 Great Britain, the primary sponsor of the Treaty of Paris, would not abide by the death penalty for privateers, perhaps especially because British subjects aboard Southern privateers might face prosecution in American courts on trumped-up charges of piracy.If the previous signatories had accepted American entry into the scope of the treaty, it would have meant that they were taking sides in the rebellion.Rather than do so, they insisted that the United States should get its own house in order first.