On 25 November Oswald presented the American commissioners with the treaty as revised by the British cabinet. This initiated the final round of discussions that produced the preliminary treaty.1 Once it appeared certain that the process was about to be concluded, the British government prorogued Parliament until 5 December “to give time”, as Thomas Townshend explained, “to receive a final answer from the Powers with whom we are in Negotiation.”2 Fearing that this action might be misunderstood in France, Grantham directed Alleyne Fitzherbert to explain the decision to Vergennes.3 Shelburne assumed that the American commissioners would “consider the Step . . . taken in regard to Parliament, . . . in it’s due Light.”4

The two issues that were not resolved until the very end were the New-foundland fisheries and compensation for Loyalists. Townshend instructed Oswald to make sure that any concession on the fisheries did not interfere with the king’s rights or with privileges granted to the French.5 In a letter written the following day, Shelburne explained to Oswald that England’s attitude about both the fisheries and the Loyalists was prompted by a sincere desire to avoid future “dissention.”6 The American intransigence on the Loyalist refugee issue sorely troubled Vergennes, who feared that it would prolong the war.7 In a letter of 26 November Franklin told Oswald that it was best to drop all mention of the refugees unless the British were willing to compensate Americans’ losses.8

On 29 November the negotiators, joined by Henry Laurens, who had just arrived from London, spent the entire day trying to reach an agreement. At day’s end, Fitzherbert and Strachey authorized Oswald to accept the American terms. Franklin assumed responsibility for informing Vergennes that negotiations had been successfully concluded.9 The next day the commissioners met to review the fair copies of their agreement and made minor modifications. Once the treaties were signed, sealed, and delivered, the Americans dined together at Passy. Jay commented on their perfect harmony. “Mr. Adams was particularly useful respecting the eastern boundary,” he wrote, “and Dr. Franklin’s firmness and exertions on the subject of the Tories did us much service.”10

By the evening of 30 November the treaty was on its way by courier to Britain. Strachey planned to set off for London the next day—if he were still alive. “God forbid,” he wrote, “I should ever have a hand in another Peace.” Like his companions, he was anxious about how the treaty would be received. “Now are We to be hanged, or applauded for thus rescuing you from the American War?” he wrote. “I am half dead with perpetual anxiety, and shall not be at ease till I see how the great Men receive me— If this is not as good a Peace as was expected, I am confident it is the best that could have been made.” The articles were not, Oswald commented to Townshend, “exactly what were proposed by the Draft which Mr. Strachey brought over with him, but are the best we could possibly obtain of them.”

Fitzherbert confessed “great pain” at having to agree to unattractive but inevitable peace conditions. Both he and Oswald praised Strachey for his “indefatigable” efforts to obtain the best treaty possible. Although Strachey noted with relief after his arrival in London on 10 December that the treaty was generally approved, he also mentioned displeasure over the articles governing Loyalists and the fisheries. In very short order this displeasure overwhelmed the approval and brought down Shelburne’s government.11

The treaty became effective on 20 January 1783, when the European preliminaries were signed. News of the settlement did not reach Congress until 12 March 1783. While most applauded the commissioners for the concessions won from Britain, some criticized the separate article and the decision to negotiate without the involvement of France.12

Informal discussions among the American commissioners about modifications to the preliminary treaty and for a trade agreement to replace the commercial reciprocity provisions that had been stripped from the first draft of the preliminaries began almost immediately. The Shelburne administration was increasingly paralyzed by opposition criticism of the pact. Formal trade and treaty negotiations resumed in April 1783 under the Fox-North coalition. After several months of discussion, the present document, virtually unchanged except for a prologue, was adopted as the definitive treaty in September 1783. It did not eliminate all “Seeds of Discord” or secure “perpetual Peace and Harmony” between the two nations. A decade later, Jay would play a major role in resolving many of the difficulties left outstanding.13