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The '''Plan of 1776''', also known as the '''Model Treaty''' or '''Plan of Treaties''' was the model set up by the [[Continental Congress]] in 1776 for treaties between the new nation, the United States of America, and foreign powers. It defined "neutral rights" especially the freedom of the seas for a country such as the U.S. that sought to trade with both sides during a war. One principal was "free chips make free goods," preventing a belligerent from seizing goods that might wind up in enemy hands. Another was the freedom of a neutral to trade in non-contraband goods in a belligerent port. Contraband goods were carefully defined to exclude food and naval stores (such as tar and turpentine).
The policy remained in operation into the 20th century and was a foundation of the neutral rights the U.S. claimed Germany violated in 1915-17 that led to [[World War I, American Entry|American entry into World War I]], such as the [[Arabic attack]].
==Origins==
The Plan was drawn up by a committee comprising [[John Adams]], [[Benjamin Franklin]], [[John Dickinson]], and [[Robert Morris]]; it was adopted Sept. 17, 1776.
The committee selected from 18th-century European treaties such definitions of neutral rights as appealed to small-navied powers: the doctrine of free ships, free goods; freedom of neutrals to trade in non-contraband between port and port of a belligerent (this a repudiation of the British Rule of the War of 1756); and restricted the category of contraband to a carefully defined list of arms, munitions, and implements of war, not including foodstuffs or naval stores. Blockade was not defined. These principles were written into the Franco-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce of 1778; into all other such treaties negotiated with European powers in the 18th century, excepting Britain; and into most of the first treaties of amity and commerce negotiated with Latin-American republics. They also appeared in the Armed Neutrality of 1780 and of 1800; and the Declaration of Paris of 1856 confirmed as international law the principle of free ships, free goods, and also a definition of blockade.
==Bibliography==
* Bemis, Samuel Flagg. ''Diplomatic History of the United States'' (1950)
====notes====
<references/>
[[Category:American Revolution]]
[[Category:Diplomacy]]
The policy remained in operation into the 20th century and was a foundation of the neutral rights the U.S. claimed Germany violated in 1915-17 that led to [[World War I, American Entry|American entry into World War I]], such as the [[Arabic attack]].
==Origins==
The Plan was drawn up by a committee comprising [[John Adams]], [[Benjamin Franklin]], [[John Dickinson]], and [[Robert Morris]]; it was adopted Sept. 17, 1776.
The committee selected from 18th-century European treaties such definitions of neutral rights as appealed to small-navied powers: the doctrine of free ships, free goods; freedom of neutrals to trade in non-contraband between port and port of a belligerent (this a repudiation of the British Rule of the War of 1756); and restricted the category of contraband to a carefully defined list of arms, munitions, and implements of war, not including foodstuffs or naval stores. Blockade was not defined. These principles were written into the Franco-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce of 1778; into all other such treaties negotiated with European powers in the 18th century, excepting Britain; and into most of the first treaties of amity and commerce negotiated with Latin-American republics. They also appeared in the Armed Neutrality of 1780 and of 1800; and the Declaration of Paris of 1856 confirmed as international law the principle of free ships, free goods, and also a definition of blockade.
==Bibliography==
* Bemis, Samuel Flagg. ''Diplomatic History of the United States'' (1950)
====notes====
<references/>
[[Category:American Revolution]]
[[Category:Diplomacy]]