[The following are the articles of the treaty with Prussia, referred to in the preceding observations.]
Article 13. And in the same case, of one of the contracting parties being engaged in war with any other power, to prevent all the difficulties and misunderstandings, that usually arise respecting the merchandise heretofore called contraband, such as arms, ammunition, and military stores of every kind, no such articles, carried in the vessels, or by the subjects or citizens of one of the parties, to the enemies of the other, shall be deemed contraband, so as to induce confiscation or condemnation, and a loss of property to individuals. Nevertheless, it shall be lawful to stop such vessels and articles, and to detain them for such length of time, as the captors may think necessary to prevent the inconvenience or damage that might ensue from their proceeding, paying, however, a reasonable compensation for the loss such arrest shall occasion to the proprietors; and it shall further be allowed to use, in the service of the captors, the whole or any part of the military stores so detained, paying the owners the full value of the same, to be ascertained by the current price at the place of its destination. But in the case supposed, of a vessel stopped for articles heretofore deemed contraband, if the master of the vessel stopped, will deliver out the goods supposed to be of contraband nature, he shall be admitted to do it, and the vessel shall not, in that case, be carried into any port, nor further detained, but shall be allowed to proceed on her voyage.
Article 23. If war should arise between the two contracting parties, the merchants of either country, then residing in the other, shall be allowed to remain nine months to collect their debts, and settle their affairs, and may depart freely, carrying off all their effects, without molestation or hindrance; and all women and children, scholars of every faculty, cultivators of the earth, artizans, manufacturers, and fishermen, unarmed, and inhabiting unfortified towns, villages, or places, and in general, all others whose occupations are for the common subsistence and benefit of mankind, shall be allowed to continue their respective employments, and shall not be molested in their persons, nor shall their houses be burned or otherwise destroyed, nor their fields wasted by the armed force of the enemy, into whose power, by the events of war, they may happen to fall; but if anything is necessary to be taken from them, for the use of such armed force, the same shall be paid for at a reasonable price And all merchant and trading vessels, employed in exchanging the products of different places, and thereby rendering the necessaries, conveniences, and comforts of human life more easy to be obtained, and more general, shall be allowed to pass free and unmolested. And neither of the contracting parties shall grant, or issue any commission to any private armed vessels, empowering them to take or destroy such trading vessels, or interrupt such commerce.
Article 24. And to prevent the destruction of prisoners of war, by sending them into distant and inclement countries, or by crowding them into close and noxious places, the two contracting parties solemnly pledge themselves to each other and the world, that they will not adopt any such practice; that neither will send the prisoners whom they may take from the other, into the East Indies or any other parts of Asia or Africa; but that they shall be placed in some part of their dominions in Europe or America, in wholesome situations, that they shall not be confined in dungeons, prison ships, nor prisons, nor be put into irons, nor bound, nor otherwise restrained in the use of their limbs. That the officers shall be enlarged, on their paroles, within convenient districts, and have comfortable quarters, and the common men be disposed in cantonments, open and extensive enough for air and exercise, and lodged in barracks as roomy and good, as are provided by the party in whose power they are, for their own troops; that the officers shall be daily furnished by the party, in whose power they are, with as many rations, and of the same articles and quality, as are allowed by them, either in kind or by commutation, to officers of equal rank in their own army; and all others shall be daily furnished by them, with such rations as they allow to a common soldier in their own service; the value whereof shall be paid by the other party, on a mutual adjustment of accounts for the subsistence of prisoners, at the close of the war; and the said accounts shall not be mingled with, or set off against any others, nor the balances due on them, be withheld as a satisfaction or reprisal for any other article, or for any other cause, real or pretended, whatever. That each party shall be allowed to keep a commissary of prisoners, of their own appointment, with every separate cantonment of prisoners in possession of the other, which commissary shall see the prisoners as often as he pleases, shall be allowed to receive and distribute whatever comforts may be sent to them by their friends, and shall be free to make his reports in open letters, to those who employ him. But if any officer shall break his parole, or any other prisoners shall escape from the limits of his cantonment, after they shall have been designated to him, such individual officer, or other prisoner, shall forfeit so much of the benefit of this article, as provides for his enlargement on parole or cantonment. And it is declared, that either the pretence that war dissolves all treaties, nor any other whatever, shall be considered as annulling or suspending this, or the next preceding article, but, on the contrary, that the state of war is precisely that for which they are provided, and during which they are to be as sacredly observed, as the most acknowledged articles in the law of nature and nations.
VI.
Answers to questions propounded by M. de Meusnier, Jan. 24th, 1786.
1. On the original establishment of the several States, the civil code of England, from whence they had emigrated, was adopted. This of course could extend only to general laws, and not to those which were particular to certain places in England only. The circumstances of the new States obliged them to add some new laws, which their special situation required, and even to change some of the general laws of England in cases which did not suit their circumstances or ways of thinking. The law of descents, for instance, was changed in several States. On the late revolution, the changes which their new form of government rendered necessary were easily made. It was only necessary to say that the powers of legislation, the judiciary, and the executive powers, heretofore exercised by persons of such and such description, shall henceforth be exercised by persons to be appointed in such and such manners. This was what their constitution did. Virginia thought it might be necessary to examine the whole code of law, to reform such parts of it as had been calculated to produce a devotion to monarchy, and to reduce into smaller volume such useful parts as had become too diffuse. A committee was appointed to execute this work; they did it; and the Assembly began in October, 1785, the examination of it, in order to change such parts of the report as might not meet their approbation, and to establish what they should approve. We may expect to hear the result of their deliberations about the last of February next.
I have heard that Connecticut undertook a like work; but I am not sure of this, nor do I know whether any other of the States have or have not done the same.
2. The constitution of New Hampshire, established in 1776, having been expressly made to continue only during the contest with Great Britain, they proceeded, after the close of that, to form and establish a permanent one, which they did. The Convention of Virginia which organized their new government, had been chosen before a separation from Great Britain had been thought of in their State. They had, therefore, none but the ordinary powers of legislation. This leaves their act for organizing the government subject to be altered by every legislative assembly; and though no general change in it has been made, yet its effect has been controlled in several special cases. It is therefore thought that that State will appoint a convention for the special purpose of forming a stable constitution. I think no change has been made in any other of the States.
3. The following is a rough estimate of the particular debts of some of the States as they existed in the year 1784:
| New Hampshire | $500,000 |
| Rhode Island | 5,000,000 |
| Massachusetts | 430,000 |
| Connecticut | 3,439,086⅔ |
| Virginia | 2,300,000. |
| United States' principal of Foreign debt nearly | $7,000,000. |
| The principal of the Domestic debt is somewhere between 27½ millions and 35¼ millions, call it therefore | 31,300,000. |
| $38,300,000. |