clamation of 1763, to draw the southern boundary of Canada from the North West angle along the Highlands to the north-westernmost head of the Connecticut River; thence along the middle of that river to Lat. 45, thence along that line to the North West bank of the river St. Lawrence, thence to the southern end of Lake Nipissing, and so straight to the source of the river Mississippi. Beyond that river, everything was a terra incognita, technically claimed by Spain, but in the actual possession of the Indian and the buffalo, where as yet the footprint of the European colonist had hardly been planted, and the claims of rival invaders were not sufficiently conflicting to need accurate definition.[1]
These boundaries were accepted by Oswald, but Franklin subsequently suggested that as the eastern boundary of Massachusetts was a matter of doubt, it should be settled by a Commission appointed ad hoc. Oswald hoping that a further discussion might lead to a settlement more favourable to England than that put forward by Jay, at once accepted the suggestion, and a clause was accordingly interlined to that effect.[2]
To the clauses relating to the above questions, another for reciprocal freedom of commerce was added at the instance of Jay, who, so Oswald said, pleaded in favour of the future commerce of England as if he had been of her Council. He also strongly urged that West Florida should not be yielded by England to Spain.[3]
The clause ran as follows:—
"That the navigation of the River Mississippi from its source to the ocean shall ever remain free and open, and that both there and in all rivers, harbours, lakes, ports and places, belonging to His Britannic Majesty, or to the United States, in any part of the world, the merchants and merchant ships of the one and the other
- ↑ See "Commission of Governor to Gov. Wright, November 1763." Papers relating to the Ashburton Treaty presented to Parliament 1843, 17, 87, 185, 187. Proceedings of the Massachussets Historical Society, 4th series, x. 838. Webster's Works, ii. 144, 149.
- ↑ Oswald to Townshend, October 8th, 1782.
- ↑ Oswald to Townshrnd, October 5th, 8th, nth. Oswald to Shelburne, October 3rd, 1782.
