NEGOTIATIONS FOR THE TREATY OF GHENT. 17 



It will be remembered that under that treaty the western boundary 

 of the United States was a line drawn along the middle of the Mis- 

 sissippi River and that the mouth of the Mississippi was then in the 

 possession of Spain, and that its source was at that time erroneously 

 supposed to be far enough north to carry it into British territory. 

 Under that treaty it was further provided that the northern boundary 

 of the United States should extend due west from the northwestern- 

 most point of the Lake of the Woods to the Mississippi River. It 

 having subsequently been ascertained that a line so drawn would run 

 north of the source of the Mississippi River, it became necessary to 

 make a change in the treaty provisions in respect to that portion of 

 the boundary; and the United States having extended its borders 

 west of the Mississippi by the purchase of the Louisiana Territory 

 in 1803 and no treaty agreement having been made fixing the north- 

 ern boundary of the possessions of the United States to the west of 

 the Mississippi River, that portion of the line also required treaty 

 definition. An attempt had been made in connection with the treaty 

 negotiated in 180G, but left unratified by the United States, to agree 

 upon the description of this section of the boundary extending from 

 the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains ; " and the location of 

 such boundary line being one of the subjects which had been proposed 

 for settlement in the negotiations now under consideration, an article 

 in respect thereto was included by the American Plenipotentiaries 

 in a 'projet of the treaty submitted by them to the British Plenipo- 

 tentiaries with their letter above referred to of November lOth.^ 

 This boundary proposal constituted Article VIII of the projet and 

 was almost identical with the article proposed by the American Com- 

 missioners for the unratified treaty of 1806," and in it no mention was 

 made of the Mississippi River. On November 26th, the British Pleni- 

 potentiaries returned this projet with their proposed alterations and 

 additions noted in the margin,^ and with respect to this article they 

 inserted, as a substitute for the form proposed by the United States, 

 the identical form, with some minor changes, previously proposed by 

 the British Commissioners in the negotiations for the unratified 

 treaty of 1806,*' with the addition, however, of this provision: 



And it is further agreed the subjects of His Britannic Majesty shall 

 at all times have access from His Britannic Majesty's territories by 



« Appendix, p. 236. * Appendix, p. 251. " Appendix, p. 238. 



