CHAPTER VI
THE SECOND NEGOTIATION IN PARIS
1782-1783
On the 5th of October, after a certain delay caused by the illness of Franklin, Jay handed Oswald the plan of a treaty. It contained the clauses relating to Independence, Boundaries, and the Fishery question, already proposed by Franklin to Oswald, and consequently included the American claim to dry fish on the shores of Newfoundland. Oswald considering it at least doubtful whether in the interests of peace it would not be better to yield the latter point, accepted the clause as it stood, nor did he make any attempt at asserting the claims of the English Crown over the ungranted domains, deeming that no real distinction could be drawn between them and the other sovereign rights, which were necessarily to be ceded. The American Commissioners absolutely refused to yield on the subject of the debts contracted prior to 1775, or to admit the claims of the Loyalists.[1] The territory between the Mississippi and the Alleghanies, the subject of the numerous boundary controversies described in the earlier portions of this work, was already in American hands, as most of the forts which commanded important positions had been taken by the Colonial troops, and Great Britain, Oswald considered, had now no choice but to relinquish her claims.[2]
The clause relating to the limits of Canada and Nova Scotia on the one hand, and the United States on the
- ↑ Oswald to Shelburne, October 8th, 1782.
- ↑ See, however, infra, p. 202, note, in regard to Shelburne's views on this subject.
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