A work of peace:

...While the map of Europe has been altered beyond recognition...

...Like most of humanity we are much better at celebrating wars, their endings and their beginnings, than we are at celebrating peace...

...She set about forming a committee to coordinate whatever scattered commemorations of the treaty were going on, and to stimulate others...

...The National Symphony agreed to a free concert on the lawn of the Capitol in Washington at which would be played a new American work "A Fanfare for Peace" by Stephen D. Burton which had been commissioned by the Committee...

...The Treaty of Paris admitted us to the family of nations...

...Not so the British-American Treaty of 1783...

...writes historian Richard B. Morris...

...Nevertheless the treaty might have gone unremarked in any significant way had it not been for the strenuous efforts of one woman - historian Dr...

...But no national observance was envisioned, no national proclamation of celebration planned, until Joan Challinor decided that, if no one else thought the work of peace important, she did...

...replicas of the first printed copy of the treaty and of Buell map of 1784 showing the new American boundaries were printed for distribution...

...Our choices as a concerned third party between established governments and rebels in Central America, and "a plethora of Middle Eastern issues" involving recognition also invite analogy...

...All this would be of only passing interest if it were not that focusing on the Treaty of Paris and the way in which peace was attained by it has important and suggestive analogies to contemporary international problems...

...To Benjamin Franklin it was the crowning work of his life...

...Perhaps most original of all was the concept of the Treaty of Paris balloon to commemorate man's first flight, the bicentennial of which - Montgolfier's balloon ascent - coincided with that of the treaty, thus creating a bond between two testimonies to the achievements possible to the human spirit...

...We stand in need of peacemakers as independent in judgment, as skilled in diplomatic maneuvering, as dedicated to the true national interest as were Adams, Jay, and Franklin...

...Where today are the Treaties of Utrecht of 1713, of Paris of 1763, of Huber-tusburg of the same year, or of Kuchuk Kainarji of 1774...

...Surely a treaty worth celebrating...

...We have forgotten, or have never known, that Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and John Adams spent four long years negotiating it...

...Eventually the committee enlisted many prominent Americans - as well as the Queen of England and the president of the United States as honorary chairmen - but the initial work was mostly done by or with the inspiration of Dr...

...We were long fellow laborers in the best of all works - the work of peace," he wrote to David Hartley, the British negotiator...

...A logo was designed and offered for the use of those sponsoring separate observances in places as varied as San Francisco and New Haven, Clayton, New York, and Springfield, Illinois...

...a facsimile of the original handwritten treaty was made available...

...memorial gates bearing the Treaty of Paris logo are being installed at the entrance to London's Grosvenor Square-all this and much more are the result of one person's determination to celebrate the arts of peace-making...

...A poster was designed showing the original treaty atop the Sheraton desk on which it was signed...

...Because by the treaty the United States secured boundaries exceeding those of any republic "since the days of Rome," Morris argues, our country entered a period of unparalleled creativity, admitting states, not colonies, and forming a republic "so spacious" that it required a unique kind of federalism - thus bringing about the invention of those marvels of statecraft, the Northwest Ordinance and the Federal Constitution, which, without the treaty, would have been meaningless...

...They are all ghosts of a vanished past, along with the empires of the Spaniards, the Dutch, the French, the Turkish, and the British...

...Joan Ridder Challinor...

...King George Ill's obstinate stand in refusing to recognize the insurgent Americans, says historian Morris, was very like our own long years of refusal to deal directly with the Viet Cong...

...Challinor...

...The National Endowment is funding the distribution of educational materials for the nation's school children...

...Yet even after almost three-quarters of a year of observances American faces tend to go a little blank at mention of it...

...the present northern and southern boundaries of the continental United States remain essentially the same as a direct result of the negotiators' foresight" (Morris, The Peacemakers: The Great Powers and American Independence, Northeastern University Press, 1983...

...Of several minds: Abigail McCarthy A WORK OF PEACE THE LESSONS OF AN UNREMEMBERED TREATY THIS MONTH - September - marks the two hundredth anniversary of the Treaty of Paris, a bicentennial every bit as important to us as that of the Declaration of Independence, but, alas, far less familiar...

...It ensured that we would be a great continental nation rather than a narrow federation of former colonies hugging the eastern seaboard...

...A film is being produced by the Smithsonian...

...Adams hailed "the returning friendship" between Great Britain and America, and Hartley called the signing "the reunion of all our ancient affections and common interests...

...A Mass in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris marks the signing...

...Perhaps that is why the powers that be had to be prodded a little before they joined in the national invitation to the study of the treaty and the work - the hard, wearying work - which must go into the making of peace...

...True, some British entrepreneurs in collaboration with their American counterparts took advantage of the date to plan a "Britain Salutes New York" festival to showcase British products and British artists and performers...