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“His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United States...to be Free, Sovereign and Independent States....”

The complete treaty is printed in full on the first and second pages, signed in type by the American negotiators, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay, as well as the British negotiator, David Hartley.

Even after the preliminary articles of peace explicitly recognized American independence, Americans were wary that the war would resume before the final treaty was ratified and British troops were withdrawn from New York.

The definitive Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783. John Thaxter Jr., the private secretary to John Adams, arrived in Philadelphia with the treaty on November 22, 1783. The following day, the packet ship Lord Hyde landed in New York with British newspapers publishing the treaty text. The Lord Hyde then traveled to Philadelphia, further spreading the news. The Independent Gazetteer was one of the first American newspapers to print the treaty in full.

[TREATY OF PARIS]. The Independent Gazetteer; or, the Chronicle of Freedom, December 6, 1783. Philadelphia: Eleazer Oswald and David Humphreys. 4 pp., 11 x 18¼ in.

Inventory #27467       Price: $4,000

Excerpts
“LONDON, September 30.

“The DEFINITIVE TREATY between Great-Britain and the United States of America, signed at Paris, the 3d day of September, 1783.

“In the Name of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity,

“It having pleased the Divine Providence to dispose the hearts of the Most Serene and Most Potent Prince George the Third, by the Grace of God, King of Great-Britain, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, Duke of Brunswick and Lunenburg, Arch-Treasurer and Prince Elector of the Holy Roman Empire, &c, and of the United States of America, to forget all past misunderstandings and differences that have unhappily interrupted the good correspondence and friendship which they mutually wish to restore, and to establish such a beneficial and satisfactory intercourse between the two countries, and upon the ground of reciprocal advantages and mutual convenience, as may promote and secure to both perpetual peace and harmony;...” (p1/c4)

“Art. I. His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United States, viz. New-Hampshire, Massachusetts-Bay, Rhode-Island, and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New-York, New-Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North-Carolina, South-Carolina and Georgia, to be Free, Sovereign and Independent States; and he treats with them as such, and for himself, his heirs and successors, relinquishes all claims to the government, property, and territorial rights of the same, and every part thereof.” (p1/c4)

“Art. VIII. The navigation of the river Mississippi, from its source to the ocean, shall for ever remain free and open to the subjects of Great-Britain, and the citizens of the United States.” (p2/c1)

[Washington’s Answer to Returning Citizens of New York:]

“Permit me...to felicitate you on the happy restoration of your city.

“Great as your joy must be on this pleasing occasion, it can scarcely exceed that which I feel at seeing you, Gentlemen, who, from the noblest motives, have suffered a voluntary exile of many years, return again in peace and triumph, to enjoy the fruits of your virtuous conduct.”

“May the tranquility of your city be perpetual. May the ruins soon be repaired, commerce flourish, science be fostered, and all the civil and social virtues be cherished, in the same illustrious manner, which formerly reflected so much credit on the inhabitants of New-York.” (p3/c2)

Historical Background
Negotiators began discussions to bring the American Revolutionary War to an end in Paris in April 1782. They drafted a preliminary treaty on November 30, 1782, which the Confederation Congress approved in April 1783, but representatives of King George III and of the United States did not sign the definitive Treaty of Paris until September 3, 1783.

The Confederation Congress, temporarily convened at Annapolis, Maryland, ratified the Treaty of Paris on January 14, 1784.

Additional Content
This issue also includes King George III’s appointment on May 14, 1783, of David Hartley as his Minister Plenipotentiary to sign the treaty (p2/c1), the appointment by Congress on June 15, 1781, of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Henry Laurens, and Thomas Jefferson (or the majority of them) with “full power and authority, general and special, conjunctly and separately” to “confer, treat, agree, and conclude” a treaty of peace (p2/c2); a petition by the assembly of Antigua to Governor Thomas Shirley to allow American ships to trade with the island, and Shirley’s response that he had to obey the King’s proclamation strictly (p2/c3-4); news of the British evacuation of New York City on November 25 (p2/c4); reports of the ensuing celebrations (p2/c4-p3/c1); addresses by the citizens of New York to General George Washington (“our deliverer”) and New York Governor George Clinton (whose “example taught us to suffer with dignity”), and their responses (p3/c1-2); news of fresh immigration to the United States from London (p3/c2); the election of William Paca as governor of Maryland (p3/c2); and a variety of notices and advertisements, including one announcing the recent arrival of a ship from Belfast with a number of “very healthy Men and Women Servants & Redemptioners, Whose times are to be disposed of by the Captain on board” (p3/c3); another advertising Haym Salomons brokerage services (p4/c3); and a third announcing the upcoming election of directors for the Bank of North America (p4/c3).

The Independent Gazetteer; or, the Chronicle of Freedom (1782-1790) was founded by Eleazar Oswald (1750-1795), an Englishman who came to America in 1770. He had been an apprentice to John Hold, the publisher of the New-York Journal, and in 1772 married Holt’s daughter. Oswald served in the Continental Army from 1775 to 1779 and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He published the Baltimore Maryland Journal with William Goddard from 1779 to 1781. Oswald then moved to Philadelphia and established the daily Independent Gazetteer in 1782 in partnership with David Humphreys (1752-1818). He also operated the London Coffee House, which became a meeting place for leaders of Pennsylvania’s Republican Party. Sensitive to questions of honor, Oswald was frequently involved in conflicts, several of which ended in duels. In the summer of 1787, the Independent Gazetteer praised the Constitutional Convention and initially printed both Federalist and Anti-federalist essays in the autumn of 1787. By early November, Oswald became an ardent Anti-federalist, and the Independent Gazetteer was one of only twelve newspapers in the nation regularly to publish essays that opposed ratification. In 1788, the headmaster of a local girls’ school sued Oswald for libel for an article he had printed. While the case was pending, Oswald published a broadside about the case and served a month in jail and paid a fine for contempt of court. In January 1790, the Independent Gazetteer became the weekly Independent Gazetteer, and Agricultural Repository, until January 1794, when it became the semiweekly Independent Gazetteer. While helping to publish his father-in-law’s Independent Gazette, or New York Journal Revived, Oswald criticized Alexander Hamilton in print, and the two narrowly averted a duel. In 1792, Oswald went to France and joined the French Revolution as colonel of an artillery unit. He returned to New York in 1795 and died in an outbreak of yellow fever. Joseph Gales (1761-1841) purchased the newspaper from Oswald’s widow in September 1796 and continued operating it for a year.

Condition: Disbound; some wear and foxing present; minor staining scattered throughout; old fold lines vertically and horizontally from edge to edge; adhesive remnants and small holes along the integral fold; first page has handwritten “X” in ink at the upper left edge and pencil notations in top right corner.