53 



The 15th article of the project to be numbered 1 1 ; it was 

 agreed to insert in it, after the words &quot; on both sides,&quot; the words 

 * without alteration by either of&quot; the contracting parties.&quot; 



Omit the words &quot; with all practicable despatch.&quot; Fill up the 

 blank with the word &quot; four.&quot; Insert after the word &quot; done,&quot; the 

 words &quot; in triplicate.&quot; The British plenipotentiaries urged the 

 article formerly proposed by them, as to suits of law to be prose 

 cuted by the citizens or subjects of one nation in the courts of 

 justice of the* other. Resisted by the American plenipotentia 

 ries. 



The conference was adjourned to the 24th inst. for the purpose 

 of signing the treaty. 



The American Plenipotentiaries to the Secretary of State. 



GHENT, 25th December, 1814. 



SIR : We have the honour of transmitting herewith, one of the 

 three copies of the treaty of peace between Great Britain and the 

 United States, signed last evening by the plenipotentiaries of his 

 Britannic majesty and by us. 



The papers, of which copies are likewise now forwarded, will 

 exhibit to you so fully the progress of the negotiation since the 

 departure of the Chauncey, that few additional remarks from us 

 will be nee&amp;lt;53sary. It may be proper for us, however, to state, 

 that in the interval between the time when our first project of a 

 treaty Was sent to the British plenipotentiaries, and that when they 

 communicated to us the answer to it, the despatches which we 

 had sent by Mr. Dallas, and the instructions to us, which had been 

 published in the United States, were republished in England. 



In declining to insist on the articles respecting impressment and 

 indemnities, we made a formal declaration, that the rights of both 

 parties, on the subject of seamen and the claims to indemnities for 

 losses and damages sustained prior to the commencement of the 

 war, should not be affected or impaired by the omission, in the 

 treaty, of a specific provision on these two subjects. 



From the time when the project of the treaty, presented by us, 

 was returned, with the proposed alterations, it was apparent, that 

 unless new pretension- on the part of Great Britain should be ad 

 vanced, the only important diilerences remaining to be discussed, 

 were those relating to the mutual restoration of territory, taken 

 during the war ; to the navigation of the Mississippi by British 

 subjects, and to the right of the people of the United States to the 

 fisheries within the British jurisdiction. Instead of a general res 

 titution of captured territory, which we had proposed, the British 

 government, at first, wished to confine it to the territory taken by 

 either party belonging to the other. On our objecting, that this 

 would make each party the judge, whether territory taken did or 

 did not belong to the other, and thereby occasion new disputes, 



