"My distress at the delay which our joint errand has encountered has
almost been intolerable, and the kind of comfort I have received from
Mr. Adams has afforded very little relief. His apprehensions are rather
of a gloomy cast with regard to the result of our labors."
Mr. Crawford, our Minister to France, who with Clay favored a vigorous
prosecution of the war, writes to him (July 4th, 1814):--
"I am thoroughly convinced that the United States can never be called
upon to treat under circumstances less auspicious than those which exist
at the present moment, unless our internal bickerings shall continue to
weaken the effects of the government."
With discouraging news from home, the seat of government taken, and the
Capitol burned, the Eastern States opposing the war and threatening to
withdraw from the Union, and his fellow commissioners in the despondent
mood evidenced by the above-quoted letters,--it is amazing that Clay,
whom some historians have called a compromiser by nature, opposed any
and all concessions and wished that the war should go on.
By the third article of the treaty of 1783 it was agreed that citizens
of the United States should not fish in the waters or cure fish on the
land of any of the maritime provinces north of the United States after
they were settled, without a previous agreement with the inhabitants or
possessors of the ground.
By the eighth article of the same treaty, it was agreed that the
navigation of the Mississippi River should _ever_ remain free and open
to the subjects of Great Britain and the United States. It was then
supposed that the British Canadian possessions included the head-waters
of this river. By the Jay treaty of 1794 this was confirmed, and "that
all ports and places on its eastern side, to whichsoever of the parties
belonging, might be freely resorted to and used by both parties." At
this time Spain possessed the sovereignty of the west side of the river,
and both sides from its mouth to 31 deg. north latitude. The United States
acquired by the Louisiana purchase of 1803 all the sovereignty of Spain
which had previously been acquired by France.
Gallatin proposed to insert a provision for the renewal to the United
States of the rights in the fisheries, and as an equivalent to give to
Great Britain the right to the navigation of the Mississippi River. This
was favored by Gallatin, Adams, and Bayard, and opposed by Clay and
Russell. Mr. Clay, seeing that he was in a minority, stated that he
would affix his name to no treaty which contained such a provision.
After his firm stand Mr. Bayard left the majority. Clay's "obstinacy" in
opposing concessions is well shown in Mr. Adams's Journal:--
"To this last article [the right of the British to navigate the
Mississippi River] Mr. Clay makes strong objections. He is willing to
leave the matter of the fisheries as a nest-egg for another war.... He
considers it a privilege much too important to be conceded for the mere
liberty of drying fish upon a desert, but the Mississippi was destined
to form a most important part of the interests of the American Union....
Mr. Clay, of all the members, had alone been urgent to present an
article stipulating the abolition of impressment. Mr. Clay lost his
temper, as he generally does whenever the right of the British to
navigate the Mississippi is discussed....
"December 11th. He [Clay] was for war three years longer. He had no
doubt but three years more of war would make us a warlike people, and
that then we should come out of the war with honor.... December 22d. At
last he turned to me, and asked me whether I would not join him now and
break off negotiations."
After five months of weary negotiations under most adverse conditions so
far as the American commissioners were concerned, the treaty was signed
on December 24th, 1814. During all these months Clay had resisted any
and all concessions, and none were made. The Marquis of Wellesley
declared in the House of Lords that the American commissioners had shown
a most astonishing superiority over the British during the whole of the
correspondence.
During Mr. Clay's absence at Ghent, his admiring constituents returned
him to Congress by an almost unanimous vote. A year later in Congress,
Clay referred to his part in the bringing on the war as follows:--
"I gave a vote for a declaration of war. I exerted all the little
influence and talent I could command to make the war. The war was made.
It is terminated. And I declare with perfect sincerity, if it had been
permitted to me to lift the veil of futurity and to foresee the precise
series of events which had occurred, my vote would have been unchanged.
We had been insulted and outraged and spoliated upon by almost all
Europe,--by Great Britain, by France, Spain, Denmark, Naples, and to cap
the climax, by the little contemptible power of Algiers. We had
submitted too long and too much. We had become the scorn of foreign
powers and the derision of our own citizens. What have we gained by the
war? Let any man look at the degraded condition of this country before
the war, the scorn of the universe, the contempt of ourselves; and tell
me if we have gained nothing by the war? What is our situation now?
Respectability and character abroad, security and confidence at home."
Clay more than any other man forced the war. It was the successful
military hero of this war--the victor of New Orleans--who defeated him
in after years for the Presidency.