Congress’s Instructions to the American Peace Commissioners, 29 October 1783
Congress’s Instructions to the American Peace Commissioners
[Princeton, N.J.] October 29th. 1783.1
To the Ministers plenipotentiary of the United States of America at the Court of Versailles empowered to negociate a peace or to any one or more of them.
First. You are instructed and authorized to announce to his Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Germany or to his Ministers the high sense which the United States in Congress Assembled entertain of his exalted character and eminent virtues and their earnest desire to cultivate his friendship and to enter into a Treaty of Amity and Commerce for the mutual advantage of the Subjects of his Imperial Majesty & the Citizens of these United States—2
Secondly. You are instructed to meet the advances and encourage the disposition of the other Commercial powers in Europe for entering into Treaties of Amity and Commerce with these United States. In negociations on this subject you will lay it down as a principle in no case to be deviated from that they shall respectively have for their basis the mutual advantage of the contracting parties on terms of the most perfect equality and reciprocity and not to be repugnant to any of the Treaties already entered into by the United States with France and other Foreign powers. That such Treaties shall in the first instance be proposed for a term not exceeding fifteen years, and shall not be finally conclusive until they shall respectively have been transmitted to the United States in Congress Assembled for their examination and final direction; and that with the draughts or propositions for such Treaties shall be transmitted all the information which shall come within the knowledge of the said Ministers respecting the same and their observations after the most mature enquiry on the probable advantages or disadvantages & effects of such Treaties respectively—3
Thirdly. You are instructed to continue to press upon the Ministers of his Danish Majesty the justice of causing satisfaction to be made for the value of the Ships and Goods captured by the Alliance Frigate and sent into Bergen, and how essentially it concerns the honor of the United States that their gallant Citizens should not be deprived of any part of those prizes, which they had so justly acquired by their valour. That as far as Congress have been informed the estimate of those prizes at fifty thousand pounds sterling is not immoderate; that no more however is desired than their true value, after every deduction which shall be thought equitable. That Congress have a sincere disposition to cultivate the friendship of his Danish Majesty and to promote a commercial intercourse between his Subjects and the Citizens of the United States on terms which shall promise mutual advantage to both Nations. That it is therefore the wish of Congress that this claim should be still referred to the equitable disposition of his Danish Majesty in full confidence that the reasonable expectations of the parties interested will be fully answered; accordingly you are fully authorized and directed after exerting your best endeavours to enforce the said claim to the extent it shall appear to you to be well founded, to make abatements if necessary and ultimately to accept such compensation as his Danish Majesty can be prevailed on to grant—
Fourthly. You are further instructed to enquire and report to Congress the reasons why the expedition of the Alliance and the Squadron which accompanied them was carried on at the expence and on account of the Court of France? whether any part of the profit arising therefrom accrued to the United States; or any of the expense thereof hath been placed to their Account? whether the proceeds of any of the prizes taken in that expedition and which is due to the American Officers and Seamen employed therein is deposited in Europe, and what amount; where; and in whose hands?—4
Fifthly— The acquisition of support to the Independence of the United States having been the primary object of the instructions to our Ministers respecting the Convention of the neutral maritime powers for maintaining the freedom of Commerce, You will observe that the necessity of such support is superceded by the Treaties lately entered into for restoring peace. And although Congress approve of the principles of that Convention as it was founded on the liberal basis of maintenance of rights of neutral nations and of the privileges of Commerce; yet they are unwilling at this juncture to become a party to a Confederacy which may hereafter too far complicate the interests of the United States with the politics of Europe; and therefore if such a progress is not already made in this business as may render it dishonorable to recede, it is the desire of Congress and their instruction to each of the Ministers of the United States at the respective Courts in Europe, that no further measures be taken at present towards the admission of the United States into that Confederacy—
Sixthly. The Ministers of these United States for negociating a peace with Great Britain are hereby instructed, authorised & directed, to urge forward the definitive Treaty to a speedy conclusion and unless there shall be an immediate prospect of obtaining Articles or explanations beneficial to the United States in addition to the provisional Articles, that they shall agree to adopt the provisional Articles as the substance of a definitive Treaty of peace—5
Seventhly. The Minister or Ministers of these United States for negociating a peace are hereby instructed to negociate an explanation of the following paragraph of the declaration acceded to by them on the 20th. January 1783 relative to Captures Viz: “That the term should be one month from the Channel and North Sea as far as the Canary Islands inclusively whether in the Ocean or the Mediterranean”—6
Eighthly. Mr. Jay is hereby authorized to direct Mr. Carmichael to repair to Paris should Mr. Jay be of the opinion that the interest of the United States at the Court of Madrid may not be injured by Mr. Carmichael’s absence; and that Mr. Carmichael carry with him the Books and Vouchers necessary to make a final and compleat settlement of the accounts of public monies which have passed through the hands of Mr. Jay and himself and that Mr. Barclay attend Mr. Jay and Mr. Carmichael to adjust those accounts7
Ninethly. Mr. Jay has leave to go to Bath should he find it necessary for the benefit of his health—8
Cha Thomson secy.
DS, DLC: Franklin. Endorsed. Printed: 25: 754–57. Dft report, in hand of James Duane, missing the seventh instruction, DNA: PCC, item 25, 2: 309–13. Endorsed: “Instructions to / the Ministers of the United States / at foreign Courts.—/ Delivered Oct 22. 1783/ Entd. Read.” Second endorsement: “ . . . Passed Oct 29. 1783 / Except the 3d which is recom/ mitted.—” Copy, containing instructions 1–5, DNA: PCC, item 116: 1–5 (EJ: 3497).
1. These instructions, originally drafted by a committee appointed 29 Sept. 1783, consisting of James Duane, Samuel Huntington, and Arthur Lee, were enclosed in Elias Boudinot’s letter to the commissioners of 1 Nov. 1783. See , 25: 753–58; , 21: 135–36. JA informed JJ that he had received them in his letter of 7 Dec. 1783, below.
2. This instruction responds to initiatives undertaken by Frederick Eugene François, baron de Beelen-Bertholff, the agent of Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, and by the government of the free city of Hamburg and one of its firms to establish commercial relations with the United States. See , 21: 16, 90, 131–32, 133.
3. Here the version reads “Recommitted. Thirdly. You are instructed to put a stop to all loans for money which are negotiating or authorized on behalf of the United States in any part of Europe.”
4. In August 1779 John Paul Jones had assumed command of a squadron of three French and two American ships with mixed French and American crews that cruised under orders issued by the French minister of marine and co-signed by BF. In the course of an encounter with the British Baltic fleet Jones captured the Serapis, while a French ship took The Countess of Scarborough. The prizes were sold by Jacques Donatien le Ray de Chaumont, who failed to use the proceeds to pay wages, bounties, and prize money due to the Americans who served on both the French and the American ships involved. On 1 Nov. 1783 Congress resolved that Captain John Paul Jones be recommended to BF “as agent, to solicit. . . . for payment and satisfaction to the officers and crews for all prizes taken in Europe under his command.” Jones sailed with Joshua Barney on the General Washington on 10 Nov. 1783 and delivered the dispatches to JA on 5 Dec. The French claims were eventually settled in 1785.
Jones had also sent a pair of prizes to Bergen, Norway, at the end of 1779. The Danish court, which might have refused to admit them, instead returned them to the British. For negotiations conducted by BF to address this situation, see BF to JJ, 7 Apr. and 13 June 1780, : 60–62, 151–54; and , 30: 336–37, 591–94; 31: 261–65. Jones went to Denmark in 1788 to negotiate compensation, but the attempt failed; this soured Danish-American relations for a number of years thereafter. Finally, in 1848, Congress voted funds to pay the claims of the Americans involved. See Boudinot to JJ, 1 Nov., and JA to JJ, 7 Dec. 1783, both below; , 8: 582, 617–19; , 25: 787–88; and Hulbert Footner, Sailor of Fortune: The Life and Adventures of Commodore Barney (New York, 1940), 148.
5. See the editorial note “Signing the Definitive Treaty” on pp. 462–67.
6. On the confusion over the terms established for the cessation of hostilities, set according to when the European treaties were ratified rather than in reference to 20 Jan., see , 20: 107.
7. On the settlement of the accounts for the Spanish mission, see RM to JJ, 4 Nov. 1783, below; and the editorial note “Settling the Spanish Accounts” on pp. 550–54.
8. A copy of the 8th and 9th instructions relating to JJ was enclosed in Elias Boudinot’s letter to JJ of 1 Nov., below. JJ had arrived at London on 14 Oct. on his way to Bristol and Bath. He did not return to Paris until February 1784. See JJ to SLJ, 15 Oct., ALS, NNC (EJ: 8034), and 14 Nov. 1783, below.