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Ratification of the Treaty of Paris by the US Congress

When
1784
Where
Old Senate Chamber, Maryland State House, Annapolis
Episodes
1

On January 14, 1784, the Congress of the Confederation ratified the Treaty of Paris, formally ending the American Revolutionary War. Thomas Mifflin, presiding officer of Congress, signed the ratification. The act took place at the Maryland State House in Annapolis, after Congress struggled to muster a quorum of state delegates.

Episodes

  1. January 14, 1784 · Old Senate Chamber, Maryland State House, AnnapolisCongress ratifies the Treaty of Paris

    The Congress of the Confederation ratified the Treaty of Paris on January 14, 1784, at the Maryland State House in Annapolis, with Thomas Mifflin presiding.

Background and detail

Background. The Treaty of Paris was signed by representatives of King George III and the United States on September 3, 1783, officially ending the War of American Independence and recognizing the former Thirteen Colonies as free, sovereign, and independent states. It was one of several agreements collectively known as the Peace of Paris.

Congress in 1783–1784. Thomas Mifflin returned to Congress in 1782 and was elected its president the following year, serving as presiding officer from November 1783 to June 1784. After the war, Congress declined so sharply that Mifflin found it difficult to convince states to send enough delegates to ratify the treaty.

Aftermath. Copies of the ratified treaty were sent to Europe for ratification by the other parties, the first reaching France in March 1784. Britain ratified on April 9, 1784, and the ratified versions were exchanged in Paris on May 12, 1784. Hoped-for commercial negotiations with Britain failed to materialize that year.

People involved

  • Thomas Mifflin · President of the Congress of the Confederation, whose signature ratified the treaty

Sources

  1. Treaty of Paris (1783) Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-29
  2. Thomas Mifflin Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-13

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.