Accordingly, the speech from the throne, on the re-opening of parliament, two days after this news had arrived, breathed the same warlike spirit as at the late close of the session. Nevertheless, a strong opposition existed in parliament; the war was extremely unpopular with the British nation at large; and from the 12th of December to the 4th of the following March, motion after motion was brought forward in the house, for the termination of the war, when, on this latter day, a resolution was moved by General Conway, “that all those should be considered as enemies to his majesty and the country who should advise, or by any means attempt, the further prosecution of the war in America.”
On the 20th, the administration of Lord North terminated, and the advocates of peace and American independence immediately came into power, the Marquis of Rockingham being at the head of the ministry. Hopes of some possible accommodation were entertained, by Lord Shelburne and his party, according to Lord Chatham’s ideas. Overtures were made to Adams at the Hague, and to Franklin at Paris, to ascertain whether the United States would agree to a separate peace, and to something short of the entire recognition of their independence. Sir Guy Carleton, who was appointed to supersede Sir Henry Clinton, was commissioned to treat for peace. He addressed, therefore, a pacific letter to Washington, and put a stop to the predatory incursions of the loyalist Indians, which had been long the scourge of the New York frontiers. Powers to treat were communicated to congress; but that body declined to negotiate except in conjunction with France, and at Paris. Franklin also had returned for answer, through Richard Oswald, a British merchant who had formerly large commercial dealings with America, and who had been sent to Paris for the purpose of sounding him, that nothing short of independence, satisfactory boundaries, and a participation in the fisheries, would be admitted as the foundation for a treaty.
On July 1st, Lord Rockingham died, and Lord Shelburne succeeded him. The views of the king were now strengthened by his minister’s disinclination for the dismemberment of the empire. Rodney had captured nearly the whole fleet of De Grasse in the West Indies, and England was again triumphant in the western hemisphere. Nevertheless the king, in proroguing parliament on July 11th, spoke of his anxious wish for peace. In August, an act of parliament was obtained, authorising a negotiation with America, and Oswald returned to France, to treat with the American agents and commissioners, Franklin, Adams and Jay.
Difficulties arose immediately. The commissioners were authorised to conclude a peace with the agents of certain Colonies. Jay objected, and refused to proceed until Oswald came empowered to treat with the agents of the “United States of America.” This objection being overcome, others had arisen in the meantime. The French minister, Vergennes, from what motive does not exactly appear—perhaps from not being wholly favourable to the new republic—while he instigated the Americans to insist on their share of the Newfoundland fishery, urged the British government not to make the concession. The British agents, however, aware of the double dealing of Vergennes, exposed it, and satisfied the American commissioners that in this respect nothing was to be feared; and no time was lost in bringing the treaty to a conclusion. On the 30th of November, therefore, the preliminaries of the articles of peace were signed at a private meeting unknown to Vergennes, although this proceeding was contrary to their original treaty with France and the late orders of congress.
Vergennes complained of being duped, and felt, or pretended, great indignation at what he called American chicanery; nevertheless, so little did it affect him that, a few days afterwards, he agreed to advance a new loan of six million of livres, to enable America to meet the expenses of the coming year. But there was good reason for suspicion: Vergennes was soon afterwards discovered, in conjunction with Spain, labouring to limit the boundaries assigned to the United States, and earnestly advising the British not to yield too liberally.[[52]]
So anxious was the British minister to announce the coming peace, that eight days before the preliminaries were signed by the American agents, he addressed a letter to the lord mayor of London, to acquaint him with the speedy conclusion of the negotiations, and that parliament would be prorogued in consequence from the 26th of November to the 5th of December.
On the 5th of December parliament accordingly met, and the king announced that, in pursuit of a general pacification, he had offered to declare the American colonies free and independent states; and added, with evident discomposure of manner, that in admitting the separation of the colonies from the crown of Great Britain, he had sacrificed every consideration of his own to the wishes and opinion of his people.
On the 20th of January, 1783, the preliminaries of peace were signed at Paris, the American signatures being those of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and Henry Laurens. Before signing the address, Franklin, it is said, put on triumphantly the dress suit, which he had never worn since the day of Wedderburn’s attack in the British privy council.[[53]]
The British monarch acknowledged by these arrangements the freedom, sovereignty and independence of the United States, relinquishing all claims to the government, proprietary, and territorial rights of the same. The boundaries allowed embraced a larger extent of territory than the States, when colonies, had claimed. At the commencement of the negotiation, the British commissioners had claimed the country north of the Ohio as a part of Canada, to which, indeed, the Quebec act annexed it. They sought also to extend the western limits of Nova Scotia, as far as the Pemaquid, according to the old French claim. These points, however, were compromised; the peninsula of Upper Canada was yielded to the British, the eastern boundary of the United States remaining fixed at the St. Croix. The northern limit of Florida, according to the proclamation of 1763, was agreed to as the southern boundary of the United States, being the river St. Mary’s from its mouth to its source, a due west line thence to the Apalachicola, and from that river to the Mississippi, the 31st degree of north latitude. But, by a secret article, it was agreed that if Britain, at the peace with Spain, should still retain West Florida, the northern boundary of that province was to be a due east line from the mouth of the Yazoo to the river Chattahoochee.
Full liberty was secured to the Americans to take fish of every kind on the Grand Bank, and all other banks of Newfoundland, as also in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and all other places in the sea where they had formerly been accustomed to fish. The navigation of the Mississippi, from its source to the ocean, was for ever to remain free and open to the subjects of Great Britain and the citizens of the United States alike. All the British armies, garrisons and fleets, were to be withdrawn with all convenient speed from the United States, without causing any destruction, or carrying away of negroes, or any other property of the Americans; this last clause being inserted at the instance of Henry Laurens, who represented the slaveholding interests of America, and who had arrived at Paris two days previous to the signing of the preliminaries. A great deal was said on the subject of allowing compensation to the American loyalists, an unfortunate class which had strong claims on the British government. The American commissioners, however, resolutely opposed all compensation, Franklin even declaring that they would rather risk a war by themselves alone than consent to any indemnification for the enemies of and the traitors to their country. A clause was, however, inserted, earnestly recommending the legislatures of the respective States to provide for the restitution of all estates, rights, and properties which had been confiscated, belonging to real British subjects.