186 APPENDIX TO BRITISH COUNTER CASE. 



the definitive treaty ; and as the British Ministry excluded our propo- 

 sition relating to commerce, and the American prohibition of that 

 with England mav not be understood to cease merely by our con- 

 cluding a treaty of peace, perhaps we may then, if the Congress shall 

 think fit to direct it, obtain some compensation for the injuries done 

 us as a condition of our opening again the trade. Every one of the 

 present British ministry has, while in the minority, declared the war 

 against us unjust; and nothing is clearer in reason than that those 

 who injure others by an unjust war should make full reparation. 

 They have stipulated, too, in these preliminaries, that in evacuating 

 our towns they shall carry off no plunder, which is a kind of acknowl- 

 edgment that they ought not to have done it before. 



The reason given us for dropping the article relating to commerce 

 was that some statutes were in the way which must be repealed before 

 a treaty of that kind could be well formed, and that this was a matter 

 to be considered in Parliament. 



They wanted to bring their boundary down to the Ohio and to 

 settle their loyalists in the Illinois country. We did not choose such 

 neighbours. 



We communicated all the articles, as soon as they were signed, to 

 Count de Vergennes (except the separate one), who thinks we have 

 managed well, and told me that we had settled what was most appre- 

 hended as a difficulty in the work of a general peace, by obtaining 

 the declaration of our independency. 



DECEMBER 14. 



I have this day learnt that the principal preliminaries between 

 France and England are agreed on, to wit : 



1. France is to enjoy the right of fishing and drying on all the west 

 coast of Newfoundland, down to Cape Ray. Miquelon and St. Pierre 

 to be restored, and may be fortified. 



No. 119. 1782, December 14: Letter, Messrs. Adams, Franklin, Jay, 

 and Laurens to Mr. Livingston. 



PARIS, December 14, 1782. 



SIR : We had the honour to congratulate Congress on the signature 

 of the preliminaries of a peace between the crown of Great Britain 

 and the United States of America, to be inserted in a definitive treaty 

 so soon as the terms between the crowns of France and Great Britain 

 shall be agreed on. A copy of the articles is here enclosed, and we 

 can not but flatter ourselves that they will appear to Congress, as they 

 do to all of us, to be consistent with the honor and interest of the 

 United States; and we are persuaded Congress would be more fully 

 of that opinion if they were apprized of all the circumstances and 

 reasons which have influenced the negociation. Although it is im- 

 possible for us to go into that detail, we think it necessary, neverthe- 

 less, to make a few remarks on such of the articles as appear most to 

 require elucidation. 



EEMARKS ON ARTICLE 2, RELATIVE TO BOUNDARIES. 



The court of Great Britain insisted on retaining all the territories 

 comprehended within the Providence of Quebec by the act of Parlia- 



