government.

It was provided that the western posts should be given up to the United
States on the first of June, 1796, in consideration of the adjustment of
the ante-revolutionary debts, the then residents in their respective
neighborhoods having the option of remaining, or of becoming American
citizens. The important Indian traffic in the interior was left open to
both nations, by a mutual reciprocity of inland trade and free
intercourse between the North American territories of the two nations,
including the navigation of the Mississippi. The British were to be
allowed to enter all American harbors, with the right to ascend all
rivers to the highest port of entry. This reciprocity did not extend to
the possessions of the Hudson's Bay company, nor to the admission of
American vessels into the harbors of the British North American
colonies, nor to the navigation of the rivers of those colonies below
the highest port of entry.

It was stipulated that the subjects or citizens of one government,
holding lands in the dominions of the other government, should continue
to hold them without alienage; nor, in the event of war or other
national differences, should there be any confiscation by either party
of debts, or of public or private stocks, due to or held by the citizens
or subjects of the other. In a word, there should be no disturbance of
existing conditions of property; and merchants and traders on each side
should enjoy the most complete protection and security for their
property.

The foregoing is the material substance of the first ten articles of the
treaty, which it was declared should be perpetual; the remaining
eighteen, having reference chiefly to the regulation of commerce and
navigation between the two countries, were limited in their operations
to two years after the termination of the war in which Great Britain was
then engaged.

The commercial portion of the treaty provided for the admission of
American vessels into British ports in Europe and the East Indies, on
terms of equality with British vessels. But participation in the East
Indian coasting trade, and the trade between European and British East
Indian ports, was left to rest on the contingency of British permission.
The right was also reserved to the British to meet the existing
discrimination in the American tonnage and import duties by
countervailing measures. American vessels, not exceeding seventy tons
burden, were to be allowed to trade