DOCUMENTS BEARING ON THE TREATY OF GHENT, 1814. 287 



said United States, and granted by the said United States, for such liberty as 

 aforesaid. 



The United States of America agree to enter into negotiation with His Britan- 

 nic Majesty respecting the terms, conditions, and regulations under which the 

 navigation of the river Mississippi from its source to the ocean, as stipulated 

 in the eighth article of the treaty of 1783, shall remain free and open to the 

 subjects of Great Britain, in consideration of a fair equivalent, to be agreed 

 upon between His Majesty and the United States, and granted by His Majesty. 



Received by the American plenipotentiaries for consideration. 



No. 14. 1814, December 10 : Extract from Mr. J. Q. Adams'' Memoirs 



referring to a Conference with the British Negotiators. 

 ******* 



Dr. Adams said that, as to that, the views of the two Governments 

 might be matter of controversy, but the British Government were 

 willing to leave that part of the article as it stood. They did not 

 assent to either of the alternatives to leave out the whole article, or 

 to strike out simply the last paragraph, or to strike it out and substi- 

 tute the provision we had proposed, confirming their rights to navi- 

 gate the Mississippi, and our rights to the fisheries within their juris- 

 diction. But they would agree to strike it out, offering a substitute 

 of their own. This was, that Great Britain agreed to negotiate with 

 the United States for granting the fisheries within the British juris- 

 diction for an equivalent to be granted by the United States; and 

 that the United States agreed to negotiate with Great Britain for 

 granting to British subjects the right'to navigate the Mississippi for 

 an equivalent to be granted by Great Britain. 



Mr. Baker read, this article, and it was left with us for consideration. 



No. 15. 1814-, December 10: Extract from Mr. J. Q. Adams' Memoirs 



relating a subsequent consultation with his Colleagues. 

 ******* 



Mr. Gallatin said that the only object they could have in offering 

 their present proposal relative to the Mississippi and the -fisheries 

 was to beat us off from our own ground. The stipulation that the 

 parties will negotiate hereafter amounts to nothing, but it admits 

 that both the rights secured by the Peace of 1783 are forfeited. 



Mr. Bayard said they had precisely inverted our proposition. We 

 had offered the navigation of the Mississippi as the equivalent for 

 the fisheries in their jurisdiction; they offer to abandon the naviga- 

 tion if we will abandon that part of the fisheries. 



Mr. Gallatin said that we should certainly lose that part of the 

 fisheries; that our ground for claiming them was untenable, and we 

 never could support it; that he was very sorry it had ever been stipu- 

 lated in the Peace of 1783, and he would not have accepted it as an 

 offer. 



I told him that my name was to an official paper assuming the 

 ground which he now pronounced untenable, ana so was his. 



