DOCUMENTS BEARING ON TKEATY OF 1783. 187 



ment respecting it. They contended that Nova Scotia should extend 

 to the river Kennebec ; and they claimed not only all the lands in the 

 western country and on the Mississippi which were not expressly 

 included in our charters and governments, but also all such lands 

 within them as remained ungranted by the King of Great Britain. 

 It would be endless to enumerate all the discussions and arguments 

 on the subject. 



We knew this court and Spain to be against our claims to the 

 western country, and having no reason to think that lines more 

 favorable could ever have been obtained, we finally agreed to those 



described in this article; indeed they appear to leave us little 

 113 to complain of and not much to desire. Congress will observe 



that, although our northern line is in a certain part below the 

 latitude of forty-five, yet in others it extends above it, divides the 

 Lake Superior, and gives us access to its western and southern 

 waters, from which a line in that latitude would have excluded us. 



REMARKS ON ARTICLE 4, RESPECTING CREDITORS. 



We have been informed that some of the States had confiscated 

 British debts; but although each State has a right to bind its own 

 citizens, yet in our opinion it appertains solely to Congress, in whom 

 exclusively are vested the rights of making war and peace, to pass 

 acts against the subjects of a power with which the Confederacy may 

 be at war. It therefore only remained for us to consider whether 

 this article is founded in justice and good policy. * 



In our opinion no acts of government could dissolve the obliga- 

 tions of good faith resulting from lawful contracts between indi- 

 viduals of the two countries prior to the war. We knew that some 

 of the British creditors were making common cause with the refugees 

 and other adversaries of our independence; besides, sacrificing 

 private justice to reasons of state and political convenience is always 

 an odious measure ; and the purity of our reputation in this respect 

 in all foreign commercial countries is of infinitely more importance 

 to us than all the sums in question. It may also be remarked that 

 American and British creditors are placed on an equal footing. 



REMARKS ON ARTICLES 5 AND 6, RESPECTING REFUGEES. 



These articles were among the first discussed and the last agreed to. 

 And had not the conclusion of this business at the time of its date 

 been particularly important to the British administration, the respect 

 which both in London and Versailles is supposed to be due to the 

 honor, dignity, and interest of royalty would probably have for- 

 ever prevented our bringing this article so near to the views of Con- 

 gress and the sovereign rights of the States as it now stands. When 

 it is considered that it was utterly impossible to render this article 

 perfectly consistent both with American and British ideas of honor, 

 we presume that the middle line adopted by this article is as little 

 unfavorable to the former as any that could in reason be expected. 



As to the separate article, we beg leave to observe that it was our 

 policy to render the navigation of the river Mississippi so important 

 to Britain as that their views might correspond with ours on that 



