Albert Gallatin Part 13

Mr. Gallatin's mission, followed by the resignation of his post in the cabinet, finally dissolved the political triumvirate, but not the personal friendship of the men. Numerous attempts were made to alienate both Jefferson and Madison from Gallatin while he held the portfolio of the Treasury, but one and all they signally and ignominiously failed.

For Mr. Jefferson Mr. Gallatin had a regard near akin to reverence. A portrait of the venerable sage was always on his study table. When about setting out for France in 1816 he tendered his services to his old chief and wrote to him that 'in every country and in all times he should never cease to feel grat.i.tude, respect, and attachment for him.' Jefferson fully reciprocated this regard. From Monticello he wrote to Gallatin in 1823: "A visit from you to this place would indeed be a day of jubilee, but your age and distance forbid the hope. Be this as it will, I shall love you forever, and rejoice in your rejoicings and sympathize in your ails. G.o.d bless and have you ever in His holy keeping." Nor does Mr.

Gallatin seem to have allowed any feeling of disappointment or dissatisfaction at Mr. Madison's weakness to disturb their kindly relations. Their letters close with the reciprocal a.s.surance of affection as well as of esteem.

CHAPTER VIII

IN DIPLOMACY

_The Treaty of Ghent_

On May 9, 1813, the ship Neptune sailed from New Castle on the Delaware, having on board Albert Gallatin and James A. Bayard, ministers of the United States, with their four secretaries, of whom were Mr. Gallatin's son James, and George M. Dallas, son of his old Pennsylvania friend.

They were accompanied to sea by a revenue cutter. Off Cape Henlopen they were overhauled by the British frigate on the station, and their pa.s.sport was countersigned by the English captain. On June 20 they reached the mouth of the river Gotha. Here the vessel lay at quarantine for forty-eight hours, during which the gentlemen paid a flying visit to Gottenburg. At dusk, on the 24th, the Neptune anch.o.r.ed in Copenhagen inner roads, the scene of Nelson's attack in 1801. Mr. Gallatin's brief memoranda of his voyage contain some crisp expressions. He found "despotism and no oppression. Poverty and no discontent. Civility and no servile obsequiousness amongst the people. Decency and sobriety."

St. Petersburg was reached on July 21. Here Gallatin and Bayard found John Quincy Adams, then minister to Russia. He was one of the three commissioners appointed to treat for peace under the mediation which the Emperor Alexander had offered to the United States. Bayard and Adams were Federalists. To the moderate counsels of the former Jefferson owed his peaceable election. Gallatin and Adams had the advantage of thorough acquaintance with European politics. To Gallatin the study of history was a pa.s.sion. He was familiar with the facts and traditions of diplomacy. He knew the purpose, the tenor, and the result of every treaty made for centuries between the great powers; even their dates were at ready command in his wonderful memory. But, excepting the few Frenchmen of distinction who in the exile which political revulsions imposed upon them had crossed the sea, he had no acquaintance with Europeans of high position, and none whatever with the diplomatic personnel of European courts. In this Adams was more fortunate. Educated abroad, while his father was minister to the court of St. James, he was from youth familiar with courts and their ways. To be the son of a president of the United States was no small matter at that day. The conjunction of these two men was rare. One of European birth and trained to American politics, the other of American birth and brought up in the atmosphere of European diplomacy. In their natural characteristics they were the opposite of one another. Adams was impetuous, overbearing, impatient of contradiction or opposition. Gallatin was calm, self-controlled, persistent; not jealous of his opinions, but ready to yield or abandon his own methods, if those of others promised better success; never blinded by pa.s.sion or prejudice, but holding the end always in view. That end was peace; "peace at all times desirable," as Mr. Gallatin said a few days before his departure on his mission, but much more so, 'because of the incapacity shown in the conduct of the war, its inefficiency when compared with its expense, and the open hostility to it of a large number of the American people.' In the face of the disasters which had befallen the country Mr. Gallatin must have felt some qualms of conscience for his persistent opposition to the military and naval establishments. Their reorganization had place in his desire for peace. He said, May 5, 1813: "Taught by experience, we will apply a part of our resources to such naval preparations and organization of the public force as will, within less than five years, place us in a commanding situation." With the particulars of the dispute between the two countries he was perfectly familiar. His report prepared in 1808 for Mr. Campbell, chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, covered the whole ground of the American argument.

At the outset there seemed good ground for hope of an early agreement.

European politics were at a critical point, and England naturally wished to husband her resources for a sudden emergency. The mediation of Russia Mr. Gallatin considered a salve to the pride of England. This reasoning seemed sound enough, but it had not taken account of one important element: the jealousy of England of any outside interference between herself and her ancient dependencies. Mr. Gallatin did not hold English diplomacy in very high regard. Late in life he said that the history of the relations of England and France was a story of the triumphs of English arms and of French diplomacy; that England was always victorious, but France had as often negotiated her out of the fruits of success. True as this remark was in general, it cannot be said of the policy of England in American affairs. She pushed to the utmost her exclusion of France from the American continent when the States were colonies, and now that they were free and independent she would listen to no foreign intervention. Neither in peace nor war should any third government stand between the two nations. This was and ever has been the true policy of Great Britain, and that it was not lost sight of in the heat of war is to the credit of her diplomacy. The offer of Russia to mediate was not welcome, and was set aside by Lord Castlereagh in a note of discouragement. There was no ground for the commissioners to stand upon; moreover the emperor and Count Nesselrode were absent from St.

Petersburg, Count Romanzoff being left in charge of the foreign relations. The offer of mediation had originated with him. His policy was to curb the maritime power of England, and to secure in the negotiation a modification at least of the offensive practice of Great Britain in her a.s.sumed police of the sea.

The war was in fact a legacy of the necessarily incomplete diplomacy of Washington's administration and the Jay treaty. The determining cause was the enforcement of the right of search and the impressment of seamen from American vessels; a practice at variance with the rights and the law of nations. Monroe, Madison's secretary of state, urged the clear and distinct forbearance of this British practice as the one object to be obtained. An article in the treaty giving security in that respect was by Gallatin, as well as by Monroe, considered a _sine qua non_ condition; while Mr. Bayard viewed an informal arrangement as equally efficient and more practicable than a solemn article. But there was no doubt of Bayard's determination to reach the result prescribed in their instructions.

Mr. Gallatin's first act after setting foot on European sh.o.r.es was to write to Baring Brothers & Co. at London. This he did from Gottenburg, requesting a pa.s.sport for the Neptune, which the commission proposed to retain at St. Petersburg until their return. At the same time he intimated that he wished the British government to be informed of the object of the mission. For the expenses of the commission the amba.s.sadors had authority to draw on the Barings. The reply of Mr.

Alexander Baring must at once have opened Mr. Gallatin's eyes to the futility of the errand of the commissioners. His words clearly state the British grounds of objection: "The mediation of Russia was offered, not sought,--it was fairly and frankly accepted,--I do not see how America could with any consistency refuse it; but to the eyes of a European politician it was clear that such an interference could produce no practical benefit. The only question now seriously at issue between us is one purely of a domestic nature in each country respectively; no foreign government can fairly judge of it." Pointing out the difficulty of establishing any distinction between the great ma.s.ses of the seafaring population of Great Britain and America, he finds that no other country can judge of the various positions of great delicacy and importance which spring from such a state of things; and says: "This is not the way for Great Britain and America really to settle their disputes; intelligent persons of the two countries might devise mutual securities and concessions which perhaps neither country would offer in the presence of a third party. It is a sort of family quarrel where foreign interference can only do harm and irritate at any time, but more especially in the present state of Europe, when attempts would be made to make a tool of America." These, he said he had good reason to know, were the sentiments of the British cabinet on the question of place of negotiation and foreign mediation. He also informed Mr. Gallatin that the mediation of Russia had been refused, and that the British government would express its desire to treat separately and directly either at London or Gottenburg. He warned Mr. Gallatin that an opinion prevailed in the British public that the United States were engaged to France by a secret political connection, which belief, though perhaps not shared by the government, would lead it to consider the persevering of the American commission upon bringing the insulated question before the powers of the Continent as a touchstone of their sincerity. He hoped that the American commissioners would come at once in contact with the British ministers, and pointed out the hesitation that every minister would feel at giving instructions on a matter so delicate as that "involving the rights and duties of sovereign and subject." He then declared that there was in England a strong desire for peace and for ending a contest in which the "two countries could only tease and weaken each other without any practical result," and at a time when England desired to carry her resources into the "more important field of European contest." He then gave Castlereagh's a.s.surance, that the cartel-ship, the Neptune, should be respected, and expressed his own personal hope that he should ere long be gratified by seeing it bring, with the commissioners, the hope of peace to the sh.o.r.es of England.

Meanwhile Mr. Gallatin was engaged in explaining the American case to Romanzoff by conversation and by a written statement of the facts in the form of an unofficial note to the emperor. On August 10 word was received from the Emperor Alexander authorizing the renewal of the offer of mediation; and shortly after a letter from General Moreau, written to Mr. Gallatin from the imperial headquarters at Hrushova, a.s.sured him of his sympathy and a.s.sistance. His relations with Gallatin were of long standing and of an intimate nature. Moreau, after a long residence in America, to which he was warmly attached, had lately crossed the ocean and tendered his able sword to the coalition against Bonaparte. He informed Gallatin that one of the British ministers had said to him in Germany that England would not treat of her maritime rights under any mediation. He feared that American vanity would hardly consent to treat directly with Great Britain, and foresaw that the political adversaries of Madison and Gallatin would blame the precipitation of the United States government in sending over the envoys before the adhesion of England to the proposed arbitration was secured. He a.s.sured Gallatin of the interest of the Emperor Alexander in the Americans.

On August 24 Count Romanzoff read to the envoys his dispatch to Count Lieven, the Russian minister at London, renewing the offer of mediation.

The commissioners considering their authority as limited to treating under the mediation of Russia, Mr. Gallatin wrote to Monroe, inclosing a copy of Baring's letter, which he looked upon as an informal communication of the views of the British government, and asked for contingent powers and instructions. These they could not expect to receive before February. Gallatin replied to Mr. Baring that no information of the refusal of Great Britain to the mediation had been received, but, even if it had, the commission was not authorized to negotiate in any other manner. They were, however, competent to treat of commerce without mediation. He declined to discuss the objection of Great Britain to the mediation of Russia, confining himself to an expression of ignorance in America of any such feeling on the part of the British ministry, and of the confidence placed in the personal character of the emperor, which was considered a sufficient pledge of impartiality; while the selection of a sovereign at war with France was clear evidence that America neither had nor wished to have any political connection with that power. That he himself believed an arrangement to be practicable, he said to Mr. Baring, was evident from the fact that he had given up his political existence, and separated himself from his family. His opinion was, that while neither nation would be induced to abandon its rights or pretensions in the matter of impressment, an arrangement might be made by way of experiment which would reserve to both their respective abstract rights, real or a.s.sumed.

To Moreau he wrote stating his hope that, notwithstanding the first objections of Great Britain, the mediation of the emperor would be accepted, and he asked the general for his personal interposition to this end. France and England he held to be equally at fault in the great European contest; the one usurping and oppressing the land, the other dominating and tyrannizing the sea. They alone, said he, have gained, if not happiness, at least power. Russia, he was firmly persuaded, was the only power at heart friendly to America. History has shown the sagacity of this judgment. This letter was never answered. Moreau was at death's door.

Early in October Mr. Dallas was sent to London to open relations with the British ministry. His presence there would save two months at least in each correspondence which involved communication between Washington, London, and St. Petersburg. Count Romanzoff gave the necessary letter of introduction to Count Lieven. Gallatin's instructions to the young secretary were explicit as to the caution he should exercise in a country where he could consider himself as only on sufferance. Hardly were these preliminaries concluded, and Dallas had not started on his journey, when Mr. Gallatin received word from America that the Senate had refused to confirm him in his position as commissioner. Mr. Gallatin had not resigned his position of secretary of the treasury. The Senate refused to sanction the c.u.mulative appointment.

Stripped of his official character, he now felt himself at liberty to follow his own inclination. His first impulse was to go to London, where he was sure that Baring's friendship would open to him a means of usefulness in the matter on which he was engaged. The death of Moreau cut off the medium of approach to the emperor. This event was of no consequence, however, in the negotiation, as the emperor had been positively informed in July that England would not countenance even the appearance of foreign intervention in her dispute with America. But as yet no official information of his rejection had been received by Mr.

Gallatin, nor did any reach him until March. Without it he could not well leave St. Petersburg. Meanwhile a diplomatic imbroglio, caused by the failure of the emperor to inform Romanzoff of Castlereagh's second refusal to accept the offer of mediation, embarra.s.sed the commission all winter. Nor yet were they aware that the British minister, driven to the wall by the second offer of the emperor, had made proposals to Monroe to treat directly with the United States government. The British note with this offer was written on November 4. Mr. Gallatin was apprised of it by Mr. Dallas in January, 1814. Mr. Baring urged him, if he should return to America during the winter, to take his way through England, as good effects might result from even a pa.s.sing visit. Gallatin was then, as he expressed it, "chained for the winter to St. Petersburg," nor had he any way of reaching home, except by a cartel from a British port.

No word coming from the emperor, the envoys concluded to withdraw from St. Petersburg. Before leaving, Mr. Gallatin addressed a letter of thanks to Count Romanzoff, and requested him to communicate any information he might receive from the emperor. It was supposed that the offer of England to treat directly with America might be inclosed in Castlereagh's letter of refusal to accept Russian mediation. On January 25, 1814, Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Bayard left St. Petersburg and traveled by land to Amsterdam, which they reached after a tedious journey on March 4. The captain of the Neptune was ordered to bring his vessel to a port of Holland. At Amsterdam, where the envoys remained four weeks, they learned that Mr. Madison had at once accepted Castlereagh's offer and appointed a new commission, consisting of Messrs. Adams, Bayard, Henry Clay, and Jonathan Russell. Mr. Gallatin was not included, as he was supposed to be on his way home to resume his post in the Treasury Department, the duties of which had been performed in his absence by Mr.

Jones, the secretary of the navy. When correct information did reach Mr.

Madison, on February 8, he immediately added Mr. Gallatin to the commission, and appointed Mr. G. W. Campbell to be secretary of the treasury. Thus it happened that Mr. Gallatin, whom Mr. Madison intended for the head of the commission, was the last named of those who conducted the negotiations.

[Ill.u.s.tration: J. A. Bayard]

On April 1, 1814, Mr. Gallatin concluded to pa.s.s through England on his return, and leaving orders for the Neptune on its arrival to proceed to Falmouth, he took the packet to Harwich, whither he requested Mr. Baring to send him the requisite pa.s.sports to enable him to reach London with his suite without delay.

In company with Mr. Bayard, Mr. Gallatin reached the English capital on April 9, 1814. There they heard some days later of the arrival of Messrs. Clay and Russell at Gottenburg. The situation of Great Britain had greatly changed. Intoxicated with the success of their arms and the abdication of Napoleon, the English people were quite ready to undertake the punishment of the United States, while the release of a large body of trained troops in France, Italy, Holland, and Portugal enabled the ministry immediately to throw a large force into Canada for the summer campaign. In the British cabinet a belief was said to be entertained that a continuance of the war would bring about a separation of the American Union, and perhaps a return of New England to the mother country. In this emergency Gallatin availed himself of the opportunity which presented itself of addressing Lafayette in sending to that officer the patents for the Louisiana land granted to him by the American government, and urged the use of his influence to promote an accommodation between England and the United States.

To Clay he wrote on April 22, proposing that the place of negotiation be changed from "that corner" Gottenburg, either to London, or some neutral place more accessible to the friendly interference of those among the European powers upon which they must greatly rely. The Emperor Alexander was expected in London, and Castlereagh, who had recently returned from France where he had been in direct intercourse with him, was understood to be of all the cabinet the best disposed to the United States. From Clay Gallatin heard in reply that the British _charge d'affaires_ at Stockholm had already asked the sanction of the Swedish government to the negotiation at Gottenburg. While Clay was unwilling to go to London he gave his consent to carry on the negotiations in Holland, if the arrangement could be made in such a manner as to avoid any ill feeling at the Swedish court by the change from Gottenburg. In May Gallatin and Bayard asked of Monroe, who was then secretary of state, authority for the commissioners to remove the negotiation to any place which their judgment should prefer. In May, also, the British government was officially notified by the American commissioners of their appointment.

Lord Bathurst answered with an a.s.surance that commissioners would be forthwith appointed for Great Britain, and with a proposal of Ghent as the place for negotiation. This was at once acceded to.

Meanwhile Mr. Crawford, the United States minister at Paris, was endeavoring, at the instance of Mr. Gallatin, to secure the friendly interposition of the Emperor Alexander, not as a mediator, but as a common friend and in the interest of peace to the civilized world.

Crawford was unable to obtain an audience of the emperor, or even an interview with Count Nesselrode, but Lafayette took up the cause with his hearty zeal for everything that concerned the United States, and, in a long interview with the emperor at the house of Madame de Stael, submitted to him the view taken by the United States of the controversy, and obtained from him his promise to exert his personal influence with the British government on his arrival at London. Baron von Humboldt, the Prussian minister at Paris, who had been influenced by British misrepresentation, was also won over by Lafayette, and now tendered his services to Mr. Gallatin in any way in which he might be made useful.

Lafayette's letter was brought by Humboldt in person. Gallatin and Humboldt had met in 1804, when the great traveler pa.s.sed through Washington on his return from Peru and Mexico.

The Treaty of Paris having been signed, Lord Castlereagh reached London early in June, and the emperor arrived a few days later. Mr. Gallatin had an audience of the emperor on June 17, and on the 19th submitted an official statement of the American case and an appeal for the interposition of his imperial majesty, "the liberator and pacifier of Europe." From the interview Mr. Gallatin learned that the emperor had made three attempts in the interest of peace, but that he had no hope that his representations had been of any service. England would not admit a third party to interfere, and he thought that, with respect to the conditions of peace, the difficulty would be with England and not with America.

On June 13 Gallatin warned Monroe of the preparations England was making which would enable her to land fifteen to twenty thousand men on the Atlantic coast; that the capture of Washington and New York would most gratify the British people, and that no help need be expected from the countries of Europe, all which were profoundly desirous of peace.

The ministry informing Mr. Gallatin that the British commissioners would start for Ghent on July 1, he improved the interval by a visit to Paris.

He left London, where he had pa.s.sed nearly three months in the uncertain preliminaries of negotiation, and after a few days in the French capital reached Ghent on July 6. The British commissioners only appeared on August 6. They were Lord Gambier, Henry Goulburn, and William Adams, all second-rate men, but for this reason suited to the part they had to play. After the overturn of Napoleon the British cabinet had no desire for peace, or at least not until they had secured by war some material advantages in the United States, which a treaty would confirm. The business of their representatives at Ghent was to make exorbitant demands of the Americans and delay negotiations pending the military operations in progress.

In June Gallatin was satisfied of the general hostile spirit of Great Britain and of its wish to inflict serious injury on the United States.

He notified Monroe of his opinion and warned him that the most favorable terms to be expected were the _status ante bellum_, and not certainly that, unless the American people were united and the country able to stand the shock of the campaign. Mr. Madison's administration had already humbled itself to an abandonment, or at least to an adjournment, of the principle to establish which they had resorted to arms. But in the first stages of the negotiation it was clear that the British cabinet had more serious and dangerous objects in view, and looked beyond aggression and temporary injury to permanent objects. At the first meeting on August 8, the British commissioners demanded, as a preliminary to any negotiation, that the United States should set apart to the Indian tribes the entire territory of the Northwest to be held by them forever in sovereignty under the guaranty of Great Britain. The absurdity of such a demand is sufficient evidence that it was never seriously entertained. There could have been no idea that the military power of Great Britain was able to enforce, or that the United States would abjectly submit to, such a mutilation of its territory and such a limitation of its expansion. Behind this cover Mr. Gallatin instinctively detected the real design of the cabinet to be the conquest of New Orleans and the mouths of the Mississippi. If to the territory thus acquired that of Florida should be added by cession from Spain, which could hardly refuse any compensation asked of her by Great Britain in return for the liberation of the Peninsula, a second British dominion would be set up on the American continent. These views Gallatin communicated to Monroe in a private dispatch of August 20, 1814, by the hands of Mr. Dallas. To the _sine qua non_ of the British commissioners no answer was made by the Americans. The negotiation was abruptly suspended, and only by informal conversation was Mr. Goulburn given to understand that reference had been had to America for instructions. Mr.

Gallatin was of opinion that the negotiations were at an end, and in his despair of peace took consolation in the belief that the insolence of the demand would unite America from Maine to Georgia in defense of her rights, of her territory, and indeed of her independence. The American commissioners made no secret of their belief that their mission was closed. Two of the secretaries started from Ghent on a continental tour, and notice was given to the landlord of the house where the commissioners resided of their intention to quit it on October 1. On August 2, while matters were still at this deadlock, Lord Castlereagh pa.s.sed through Ghent on his way to the Congress at Vienna. Goulburn was ordered to change his tone and Lord Liverpool was advised to moderate his demands; to use Castlereagh's words, to "a letting down of the question." Lord Liverpool replied on September 2, that he had already given Goulburn to understand that the commission had taken a very erroneous view of British policy. In this communication he betrays the hope, which the cabinet had entertained, of the outcome of American dissensions, by his expression of the opinion that if the negotiation had broken off on the notes already presented by the British commission, or the answer that the Americans were disposed to make, the war would have become popular in America.

Lord Bathurst reopened the negotiations, but his modification was of tone rather than of matter. The surrender of the control of the Lakes to Great Britain, and of the Northwest Territory to the Indians, was still adhered to. The reply of the American commissioners was drawn chiefly by Mr. Gallatin. It absolutely rejected the proposals respecting the boundary and the military flag on the Lakes, and refused even to refer them to the American government, but offered to pursue the negotiation on the other points. To Monroe Mr. Gallatin explained his reason for a.s.senting to discuss the Indian article, and therein his colleagues concurred with him, to be: that they had little hope of peace, but thought it desirable, if there were to be a breach, that it should be on other grounds than that of Indian pacification. The reply of the commission on this point, also drafted by Mr. Gallatin, was sent in on September 26. It merely guaranteed the Indians in all their old rights, privileges, and possessions.

The destruction of the public buildings at Washington by the British troops, known in London on October 1, caused a great sensation in England. As Gallatin said in a letter to Madame de Stael, it was "an act of vandalism to which no parallel could be found in the twenty years of European war from the frontiers of Russia to Paris, and from those of Denmark to Naples." "Was it (he asked), because, with the exception of a few cathedrals, England had no public buildings comparable to them, or was it to console the London mob for their disappointment that Paris was neither pillaged nor burned?" It can hardly be doubted that the flames which consumed the American capital lighted the way to peace. The atrocity of war was again brought vividly to the view of nations whose sole yearning was for peace. Far from discouraging the American commissioners, it fortified their resolution. They knew that it would unite the people of the States as one man. It in no way disturbed Gallatin's confidence either in the present or future of his adopted country. To those who asked his opinion of the securities of the United States, he said: "If I have not wholly misunderstood America, its resources and its political morality, I am not wrong in the belief that its public funds are more secure than those of all European powers."

In spite of the protests of Mr. Goulburn, who felt the ground on which he stood daily less stable, and in his letters to his chief was unsparing in his denunciations, Lord Liverpool accepted the proposed settlement of the Indian question. Nothing remained but to incorporate in a treaty form the points agreed upon. Lord Bathurst, who seems throughout the negotiation to have forgotten the old adage, that "fine words b.u.t.ter no parsnips," and with true British blindness never to have appreciated how thoroughly he was overmatched by Mr. Gallatin, submitted a preliminary notification that the British terms would be based on the principle of _uti possidetis_, which involved a rectification of the boundaries on the Canadian frontier. To this the Americans returned a peremptory refusal. They would not go one step farther except on the basis of the _status quo ante bellum_. Lord Liverpool considered this as conclusive. A vigorous prosecution of the war was resolved upon by the cabinet. Only for reasons of expediency was a show of negotiation still kept up.

But when the cabinet took a survey of the general field they felt little complacency in the prospect of a struggle which sooner or later must interest the maritime powers. France, compelled by the peace of Vienna to withdraw from what even Lafayette considered as her natural frontier, was restive, and there was a large party in Russia who would gladly see the emperor take up the American cause. Moreover the chancellor of the exchequer saw before him an inevitable addition of ten millions of pounds sterling to his budget, the only avowable reason for which was the rectification of the Canadian frontier. In their distress the cabinet proposed to Wellington to go to the United States with the olive-branch and the sword, to negotiate or conquer a peace. The desire of the cabinet to bring the war to an honorable conclusion was avowed.

But Wellington, before accepting this proposal, gave Lord Liverpool a very frank opinion of the mistake made in exacting territorial concessions, since the British held no territory of the United States in other than temporary possession, and had no right to make any such demand. Lord Liverpool was not tenacious. He was never, he wrote Lord Bathurst, much inclined to give way to the Americans, but the cabinet felt itself compelled to withdraw from its extreme ground. He accepted his defeat and acknowledged it.

The Americans meanwhile arranged a draft of a treaty. The articles on impressment and other maritime rights, absolutely rejected by the British, were set aside. There only remained the question of the boundaries, the fisheries, and the navigation of the Mississippi. Here Mr. Gallatin had as much difficulty in maintaining harmony between Adams and Clay as in obtaining a peace from Liverpool and Bathurst. Adams was determined to save the fisheries; Clay would not hear of opening the Mississippi to British vessels. A compromise was effected by which it was agreed that no allusion should be made to either subject. Mr.

Gallatin terminated the dispute by adding a declaration that the commissioners were willing to sign a treaty applying the principle of the _status quo ante bellum_ to _all_ the subjects of difference. This was in strict conformity with the instructions from the home government.

On November 10 the American draft was sent in. On the 25th the British replied with a counter-draft which made no allusion to the fisheries, but stipulated for the free navigation of the Mississippi. The Americans replied that they would give up the navigation of the river for a surrender of the fisheries. This proposal was at once refused by the British. The matter was settled by an offer of the Americans to negotiate under a distinct reservation of all American rights. All stipulations on either subject were in the end omitted, the British government on December 22 withdrawing the article referring to these points. In the course of the negotiation Mr. Gallatin proposed that in case of a future war both nations should engage never to employ the savages as auxiliaries, but this article does not appear. To the credit of civilization, however, the last article contained a mutual engagement to put an end to the trade in slaves. An agreement entered into in perfect faith, but which the jealousy of the exercise of search in any form rendered nugatory for half a century. On Christmas day the treaty was signed. Mr. Henry Adams[19] justly says, "Far more than contemporaries ever supposed, or than is now imagined, the Treaty of Ghent was the special work and the peculiar triumph of Mr. Gallatin."

His own correspondence shows how admirably he was const.i.tuted for the nice work of diplomatic negotiation. In the self-poise which he maintained in the most critical situations, the unerring sagacity with which he penetrated the purposes of his adversaries, the address with which he soothed the pa.s.sions and guided the judgments of his colleagues, it is impossible to find a single fault. If he had a fault, says his biographer, it was that of using the razor when he would have done better with the axe. But the axe is not a diplomatic weapon. The simulation of temper may serve an occasional purpose, but temper itself is a mistake; and to Mr. Gallatin's credit be it said, it was a mistake never committed by him in the course of this long and sometimes painful negotiation. Looking back upon its shifting scenes, it is clear that even the pertinacity of Adams and the irascibility of Clay served to advance the purpose of the mission. From the first to the last Mr.

Gallatin had his own way, not because it was his own way, but because it was the best way and was so recognized by the majority of the commission at every turn of difference. Fortunately for the interests of peace the battle of New Orleans had not yet been fought. There seems a justice in this final act of the war. The British attack upon the Chesapeake[20]

was committed before war had been declared. The battle of New Orleans was fought a fortnight after the Treaty of Ghent was signed. The burning of Washington was avenged by the most complete defeat which the British had ever encountered in their long career of military prowess.

By his political life Mr. Gallatin acquired an American reputation; by his management of the finances of the United States he placed himself among the first political economists of the day; but his masterly conduct of the Treaty of Ghent showed him the equal of the best of European statesmen on their own peculiar ground of diplomacy. No one of American birth has ever rivaled him in this field. Europeans recognized his pre-eminent genius. Sismondi praised him in a public discourse.

Humboldt addressed him as his ill.u.s.trious friend. Madame de Stael expressed to him her admiration for his mind and character. Alexander Baring gave him more than admiration, his friendship.

Upon the separation of the commissioners, Mr. Gallatin paid a flying visit to Geneva. His fame, or "glory," to use the words of Humboldt, preceded him. Of his old intimates, Serre was under the sod in a West Indian island; Badollet was leading a quiet life at Vincennes in the Indiana Territory, where Gallatin had obtained for him an appointment in the land office; Dumont was in England. Of Gallatin's family few remained. But he received the honors due to him as a Genevan who had shed a l.u.s.tre on his native city. On his way to England, where he had made an appointment with his colleagues to attempt a commercial treaty with Great Britain, he stopped at Paris. Here he saw Napoleon, returned from Elba, his star in full blaze before its final extinction. Here he heard in April (1815) of his appointment by Madison as minister to France. His colleagues also had been honored by similar advancements.

Adams was transferred from Russia to England. Bayard was named minister to Russia, but illness prevented his taking possession of his post.

In April, Mr. Gallatin and Mr. Clay opened negotiations with Lord Castlereagh in London, where they were quickly joined by Adams. Lord Castlereagh bore no malice against Mr. Gallatin for the treaty. On the contrary, he wrote of it to Lord Liverpool as "a most auspicious and seasonable event," and wished him joy at "being released from the millstone of an American war." With Lord Castlereagh Mr. Gallatin arranged in the course of the summer a convention regulating commercial intercourse between the United States and Great Britain, the only truly valuable part of which was that which abolished all discriminating duties. Mr. Gallatin considered this concession as an evidence of friendly disposition, and rightly judged that British antipathy and prejudice were modified, and that in the future friendly relations would be preserved and a rupture avoided. Beyond this, there was little gained. The old irritating questions of impressment and blockade and the exclusion of the United States from the West Indies trade remained.

In July Mr. Gallatin parted from Mr. Baring and his London friends on his homeward journey. From New York, on September 4, he wrote Madison, thanking him for the appointment of minister to France as an "evidence of undiminished attachment and of public satisfaction for his services;"

but he still held his acceptance in abeyance. To Jefferson, two days later, he had also the satisfaction to say with justice, that the character of the United States stood as "high as ever it did on the European continents, and higher than ever it did in Great Britain;" and that the United States was considered "as the nation designed to check the naval despotism of England." To Jefferson he naturally spoke of that France from which they had drawn some of their inspirations and their doctrines.

He thus describes the condition of the people:--