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zens of the United States, should forever enjoy the free navigation, from its source to the ocean, of this the Father of Waters.

The same rights were stipulated in the treaty concluded by Jay in 1794. At the date of both of these treaties Spain possessed the sovereignty of the entire western side of the Mississippi, and both sides from its mouth to the 31st degree of north latitude. From that point to the source of the river, the residue on the eastern side belonged to the United States. The English Commissioners were under the erroneous idea that the territory of his Majesty would include a small portion of this river, when the boundary line was run from the Lake of the Woods, as provided in the treaty of peace. The idea was that the Mississippi had its origin beyond the line of the British possessions, which, under the law of nations as well as by virtue of the former treaty stipulations, gave them the right to navigate this river.

The situation of the two countries at the time of the treaty of Ghent was entirely different from what it was at the date of the treaties of 1783 and 1794. Since which periods the Province of Louisiana had been acquired, which vested all the rights of Spain, in regard to the navigation of the river, in the United States. It had also been ascertained prior to the treaty of Ghent, that the British line, designated by the treaty of 1783 to run from the Lake of the Woods to the Mississippi, would not strike the river at all; indeed, since the annexation of Louisiana, the United States claimed to the Pacific. Nothing was more preposterous than this claim of the British Government, in connection with which must be noticed the position of some of the American Commissioners.

By the third article of the treaty of 1783, it was agreed "that the people of the United States should continue to enjoy unmolested the right to take fish of every kind on the Grand Bank, and on all the other banks of Newfoundland; also in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and all other places in the sea where the inhabitants of both countries had used at any time to fish; and also that the inhabitants of the United States should have liberty to take fish of every kind on such part of the coast of Newfoundland as British seamen might use, (but not to dry or cure the same on that island,) and also on the coasts, bays, and creeks of all other of his Britannic Majesty's dominions in America; and that the Ame

rican fishermen should have liberty to dry and cure fish in any of the unsettled bays, harbors, and creeks of Nova Scotia, Magdalen Islands, and Labrador, so long as the same might remain unsettled; but so soon as the same, or either of them, should be settled, it should not be lawful for the said fishermen to dry or cure fish at such settlement, without a previous agreement for that purpose, with the inhabitants, proprietors, or possessors of the ground."

At an early day after the opening of the negotiations, the British Commissioners gave notice that they would not renew our liberty to catch and cure fish within their exclusive jurisdiction, without an equivalent.

The American Commissioners were divided in reference to the question, whether the above clause in the treaty of 1783 had been abrogated by the breaking out of the war, or whether from the peculiar nature of the treaty, being one resulting in the severance of an empire and the acknowledgment of a new power, the stipulation did not survive the war.

All of the Commissioners thought, except Mr. Adams, that the stipulations ceased with the war. It would have been very instructive had the learned diplomatist favored the world with some reason or authority for so important a doctrine, and one of such special interest to the United States; in which, had he been successful, the valuable right of catching and curing fish on the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which had been used from the earliest times, would still have been retained to the New England people.

In order to dissipate all doubt, as well as to secure this privilege, Gallatin proposed to insert an article providing on the one hand for the renewal of the rights and liberties of the fisheries, and on the other the right to the navigation of the Mississippi to Great Britain. The keen and practical mind of Clay saw at a glance the folly of such an agreement, to the introduction of which he instantly objected. After an animated discussion, principally between Clay and Gallatin, Messrs. Adams, Gallatin, and Bayard, were found to be in favor of yielding the anxiously-desired privilege by Great Britain of navigating this great American river, communicating as it does with the richest and most productive area of the continent. The bold and manly heart of Clay could not allow him to sign any treaty giving, in comparison even with the New England fisheries, such a right; and with that inherent readiness and promptness which belonged to the man,

he emphatically refused to give the treaty the sanction of his name, if it contained such a clause; which probably induced Bayard to change his position and vote with the minority, and, uniting with Clay and Russell, save the country from the degrading position it would otherwise have assumed, if by possibility the treaty could have received the sanction of the President and Senate.*

Without casting the slightest imputations upon the firmness, patriotism, or skill of the eminent statesmen who formed the American commission, it is but simple justice to say there was one man more inflexibly resolved on yielding nothing"not even one inch of the waters of the Mississippi"-than the rest, and that man, with ultra-montane feeling, stood like the Alleghany of his own native State, utterly immovable; and that man, as Lord Castlereagh called him, was the "Kentuckian," who, if with less cultivation than his accomplished colleagues, was possessed of that genius which, either in war or peace, in oratory or diplomacy, will override the highest endowments of culture.

The majority of the Commissioners, upon the accession of Bayard, not to oppose the proposed article in reference to the navigation of the Mississippi, adopted a clause in their note to the British Commissioners, prepared by Clay, totally refusing to treat upon the point proposed. The most consummate skill was manifested throughout by the American Commissioners, and their firmness no doubt was the cause of England's receding from her very haughty, exacting, and overbearing position. Every point for which the United States contended was secured, except a stipulation on the right of impressment, in reference to which our Commissioners had been instructed to preserve silence, if necessary; but it must be remembered that the silence which was preserved was granted at the express desire of the British cabinet, who first asserted and exercised the right, and a proposition to "omit any stipulations on this subject," not only was a clear backing out on the part of Great Britain, but obviated any necessity for a treaty on this subject; whilst the subsequent scrupulous regard to our rights in reference to this great cause of complaint, may now be regarded as a great triumph of the war.†

Letter of Clay to Russell, July 9, 1822. † American State Papers, vol. ix.

On the 24th of December, 1814, the treaty was signed and immediately dispatched to the United States. As soon as its provisions were known at London, the press and many distinguished politicians, with a large portion of the community, readily and fearlessly expressed their condemnation of it. One of the leading papers in London called upon the Princeregent not to ratify "so disgraceful a treaty;" another said the treaty forms a deplorable contrast with the high-sounding threats of a part of the public press; whilst in the House of Lords, even Wellesley, known for his implacable hatred to America, denounced the British cabinet for advancing claims they could not sustain, and confessed the "astonishing superiority" the American Ministers had shown over the British.

On the 13th of February, 1815, the treaty reached the City of Washington. It was received at the seat of Government with great satisfaction, and joyously throughout the country, as it was known "that not an inch was ceded or lost."

The welcome news of peace reached Washington during the session of Congress, and amidst its busiest preparations for a more vigorous prosecution of the war. By Feb. 20. special Message the President communicated the treaty to the Senate, by whom it was immediately ratified. "Peace," said the President, "at all times a blessing, is peculiarly welcome, therefore, at a period when the causes of war have ceased to operate; when the Government has demonstrated the efficiency of its powers of defence, and when the nation can review its conduct without regret and without reproach."

After the negotiation of peace had been confirmed a commercial treaty was formed at London, signed on the part of the United States by Adams, Gallatin, and Clay. This was exclusively a commercial treaty, but not more favorable to the United States than Jay's, made in 1794.

The immediate effect of the war had been disastrous to the commerce and finances of the United States, besides the loss of about thirty thousand lives, which may be considered no large number, taking into consideration the battles fought and the duration of the war.

The cost of the war has been estimated at one hundred millions of dollars. The loss of life as well as the cost of war to the British was much greater; for during the war the Americans had captured on the ocean and lakes 50 British

vessels of war, mounting 886 guns; 2360 merchant-vessels, mounting 8000 guns, of which 345 were war-ships, 610 brigs, 520 schooners, 135 sloops, and 750 vessels of various sizes, making altogether 2416 vessels, with their cargoes, provisions, and specie, and about 30,000 prisoners of war; to which may be added 1610 merchant-vessels, which arrived in port or were destroyed, and 29 ships-of-war wrecked on the American coast, mounting about 800 guns. The loss on the part of the United States was much smaller, being, as was estimated, the President, Essex, and Chesapeake, two sloops-ofwar, six brigs, and fourteen smaller vessels and gun-boats, carrying a total of 350 guns.

A statement made to the House of Commons from the Admiralty Office, makes an estimate of 1407 merchant-vessels taken by the British or destroyed, and 20,961 American prisoners of war. The Americans lost, besides this estimate, two other frigates, and one sloop-of-war.*

But a few days of the session of the Fourteenth Congress remained after the reception of the news of peace and the ratification of the treaty, which were devoted to the adjustment of national affairs to the new condition of the country. The act imposing discriminating duties on foreign vessels, and the lingering features of the Non-intercourse and Non-importation Acts were speedily repealed. Large appropriations were made for rebuilding the public edifices at Washington, which British barbarism had laid in ashes; and whilst the opposition to it by a few members of Congress was alike futile and impracticable, the proposition of Rhea, a representative from Pennsylvania, deserves a place in history, if but to stamp a burning and indelible disgrace upon the brow of the most ruthless enemy that ever waged a civilized war. He proposed to encircle the ruins of the capitol with an iron ballustrade, where the green ivy might grow, and the perpetual inscription, "Americans, this is the effect of British barbarism!" might in after ages meet the eye of the American patriot.

Our military establishment was immediately reduced; the President recommended 20,000 men for the peace establishment, the House proposed 6000, the Senate 15,000, when, by way of compromise, it was fixed at 10,000 men. direct taxes were retained and the navy kept up for the pur

* Niles's Register, vol. ix. 325; Stat. Man., vol. i. 377.

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