210 THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON. 



States and Great Britain -was suspended by tlie Treaty 

 of October 20, 1818. By that treaty it was stipula- 

 ted tliat from the Lake of the Woods to the "Stony 

 Mountains," the line of demarkation between the pos- 

 sessions of the two countries in America should be 

 the forty-ninth parallel of latitude westward to the 

 Stony Mountains. 



The U;iited States might well have insisted on pro- 

 ceeding due Avest from the most northwestern point 

 of the Lake of the Woods, the terminal point in that 

 direction of the Treaty of Independence, w^hicli is 

 nearer the parallel of 50°; but, in early unsuccessful 

 negotiations on this subject under President Jefferson, 

 we had agreed to adopt the 49tli parallel, and that 

 agreement was renew^ed by the Treaty of 1818, in obe- 

 dience to the assumption that this line had been es- 

 tablished by the Treaty of Utrecht.* 



* The "Treaty of Peace and Amity" between France and 

 Entjland contains the following provision [Art. X.] : 



"(Juant an^c liinitcs entre la Bale de Hudson et les lienx ap- 

 partenans a la France, on est convenu reciproquement qu'il 

 sera nommo incessamment des Conimissaires, qui les deter- 

 niineront dans le terme d'un an : ... les memes Conimissaires 

 auront le pouvoir de regler pareillcment les limites entre les 

 autrcs colonies Frangaises et Britanniques dans ce pays-la." — 

 Dumont, t.viii.,pt. 1, p. 332-388. 



INIr. Bancroft, misled by Mr. Greenhow, says of this arti- 

 cle: 



"On the Gulf of ]\Iexico, it is certain that France claimed to 

 the Del Xorte. At the northwest, where its collision would 

 have been with the possessions of the Company of Hudson's 

 Bay, no treaty, no commission, appears to have fixed its lim- 

 its." — Bancroft's History^ vol. iii., p. 343. 



