Treaty of Paris Signed

 Last page of the Treaty of Paris, 1783. Our Documents. Also available from Wikimedia Commons.

23 years ago today, the Treaty of Paris was signed, and the Revolutionary War ended.

The Continental Congress appointed a commission to negotiate a peace treaty with Great Britain, and in April 1782, negotiations began in Paris, France. John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay represented the United States. David Hartley and Richard Oswald represented Great Britain. Henry Laurens joined Adams, Franklin, and Jay in November 1782.

The treaty was signed at the Hotel d'York in Paris on 3 September 1783 by Hartley, Adams, Franklin, and Jay.  It consisted of ten articles.

Article 1 - acknowledged that the former colonies were free and independent states
Article 2 - established the boundaries between the United States and British North America
Article 3 - granted the people of the United States the right to fish on the Grand Banks and other banks of Newfoundland and in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence
Article 4 - creditors on both sides should be paid
Article 5 - Congress was to recommend that state legislatures provide for the restitution of property belonging to Loyalists
Article 6 - no more property belonging to Loyalists was to be confiscated
Article 7 - prisoners of were on both sides were to be released, and the British army was not to take any property, including slaves
Article 8 - Great Britain and the United States were both to have access to the Mississippi River
Article 9 - any territory conquered by the United States or Great Britain before the arrival of the preliminary articles of peace was to be returned
Article 10 - the treaty was to be ratified within six months

References
Our Documents: Treaty of Paris
Primary Documents in American History: Treaty of Paris
Treaty of Paris - American Revolution
Treaty of Paris (1783)
Treaty of Paris 1783