B
The Preliminary Articles of Peace between Great Britain and the United States of America, 1782.
Whereas reciprocal advantages and mutual convenience are found by experience to form the only permanent foundation of peace and friendship between states; it is agreed to form the Articles of the proposed Treaty on such principles of liberal equity and reciprocity, as that partial advantages (those seeds of discord) being excluded, such a beneficial and satisfactory intercourse between the two countries may be established, as to promise and secure to both perpetual peace and harmony.
Art. 1. His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the said United States, viz. New Hampshire, Massachusets Bay, Rhode Island, and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pensylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, to be free, sovereign and independent states; that he treats with them as such; and for himself, his heirs, and successors, relinquishes all claim to the government, propriety, and territorial rights of the same, and every part thereof: and that all disputes which might arise in future, on the subject of the boundaries of the said United States, may be prevented, it
444
