48 



American iVbte, No. 8, written after the Conference of \1th of De 

 cember, 1814. 



Ghent, December 14th, 1814. 



The undersigned, having considered the propositions offered, iu 

 the conference of the 10th instant, by the British plenipotentiaries, 

 on the few subjects which remain to be adjusted, now have the ho 

 nour of making the communication which they promised. 



The first of them relates to the mutual restoration of the territo 

 ry taken by either party from the other, during the war. In ad 

 mitting this principle, which the undersigned had repeatedly de 

 clared to be the only one upon which they were authorized to treat, 

 the British plenipotentiaries had, at first, proposed an alteration in, 

 the article offered by the undersigned, limiting the stipulation of re 

 storing territory taken during the war, to territory belonging to the 

 party from which it was taken. The objection of the undersigned 

 to this alteration was, that a part of the territory thus taken being 

 claimed by both parties, and made a subject of conference by the 

 treaty, the alteration would leave it in the power of one party to 

 judge whether any portion of territory taken by him during the war, 

 did or did not belong to the other party, laying thereby, in the very 

 instrument of pacification, the foundation of an immediate misun 

 derstanding, the moment that instrument should be carried into ex 

 ecution. 



The British plenipotentiaries have now proposed to omit the 

 words originally offered by them, provided, that the Passamnquod- 

 dy Islands should alone be excepted from the mutual restitutioirof 

 territory. 



The consent of the undersigned to this solitary exception, if 

 founded on the alleged right of Great Britain to those islands, might 

 be construed as an implied admission of a better title on her part, 

 than on that of the United States, and would necessarily affect their 

 claim. The only ground for the exception consists in the allega 

 tion of the British plenipotentiaries that Great Britain had, during 

 some period subsequent to the treaty of peace of 1783, exercised 

 jurisdiction over those islands, and that the United States had sub 

 sequently occupied them, contrary to the remonstrances of the 

 British government, and before the question of title had been ad 

 justed. 



Under these considerations, the undersigned, unwilling to pre 

 vent the conclusion of the treaty of peace, will take upon them 

 selves the responsibility of agreeing to the exception proposed, 

 with a provision, that the claim of the United States shall not, 

 thereby, be in any manner affected. The undersigned have ac 

 cordingly prepared a clause to that effect, and which provides, also, 

 that the temporary possession may not be converted into perma 

 nent occupancy. They had agreed to the alteration proposed by 

 the British plenipotentiaries in the mode of reference of the several 

 boundaries and territory in dispute, under the expectation that th-e 



