DOCUMENTS BEARING ON TREATY OF 1783. 185 



Will she, can she, justly refuse making compensation for such 

 seizures ? 



If a draper who had sold a piece of linen to a neighbour on credit 

 should follow him, take the linen from him by force, and then send 

 a bailiff to arrest him for the debt, would any court of law or equity 

 award the payment of the debt without ordering a restitution of the 

 cloth ? 



Will not the debtors in America cry out that if this compensation 

 be not made they were betrayed by the pretended credit and are now 

 doubly ruined, first by the enemy and then by the negociators at 

 Paris, the goods and negroes sold them being taken from them, with 

 all they had besides, and they are now to be obliged to pay for what 

 they have been robbed of ? 



No. 117. 178%, December 5: Extract from letter, Dr. Franklin to 

 Mr. Livingston, United States Secretary of State. 



Much of the summer has been taken up in objecting to the 



powers given by Great Britain and in removing those objections. 

 The using any expressions that might imply an acknowledgement 

 of our independence, seemed at first industriously to be avoided ; but 

 our refusing otherwise to treat at length induced them to get over 

 that difficulty, and then we came to the point of making proposi- 

 tions. Those made by Mr. Jay and me before the arrival of the 

 other gentlemen, you will find in the paper No. 1, which was sent by 

 the British plenipotentiary to London for the King's consideration. 

 After some weeks, as under-secretary, Mr. Strachey arrived, with 

 whom we had much contestation about the boundaries and other 

 articles which he proposed and we settled ; some of which he carried 

 to London, and returned with the propositions, some adopted, others 

 omitted or altered, and new ones added, which you will see in paper 

 No. 2. We spent many days in disputing, and at length agreed on 

 and signed the preliminaries, which you will see by this conveyance. 

 The British minister struggled hard for two points, that the 

 112 favors granted to the royalists should be extended, and our 

 fishery contracted. We silenced them on the first by threaten- 

 ing to produce an account of the mischief done by those people; and 

 as to the second, when they told us they could not possibly agree to 

 it as we requested it, and must refer it to the ministry in London, 

 we produced a new article to be referred at the same time, with a 

 note of facts in support of it, which you have, No. 3. Apparently, it 

 seemed, that to avoid the discussion of this they suddenly changed 

 their minds, dropped the design of recurring to London and agreed 

 to allow the fishery as demanded 



No. 118. 1782, December 5-14-' Extract from letter, Mr. Franklin 



to Mr. Livingston. 



PASSY, December 5. 1782. 

 ******* 



You will find in the preliminaries some inaccurate and ambiguous 

 expressions that want explanation, and which may be explained in 



