1967 As to your demand of compensation to those persons, we forbear enumerating our reasons for thinking it ill founded: in the moment of conciliatory overtures it would not be proper to call certain scenes into view, over which a variety of considerations should induce both parties, at present to draw a veil. Permit us therefore only to repeat, that we cannot stipulate for such compensation, unless on your part it be agreed to make retribution to our citizens for the heavy losses they have sustained by the unnecessary destruction of their private property. We have already agreed to an amnesty more extensive than justice required,' and full as extensive as humanity could demand. We can therefore only repeat, that it cannot be extended further. We should be sorry if the absolute impossibility of our complying further with your propositions on this head, should induce Great Britain to continue the war, for the sake of those who caused and prolonged it. But if that should be the case, we hope that the utmost latitude will not be again given to its rigours. Whatever may be the issue of this negociation, be assured, Sir, that we shall always acknowledge the liberal, manly, and candid manner in which you have conducted it, and that we shall remain with the warmest sentiments of esteem and regard, your most obedient and very humble servants. Article proposed by the American Plenipotentiaries. + It is agreed that his Britannic Majesty will earnestly recommend it to his parliament to provide for, and make compensation to the merchants and shopkeepers of Boston, whose goods and merchandize were seized and taken out of their stores, warehouses and shops, by order of General Gage and others of his commanders or officers there, and also to the inhabitants of Philadelphia, for the goods taken away by his army there, and to make compensation also for the tobacco, rice, indigo, negroes, &c. seized and carried off by his armies under Generals Arnold, Cornwallis, and others, from the State of Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia. And also for all vessels and cargoes belonging to the inhabitants of the said United States, which were stopped, seized, or taken, either in the ports or on the seas, by his governors or by his ships of war, before the declaration of war against the said States. And it is further agreed, that his Britannic Majesty will also earnestly recommend it to his parliament to make compensation for all towns, villages, and farms, burnt aud destroyed by his troops, or adherents, in the said United States. FACTS. There existed a free commerce upon mutual faith between Great Britain and America. The merchants of the former credited the merchants and planters of the latter with great quantities of goods on the common expectation that the merchants having sold the goods would make the accustomed remittances; that the planters would do the same by the labour of their negroes, and the produce of that labour, tobacco, rice, indigo, &c. " England, before the goods were sold in America, sends VOL. II. T an armed force, seizes those goods in the stores, some even in the ships that brought them, and carries them off. Seizes also and carries off the tobacco, rice, and indigo, provided by the planters to make returns, and even the negroes from whose labour they might hope to raise other produce for that purpose. Britain now demands that the debts shall nevertheless be paid. ...Will she, can she justly refuse making compensation for such seizures? 5. If a draper who had sold a piece of linen to a neighbour Son 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 debts, 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. SIR, + TO RICHARD OSWALD, ESQ. Passy, November 26, 1782. You may well remember that in the beginning of our conferences, before the other commissioners arrived, on mentioning to me a retribution for the loyalists whose estates had been forfeited, I acquainted you that nothing of that kind could be stipulated by us, the confiscations being made by virtue of laws of particular States, which the Congress had no power to contravene or dispense with, and therefore could give us no such authority in our commission. And I gave it as my opinion, honestly and cordially, that if a reconciliation was intended, no mention should be made in our negociations of those people; for they having done infinite mischief to our properties by wantonly burning and destroying farm-houses, villages, and towns, if compensation for their losses were insisted on, we should certainly exhibit against it an account of all the ravages they had committed, which would necessarily recall to view scenes of barbarity that must inflame instead of conciliating, and tend to perpetuate an enmity that we all profess a desire of extinguishing. Understanding however from you, that this was a point your ministry had at heart, I wrote concerning it to Congress, and I have lately received the following: "Resolved, that the Secretary for Foreign Affairs be, and is hereby directed to obtain as speedily as possible authentic returns of the stores and other property, which have been carried off or destroyed in the course of the war by the enemy, and to transmit the same to the ministers plenipotentiary for negociating a peace. "That in the mean time the Secretary for Foreign Affairs inform the said ministers, that many thousands of slaves and other property, to a very great amount, have been carried off or destroyed by the enemy; and that in the opinion of Congress, the great loss of property which the citizens of the United States have sustained by the enemy, will be considered by several states as an inseparable bar to their making restitution or indemnification to the former owners of property, which has been or may be forfeited to, or confiscated by any of the States) a£W9WA In consequence of these resolutions, and the circular letters to the Secretary, the Assembly of Pennsylvania then sitting passed the following act, viz. in a catani DIL291DIE GAUTE 9/3 3 31997. C ́ 1971 190 "The States of Pennsylvania in general Assembly... el dì 5 ni? £?? Lane Wednesday, September 18, 1782. "The Bill intitled An Act for procuring an estimate of the damages sustained by the inhabitants of Pennsylvania, from the troops and adherents to the King of Great Britain during the present war,' was read a second time.£ ISO Ordered to be transcribed and printed for public consideration. "Extracts from the Minutes, Clerk of the General Assembly." "Bill intitled An Act for procuring an estimate of the damages sustained by the inhabitants of Pennsylvania, from the troops and adherents of the King of Great Britain during the present war.' "Whereas great damages of the most wanton nature have been committed by the armies of the King of Great Britain or their adherents, within the territory of the United States of North America, unwarranted by the practice of civilized nations, and only to be accounted for from the |