Report on Instructions to Peace Commissioners, [15 August] 1782
Report on Instructions to Peace Commissioners
Draft (NA: PCC, No. 25, II, 125–26). Written by JM. The docket includes a note by him reading, “Report of the Committee appointed to take into consideration & report to Congress the most advisable means of securing the several claims of the U. States not included in their Ultimatum.” Below this appears in an unknown hand, “August 15th 1782. read and tomorrow assigned fo[r] Consideration.” Under this, Charles Thomson noted, “Read. entered.” He also wrote “No. 50” at the top of the page. See also , XXIII, 468–69.
[15 August 1782]
The Committee1 appointed to consider and report to Congress the most advisable means of securing the several claims of the U. States not included in their ultimatum of the day of 2 recommend,
That the Committee to whom was referred the Report of a previous Committee,3 relative to the said claims be instructed to deliver over to the Secy. for For: Affairs,4 the materials which they may have collected in support thereof;5 and that the sd. Secy perfect & transmit the same to the Ministers Plenipoty for negociating peace,6 for their information & use; provided that nothing which shall be done by virtue of this Resolution shall be construed to affect any dispute which now does, or may hereafter subsist between individual States, or between the U. States and an individual State.7
That the Ministers Plenipoy. for negociating peace be instructed to communicate to his most Xn Majesty8 so much of the facts & observations9 so to be transmitted and in such form, as they shall judge fit; representing to his Majesty that Congress have caused the same to be compiled & laid before him, under a persuasion that he will find therein such clear proofs both of the validity & importance of all their claims as will silence any pretensions by which they may be opposed; that this representation of the grounds of the said claims was rendered the more essential on the part of Congress by the extreme solicitude of their Constituents with regard to those objects, and by the ardent desire of Congress not only10 that this just solicitude should be eventually satisfied11 but that it may be found that every usefull precaution had been taken to that end: that the favorable circumstances under which a negociation is likely to be carried on, afford additional confidence that the issue will not disappoint the expectations of the U. States, nor the zeal with which his Majesty has assured them he shall support their interests,12 but on the contrary that the magnanimity & wisdom which led his Majesty into the war in their behalf, & which have marked his conduct thro’ the course of it, will appear with fresh lustre in the Act by which it is to be terminated; and that the Alliance & amity which have been cemented by the mingled blood of the two nations, will derive still further stability from the final attainment of the just demands of both of them.13
1. JM, chairman, Rutledge, Witherspoon, Jackson, and Duane. For the background of this report, see Comments on Instructions to Peace Commissioners, 8 August 1782, and ed. n., and nn. 8 and 9.
2. 15 June 1781 (, XX, 651–55; , III, 147–55; 168–70). The “several claims” included chiefly the right to share in the Newfoundland fisheries and to navigate the full length of the Mississippi River freely.
3. JM, as a member of the “previous committee,” which had been appointed on 17 November 1781, drafted its report and submitted it to Congress on 12 December 1781. See , IV, 4–13; 13–17 nn.; 342, n. 1.
4. Robert R. Livingston.
5. These “materials” included Randolph’s masterly “Facts and Observations in support of the several Claims of the United States not included in their Ultimatum of the 15th of June, 1781.” Although drafted by him before he left Congress on 19 March, this essay was not read to Congress until 16 and 17 August 1782 and was spread upon the journal four days later (, XXIII, 482–521; pp. 108, 141–42; , IV, 90, n. 4; 387; 389, n. 19; , VI, 332; 451, n. 2).
6. John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and Henry Laurens.
7. JM underlined the italicized words. In the portion of the sentence beginning with “provided,” JM obviously was revising Randolph’s proposal to Congress on 22 January 1782, reading, “That nothing contained in the preceding instruction shall be construed to affect any territorial dispute, at any time subsisting between the United States and an individual state or between individual states” (, XXII, 45). Although JM altered Randolph’s intent by replacing “instruction” with “information & use” and omitting “territorial” before “dispute,” he probably, like Randolph, had principally in mind the boundary controversies between states and the conflicting offers of Connecticut, New York, and Virginia to cede to Congress all or most of their land in the Northwest Territory. See Comments on Instructions to Peace Commissioners, 8 August, ed. n., and nn. 8 and 9; JM to Randolph, 20 August 1782.
8. His Most Christian Majesty, King Louis XVI of France.
9. Here JM seems to be quoting the first three words in the title of Randolph’s report. See n. 5, above.
10. JM interlineated “not only.”
11. This word was JM’s substitute for his canceled “fulfilled.”
13. For the debate in Congress occasioned by this report, see Comments on Instructions to Peace Commissioners, 15 August 1782.