TREATY OF PEACE AND AMITY BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA
The United States of America and the Confederate States of America, moved by a mutual and sincere desire to see the calamity of war and the unnecessary effusion of blood and treasure ended, and to establish peace on the firm foundations of friendship and mutual respect, have appointed for that purpose respective plenipotentiaries.
The President of the United States has appointed the following plenipotentiaries:
Horatio Seymour, Governor of the State of New York
John Dix, Major General of the United States Army
August Belmont, former Minister to the Netherlands
Charles Francis Adams, Ambassador to the Court of St. James
The President of the Confederate States has appointed the following plenipotentiaries:
Alexander Stephens, Vice President of the Confederate States
John Breckinridge, Major General of the Confederate Army
John Slidell, Minister to France
Benjamin Hill, Member of the Confederate Senate
These plenipotentiaries, after a reciprocal communication of their respective full powers, have arranged, agreed upon, and signed the following Treaty of Peace and Friendship Between the United States of America and the Confederate States of America.
Article I
There shall be a firm and universal peace between the United States and the Confederate States, and between their respective citizens, without any exception of places and persons.
Article II
The United States acknowledges the independence of the Confederate States.
Article III
Upon the exchange of mutual ratifications of this treaty, the military forces of the United States shall begin to withdraw from all territory of the Confederate States currently under their occupation, with such withdrawal to be completed in as expedient a manner as practical, but within two months in any event. Care shall be taken to avoid unnecessary disruptions to civilians and there shall be no unnecessary destruction of property during this time. The Confederate government, and its military forces, shall use all means within its power to assist the withdrawing United States forces.
Article IV
Immediately upon the exchange of mutual ratifications of this treaty, the United States and the Confederate States shall transmit orders to their respective naval vessels, wherever they might be, to immediately cease all hostile action against the other party. Furthermore, immediately upon the exchange of mutual ratifications of this treaty, the United States shall lift the naval blockade imposed upon the Confederate States on April 19, 1861.
Article V
All prisoners taken by either side, on land or sea, without regard to race or previous condition of servitude, shall be restored as soon as practical after the exchange of mutual ratifications of this treaty.
Article VI
The territory of the Confederate States of American consists of the following states: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas, with the status of Tennessee being determined as specified in Article IX.
Article VII
Military posts, forts, and other government facilities that belonged to the United States government within the confines of a state on the date of that state’s secession from the United States shall devolve to the Confederate States, with the Confederate States paying to the United States a sum equal to the fair market value of said facilities in a timeframe later to be agreed upon.
Article VIII
The Confederate States forever abandons any and all territorial claims to the State of Maryland, the State of West Virginia, the State of Kentucky, the State of Missouri, the Territory of New Mexico, the Indian Territory, the District of Columbia, and any portions thereof.
Article IX
A plebiscite shall be held in the state of Tennessee to enable the citizens of the said state to decide for themselves whether their state shall remain within the United States or shall join the Confederate States. Immediately upon the exchange of mutual ratifications of this treaty, the United States and the Confederates States shall each appoint five commissioners to create a ten-person commission with authority to organize and oversee the plebiscite within the said state and to ensure that it be free and fair. The plebiscite shall be held within one year of the exchange of mutual ratifications of this treaty.
Article X
The following counties of Virginia are ceded to the United States: Fairfax, Loudoun, Alexandria, Mathews, and Accomack.
Article XI
Each party reserves to itself the right to fortify whatever point within its territory it may judge proper so to fortify for its security. However, any effort by military forces of one side to prevent the free passage of vessels belonging to the other side on the Potomac and Ohio Rivers in times of peace shall be an act of war.
Article XII
The United States and the Confederate States agree that the Indian Territory shall be an independent state under the mutual supervision and protection of both powers. Negotiations for establishing a proper government in the Indian Territory shall commence not less than six months after the mutual exchange of ratifications of this treaty.
Article XIII
Neither the United States or the Confederates States, nor any citizen thereof, shall be bound in any way or manner for any loss of property which may have regrettably taken place during the period of military hostility between the two nations. For the purposes of this treaty, “property” shall be held to include persons held to servitude under the laws of the Confederate States.
Article XIV
When traveling into the United States, citizens of the Confederate States shall not be permitted to bring persons held to servitude under the laws of the Confederate States with them.
Article XV
The vessels and citizens of the United States shall, in all time, have free, unhindered and uninterrupted use of the Mississippi River for means of transportation. In the Confederate ports on the Mississippi River, citizens of the United States shall enjoy the same rights and privileges on matters of deposit and harbor fees as citizens of the Confederate States. Armed vessels of a military nature belonging to the government of the United States may only transit the Mississippi River with the permission of the Confederate government and under escort by the Confederate military, and only if they proceed immediately from United States territory to the Gulf of Mexico.
Article XVI
The citizens of the United States and the Confederate States shall have the freedom to trade in the territory of the other nation and shall pay within the other nation no other or greater duties, charges or fees whatsoever than the most favored nations are or shall be obliged to pay; and they shall enjoy all the rights, privileges and exemptions in navigation and commerce, which the most favored nation does or shall enjoy; submitting themselves, nevertheless to the laws and usages there established, and to which are submitted the citizens and subjects of the most favored nations.
Article XVII
To facilitate commerce and friendly relations, the two nations grant to each other the liberty of having in the ports or inland centers of commerce of the other consuls, vice-consuls, agents & commissaries of their own appointment, whose functions shall be regulated by particular agreement whenever either party shall choose to make such appointment; but if any such consuls shall exercise commerce, they shall be submitted to the same laws and usages to which the private individuals of their nation are submitted in the same place.
Article XVIII
Vessels of one nation that are legally in the jurisdiction of the other nation shall be subject to the same rules, regulations and protections as are extended to the vessels of the other nation, but vessels belonging to a citizen of the United States or flying the flag of the United States shall not be permitted to transport persons held to servitude under any circumstances. When any vessel of either nation shall be wrecked, foundered, or otherwise damaged within the jurisdiction of the other, the crew and vessel shall receive the same assistance which would be due to the citizens of the nation in which the incident takes place.
Article XIX
If private citizens of either nation, acting under proper law, shall erect monuments or memorials to their respective war dead on battlefields in the territory of the other nation, the local authorities shall protect said monuments and memorials and treat any act of vandalism directed towards them as a serious criminal offense.
Article XX
Both nations agree that creditors on either side shall face no legal impediment to the full recovery of any legitimate debts they may have accrued before the separation of the United States and Confederate States.
Article XXI
One quarter of the United States national debt as of January 1, 1861, shall be assumed by the Confederate States.
Article XXII
If unhappily any disagreement should hereafter arise between the United States and the Confederate States, whether with respect to the stipulations of this treaty or for any other reason, the two nations honestly pledge to one another that they will endeavor in the most sincere manner to settle the difficulties so arising and to preserve the state of peace and friendship in which the two countries are now placing themselves, using, for this purpose, mutual representations and pacific negotiations. And if, by these means, they should not be enabled to come to an agreement, a resort shall not, on this account, be had to reprisals, aggression, or hostility of any kind, by the one nation against the other, until the government of that which deems itself aggrieved shall have maturely considered, in the spirit of peace and friendship, whether it would not be better that such difference should be settled by the arbitration of commissioners appointed on each side, or by that of a friendly nation. And should such course be proposed by either party, it shall be acceded to by the other, unless deemed by it altogether incompatible with the nature of the difference, or the circumstances of the case.
Article XXIII
If unhappily war should ever again arise between the two nations, the merchants of either nation then residing in the other shall be allowed to remain six months to collect their debts and settle their affairs, and may depart freely, carrying off all their effects, without molestation or hindrance.
CONCLUDED ONBOARD THE RIVER QUEEN ANCHORED IN HAMPTON ROADS AUGUST 2, 1865, RATIFIED BY THE UNITED STATES ON OCTOBER 1, 1865 AND THE CONFEDERATE STATES ON OCTOBER 6, 1865, RATIFICATIONS EXCHANGED AT CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, ON NOVEMBER 1, 1865.