CHAPTER III. PEACE UNDER THE CONFEDERATION. THE last chapter was concluded with the signature of the preliminary treaty of peace of 1782, which the next year became in effect the permanent treaty, and thus established in form the independence of the United States, fixed its relations with Great Britain, and gave the young nation a position among the governments of the world. As it is the most important treaty ever celebrated by this country, it may be interesting to look more closely at some of the incidents attending its negotiation, and at the personages most prominent in bringing it to a successful conclusion. The first incident which attracts our attention is the issue which Jay raised soon after his arrival in Paris as to the sufficiency of Oswald's commission, which authorized him to treat with any commissioners named by the Colonies. Upon Jay's positive refusal to proceed with the negotiations, Oswald exhibited to the American commissioners his instructions, which stated that in case the commissioners were "not at liberty to treat on any terms short of independence, you are to declare to them that you have authority to make that concession." But even this was not satisfactory. Jay contended that the British and American commissioners should meet on equal terms as the representatives of equal nations; that the treaty should be the consequence of independence, and not independence a consequence of the treaty. His persistency carried the day, and the new commission to Oswald authorized him to treat with any commissioners "vested with equal powers, by and on the part of the thirteen United States of America," naming them. The importance of this position arises from the relation which is to be ascribed to the parties in making the treaty. If they were negotiating as independent nations the stipulations entered into were in the nature of the partition of an empire, and each continued in the exercise of the rights which pertained to them respectively, except as limited by the stipulations entered into. If, on the other hand, the negotiations were conducted on the basis of the continuing colonial existence, independence under the treaty carried with it only such rights as to boundaries, fishing, and navigation as the mother country should "grant" by virtue of the treaty. This question, we shall see, assumed practical interest when in later years the fishing rights became the subject of discussion and negotiation. The question has been much mooted whether, if Franklin had been heartily supported by his colleagues, Canada might not have been included in the United States by the treaty of peace. In his informal "Notes for Conversation," which he handed to Oswald before the negotiations had been fairly opened, Franklin suggested the voluntary cession of Canada, and, with a foresight which discerned the embarrassments and dan1 5 Dip. Cor. Rev. 541. gers since realized in the existence of a foreign colony on our northern border, he asked the cession as the surety "of a durable peace and a sweet reconciliation." But it does not appear that he urged it at any future stage after the negotiations had been formally entered upon. Adams had expressed views similar to those of Franklin respecting the desirability of securing Canada, and could hardly have failed to support him, if he had thought it expedient or practicable to press the proposition;1 and it is a well-founded surmise that the American negotiators did not think it wise to renew it. With the better knowledge now of the necessities of the British government and the state of parties, and especially of Shelburne's views, as revealed by the correspondence and narratives of the period, it would seem probable that if the cession of Canada, coupled with a substantial provision for the loyalists, had been made a condition of peace, it might have been attained; but it is evident it was not so believed at the time by the American negotiators. An interesting military incident is worth relating in this connection. In the autumn of 1778, Congress, without consulting Washington or other responsible military officials, devised a detailed plan for the conquest of Canada by the combined movement of the American and French land and naval forces, the special feature of which was the sending from France of a 1 "So long as Great Britain shall have Canada, Nova Scotia, and the Floridas, or any of them, so long will Great Britain be the enemy of the United States, let her disguise it as much as she will." John Adams to Samuel Adams, July 28, 1778. (2 Dip. Cor. Rev. 667.) |