I congratulate your Excellency most sincerely upon the cessation of hostilities, which you will learn from the enclosed Proclamation. You will doubtless have heard directly from General Carleton on the subject, so that it will not be necessary to trouble you with the substance of his letter to me.
Congress will this day, upon my report, take into consideration the propriety of discharging the prisoners, and the manner in which it is to be done. Sir Guy Carleton presses hard in his letter for the execution of the fifth of the Preliminary Articles. I have replied, that it cannot be executed till the treaty is ratified; and in the mean time endeavored to convince him, that the recommendation of Congress will be received with much more respect, when the persons, who compose our Legislatures, have returned to their respective homes, and the asperities occasioned by the war shall be a little worn down by the enjoyment of peace. It is a very capital omission in our treaty, that no time has been fixed for the evacuation of New York.
It were to be wished, that General Carleton's intentions on this head could be sounded by your Excellency.
I have the honor to be, Dear Sir, &c.
ROBERT R. LIVINGSTON.
CIRCULAR TO THE GOVERNORS OF THE STATES.
Philadelphia, April 12th, 1783.
Sir,
Permit me to offer you my congratulations on the important event announced by the United States, in Congress, in the enclosed Proclamation for the cessation of hostilities; an event, which is not only pleasing, as it relieves us from the accumulated distresses of war in the bowels of our country, but as it affords the fairest and most flattering prospects of its future greatness and prosperity. I need not, I am persuaded, Sir, use any arguments to urge your Excellency and the State over which you preside, to the most scrupulous attention to the execution of every stipulation in our treaty, which may depend on you or them. A national character is now to be acquired. I venture to hope, that it will be worthy of the struggles by which we became a nation.
I have the honor to be, &c.