May 12, 1784

Treaty of Paris (1783)

British and American ratifications of the Treaty of Paris exchanged at Passy

Franklin expected Hartley at Passy that afternoon; by evening, Britain and the United States had finally swapped the documents that activated their peace.

12 May 1784: three men at Passy

On the evening of 12 May 1784, David Hartley met Benjamin Franklin and John Jay at Passy, near Paris. The three exchanged their governments' ratifications of the definitive peace treaty.

Franklin's eyewitness account of the exchange identifies only those three people. The place matters: the 1783 signing had happened at the Hôtel d'York, not here.

What Article 10 required

The treaty signed on 3 September 1783 ran to ten articles, the last of which set a deadline for exchanging ratifications — six months from signature, or sooner if possible.

The Congress of the Confederation had ratified at Annapolis on 14 January 1784, and George III ratified for Britain, but the American instrument reached Franklin and Jay only after transatlantic delays. Hartley travelled to Passy to make the exchange after the treaty's stated six-month window had already run out, and neither government let the delay wreck the settlement.

Completed, not begun

The exchange completed the ratification process and brought the definitive treaty into effect. It did not make the United States independent for the first time: Article 1 had already recorded British recognition of the states as free, sovereign and independent.

Authenticated copies were afterwards transmitted to Congress and the states. Writing the next day, Franklin treated the evening at Passy as the completion of the "great and hazardous enterprise" in which the Americans had been engaged.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 5 sources 2 audit passes

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →

What the sources leave uncertain

The date and location are directly attested by Franklin and the Journals of the Continental Congress.
Different sources call the signing, congressional ratification or exchange of ratifications the war’s “formal end.” The safest description of 12 May is completion of ratification and entry into force.