National Ratification Day, which falls on January 14th, commemorates the 241st anniversary of the United States being formally recognized as an independent and sovereign nation. The day marks the ratification of the Treaty of Paris by the Continental Congress in 1784, officially ending the American Revolutionary War. The treaty, negotiated and signed by American representatives Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and John Adams, along with British representative David Hartley, included stipulations such as British recognition of U.S. independence and boundaries allowing for American westward expansion to the Mississippi River. The signing of the treaty took place in September 1783, with the ratification occurring in January 1784.
The ratification of the Treaty of Paris followed years of conflict between the American colonies and Great Britain, beginning with the American Revolutionary War in 1775. The Declaration of Independence in 1776 signaled the colonies’ separation from Britain, but fighting continued until the formal recognition of U.S. independence in 1783. The final peace treaty, known as the Peace of Paris, was signed in September 1783 in Paris, and ratified by the Continental Congress in January 1784.
While National Ratification Day is not a federal holiday, it holds significance in American history as a pivotal moment in the country’s quest for independence. Tourists are able to view a copy of the Treaty of Paris and the desk it was signed on in the John Quincy Adams State Drawing Room in Washington, D.C., while the original treaty is preserved in the National Archives.
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