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The Treaty of Paris of 1783 formally ended the American Revolutionary War. American statesmen Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and John Jay negotiated the peace treaty with representatives of King George III of Great Britain.

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Benjamin West's unfinished painting due to the British delegates refusal to be in it

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Benjamin West's unfinished painting due to the British delegates refusal to be in it

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Two hundred and thirty-one years ago today, on November 30, 1783, the American and British delegations of peace commissioners, meeting in Paris, signed a treaty that ended the Revolutionary War and settled (for a time) the various issues resulting from that long and bloody conflict. Benjamin Franklin and John Adams were among the American delegates; less well-known were David Hartley and Richard Oswald representing Great Britain. According to American law and tradition, what had once been the American colonies ceased to be so on July 4, 1776, but the British did not formally recognize the separation until the Treaty of Paris went into effect. To say they were somewhat uncomfortable with the whole idea-and embarrassed that they lost the war-is an understatement.

Above is a painting made of the treaty signing. It was painted by Benjamin West, a Pennsylvania-born painter and close friend of Benjamin Franklin who moved to England just before the Revolution and became an important artist in the court of King George III. West was commissioned to memorialize the treaty signing, and did his best-but then Hartley and Oswald, having concluded the (to them) unpleasant business of inking the treaty, refused to sit for the portrait. As a result it remained unfinished, and what you see above is as far as West got.

Adams and Franklin got a big kick out of the British delegates' haughty refusal to sit for the portrait. In fact, when he returned to the United States, John Adams took the picture home with him and hung it on his wall. Though it's been hung in various places around the Adams residences (including, I believe, in the White House, though I'm not sure of that), today it hangs on the wall of the Stone Library at Peacefield, which I visited in August and wrote about on this blog. The unfinished portrait is a highlight of the tour and visitors today get a chuckle out of it.

Though it's a punchline today, Britain's antagonism toward the early United States was no laughing matter in 1780s and on through the 1810s. One can make a strong argument (as historian Alan Taylor did in his book The Civil War of 1812) that Britain never really accepted American independence until the War of 1812 completed the separation between the two countries. Nevertheless, it seems strange to me that Hartley and Oswald, whatever their nationalistic feelings, would have shirked from being recognized for making peace, which is a monumental positive achievement in any age. As the Bible says, "Blessed are the peacemakers." That is as true today as it was in 1783.

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Ashamed of peace?: Benjamin West's unfinished picture of the Treaty of Paris delegation.

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Two hundred and thirty-one years ago today, on November 30, 1783, the American and British delegations of peace commissioners, meeting in Paris, signed a treaty that ended the Revolutionary War and settled (for a time) the various issues resulting from that long and bloody conflict.

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The Treaty of Paris is just what we need! After all the bloodshed and the loss of heroic lives, the Treaty of Paris establishes the peace we were lacking. "I now can roam the streets without fearing the lobster backs, trade without smuggling, and no longer hide from war," said my father. It is now the time to look foward at the future of America and make it great again!
- Proud Patriot

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After the Americans declared independence, I knew I would lose everything. I believe Parliament was imposing taxes because that's what they are supposed to do. A government needs to make money some way and the people need to agree. They won and have gained all that land, but still won't even give me my own property back! As my wife said, "They show no mercy for the loyalists who did nothing against the colonists!"
- Agitated Loyalist

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The long awaited win for America has finally arrived. After the Revolutionary War, a treaty was made, known as "The Treaty of Paris of 1783", between the British and the Americans. This treaty establishes six major conditions that both countries have to follow.
1. America is now independent.
2. America's boundaries are now the Mississippi River in the west, Canada in the north, and Florida (owned by the Spanish) in the south.
3. America has the right to fish in Canada's Atlantic coast.
4. Both the British and Americans have to pay any dept they owe each other.
5.  The British must return any enslaved people they captured.
6. The British recommended the states to return any loyalists property.

However, America never repaid the British for any dept they owed and the British never returned the enslaved people they captured. Although some things were unsolved, the treaty made it very clear that America is no longer with Britain.

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                                               America Is Born!

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                                               America Is Born!

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September 7, 1783                                         Maryland Times                                               Annapolis, MD

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September 7, 1783                                         Maryland Times                                               Annapolis, MD