Negotiations over the terms of peace were carried on with varying fortune for more than a year.

John Adams, John Jay, and Benjamin Franklin were the American Peace Commissioners.

The preliminaries between Great Britain and America were signed on December 30, 1782, and with France and Spain nearly two months later.

The Dutch held out still longer into 1783.

Washington, at his Headquarters in Newburgh, New York, had been awaiting the news of peace, not lazily, but planning for a new campaign and meditating upon the various projects which might be undertaken.