DOCUMENTS BEARING ON THE TREATY OP GHENT, 1814. 239 



military reputation. He was playing brag with the British Pleni- 

 potentiaries; they had been playing brag with us throughout the 

 whole negotiation; he thought it was time for us to begin to plav 

 brag with them. He asked me if I knew how to play brag. I had 

 forgotten how. He said the art of it was to beat your adversary by 

 holding your hand, with a solemn and confident phiz, and outbrag- 

 ging him. He appealed to Mr. Bayard if it was not. 



"Ay," said Bayard ; " but you may lose the game by bragging until 

 the adversary sees the weakness of your hand." And Bayard added 

 to me, " Mr. Clay is for bragging a million against a cent." 



I said the principle was the great thing which we could not con- 

 cede; it was directly in the face of our instructions. We could not 

 agree to it, and I was for saying so, positively, at once. Mr. Bayard 

 said that there was nothing left in dispute but the principle. I did 

 not think so. 



No. 17. 1814, December 11 : Extract from Mr. J. Q. Adams' 1 Memoirs 



referring to a Conference with the British Negotiators. 

 ******* 



We then passed on to the substitute offered for the last paragraph 

 of the eighth article. It is a stipulation to negotiate hereafter for 

 the fisheries within British jurisdiction, and for the navigation of 

 the Mississippi by British subjects, for fair equivalents. 



We stated that we could not admit this substitute. As a mere en- 

 gagement to negotiate hereafter, it amounted to nothing. The par- 

 ties could always negotiate, if they should both be so inclined; and 

 if either should be averse to it, negotiation would be unavailing, since 

 it would be in its power, by demanding an equivalent which 

 145 the other would not grant, to make it abortive. The only 

 effect then of the stipulation would be, the abandonment by 

 us of the ground upon which we claimed the right to the fisheries. 

 We considered the entire Treaty of 1783 not as an ordinary treaty, 

 liable to be abrogated by a subsequent war between the parties, but as 

 a compact containing the terms upon which two parts of one people 

 mutually agreed to constitute two independent nations. By that 

 treaty British subjects were entitled to the right of navigating the 

 Mississippi. Our principle recognized the continuance of that right ; 

 Great Britain, however, had asked of us a new stipulation to confirm 

 it. If we agreed to it, a corresponding stipulation became necessary, 

 to confirm our right to that part of the fisheries. We asked no new 

 stipulation in either case. We did not ask of Great Britain to 

 abandon her construction of the treaty. But this demand on her part 

 was a new claim, brought forward after we had been expressly 

 assured that the British note of 21st October contained all they had 

 to ask. 



Lord Gambier said that they did not consider the fisheries within 

 their jurisdiction as rights, but merely as privileges granted. 



Dr. Adams said that it would be very easy to draw a proviso by 

 which it should be agreed to negotiate upon the two subjects, and yet 

 without implying an abandonment on the part of the United States 

 of their claim. 



