After more than four months of negotiations, British and American delegates to the Ghent peace commission drafted a mutually acceptable treaty that concluded the unpopular War of 1812 and laid a basis for more amicable British-American relations. To allow time for news of the settlement to be communicated over vast distances, the treaty’s terms did not take final effect until nearly two months after they were settled.
During the summer of 1814, the chances of the United States and Great Britain finding a negotiated, honorable peace that would end the War of 1812 appeared remote. The United States ostensibly had gone to war to protect its rights on the high seas. President James Madison and Secretary of State James Monroe had repeatedly stated that the recognition of such rights, and particularly an end to British practice of impressing U.S. sailors into the Royal Navy
The British had refused to abandon impressment, and the war continued. Militarily, the conflict had been inconclusive. In many ways, the British were in the stronger position at the outset of peace talks. By the summer of 1814, they and their allies had defeated France’s Napoleon I. Great Britain could then turn its attention and energies to the war with its former North American colonies. With France subdued and battle-hardened British troops available for North American duty, Britain seemed in a position to end the war by military conquest. Moreover, Americans were divided over what was called “Mr. Madison’s
Such were the circumstances when U.S. and British commissioners finally met in Ghent on August 9, 1814. The British had agreed to direct meetings as an alternative to mediation by Alexander I, the czar of Russia, and showed no haste to deal with the U.S. upstarts. Ghent was chosen as a convenient, easily accessible site—a pleasant, neutral city in what was then the Austrian Netherlands, soon to be part of the Kingdom of the United Netherlands and a major city in Belgium after that country’s independence in 1830.
The U.S. government dispatched five commissioners who represented a broad spectrum of backgrounds to Ghent. John Quincy Adams, a Massachusetts Republican and nominally the head of the delegation, was a staunch nationalist. Henry Clay
Adams and Russell arrived in Ghent on June 23. The other U.S. delegates were there by July 6. Because the talks were clearly going to be protracted, the U.S. delegates moved out of their hotel and into the Lovendeghem House in the heart of the city. Far from being the “five lonely Americans,” as they have been often described, they became active in local intellectual and cultural life.
Formal negotiations began in an atmosphere of distrust as a result of the U.S. delegates’ one-month wait for their British counterparts to arrive. The British delegation included admiralty lawyer Dr. William Adams, Vice-Admiral Lord Gambier, and Henry Goulburn of the Colonial Office. Accompanied by a secretary, Anthony J. Baker, they took up residence in a former Carthusian monastery at Meerhem. Their principal role was not so much to negotiate as to act as the messengers of Viscount Castlereagh,
Although the United States had always tried to pose as the injured party in the conflict, the British dominated the early months of the conference. They proposed the creation of an American Indian buffer state between British and U.S. territories in the American Northwest and asked for a substantial cession of land along the border
Finally, the constancy and apparent unanimity of the U.S. delegation bore fruit. Throughout the negotiations, the British cabinet had debated whether to conquer or conciliate the United States. Foreseeing greater good in friendship with the United States than in lasting enmity between the kindred nations, Castlereagh
Several factors, some only vaguely relating to the war, confirmed Castlereagh’s judgment. While the Ghent negotiations were proceeding, the British were having difficulties at the Congress of Vienna
The commissioners at Ghent still bargained hard, but the stakes were no longer as great as when the conference opened. On November 11, 1814, the United States presented a proposal that would restore prewar boundaries. They agreed that the treaty would say nothing about impressment, which they believe would be unnecessary in a post-Napoleonic Europe. The British abandoned their designs on U.S. territory and their desire for an Indian buffer state; however, they still demanded the islands in Passamaquoddy Bay on the coast of Maine
In the end, the participants at Ghent delegated the detailed matters to commissions to resolve after peace had been concluded. The Peace of Ghent provided for a return to the status quo ante bellum. Both two sides signed the treaty on Christmas Eve, 1814. Because of the slow communications of the era, the treaty did not take effect until February 17, 1815, after ratification by the governments of both sides. Meanwhile, the British suffered a humiliating defeat in the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815.
Sometimes called America’s Second War for Independence, the War of 1812 had several important results. Spawning a legacy of bad feeling between Great Britain and the United States, which persisted for many years, the war gave Americans a greater feeling of national identity, simultaneously paving the way for the destruction of Native American populations. The war also stimulated the growth of manufacturing and turned Americans increasingly toward domestic matters and away from foreign affairs.
The Treaty of Ghent had a major impact on the relationships of the United States with both Canada and the Native American nations. Future wars between the United States and Britain were averted by the Rush-Bagot Agreement of 1817
Under the terms of the treaty, the United States agreed to exact no retribution and to take no land from the Indians who had fought for the British. However, the defeat of the British and their American Indian allies helped to open the Old Northwest and Southwest to the waves of settlement that would lead to white domination east of the Mississippi and eventually beyond.
At the time, the treaty was, in many ways, seen as a victory for neither side. However, for the United States, there was cause for rejoicing. The United States had stood firm against a great power. Castlereagh
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Bartlett, Christopher J. “Castlereagh, 1812-1822.” In The Makers of British Policy: From Pitt to Thatcher, edited by T. G. Otte. New York: Palgrave, 2002. Essay about the diplomacy of the British foreign secretary who directed the British side of the negotiations at Ghent. -
Bemis, Samuel Flagg. John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1949. A diplomatic historian presents Adams’s role at Ghent as part of a larger triumph in American statecraft. -
Borneman, Walter. 1812: The War That Forged a Nation. New York: HarperCollins, 2004. Study of the War of 1812 that emphasizes the conflict’s diplomatic background and argues that despite the internal controversy over the necessity of the war, its prosecution ultimately united the American states into a national entity. -
Coles, Harry. The War of 1812. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965. Brief but incisive narrative of the war that includes chapters on the treaty providing a penetrating summary of the negotiations. -
Elting, John. Amateurs to Arms! A Military History of the War of 1812. New York: Da Capo Press, 1995. Detailed military history of the War of 1812, which the author sees as having been an unpopular, badly fought, and largely unnecessary war. -
Engelman, Fred. The Peace of Christmas Eve. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1962. Written from a U.S. viewpoint, this excellent account of the negotiations and signing of the Treaty of Ghent contains much on the setting, personalities, and interaction related to the event. -
Gallatin, James. The Diary of James Gallatin. New ed. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1979. In this reprint of his diary, James Gallatin, secretary to and son of the U.S. delegate Albert Gallatin, observes the treaty negotiations from behind the scenes. -
Horsman, Reginald. The War of 1812. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1969. General history of the war that treats the Treaty of Ghent in its broader European context. -
Perkins, Bradford. Castlereagh and Adams: England and the United States, 1812-1823. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1964. Part of a three-volume study of early British-American diplomacy. More than half of this volume is devoted to the diplomacy surrounding the War of 1812. -
Vannieuwenhuyse, Johan. The Treaty of Ghent. Ghent: Museum Arnold Vander Haeghen-Stadsarchief, 1989. Excellent, brief overview of the Treaty of Ghent by a Belgian scholar who presents details and sources that are frequently overlooked.
War of 1812
Congress of Vienna
Hartford Convention
Battle of New Orleans
Adams-Onís Treaty Gives the United States Florida
Aroostook War
Webster-Ashburton Treaty Settles Maine’s Canadian Border
United States Acquires Oregon Territory
Treaty of Washington Settles U.S. Claims vs. Britain
John Quincy Adams; Viscount Castlereagh; Henry Clay; Albert Gallatin; James Monroe.