at Paris on the 3rd of September, 1783, and
received here, could not be ratified without a House of nine states.
On the 23rd of December, therefore, we addressed letters to the several
Governors, stating the receipt of the definitive treaty; that seven
states only were in attendance, while nine were necessary to its
ratification; and urging them to press on their delegates the necessity
of their immediate attendance. And on the 26th, to save time, I moved
that the Agent of Marine (Robert Morris) should be instructed to have
ready a vessel at this place, at New York, and at some Eastern port,
to carry over the ratification of the treaty when agreed to. It met the
general sense of the House, but was opposed by Dr. Lee, on the ground
of expense, which it would authorize the Agent to incur for us; and,
he said, it would be better to ratify at once, and send on the
ratification. Some members had before suggested, that seven states were
competent to the ratification. My motion was therefore postponed, and
another brought forward by Mr. Read, of South Carolina, for an immediate
ratification. This was debated the 26th and 27th. Read, Lee, Williamson,
and Jeremiah Chase urged that ratification was a mere matter of form;
that the treaty was conclusive from the moment it was signed by the
ministers; that, although the Confederation requires the assent of nine
states to enter into a treaty, yet, that its conclusion could not be
called the entrance into it; that supposing nine states requisite, it
would be in the power of five states to keep us always at war; that nine
states had virtually authorized the ratification, having ratified
the provisional treaty, and instructed their ministers to agree to a
definitive one in the same terms, and the present one was, in fact,
substantially, and almost verbatim, the same; that there now remain
but sixty-seven days for the ratification, for its passage across the
Atlantic, and its exchange; that there was no hope of our soon having
nine states present in fact, that this was the ultimate point of time
to which we could venture to wait; that if the ratification was not
in Paris by the time stipulated, the treaty would become void; that if
ratified by seven states, it would go under our seal, without its being
known to Great Britain that only seven had concurred; that it was a
question of which they had no right to take cognizance, and we were only
answerable for it to our constituents; that it w