192] ANNUAL REGISTER, ISH. 



Gottenburg should be the place for 

 holding the conferences. Circum- 

 stances afterwards produced a 

 change in favour of Ghent ; at 

 which city the British Comnois- 

 sioners, Lord Gambier, Henry 

 Goulbonrn, Esq. and Wm. Adams, 

 Esq. arrived on August 6th ; the 

 American Commissioners, Messrs. 

 J. Quincey Adams, J. A. Bayard, 

 IJ. Clay, and Jonathan Russell 

 being there already. The pro- 

 ceedings of this negociation were 

 laid before the American Congress 

 by the President, on October 10th ; 

 and v^e shall extract from them a 

 statement of those conditions which 

 the British Commissioners, after 

 having obtained fresh instructions 

 from their Court, presented as the 

 basis of a treaty. 



Having at a former meeting 

 mentioned that it was a sine qua 

 non that the Indians should be in- 

 cluded in the pacification, and the 

 boundaries of their territory be 

 established, and having expressed 

 their surprise that the American 

 Plenipotentiaries had received no 

 instructions on that head, they nov? 

 repeated that these objects were 

 indispensable, and that the con- 

 tracting parties should guarantee 

 the integrity of the Indian terri- 

 tory by a mutual stipulation not to 

 acquire by purchase, or otherwise, 

 any lands within those limits. — 

 They proceeded to say, that the 

 British Government consider the 

 Lakes, from Lake Ontario to Lake 

 Superior, both inclusive, as the na- 

 tural military frontier of the Brit- 

 ish possessions in North America ; 

 and the weaker power on that Con- 

 tinent being the least capable of 

 acting offensively, and the most 

 exposed to attack. Great Britain 

 considers the military occupation 

 of those Lakes as necessary to the 



security of her dominions. Its 

 Government, however, not desir- 

 ing to extend its possessions to the 

 southward of the Lakes, proposes 

 to leave the territorial limits un- 

 disturbed, with free commercial 

 navigation of the waters, provided 

 the American Government will 

 agree not to maintain any fortifi- 

 cations upon or within a limited 

 distance of the shores, or to keep 

 any armed vessels on the lakes, or 

 in the rivers discharging themselves 

 into the same. Other objects men- 

 tioned for discussion were, ihe ar- 

 rangement of the north-west boun- 

 dary between Luke Superior and 

 the Mississippi, and the free naviga- 

 tion of that river ; and also, such 

 a vacation of the line of frontier as 

 maj'^ secure a direct communica- 

 tion between Quebec and Halifax. 

 The British Commissioners in con- 

 clusion acquaint the American 

 Plenipotentiaries that if they should 

 feel it necessary to refer to their 

 Government for further instruc- 

 tions, they are to understand that 

 the British Government cannot be 

 precluded by any thing that has 

 passed from varying the terms now 

 proposed, in such a manner as the 

 state of the war may, in its Judg- 

 ment, render advisable. 



The American Plenipotentia- 

 ries did not hesitate to give an 

 unanimous and decided nega- 

 tive to these demands; and when 

 they were laid before Congress, 

 almost an equal unanimity pre- 

 vailed in both Houses for their 

 rejection. It was, indeed, a very 

 fortunate circumstance for the 

 government of the United States, 

 that at so momentous a crisis, in 

 the midst of difficulties and discon- 

 tents, such an opportunity offered 

 itself of procuring an acquiescence 

 in the measures neccBsarv for coO' 



