who had no share in the contest, were paid into the public treasuries of Virginia and Maryland by legislative authority.

That, in the provisional articles of peace between Great Britain and the United States of America, having been agreed upon the 30th November, 1782, and finally adjusted on the 3d of March, 1783, it was settled and agreed, by the fourth article of the said treaty, "That creditors, on either side, should meet with no lawful 'impediment in the recovery of the full value, in sterling money, of 'all bona fide debts heretofore contracted ;" and the fifth article having stipulated that the Congress should earnestly recommend to the Legislatures of the respective States to provide for the restitution of all estates, rights, and properties, which had been confiscated belonging to British subjects; and the sixth article having provided that there should be no future confiscation, many of the British merchants, anxiously solicitous to recover the property so long withheld from them, and upon which the support of their families, in many instances, depended, sent out agents and factors, particularly to Virginia and Maryland, not doubting but they should experience every facility in the collection of the wreck of their fortunes. But, upon the 2d of July, 1783, an edict was published by the Governor of Virginia, ordering all the British agents and factors who had arrived in that State forthwith to depart the same. That, in this situation, these agents and factors were not only compelled to retire on board of British ships then trading to the country, but had the mortification to find that the real estates of many of the British merchants had been confiscated and sold, and the produce of the same applied to the public services of Government; that, in the month of October, 1783, the legislative body of Virginia removed the restrictions; in November following the British merchants and agents were permitted to return, and they have remained unmolested since that period; but no permission whatsoever has been given either to merchants acting for themselves, or to agents or factors acting for employers in Great Britain, to recover any part of the debts or property left in the country in the year 1775. That, in the month of October, 1784, the legislative body of Virginia met, and, in the course of the session, a bill was brought in, the preamble of which runs thus: "Whereas, by the 4th article of the definitive treaty of peace 'between the United States of America and Great Britain, ratified 'by the King of Britain on the 12th day of May last, it was stipu

،lated, among other things, by the said contracting parties, that 'creditors on either side shall meet with no lawful impediment to the 'recovery of the full value, in sterling money, of all bona fide debts 'heretofore contracted; and good faith requires that the said treaty 'shall be carried into execution, according to the true intent and 'meaning thereof." The bill then proceeds to several enacting clauses, the substance of which is as follows :

1st. That the restraints disabling British subjects from prosecuting for the recovery of debts shall be removed by the repeal of an ordinance made since the 19th April, 1775.

2d. That all British debts due before the date of the provisional articles shall be discharged by seven equal payments, the first of which shall become due the 1st of April, 1786.

3d. That the other payments shall fall due on the same day in the six years then next following, respectively.

4th. That no interest shall be allowed to British subjects for any intermediate time between the 19th day of April, 1775, and the 3d day of March, 1783, the said time to be considered as one day in law.

5th. That no settlement made by bonds or other specialties, with interest included, at any time since that period, shall preclude a citizen of America from the benefit of this act, so far as respects interest and payment by instalments to British creditors.

6th. That no execution shall issue against any debtor for more than the proportion of the instalment due for the time being; but such execution may issue annually for the proportion then due until the whole shall be discharged.

7th. That the citizens of Virginia, who have been resident there on the 19th of April, 1775, and have remained ever since, although the partners of British merchants shall not, so far as they are concerned, be subject to the restrictions of this act, but shall enjoy the privileges of other citizens.

This bill passed the Assembly and Senate of Virginia; but, from the want of some forms, it was delayed, if not lost.

Whether the same system of explaining and fulfilling the 4th article of the definitive treaty will be followed by other States in America, or whether the Commonwealth of Virginia will finally enact this law, remains to be determined; but the peculiar hardships to which British merchants are subjected cannot fail to be strikingly conspicuous, when it is considered—

1st. That it is now ten years since their property has been withheld from them.

2d. That they are to be deprived of eight years interest, equal to forty per cent

3d. That the system of making payments by instalments to run out to such lengths of time, must subject them to great loss from the natural causes of deaths, bankruptcy, and removals, which must be expected to happen in the course of eight years.

4th. That, during this period, no security can be demanded, neither can a debtor be restrained by law from wasting or removing property.

5th. That, with all these disadvantages, that of removing the last payment to the year 1792, and, of consequence, obliging the British merchants to keep factors and agents, at a great expense, in the country, to collect these debts, cannot fail to prove a great additional burden to your memorialists.

6th. That no provision is proposed to be made for the real property confiscated and sold for public services, nor for money paid into the treasuries of Virginia and Maryland.

That these and other hardships are distressing in the extreme to the British merchants; and when it is considered that, in addition to all this, some of them have had the mortification to have their property confiscated and sold since the ratification of the treaty of peace, they conceive the grounds of their distress to be so peculiarly striking as to claim the assistance and interposition of the British Government in procuring a compliance with the treaty of peace into entered with the American States.

List of Money paid into the Treasury in Maryland on account of British Debt.

N. B. The above sum of £144,574 currency is equal to £86,744 sterling.

List of Money paid into the Treasury of Virginia on account of the Public Debt.

N. B. The above sum of £273,554 currency, is equal to £12,035 sterling.

This and the five preceding sheets contain true copies of the state and lists enclosed in the Marquis of Caermarthen's letter to me, dated 28th February, 1786, in answer to the memorial of the 30th of November, delivered to his Lordship the 8th of December, 1785. Compared by JOHN ADAMS.

Report of Secretary Jay on Mr. Adams's Letter of 4th March, 1786. Office for Foreign Affairs, October 13, 1786.

The Secretary of the United States for the Department of Foreign Affairs, to whom was referred a letter of the 4th March last, from the Honorable John Adams, Esquire, together with the papers that accompanied it, reports:

That as the subject of these papers and of this report appears to your Secretary in a very important point of light, he thinks they should be so incorporated as that the record of the latter in this office may always exhibit an entire and complete view of the whole business. He therefore reports:

That, on the 8th day of December, 1785, Mr. Adams, agreeably to his instructions of the 7th day of March, 1785, presented to his Britannic Majesty's Secretary of State a memorial dated the 30th day of the preceding month, in the following words:

[See Memorial, p. 542.]

On considering the before-recited papers, these important questions present themselves:

1. Whether any individual State has a right, by acts of their own internal Legislature, to explain and decide the sense and meaning in which any particular article of a national treaty shall be received and understood within the limits of that State?

2. Whether any, and which, of the acts enumerated in the list of grievances, do violate the treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain?

3. In case they, or any of them, should be found to violate it, what measures should be adopted in relation to Great Britain? And,

4. What measures should be adopted in relation to the State or States which passed the exceptionable acts?

Of these in their order; and

1. Of the right of an individual State to enact in what sense a national treaty shall be understood within its particular limits.

Your Secretary considers the thirteen independent sovereign States as having, by express delegation of power, formed and vested in Congress a perfect, though limited sovereignty, for the general and national purposes specified in the Confederation.

In this sovereignty they cannot severally participate, except by their delegates, or have concurrent jurisdiction; for the 9th article of the Confederation most expressly conveys to Congress the sole and exclusive right and power of determining on war and peace, and of entering into treaties and alliances, &c., &c.

When, therefore, a treaty is constitutionally made, ratified, and published by Congress, it immediately becomes binding on the whole nation, and superadded to the laws of the land without the interven