By the United States in Congress assembled, June 12th, 1783.
The Committee, to whom was referred a report of the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, on a letter of the 20th of March last from M. Dumas, and sundry papers enclosed, report;
That it appears from the said letter and the papers enclosed, that propositions have been made, on the part of the States-General, to the Ministers of the United States of America at Paris, in order to render an express stipulation in favor of the freedom of navigation less necessary in the treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United Provinces of the Netherlands, either to accede to the treaty of the armed neutrality already concluded between some powers of Europe, or to enter into similar engagements with France, Spain, and the United Provinces of the Netherlands, or, in case France and Spain should refuse to enter into a Convention founded on the principles of the armed neutrality, or wish to delay it till after the general peace, to form a separate convention for similar purposes, between the United Provinces of the Netherlands and the United States of America. That the answers to these propositions do not appear from the papers transmitted, though there is room to infer from M. Dumas's letter of the fourth and eighteenth of February, that the two first of these propositions were encouraged by our Ministers, and that the States-General proposed to act in consequence thereof, and had made the last proposition, in order to be prepared in case either, or both, of the two first should fail.
It appears from the report of the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, that no powers are at present vested in any person in Europe, to agree to any treaty, similar to that entered into by Russia, Sweden, Denmark, and the United Provinces of the Netherlands, after the peace shall be concluded. The resolution of the 5th of October, 1780, empowers the Ministers of these States, if invited thereto, to accede to such regulations conformable to the spirit of the declaration of Russia, as may be agreed upon by the Congress expected to assemble, in pursuance of the invitation of her Imperial Majesty. Our Ministers received no invitation, and special powers were afterwards given to Mr Dana, which, in their nature, superseded that resolution. Mr Dana was by his commission and instructions empowered to sign the treaty or convention, for the protection of commerce in behalf of the United States, either with her Imperial Majesty, in conjunction with the other neutral powers, or if that shall be inadmissible, separately with her Imperial Majesty, or any of those, that is, those neutral powers. The treaty being only made to continue during the war, his powers terminated with the war, or, at most, extended only to sign it with the neutral powers, and not to form a new separate treaty.
Whereupon Congress came to the following resolution.
Whereas the primary object of the resolution of October 5th, 1780, and of the commission and instructions to Mr Dana, relative to the accession of the United States to the neutral confederacy, no longer can operate, and as the true interest of the States requires, that they should be as little as possible entangled in the politics and controversies of European nations, it is inexpedient to renew the said powers either to Mr Dana, or to the other Ministers of these United States in Europe. But, inasmuch as the liberal principles, on which the said confederacy was established, are conceived to be, in general, favorable to the interests of nations, and, particularly, to those of the United States, and ought, in that view, to be promoted by the latter, as far as will consist with their fundamental policy;
Resolved, that the Ministers Plenipotentiary of these United States for negotiating a peace be, and they are hereby instructed, in case they should comprise in the definitive treaty any stipulation, amounting to a recognition of the rights of neutral nations, to avoid accompanying them by any engagements which shall oblige the contracting parties to support those stipulations by arms.
ELIAS BOUDINOT, President.
DAVID HARTLEY TO THE COMMISSIONERS.
Paris, June 14th, 1783.