A History of the United States for Schools

favored peace with the colonies, and was willing to consent to their independence.

365. Preparations for a Treaty of Peace.-Congress confided the important matter of arranging a peace to five commissioners, — John Adams, Dr. Franklin, John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, and Henry Laurens. The negotiations were to take place at Paris. Mr. Jefferson did not go over, and therefore took no part. Henry Laurens was in ill health, having lately been released from the Tower of London, where he had been long held as a political prisoner. He was able therefore to share but little in the negotiations, and the work fell principally upon Adams, Franklin, and Jay. In our first treaty with France it had been stipulated that, when the time came for a treaty. of peace with Great Britain, France should be a party to the treaty, and, when these commissioners were appointed, Congress resolved that the commissioners should "take no step without France."

366. Territory north of the Ohio River. — Mr. Oswald, the British commissioner, proposed that our Western boundary should be the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Franklin objected and said, “If you insist on that, we go back to Yorktown." Oswald yielded the point, and consented that we should have the. territory between the Ohio River and the Great Lakes. It soon became apparent that the French government was more willing to help Spain, which was desirous to attach to their province of Louisiana the country north of the Ohio. It became necessary therefore for our commissioners to act independently of France.

John Adams and King George. Two years later, John Adams was appointed the first minister to represent the United States government at the British Court. He was received in person by the king, and in his address to that royal personage he alluded to "the people under different governments" which "have the same language, a similar religion, and kindred blood." The king, in his response, said: "I will be frank with you. . . . I was the last to conform to the separation, but the separation having been made, and having become inevitable, I have always said, as I say now, that I would be the first to meet the friendship of the United States as an independent power."

367. The Provisional Treaty. - The provisional treaty was concluded and signed on the 30th of November, 1782, by Richard Oswald on the part of Great Britain, and Adams, Franklin, Jay, and Laurens on the part of the United States. This was done before Count de Vergennes knew its contents. The definitive treaty, of like import, was signed September 3d, 1783, by David Hartley, representing Great Britain, and Adams, Franklin, and Jay for the United

States. The treaty gave us all the territory as far north as the Great Lakes, westward to the Lake of the Woods, thence southward down the Mississippi River, through its whole extent, to latitude 31°.

368. What we owe to Jay, Adams, and Franklin. - John Jay was largely instrumental in securing to us the great Northwest. John Adams is specially entitled to the credit of obtaining the provision in the treaty that "The United States shall continue to enjoy unmolested the right to take fish of every kind on the Great Bank, and on all other banks of Newfoundland." To Benjamin Franklin the credit is due, through his great influence and popularity, that the treaty as a whole was successfully executed.

369. Payment to the Loyalists. The matter of payment to the Loyalists for their property confiscated could not be undertaken by Congress because it was a matter that concerned the States respectively. Therefore it was "agreed that the Congress shall earnestly recommend to the legislatures of the respective States, to provide for the restitution of such estates, rights, and properties."

CHRONOLOGY.

1760. England - Reign of George III.

1776. South Carolina - Fort Moultrie, June 28.

New York

New Jersey

Long Island, August 27.

White Plains, October 28.

Fort Washington, November 16.
Trenton, December 26.

1777. New Jersey - Princeton, January 3.

New York Ticonderoga, July 6.

Rhode Island - Capture of General Prescott, July 9.
New York British army sails for Philadelphia, July 23.

Vermont Bennington, August 16.