14 



CORRESPONDENCE, &c. 



American Note JVo, 6, in answer to British Note No. 6» 



Ghent, November 10, 1814. 



The undersigned have the honour to acknowledge the receipi 

 of the note addressed to them by His Britannic Majesty's Plenipo- 

 tentiaries, on the 31st ultimo. 



The undersigned had considered an interchange of the project 

 of a treaty as the course best calculated to exclude useless and de- 

 sultory discussion, to confine the attention of both parties to the 

 precise object to be adjusted between the two nations, and to has- 

 ten the conclusion of the peace so desirable to both. Finding, in 

 the note of the British plenipotentiaries of the [21st] ultimo, a mere 

 reference to the points proposed by them in the first conference, 

 with the offer of assuming the basis of^uti possidetis, on which the 

 undersigned had in substance already declined to treat ; they did 

 not consider it as the project of a treaty presented in compliance 

 with their request. They proposed, in their note of the 24th ulti- 

 mo, that the exchange of the two projects should be made at the 

 same time. And it is not without some surprise, that the under- 

 signed observe, in the note to which they now have the honour of 

 replying, that the British plenipotentiaries consider their note as 

 containing the project of a treaty, to which the undersigned arie 

 supposed to be pledged to return a counter-project. 



Believing that where both parties are sincerely desirous of bring- 

 ing a negotiation to a happy termination, the advantage of giving 

 or of receiving the first draft is not of a magnitude to be made a 

 subject of controversy, and convinced that their government is too 

 <^incerely desirous of that auspicious result to approve o^" its being 

 delayed for a moment upon any question of etiquette, the under- 

 signed have the honour to enclose herewith the project of a treaty, 

 accompanied with some observations upon several of the articles, 

 which may more fully elucidate their object in proposing them. 



The British plenipotentiaries stated, in their last note, that 

 they had no other propositions to oifer, nor other demands to makC;, 

 than those contained in their note of the 21st ultimo, which, with 

 the reference to their former declaration respecting the fisherieSs, 

 contains only two propositions, viz : that of fixing the boundary 

 from the Lake of the "yVoods to the Mississippi ; and that oi adopt- 

 ing, with respect to the other boundaries, the basis of uti possidetis, 



*[In answer to the declaration made by the British plenipoten- 

 tiaries respecting the fisheries, the undersigned, referring to what 

 passed in the conference of the 9th August, can only state that they 

 are not authorized to bring into discussion any of the rights or li- 

 berties which the United States have heretofore enjoyed in relation 



*" Paragraph drawn by Mr. Clay, and inserted at his proposal. 



