42 APPENDIX TO BRITISH COUNTER CASE. 



In a very few years after peace shall take place, this country will cer- 

 tainly be overspread with inhabitants. In like manner as in all new 

 settlements, agriculture, not manufactures, will be their employment. 

 They will raise wheat, corn, beef, pork, tobacco, hemp, flax, and in 

 the southern parts, perhaps, rice and indigo, in great quantities. On 

 the other hand, their consumption of foreign manufactures will be in 

 proportion, if they can be exchanged for the produce of their soil. 

 There are but two channels through which such commerce can be 

 carried on ; the first is down the river Mississippi ; the other is up the 

 rivers having their sources near the lakes, thence by short portages 

 to the lakes, or the rivers falling into them, and thence through the 

 lakes and down the St. Lawrence. The first of these channels is mani- 

 festly the most natural, and by far the most advantageous. Should 

 it however be obstructed, the second will be found far from imprac- 

 ticable. If no obstructions should be thrown in its course down the 

 Mississippi, the exports from this immense tract of country will not 

 only supply an abundance of all necessaries for the West India 

 islands, but serve for a valuable basis of general trade, of which the 

 rising spirit of commerce in P'rance and Spain will no doubt particu- 

 larly avail itself. The imports will be proportionally extensive ; and 

 from the climate, as well as from other causes, will consist of the 

 manufactures of the same countries. On the other hand, should ob- 

 structions in the Mississippi force this trade into a contrary direction 

 through Canada, France and Spain, and the other maritime powers 

 will not only lose the immediate benefit of it themselves, but they 

 will also suffer by the advantage it will give to Great Britain. So 

 fair a prospect could not escape the commercial sagacity of this nation. 

 She would embrace it with avidity. She would cherish it with the 

 most studious care. And should she succeed in fixing it in that chan- 

 nel, the loss of her exclusive possession of the trade of the United 

 States might prove a much less decisive blow to her maritime pre- 

 eminence and tyranny than has been calculated. 



No. 6. 1780, October 18: Resolution of United States Congress in 

 reference to terms of peace. 



1780, October 18. On the report of a committee to whom were 

 referred the letters of 23rd and 24th. March last, from the honour- 

 able John Adams, minister plenipotentiary of the United States for 

 negotiating a treaty of peace and a treaty of commerce with Great 

 Britain, 



Resolved, That the said minister be informed, it is clearly the opinion of 

 Congress that a short truce would be highly dangerous to these United States. 



That if a truce be proposed for so long a period, or for an indefinite period, 

 requiring so long notice previous to a renewal of hostilities as to evince that 

 it is, on the part of Great Britain, a virtual relinquishment of the object of 

 the war, and an expedient only to avoid the mortification of an express ac- 

 knowledgment of the independence and sovereignty of these United States, the 

 said minister be at liberty, with the concurrence of our ally, to accede thereto; 

 provided, the removal of the British land and naval armaments from the 

 United States be a condition of it. 



That in case a truce shall be agreed on by the belligerent parties, Congress 

 rely on his attention and prudence to hold up the United States to the world 



