DOCUMENTS BEARING ON THE TBEATY OF GHENT, 1814. 235 



142 No. 12. 1814, December 1: Extract from Mr. J. Q. Adams' 

 Memoirs referring to a Conference with the British Nego- 

 tiators. 



The British Government now propose a line due west, in the 49th 

 parallel of latitude, with an additional clause, that the British shall 

 have the free navigation of the Mississippi, and free access to it 

 through our territories. With regard to the first, the right was 

 chandise. I observed that we proposed to strike out this clause ; that 

 it consisted of two parts; first, the navigation of the river for his 

 Britannic Majesty's subjects, and secondly, the access to it for them 

 through our territories. With regard to the first, the right was 

 stipulated for British subjects by the Treaty of Peace of 1783. We 

 had stated in our note, sent with our project, that we considered that 

 Treaty of 1783 as bearing a peculiar character, and that it was not 

 liable, like ordinary treaties, to be abrogated by a subsequent war; 

 that the American Government had considered the rights and liberties 

 secured by it to the people of the United States as requiring no new 

 and additional stipulation, and had therefore not authorized us to 

 bring them into discussion. To this part of our note the British 

 Plenipotentiaries had made no reply. We knew not whether their 

 silence was owing to the acquiescence of their Government in the 

 principle we had advanced, or to some other cause. 



Lord Gambier said, " No, no." 



But, continued I, the British right to navigate the Mississippi 

 stands on the same foundation the Peace of 1783. We admit that if 

 our principle is good to us for the fisheries within the British juris- 

 diction, it is good for the British right to navigate the Mississippi 

 within our jurisdiction. If the British Government so considers them, 

 there is no need of a new stipulation in either case. But by asking a 

 new one for the Mississippi, it was to be inferred that Great Britain 

 considered the rights on both sides to be forfeited by the war, and 

 she now asked a new right to navigate the Mississippi without offer- 

 ing for it any equivalent. If a new engagement was necessary for 

 one of the privileges, it was necessary for the other, and we have pre- 

 pared an article which we would leave with them to restore both. As 

 to their access to the Mississippi through our territories, if the right 

 to navigate the river was granted, access to it by one road must be 

 allowed, but it would be obviously necessary to guard it by a provision 

 for the collection of duties; and if a general access, without limita- 

 tion of place, was to be granted, we thought a reciprocal right would 

 be necessary for the people of the United States through the British 

 territories to the St. Lawrence, and the free navigation of the river. 



This observation, that they were asking for a new right, without 

 offering an equivalent, appeared to take the British Plenipotentiaries 

 altogether by surprise. 



Mr. Gallatin told them that if they considered the remainder of 

 the article, the 49th parallel of latitude, an equivalent, he wished 

 them to understand that we attached no importance to it at all. It 

 would, indeed, be a convenience to have the boundary settled, but 

 the lands there were of so little value, and the period when they might 

 be settled was so remote, that we were perfectly willing that the 

 boundary there should remain as it is now, and without any further 



