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Instructions of the Continental Congress to the Ministers Plenipotentiary to Negotiate a Treaty of Peace, 15 June 1781

Instructions of the Continental Congress to the Ministers
Plenipotentiary to Negotiate a Treaty of Peace

[Philadelphia, 15 June 1781]
Juin 1781.

Instructions to the honourable John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Henry Laurens and Thomas Jefferson, Ministers Plenipotentiary, in Behalf of the United States, to negociate a Treaty of Peace.

Gentlemen,

You are hereby authorized and instructed to concur in behalf of these United States with his most christian Majesty, in accepting the Mediation proposed by the Empress of Russia and the Emperor of Germany.

You are to accede to no Treaty of Peace which shall not be such as may 1st effectually secure the Independence and Sovereignty of the Thirteen United States according to the Form and Effect of the Treaties subsisting between the said United States and his most christian Majesty; And 2dly. in which the said Treaties shall not be less in their full Force and Validity.

As to disputed Boundaries, and other Particulars, we refer you to the Instructions given to Mr John Adams dated 14 August 1779, and 18 October 1780,1 from which you will easily perceive the Desires & Expectations of Congress. But we think it unsafe at this Distance to tye you up by absolute & peremptory Directions upon any other Subject than the two essential Articles abovementioned. You are therefore at liberty to secure the Interest of the United States in such manner as Circumstances may direct and as the State of the belligerents and the Disposition of the mediating Powers may require. For this purpose you are to make the most candid and confidential Communications upon all subjects to the Ministers of our generous Ally the King of France; to undertake nothing in the Negotiations for Peace or Truce without their Knowledge and Concurrence; and ultimately to govern yourselves by their Advice and Opinion; endeavouring in your whole Conduct to make them sensible how much we rely upon his Majesty’s Influence for effectual [support] in every thing that may be necessary to the Peace, Security, and future Prosperity of the United States of America.2

If a Difficulty should arise in the Course of the Negociation for Peace, from the Backwardness of Great Britain to acknowledge our Independence, you are at liberty to agree to a Truce, or to make such other Concessions as may not affect the Substance of what we contend for, and provided that Great Britain be not left in Possession of any Part of the United States.

Samuel Huntington, Pesidt.
Cha. Thomson, secty.

C, in the hand of BF, FrPMAE: CP-EU, 17: 254 (EJ: 5080). Marked: “Copy”. C, in the hand of Charles Thomson, DNA: PCC, item 25, 445–46 (EJ: 65152). LbkCs, DLC: Franklin, 8: 10–11 (EJ: 10337); 8A: 9–11 (EJ: 10342). DS, in the hand of James Lovell, partly in code, party decoded by JA, MHi: Adams (see PJA description begins Robert J. Taylor, Gregg L. Lint, et al., eds., Papers of John Adams (15 vols. to date; Cambridge, Mass., 1977–) description ends , 11: 374–77). DS, partly in code, with notation by Charles Thomson, “Mr Jay has the Key,” PC, Philip D. Sang, River Forest, Illinois (1959). C, in the hand of William Temple Franklin, attested as a true copy by BF, endorsed by BF “Instructions relative to the Peace Treaty, endorsed by JA “Ultimately to govern ourselves by their Advice & opinion,” PC, Charles E. Feinberg, Detroit (1957). C (not found), as decoded by JJ, SR, Kenneth R. Rendell, catalog 92 [1973] (EJ: 13320). The original encoded texts of the instructions were enclosed in Samuel Huntington to BF, 19 June, and to JA, 20 June, LDC description begins Paul H. Smith et al., eds., Letters of Delegates to the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (26 vols.; Washington, D.C., 1976–98) description ends , 17: 331, 333; and in the President of Congress to JJ, 5 July 1781, below. The texts sent to JA and BF were encoded in polyalphabetic codes developed by James Lovell, on which see Weber, U.S. Codes and Ciphers description begins Ralph E. Weber, United States Diplomatic Codes and Ciphers, 1775–1938 (Chicago, 1979) description ends , 28–29; which code was employed for JJ’s instructions has not been ascertained. JJ’s original set of commissions and instructions was delivered by David S. Franks in September 1781; a duplicate set, probably forwarded by Thomas Barclay, failed to reach JJ. See JJ to JA, 15 Dec. 1781, below.

1See JCC description begins Worthington C. Ford et al., eds., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (34 vols.; Washington, D.C., 1904–37) description ends , 14: 956–60; 18: 948–51; and PJA description begins Robert J. Taylor, Gregg L. Lint, et al., eds., Papers of John Adams (15 vols. to date; Cambridge, Mass., 1977–) description ends , 8: 203; 10: 278–80.

2The controversy generated by this new instruction “to make the most candid and confidential Communications upon all subjects to the Ministers of our generous Ally the King of France; to undertake nothing in the Negotiations for Peace or Truce without their Knowledge and Concurrence; and ultimately to govern yourselves by their Advice and Opinion,” which JJ, JA, and BF ultimately disregarded, was long-lasting. The sixth item of the 14 Aug. 1779 instructions to JA as peace commissioner only specified that he should be guided by the French in matters Congress deemed nonessential peace objectives. Important goals, such as access to the Newfoundland fisheries and the delineation of the United States’ “clear and indisputable boundaries,” were not made subject to French advice. The new instruction, among other things, made one of the key issues JJ was negotiating, assertion of the Mississippi River as the western boundary of the United States, subject to French approval.

JJ took a lead role in rejecting what he considered to be undue French influence. For his comments on these instructions, see his letter to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, 28 Apr. 1782, below. For Gouverneur Morris’s advice to JJ on his appointment to the peace commission and the related instructions, see his letter to JJ of 17 June 1781, below. For La Luzerne’s lengthy reports to Vergennes on the congressional debate over selection of the ministers and their instructions, which he described as drafted “under his eyes,” see his dispatches of 8, 13, and 14 June 1781, FrPMAE: CP-EU, 17: 91r–110v, 169r–172v, 181r–186r.

JA, though far more opposed to French influence than JJ, did not at first voice objections to the new directive, apparently because he had failed fully to decode the passage. He later claimed not to have seen it until his arrival in Paris in 1782. See PJA description begins Robert J. Taylor, Gregg L. Lint, et al., eds., Papers of John Adams (15 vols. to date; Cambridge, Mass., 1977–) description ends , 11: 374–77, esp. 377n6; 14: xvi–xvii; Adams, Diary description begins Lyman H. Butterfield et al., eds., Diary and Autobiography of John Adams (4 vols.; Cambridge, Mass., 1961) description ends , 3: 38.

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