INTRODUCTION. 



During the progress, and after the conclusion, of the negotiation 

 at Ghent, despatches were at three several periods received by the 

 executive government of the United States, from their plenipoten 

 tiaries at that place. The documents relating to the negotiation, 

 transmitted by the first and second of these occasions, were commu 

 nicated by messages from the President of the United States to Con 

 gress, and thereby became generally known to the public. They 

 are to be found in the 9th volume of Wait s State Papers, and in the 

 7th volume of Niles Register, and they contain the correspondence 

 of the American mission, as well with their own government as 

 with the British plenipotentiaries, from the commencement of the 

 negotiation till the 31st of October, 1814. The third messenger 

 brought the treaty of peace itself. The correspondence subsequent 

 to the 31st of October, was of course communicated to the Senate 

 with the treaty, when it was submitted to that body for their advice 

 and consent to its ratification. But it was not communicated to 

 Congress or made public, nor was there at that time manifested 

 any desire to see it either by the House of Representatives or by 

 the nation. 



In the course of the last summer, (of 1821,) I was apprised by a 

 friend, that rumours very unfavourable to my reputation, even for 

 integrity, were industriously circulated in the Western Country. 

 That it was said I had made a proposition at Ghent to grant to the 

 British the right to navigate the Mississippi in return for the New 

 foundland fisheries, and that this was represented as, at least, a high 

 misdemeanor. I observed that a proposition to confirm both these 

 rights as they had stood before the war, and as stipulated by the 

 treaty of 1783, had been offered to the British plenipotentiaries, 

 not by me, but by the whole American mission, every one of 



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