Lake Ontario, the Treaty of Paris (1783) and the Treaty of Canandaigua (1794)
The Treaty of Paris, which formally ended the Revolutionary War, was signed 243 years ago on September 3, 1783. Widely considered to be the most successful treaty in American history, the Treaty of Paris secured American independence from Britain and more than doubled the territory of the original thirteen colonies, stretching all the way west to the Mississippi River. [1] The American diplomats who negotiated the treaty were Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Henry Laurens and John Jay. Pictured below are the signatures on the final page of the treaty, along with the unfinished painting by Benjamin West of the American delegation to Paris. The British delegation declined to pose, as Britain had nothing to gain by commemorating its defeat.
Article I of the treaty recognized the United States as “free, sovereign and independent States.” Pictured below is text from Article 2 of the treaty establishing the new border with what would become Canada. Criticized in Britain as “exceedingly generous,” the border runs through the middle of Lake Ontario and four of the five Great Lakes.[2] Lake Michigan, which is located entirely in the United States, is not mentioned in the text of the treaty. Lake Ontario appears in both the Preliminary version of the treaty signed in November of 1782 and the final Definitive version of the treaty signed in September of 1783.
A decade later Lake Ontario is also mentioned in the 1794 treaty between the United States and the “Six Nations,” which occupied the border between the U.S. and Canada. The Treaty of Canandaigua (Konondaigua), otherwise known as the Pickering Treaty, was signed by President George Washington and over 50 Native American chiefs representing the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy (including the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca and Tuscarora nations). Pictured below is the copy of the Treaty with the Six Nations signed by President George Washington and Secretary of State Edmund Randolph on January 21, 1795. Click here for a transcript. The signed copy of the treaty is inscribed on three pieces of parchment stitched together and authenticated with official seals.
Lake Ontario’s name is derived from the Iroquoian “lake of shining waters” or “beautiful lake.”[3] The oldest record using the name Lake Ontario dates back to 1641.[4] The first European explorer to visit Lake Ontario was Etienne Brule, Samuel Champlain’s young guide.[5] Of course, Native Americans discovered Lake Ontario centuries earlier. After President Trump renamed Lake Ontario as Lake America in August of 2026, the President of the Seneca Nation opined that Trump’s executive order may be a violation of the Treaty of Canandaigua. According to Seneca President, J. Conrad Seneca, unilaterally renaming the lake disregards proper consultation protocols required by the 1794 treaty.[6]
Footnotes
[1] According to historian Joseph Ellis, the Treaty of Paris “is one of the most lopsided treaties in American diplomatic history,” representing a “total victory” for the United States. https://www.thirteen.org/programs/benjamin-franklin/treaty-paris-1783-qzxzqj/
[2] Thomas Paterson, J Garry Clifford, Michael Donoqhue, Kenneth Hagan, American Foreign Relations, 1:20 (2014). After Lorn North was replaced, the Earl of Shelburne was willing to offer favorable terms in the hope of future economic cooperation with America. Samuel Johnson in Context, ed. Jack Lynch (Cambridge University Press, 2012), 100.
[3] “Lake Ontario,” The Canadian Encyclopedia, N. Rukavina & Farrell M. Boyce (2006). https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/lake-ontario
[4] The first reference to Lake Ontario was prepared by Jesuit missionary Friar Jerome Lalemant. The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, 1610-1791, ed. by Ruben Gold Thwaites, (The Burrows Brothers Company, 1899), 16 (1639) 229-231. Ivan H. Walton, “Origin of Names on the Great Lakes,” Names: A Journal of Onomastics (1955), vol 3, no. 4, 245. https://ans-names.pitt.edu/ans/article/view/151/150
[5] Henry William Elson, “Lake Ontario in History,” Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association, vol. 13:143-158, 145 (1914). https://www.jstor.org/stable/42889456