CHAPTER to supersede Clinton, was commissioned, along with AdXLV. miral Digby, commanding on the American station, to 1782. treat for peace. Carleton addressed a pacific letter to

Washington, and put a stop to the predatory parties of Tories and Indians, by which the frontiers of New York had so long been harassed. The powers to treat were May 31. communicated to Congress, but that body declined to negotiate except in conjunction with France, and at Paris.

Richard Oswald, a British merchant, sent to Paris to sound Franklin, presently returned with the information that independence, a satisfactory boundary, and a participation in the fisheries, would be indispensable requisites July 1. in a treaty. At this moment Lord Rockingham died. Shelburne, who succeeded to the first rank in the ministry, had been an adherent of Chatham, and, like him, greatly disinclined to the dismemberment of the empire. In this sentiment he was warmly supported by the king, and perhaps he was strengthened in it by news of Rodney's success in the West Indies, where he had plastered April 12. over the robbery of St. Eustatius by a splendid victory, obtained by the maneuver, afterward so successfully practiced by Nelson, of breaking the enemy's line, and in which he had captured almost the whole fleet of De Grasse, thus effectually preventing a combined French and Spanish attack designed against Jamaica.

But, whatever the sentiments of Shelburne might be, he did not hesitate long. An act of Parliament was obtained, authorizing a negotiation with the insurgent colAug. onies, and Oswald presently returned to Paris with authority to negotiate on the basis intimated by Franklin. Jay had already arrived from Madrid; Adams was yet busy in Holland; Laurens, though released from the Tower, was still in London; the delicate health of Jefferson's wife detained him at home.

XLV.

When Franklin, Jay, and Oswald met to interchange CHAPTER their powers, Oswald produced a commission in the terms of Shelburne's recent act, by which the king had been 1782. authorized to conclude a peace or truce with certain "colonies" therein named. Franklin and Vergennes thought this sufficient, since to treat with the colonies was in itself an acknowledgment of their independence ; but Jay differed, and refused to go on till Oswald procured new instructions, authorizing him to treat with the commissioners of "the United States of America."

Pending this delay, developments took place which confirmed Jay in his suspicions of France, and not without effect even upon Franklin. The right to participate in the Newfoundland fisheries was a point of great interest in Massachusetts. The Legislature of that state had recently adopted resolutions warmly urging it. Very anxious for peace, Vergennes thought the states might be content with the coast fishery, foregoing their claim to that of the Grand Bank. His views on the subject of the western lands were still more alarming. The occupation by Spain of the settlements on the east bank of the Mississippi, and the capture of Mobile, and subsequently of Pensacola, by a Spanish force, have been already mentioned. The British attack on St. Louis had been retorted by an expedition which ascended the Illinois, and captured a small British post near its head. By virtue of these conquests, Spain claimed to hold the Valley of the Illinois, and all the territory on the Lower Mississippi. The intervening country eastward to the Alleganies belonged, according to the Spanish view, to the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, Cherokees, and other independent Indian tribes, over whom neither party had any claims of jurisdiction. Perceiving that the American commissioners would never consent to be bounded III-D D

CHAPTER by the Alleganies, Vergennes proposed by way of comXLV. promise that the country south of the Ohio should be 1782. divided between Spain and the United States, leaving the fate of the region north of the Ohio to be decided by the treaty with Great Britain.

Sept. 21.

Oct.

Oswald had observed, and he labored to foment the rising jealousy of the American negotiators. Anxious to detach the United States from their ally, and overlooking the fact that Vergennes, on many points, might be more complying than the American ministers, he opened a private, non-official intercourse with Franklin and Jay, in the course of which he communicated to them an intercepted letter from Marbois, the French secretary of legation in America, which seemed to imply a settled policy on the part of France to exclude the Americans from the fisheries and the western lands.

Their suspicions thus aroused, when Oswald's new commission arrived, without communicating that fact to Vergennes, or taking his opinion or advice, as their instructions required, Franklin and Jay proceeded at once to negotiate a preliminary treaty of peace.

A northern and western boundary, as claimed by the first instructions of Congress, including the peninsula of Upper Canada, was soon agreed to. The fishery, as formerly used, was also conceded. These articles, sent to England for approval, presently came back with objections and proposed modifications. Adams, who had just completed his treaty with Holland, now joined his brother commissioners. Oswald, also, was re-enforced by two colleagues. The whole matter was now again gone over. The British commissioners claimed the country north of the Ohio as a part of Canada, to which, indeed, the Quebec Act had annexed it. They sought, also, to extend the western limits of Nova Scotia as far as Pemaquid, ac

XLV.

cording to the old French claim and the actual British CHAPTER occupation. By a compromise on these points, authorized by the original instructions of Congress, the penin- 1782. sula of Upper Canada was yielded to the British, the eastern boundary of the United States remaining fixed at the St. Croix. In conformity to these same instructions, the northern limit of Florida, according to the proclamation of 1763, was agreed to as the southern boundary of the United States, being the River St. Mary's from its mouth to its source, a due west line thence to the Appalachicola, and from the Appalachicola to the Mississippi, the thirty-first degree of north latitude. But, by a secret article, if Great Britain, at the peace with Spain, should still retain West Florida, the northern boundary of that province, in conformity with the proclamation of 1764, was to be a due east line from the mouth of the Yazoo to the River Chattahoochee. It was attempted in this new negotiation to exclude the Americans from the Grand Bank fishery; but Adams made a firm resistance, and that matter stood as originally arranged.

The British commissioners struggled hard to obtain something of restitution or compensation for the Loyalists whose property had been confiscated-a point on which, in all probability, Vergennes would have been inclined to aid them. The American negotiators would yield nothing. Adams, according to his own account, in an intercepted letter to Cushing, had strenuously recommended from the first "to fine, imprison, or hang all inimical to the cause, without favor or affection." Jay had taken a very active. part against the New York Tories; and if Franklin, mild by nature and moderated by age, was less ardent in his feelings, he was well aware how his countrymen felt upon the subject. Concession on this point was pertinaciously

CHAPTER refused, unless Great Britain would make compensation, XLV. in her turn, for the private property destroyed during the 1782. war. It was stipulated, however, that no further con

Nov. 30.

fiscations should be decreed nor prosecutions commenced; and, as a sort of salvo to the honor of Great Britain, that Congress should recommend to the states the restoration of all confiscated property. The American commissioners made no secret, however, of the certain futility of all such recommendations. For the benefit of the British merchants who had large outstanding American claims, especially against the southern planters, it was provided by a special article that all impediments should be removed to the recovery of debts due on either side.

As soon as possible after the final ratification of the treaty, the British fleets and armies were to be withdrawn from every port and place within the United States; but the articles were not to take effect till peace had first been concluded between France and Great Britain.

Two days before the signature of these preliminaries, Laurens arrived at Paris; and, faithful to the slave-holding interest which he represented, he procured the insertion of an article that no "negroes or other property" should be carried away by the evacuating troops.

Thus completed, these preliminaries were signed, and, with the exception of the secret article, were presently communicated by Franklin to Vergennes. Pointedly reproached, though with French politeness, for ungenerous distrust of France, and breach of positive instructions, in having signed this preliminary treaty without consulting the French court, Franklin replied with soft words; and Vergennes took the matter so little to heart, that, within a few days after, he agreed to advance a new loan of six millions of livres, $1,111,111, toward enabling the United States to meet the expenses of the ensuing year.