XIX 
SKETCH OF PROPOSITIONS FOR A PEACE ° 
There shall be a perpetual peace between Great 
Britain and the United States of America, on the 
following conditions. 
Great Britain shall renounce and disclaim all pre- 
tence of right or authority to govern in any of the 
United States of America. 
To prevent those occasions of misunderstanding, 
which are apt to arise where the territories of different 
powers border on each other, through the bad con- 
duct of frontier inhabitants on both sides, Britain 
shall cede to the United States the provinces or 
colonies of Quebec, St. John’s, Nova Scotia, Ber- 
muda, East and West Florida, and the Bahama 
Islands, with all their adjoining and intermediate 
territories now claimed by her. 
In return for this cession, the United States shall 
1 On the 26th of September, 1776, Dr. Franklin was appointed one 
of the Commissioners from Congress to the Court of France. Before 
his departure he sketched a brief outline of the terms upon which he 
supposed a peace might be made with Creat Britain, in case an op- 
portunity for a negotiation should offer. His propositions were sub- 
mitted to the secret committee of Congress, but no occasion presented 
itself for using them. 
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