DOCUMENTS BEABING ON TREATY OF 1783. 41 



tuted, and by these presents do nominate and constitute him the 

 said our minister plenipotentiary, giving him full power, 



general and special, to act in that quality, to confer, agree and con- 

 clude with the ambassador or plenipotentiary of his Britannick 

 majesty, vested with equal powers, of and concerning a treaty of 

 commerce ; and whatever shall be so agreed and concluded for us and 

 in our name, to sign, and thereupon make a treaty of commerce; and 

 to transact every thing that may be necessary for completing, secur- 

 ing and strengthening the same, in as ample form, and with the same 

 effect, as if we were personally present and acted therein; hereby 

 promising, in good faith, that we will accept, ratify, fulfil and exe- 

 cute whatever shall be agreed, concluded and signed by our said 

 minister plenipotentiary; and that we will never act, nor suffer any 

 person to act, contrary to the same, in whole or in part. In witness 

 whereof we have caused these presents to be given in Congress, at 

 Philadelphia, the day of in the year of our Lord, 



1779, and in the fourth year of the independence of the United 

 States of America. 



Signed by the President, and sealed with his seal. 



* * * * * * * 



1779. October 4. ... Resolved, that the like blanks in the other 

 two commissions, namely, for negotiating a treaty of peace, and for 

 negotiating a treaty of commerce with Great Britain, be filled up 

 with, " The honourable John Adams, esquire, late commissioner of 

 the United States of America at the court of Versailles, late dele- 

 gate in Congress from the state of Massachusetts Bay, and chief 

 justice of the said state." 



Resolved, That the commissions be dated the twenty-ninth day of 

 September, 1779. 



26 No. 5. 1780, October 17: Extract from Instructions of the 

 United States Congress, explaining the reasons and prin- 

 ciples on which the instructions to Mr. Jay of the 4th October were 

 founded. 



There is a remaining consideration respecting the navigation of 

 the Mississippi which deeply concerns the maritime powers in general, 

 but more particularly their most Christian and catholick majesties. 

 The country watered by the Ohio, with its large branches, having 

 their sources near the lakes on one side, and those running north- 

 westward and falling into it on the other side, will appear from a 

 single glance on a map to be of vast extent. The circumstance of its 

 being so finely watered, added to the singular fertility of its soil, and 

 other advantages presented by a new country, will occasion a rapidity 

 of population not easy to be conceived. The spirit of emigration has 

 already shown itself in a very strong degree, notwithstanding the 

 many impediments which discourage it. The principal of these im- 

 pediments is the war with Britain, which cannot spare a force suf- 

 ficient to protect the emigrants against the incursions of the savages. 



