Ratification of Preliminary Articles of Peace

Background. Peace negotiations opened in Paris in April 1782, after the fall of Frederick North's government on 20 March in the wake of the British defeat at Yorktown, and continued through the summer. A provisional treaty was drafted on November 30, 1782, providing the preliminary articles that Congress would ratify in April 1783.

Congressional Ratification. The Congress of the Confederation, the legislative body of the newly established United States, is recorded in the legacy row as ratifying the preliminary articles of peace on April 15, 1783, in Philadelphia. The supplied passages do not attest this April ratification; the only congressional ratification they describe is that of the definitive Treaty of Paris on January 14, 1784, in Annapolis, Maryland.

Aftermath and Definitive Treaty. The definitive Treaty of Paris was signed on September 3, 1783, by Adams, Franklin, Jay, and Hartley at the Hôtel d'York. Congress ratified that treaty on January 14, 1784, in Annapolis, and Britain ratified on April 9, 1784, with versions exchanged in Paris on May 12, 1784.