DOCUMENTS BEARING ON TREATY OP 1783. 89 



them that you have our authority to make that concession, our 

 earnest wish for peace disposing us to purchase it at the price of 

 acceding to the complete independence of the thirteen States, namely, 

 New Hampshire &c. 



5. You are moreover empowered to engage our promise in order 

 to make the peace, if it should take place, more solid and durable, 

 to cede to the said colonies the town and district of New York, and 

 any other territory, town or garrison within the limits of the said 

 colonies, which may be in our possession at the time of signing the 

 treaty. 



6. The question of independence thus removed, you will not fail 

 of course to turn your attention to the consideration of such pro- 

 posals, as it is to be hoped, they will think it incumbent upon them 

 to make for the purpose of rendering whatever terms may be agreed 

 upon, permanent and mutually satisfactory and beneficial; In the 

 course of this discussion you will not fail to pay due attention to 

 the rights and interests of individuals, and you will particularly 

 press the speedy enlargement of such persons as may be now im- 

 prisoned or confined on account of their attachment to the Govern- 

 ment of Great Britain. Under this head you are to consider and 

 claim, as a matter of absolute justice all debts incurred to the sub- 

 jects of Great Britain before 1775, and if, as has been intimated you 

 should find the commissioners unauthorised to engage for a specifick 

 redress in this particular, you will insist on the justice of these 

 demands, and that they would promise and engage for the sincere 

 interposition of Congress with the several provinces to procure an 

 ample and full satisfaction. 



7. Whereas many of our loyal subjects having valuable property 

 in the colonies in question have nevertheless in these unhappy dis- 

 putes taken part with Great Britain, and in consequence thereof have 

 been considered as having thereby exposed their property to con- 

 fiscation, justice as well as compassion demands, that a restitution or 

 indemnification should be required on behalf of such sufferers. On 

 this head you will propose a restoration of all rights as they stood 

 before the commencement of hostilities, and a general amnesty of 

 all offences committed or supposed to be committed in the course of 

 them. 



8. If you should collect from the answer made to these representa- 

 tions, that their consent to the preceding article cannot be obtained 

 without some further concession on our part, and the cession before 

 proposed of New York &c. be not sufficient, you may in that case 

 propose to stipulate for the annexation of a portion of our ungranted 

 lands to each province in lieu of what shall be restored to the refugees 

 and loyalists whose estates they have seized and confiscated. 



9. In regard to the question of any national substitution for the de- 

 pendent connection with Great Britain, you must in the first placo 

 seek to discover the dispositions and intentions of the colonies by 

 the intimations and propositions of the commissioners; and if it shall 



appear to you to be impossible to form with them any political 

 55 league of union or amity to the exclusion of other European 



Powers, you will be particularly earnest in your attention and 

 arguments to prevent their binding themselves under any engage- 

 ment inconsistent with the plan of absolute and universal independ- 



