

You will observe that the ratification does not extend to the separate article. The treaty between Spain and Great Britain renders it unnecessary; and Congress not caring to express any sentiment upon that subject, I refer you to my letters to Dr. Franklin and Mr. Jay upon the subject of a free trade with the West Indies and the log-wood trade, which are important objects here; and I hope will be attended to in your definitive treaty. It were to be wished that the ambiguity with respect to the time of the cessation of hostilities upon this coast was cleared up, and the construction we put upon it adopted, to wit, that by as far as the Canaries, was intended the latitude of the Canaries, which, construction can be supported by a variety of arguments, and is extremely important to us, as a number of our vessels have been taken since the 3d of March.

I have the honor to be, &c.,

ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.

MR. GRAND TO THE COMMISSIONERS.

Paris, May 10th, 1783.

Gentlemen,

It is some months ago since I had the honor to write you, and am well persuaded, although I received no answer thereto, that it will have engaged your attention. I earnestly wish it may have been productive of an improvement to the finances of Congress, which I then foresaw would be short of our wants, and which is unfortunately too much the case at present.

Last month I remitted to the honorable Robert Morris the state of his account; the balance of which was 413,892 livres 13c. 9s. due to me. This, added to the subsequent payments I had to make,