# Is there a website that has the full text of peace treaties? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 5, 2015, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-website-that-has-the-full-text-of-peace-treaties/736684 "2015-11-05T06:03:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-website-that-has-the-full-text-of-peace-treaties/736684/1 "2015-11-05T06:03:21Z")
When Grant and Lee sat down, what did they contractually agree to? MacArthur vs. that poor guy that got kicked to the curb with the top hat. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-website-that-has-the-full-text-of-peace-treaties/736684/2 "2015-11-05T06:20:05Z")
> [@chacoguy](#): > > When Grant and Lee sat down, what did they contractually agree to? [www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=39](http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=39) But that wasn’t a treaty – just a military surrender document for Lee’s army. > [@chacoguy](#): > > MacArthur vs. that poor guy that got kicked to the curb with the top hat. The surrender of Japan to the United Nations is also at that site – document 80. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-website-that-has-the-full-text-of-peace-treaties/736684/3 "2015-11-05T06:32:40Z")
As t-bonham says, neither of those documents are treaties. They are just surrender terms. There was never a treaty to end the US Civil War. As far as the Union was concerned, they simply supressed an insurrection. They never recognised the Confederacy as a sovereign entity, so who was there to conclude a treaty with? In 1945, the bloke in the top hat and the guy in the implausibly large peaked cap signed surrender terms. The [Peace Treaty](https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%20136/volume-136-I-1832-English.pdf) didn’t come along until 1951, and neither Top Hat nor Peaked Cap was present on that occasion. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-website-that-has-the-full-text-of-peace-treaties/736684/4 "2015-11-05T06:41:39Z")
Your main question seems to have been answered. An excellent place to find legal and diplomatic documents like treaties, especially (but by no means only) those relevant to American history, is the [Avalon Project at Yale Law School](http://avalon.law.yale.edu/). I often make use of documents from this site in teaching university history classes. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-website-that-has-the-full-text-of-peace-treaties/736684/5 "2015-11-05T15:24:34Z")
I imagine the National Archives would be a good source as well. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-website-that-has-the-full-text-of-peace-treaties/736684/6 "2015-11-05T18:40:18Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > I imagine the National Archives would be a good source as well. Slightly off-topic, when I visited the National Archives I was delighted to see the actual Webster-Ashburton Treaty on display in the exhibition area. I wrote a term paper about this treaty in high school.