Jay's Treaty

JAY'S TREATY. 19 November 1794. For a decade after the end of the American Revolution, Britain refused to honor those articles of the Peace Treaty of 1783 calling for its withdrawal of troops from posts in the Northwest that now fell within U.S. territory. Britain's justification was based on the U.S. failure to comply with articles four and five of the treaty which called for payment of pre-Revolutionary War debts to British merchants and reimbursement to Loyalists for property confiscated by the states. The two countries made a number of threatening gestures toward one another after the British Orders in Council of 8 June and 6 November 1793 resulted in the seizure of American ships and crews. President Washington sent John Jay, the chief justice of the United States and author of Washington's Neutrality Proclamation of 1793, to negotiate a treaty with Britain. The Treaty of London, or Jay's Treaty, as it is generally known, was signed on 19 November 1794. The British government agreed to withdraw from all its posts in the Northwest territories by 1 June 1796. The debts were to be referred to joint commissions (British claims of $2,664,000 were settled on 8 January 1802), as were the problems of the Northeast boundary and compensation for illegal seizures ($10,345,200, paid by 1802). Various trade agreements were made, but there was no reference to Loyalist claims, the slaves "stolen" by the British during the war, the impressment of American sailors under the Orders in Council, or to allegations that the British incited Indians to make war on the United States. Nor would Britain acknowledge the neutral rights of the United States.

Although Jay had triumphed in getting important concessions and had restored amicable relations that permitted the resumption of trade that was essential for the success of Hamilton's fiscal system, his treaty aroused a popular uproar from many elements whose own interests had been violated or ignored. Southern planters wanted compensation for those slaves who had fled to freedom with the British, and Virginia owed most of the debt that the joint commissions were to settle. Northern shipping and commercial interests were antagonized by the treaty's limitations on their trade with the West Indies, while western settlers wanted a final solution to "the Indian problem." Thomas Jefferson and James Madison denounced the treaty and preferred commercial retaliation against Britain as a means of attaining better terms, even though an embargo would hurt the U.S. economy more than it would the British. After long and bitter debate, the Senate finally ratified the treaty on 24 June 1795 with the stipulation that the article dealing with the West Indies trade be renegotiated. Although Washington had considered the treaty unsatisfactory, he established an important precedent by asserting executive prerogative and refusing the House of Representatives' request of 24 March 1796 for Jay's papers relating to the treaty. The House initially attempted to block the treaty by denying appropriations, but on 30 April 1796 it approved the requisite funds. One important consequence of Jay's Treaty was to activate and clarify the two factions in Congress into the Federalist and Democratic Republican Parties.

SEE ALSO Carleton, Guy; Jay, John; Peace Treaty of 3 September 1783.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bemis, Samuel Flagg. Jay's Treaty: A Study in Commerce and Diplomacy. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1965.

Combs, Jerald A. The Jay Treaty: Political Battleground of the Founding Fathers. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970.

                        revised by Michael Bellesiles