READJUSTMENT AFTER WAR 17 



the State Department was under the charge of 

 Richard Rush, pending the return from abroad 

 of the new secretary, John Quincy Adams. 

 The notes were signed, therefore, by Rush and 

 Bagot respectively, and the arrangement em 

 bodied in them became known as the Rush- 

 Bagot Agreement. By its terms each govern 

 ment bound itself to limit its naval force on 

 the frontier to four vessels, each not exceeding 

 one hundred tons burthen and armed with one 

 1 8-pound cannon, one vessel to be stationed 

 on Lake Ontario, two on the Upper Lakes, and 

 one on Lake Champlain. All other war-ships 

 on these lakes were to be forthwith dismantled, 

 and no others were to be there built or armed. 



In conformity with this arrangement the 

 British authorities disposed of their three ships- 

 of-the-line, six medium-sized vessels, and many 

 smaller craft, while the Americans dismantled, 

 sold, or scuttled and sank a number consider 

 ably larger. So long as the good faith of the 

 two governments endured, it was thus insured 

 that the Great Lakes should be free from the 

 martial ardor that is inevitably inspired by the 

 parade of rival forces. The future was to show 

 that even more important than this direct in 

 fluence was the indirect effect of the adjustment 



