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contraband under any pretext whatever, nor be confiscated or taken away as such from any individual. It shall, nevertheless, be lawful to stop such vessels, and to detain them as long as the captors shall think necessary to prevent the inconveniences or damages that may result from the continuation of their voyage, by paying, however, to the proprietors a reasonable compensation for the loss which such detention may occasion; moreover, the captors shall be permitted to use, in whole or in part, the warlike stores thus detained, provided that they pay the full value thereof to the proprietors.

ARTICLE XIII.

All vessels and merchandize of whatsoever kind that shall be recovered from pirates of the high seas, shall be brought into some port of one of the two States and delivered to the care of the officers of the said port, in order that they may be completely restored to their true proprietor, as soon as he shall have duly and sufficiently proved his property.

ARTICLE XIR

None of her Most Faithful Majesty's subjects shall take a commission or letter of marque to arm any vessel or vessels for the purpose of acting as privateers against the United States, or any of them, or against their subjects, people, or inhabitants, or against their property, or that of the inhabitants of either of them, from any prince whatever with whom the said States shall be at war. In like manner, no citizen, or subject, or inhabitant of the aforesaid United States, or any of them, shall demand any commission or letter of marque to arm any vessel or vessels to cruise against the subjects of Her Most Faithful Majesty, or any of them, or their property, from any prince or State whatever with whom the said Queen shall be at war; and if any one belonging to either nation takes such commission or letter of marque, he shall be punished as a pirate.

ARTICLE XV.

In case the vessels, subjects, and inhabitants of one of the two contracting parties shall approach the coasts of the other, without designing, however, to enter into the port, or, after having entered, without intention to discharge their cargo, or to break bulk, they

shall be at liberty to depart or to pursue their voyage without molestation.

ARTICLE XVI.

It is stipulated by the present treaty, that free vessels shall secure the liberty of the persons who shall be on board, even should they be the enemies of one of the two contracting parties, and they shall not be taken out of the said vessels unless they are military characters, and actually in the enemy's service.

ARTICLE XVII.

The two contracting parties mutually grant permission to maintain in their respective ports consuls, vice-consuls, agents, and commissaries, whose functions shall be regulated by a particular convention, whenever either party may be pleased to establish it.

ARTICLE XVIII.

The present treaty shall be ratified on both sides, and the ratifications shall be exchanged in the space of eight months, or sooner if possible, reckoning from the date of the signature.

ARTICLE XIX.

Her Most Faithful Majesty the Queen of Portugal and Algarva, and the United States of North America, agree that the present treaty shall be in full force, reckoning from the date of its ratification, and the two contracting parties reciprocally promise to observe it exactly.

FROM THE POPE'S NUNCIO TO B. FRANKLIN.

Translation.

The Apostolical Nuncio has the honor to send Mr. Franklin the enclosed note, which he requests he will be pleased to forward to the Congress of the United States of North America, and support it with his credit.

July 28th, 1783.

NOTE.

Before the Revolution, which has just been completed in North America, the Catholics and missionaries of those Provinces depended,

as to their spiritual concerns, on the Apostolical Vicar, resident in London. It is well known that this arrangement can no longer exist; but as it is essential that the Catholic subjects of the United States should have an ecclesiastic to govern them in their religious concerns, the congregation de Propaganda Fide existing at Rome for the establishment and conservation of missions, has come to the determination of proposing to Congress to establish, in some city of the United States of North America, one of their Catholic subjects, with the powers of Apostolical Vicar, and in the character of Bishop, or simply in quality of Apostolical Prefect.

The establishment of an Apostolical Vicar Bishop appears the most eligible, the more so as the Catholic subjects of the United States would find themselves in a situation to receive confirmation and orders in their own country, without being obliged to go for that purpose to the country of a foreign Power. And as it might sometimes happen, that among the subjects of the United States there might be no person in a situation to be charged with the spiritual government, either as Bishop or Apostolical Prefect, it would be necessary, in such circumstances, that Congress should consent to choose him from among the subjects of a foreign nation the most friendly with the United States.

Sir,

TO COUNT DE VERGENNES.

Passy, August 16th, 1783.

I have the honor to inform your Excellency, that the English Ministry do not agree to any of the propositions that have been made either by us or by their Minister here; and they have sent over a plan for the definitive treaty, which consists merely of the preliminaries formerly signed, with a short introductory paragraph, and another at the conclusion, confirming and establishing the said preliminary articles. My colleagues seem inclined to sign this with Mr. Hartley, and so to finish the affair.

I am, with respect, sir, your Excellency's, &c.,

B. FRANKLIN.

M. DE RAYNEVAL TO B. FRANKLIN.

Translation.

Versailles, August 29th, 1783.

Sir,

I have informed the Count de Vergennes of the difficulty which Mr. Hartley has made to signing at Versailles, and this Minister has directed me to say, that nothing ought to prevent your signing at Paris on Wednesday next, the day proposed for the signature of the other treaties; but I request you to fix the hour with Mr. Hartley at nine o'clock in the morning, and to send here an express immediately after your signature is completed.

M. de Vergennes is desirous of being informed of the completion of your labors at the same time with his own. You receive for Wednesday a note of invitation, as well as for your colleagues and Mr. Hartley; I presume that the latter will make no difficulty. I have the honor to be, sir, with perfect consideration, your most obedient humble servant, DE RAYNEVAL.

TO THE PRESIDENT OF CONGRESS.

Passy, August 31st, 1783.

Sir,

After a continued course of treating for nine months, the English Ministry have at length come to a resolution to lay aside, for the present, all the new propositions that have been made and agreed to, their own as well as ours; and they offer to sign again, as a definitive treaty, the articles of November the 30th, 1782, the ratifications of which have already been exchanged. We have agreed to this; and on Wednesday next, the third of September, it will be signed, with all the definitive treaties, establishing a general peace, which may God long continue..

I am, with great respect, &c.,

B. FRANKLIN.

My dear Friend,

TO DAVID HARTLEY.

Passy, September 6th, 1783.

Enclosed is my letter to Mr. Fox. I beg you would assure him

that my expressions of esteem for him are not mere professions. I really think him a great man, and I would not think so if I did not believe he was at bottom, and would prove himself a good one. Guard him against mistaken notions of the American people. You have deceived yourselves too long with vain expectations of reaping advantage from our little discontents. We are more thoroughly an enlightened people, with respect to our political interests, than perhaps any other under Heaven. Every man among us reads, and is so easy in his circumstances as to have leisure for conversations of improvement and for acquiring information. Our domestic misunderstandings, when we have them, are of small extent, though monstrously magnified by your microscopic newspapers. He who judges from them that we are on the point of falling into anarchy, or returning to the obedience of Britain, is like one who being shown some spots in the sun should fancy that the whole disk would soon be overspread with them, and that there would be an end of daylight. The great body of intelligence among our people surrounds and overpowers our petty dissensions, as the sun's great mass of fire diminishes and destroys his spots. Do not, therefore, any longer delay the evacuation of New York, in the vain hope of a new revolution in your favor, if such a hope has indeed had any effect in occasioning the delay. It is now nine months since the evacuations were promised. You expect with reason, that the people of New York should do your merchants justice in the payment of their old debts; consider the injustice you do them in keeping them so long out of their habitations, and out of their business, by which they might have been enabled to make payment. There is no truth more clear to me than this, that the great interests of our two countries is a thorough reconciliation. Restraints on the freedom of commerce and intercourse between us can afford no advantage equivalent to the mischief they will do, by keeping up ill-humor and promoting a total alienation. Let you and me, my dear friend, do our best towards advancing and securing that reconciliation. We can do nothing that will in a dying hour afford us more solid satisfaction.

I wish you a prosperous journey, and a happy sight of your friends. Present my best respects to your good brother and sister, and believe me ever, with sincere and great esteem, yours affectionately, B. FRANKLIN.

VOL. II-31

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