Continental Congress Remarks on the Provisional Peace Treaty, [24 March 1783]
Continental Congress
Remarks on the Provisional Peace Treaty
[Philadelphia, March 24, 1783]1
Mr. Hamilton said that whilst he despised the man who wd. enslave himself to the policy even of our Friends, he could not but lament the overweening readiness which appeared in many, to suspect every thing on that side & to throw themselves into the bosom of our enemies. He urged the necessity of vindicating our public honor by renouncing that concealment to which it was the wish of so many to make us parties.
“Notes of Debates in the Continental Congress,” MS, James Madison Papers, Library of Congress.
1. On this date, as on the days preceding, Congress continued the debate begun on March 19 on the provisional peace treaty’s secret article concerning West Florida. See H’s “Remarks on the Provisional Peace Treaty,” March 19, 1783. When on March 24 Congress learned of the signing of the preliminary articles of peace between Great Britain, France, and Spain, the problem of the separate negotiation of the treaty was no longer urgent.