CASE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



THE TREATY OF SEPTEMBER 3, 1783. 



The first discussion with Great Britain of the interests of the 

 United States in these fisheries will be found in the negotiations for 

 the treaty of peace at the close of the Revolution in 178'2. 



The Commissioners who took part in these negotiations were John 

 Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay and Henry Laurens on the 

 part of the United States, and Richard Oswald on the part of Great 

 Britain assisted by Mr. Strachey and Mr. Fitzherbert who were 

 present and took part in the discussions during the closing con- 

 ferences. 



In entering upon these negotiations the United States stipulated 

 as an indispensible condition that at the outset Great Britain should 

 acknowledge their independence and should treat with them as an 

 independent nation.® In Franklin's report of these negotiations, 

 made immediately after the treaty was signed, he says that the use of 

 any expressions in the powers given by Great Britain to its com- 

 missioners which might imply an acknowledgment of American inde- 

 pendence seemed at first to be industriously avoided, and much of the 

 summer was taken up in removing these objections, but that the re- 

 fusal otherwise to treat finally induced Great Britain to overcome that 

 difficulty and the negotiations were then entered upon.^ Great Britain 

 having finally acquiesced in this demand, such acknowledgment of in- 

 dependence was incorporated in the original draft of the proposed 

 treaty and was carried without change through the negotiations and 

 into the treaty as finally agreed upon, where it appears as Article I in 

 the following form: 



His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the s*^ United States, viz. 

 New Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay, Rhode-Island & Providence 

 Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 

 Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, 

 & Georgia, to be free sovereign & Independent States ; that he treats 

 with them as such, and for himself his Heirs and Successors, re- 

 linquishes all claim to the Government Propriety & Territorial Rights 

 of the same & every Part thereof.'^ 



The United States and Great Britain thus met as independent 

 nations negotiating for the purpose of concluding a treaty of peace 



« Appendix, pp. 227-235. ^Appendix, p. 226. '^ Appendix, p. 24. 



