24S CORRESPONDENCE, ETC., PRIOR TO TREATY OF 1818 



principle involving a cession of any pari of the territory of the United 

 States. As they have uniformly stated, they can treat only upon the 

 principle of a mutual restoration of whatever territory may have been 

 taken by either party. From this principle they cannot recede; and 

 the undersigned, after the repeated declarations of the British pleni- 

 potentiaries, that Great Britain had no view to acquisition of terri- 

 tory in this negotiation, deem it necessary to add, that the utility of 

 its continuance depends on their adherence to this principle. 



The undersigned having declared in their note of the 24th of 

 August, that, although instructed and prepared to enter into an 

 amicable discussion of all the points on which differences or uncer- 

 tainty had existed, and which might hereafter tend to interrupt the 

 harmony of the two countries, they would not make the conclusion 

 of the peace at all depend upon a successful result of the discussion ; 

 and having since agreed to the preliminary article proposed by the 

 British Government, had believed that the negotiations, already so 

 long protracted, could not be brought to an early conclusion, other- 

 wise than by a communication of a projet, embracing all the other 

 specific propositions which Great Britain intended to offer. They 

 repeat their request in that respect, and will have no objection to a 

 simultaneous exchange of the projet of both parties. This course will 

 bring fairly into discussion the other topics embraced in the last 

 note of the British plenipotentiaries, to which the undersigned have 

 thought it unnecessary to advert at the present time. 



The undersigned renew to the British plenipotentiaries the assur- 

 ance of their high consideration. 



John Quincy Adams, 

 James A. Bayard, 

 Henry Clay, 

 Jonathan Russell, 

 A. Gallatin. 

 To the Plenipotentiaries of His Britannic Majesty, dec., Ghent. 



The. British to the American plenipotentiaries. 



Ghent, October 31, 1814. 



The undersigned have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the 

 note addressed to them by the American plenipotentiaries on the 24th 

 instant, in which they object to the basis of uti possidetis, proposed 

 by the undersigned as that on which they were willing to treat, in 

 regard to part of the boundaries between the dominions of His 

 Majesty and those of the United States. 



The American plenipotentiaries, in their note of the 13th instant, 

 requested the undersigned to communicate to them the projet of a 

 treaty embracing all the points insisted on by Great Britain, engag- 

 ing, on their part, to deliver immediately after a contre-projet, as 

 to all the articles to which they might not agree, and as to all the 

 subjects deemed material by the United States, and omitted in the 

 projet of the undersigned. 



The undersigned were accordingly instructed to waive the question 

 of etiquette, and the advantage which might result from receiving 

 the first communication, and, confiding in the engagement of the 



