CHAPTER XXVIII.

JAY'S MISSION TO ENGLAND-ITS SPECIFIC OBJECTS-HIS ARRIVAL IN LONDON HIS JUDICIOUS CONDUCT THERE-DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF NEGOTIATION-JAY'S ENCOURAGING LETTER TO WASHINGTON-HIS LETTER TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE-THE PROVISIONS OF THE TREATY-ITS RECEPTION BY WASHINGTON-HE KEEPS ITS PROVISIONS SECRET- OPPOSITION TO THE TREATY-MEETING OF THE SENATE-THE TREATY DISCUSSED AND ITS RATIFICATION RECOMMENDED—A SYNOPSIS OF ITS CONTENTS MADE PUBLIC.

MR. JAY's mission to England had been from its inception a cause of much anxiety to Washington. Its object was beneficent and patriotic in the highest degree, and yet it had been opposed with the bitterest party spirit, and regarded with distrust even by friends of the administration, who had watched the ungenerous and des potic course of the British government toward the United States ever since the peace of 1783.

Mr. Jay's instructions contemplated three important objects to be obtained by treaty. These were, compensation for the losses sustained by American merchants in consequence of the orders in council; a settlement of all existing disputes in relation to the treaty of peace; and a commercial treaty. Great discretion was to be given to the envoy. He was to consider his instructions as recommendatory, not as peremptory. Only two restrictions were imposed upon him. One was, not to enter into any stipulation inconsistent with the existing engagements of the United States with France; the other was, not to conclude any commercial treaty that did not secure to the United States a direct trade in their own vessels, of certain defined burdens, with the British West India islands, in whatever articles were at present allowed to be carried in British bottoms.

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Mr. Jay was fully impressed with the importance of his mission. and the necessity of prompt action. He arrived at Falmouth on the evening of the eighth of June, and the same night he forwarded a letter to Lord Grenville, the secretary for foreign affairs, announcing his arrival. He reached London a few days afterward, took lodgings at the Royal Hotel, Pall Mall, and on the fifteenth addressed the following note to Lord Grenville :

"MY LORD: You have doubtless received a letter which I had the honor of writing to you from Falmouth. I arrived here this morning. The journey has given me some health and much pleasure, nothing having occurred on the road to induce me to make it shorter.

"Colonel Trumbull does me the favor to accompany me as secretary; and I have brought with me a son, whom I am anxious should form a right estimate of whatever may be interesting to our country. Will you be so obliging, my lord, as to permit me to present them to you, and to inform me of the time when it will be most agreeable to your lordship that I should wait upon you, and assure you of the respect with which I have the honor to be, &c."

Mr. Jay's appearance in London was at a time when all Europe was in a state of the most feverish excitement. Robespierre and his bloody companions were revelling in all the wantonness of irresponsible power. The Reign of Terror was at its height, and the resentment against France by all true friends of freedom in Europe, and especially the British nation, was hot and uncompromising. England, supported by Russia, Austria, and Spain, was waging war against the revolutionists; and at the moment of Jay's arrival, the nation was madly rejoicing because of a splendid victory obtained by Lord Howe over the French fleet. The fact that a large party in the United States warmly sympathized with France, the late proceedings of Congress manifesting a disposition hostile to Great Britain, and the remaining soreness of wounded pride experienced by England in the loss of her colonies, combined with the stirring events then occurring in Europe, made the moment apparently

inauspicious for a mission like that of Mr. Jay. It required, on the part of the minister, the exercise of the most discreet courtesy.

The views entertained by the two nations as to their rights and interests were so opposed, on several points, that reconciliation appeared almost impossible. The Americans complained that, contrary to express provisions of the treaty of 1783, a large number of negroes had been carried away by the evacuating British armies at the South, and for the losses thereby sustained by the owners compensation was demanded. The British contended that the claim in the treaty referred to did not apply to negroes who had been set at liberty in the course of the war, under proclamations of the British commanders; and as those carried away were all of that kind, no compensation should be allowed.

The Americans also complained of the continued occupancy of the western posts by British garrisons, and attributed the protracted hostility of the Indian tribes, to the influence of the British commanders there. They also alleged numerous invasions of their neutral rights, not only under the orders in council, issued as instructions to the commanders of British cruisers, but in the seizure of many vessels without sufficient warrant, and their condemnation. by the local admiralty courts. They also complained of the impressment into the British service of seamen from on board American vessels, and the exclusion of American shipping from the trade to the British West Indies.

The British were unwilling to relinquish their right of impressment, as a means of manning their fleets at that important crisis ; and they regarded the claim of the Americans to an equal participation in the West India trade as unreasonable, because it would require England to renounce the long-settled principles of her commercial system. The most important questions to be settled, and those which involved matters most dangerous to the peace between the two countries, were those of neutral rights and the occupancy of the western posts. Such in brief were the chief points in the controversy to be settled by treaty.

"By a deportment respectful yet firm," says Marshall, “mingling

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GOOD NEWS FROM JAY.

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a decent deference for the government to which he was deputed, with a proper regard for the dignity of his own, this minister avoided those little asperities which frequently embarrass measures of great concern, and smoothed the way to the adoption of those which were suggested by the real interests of both nations."*

Mr. Jay found Lord Grenville commissioned by the king to treat with him, and the sincerity and candor of each soon led to the highest degree of mutual confidence. "Instead of adopting the usual wary but tedious mode of reducing every proposition to writing," says Mr. Jay's biographer,+ "they conducted the negotiation chiefly by conferences, in which the parties frankly stated their several views, and suggested the way in which the objections to these views might be obviated. It was understood that neither party was to be committed by what passed in these conversations, but that the propositions made in them might be recalled or modified at pleasure. In this manner the two ministers speedily discovered on what points they could agree, where their views were irreconcileable, and on what principles a compromise might be effected."

While at Fort Cumberland, in October, Washington received a most gratifying letter from Mr. Jay, accompanied by despatches from Mr. Randolph, the secretary of state. They came by the Packet William Penn. Mr. Jay's letter was dated the fifth of August. Concerning the business of his mission he wrote as follows:

"I am this moment returned from a long conference with Lord Grenville. Our prospects become more and more promising as we advance in the business. The compensation cases (as described in the answer) and the amount of damages will, I have reason to hope, be referred to the decision of commissioners, mutually to be appointed by the two governments, and the money paid without delay on their certificates, and the business closed as speedily as may be possible. The question of admitting our vessels into the islands. under certain limitations is under consideration, and will soon be decided. A treaty of commerce is on the carpet. All things being

* Life of Washington, ii, 360.

† His son, William Jay.

agreed, the posts will be included. They contend that the article about the negroes does not extend to those who came in on their proclamations, to whom (being vested with the property in them by the right of war) they gave freedom, but only to those who were, bona fide, the property of Americans when the war ceased. They will, I think, insist that British debts, so far as injured by lawful impediments, should be repaired by the United States by decision of mutual commissioners. These things have passed in conversa tion, but no commitments on either side, and not to have any official weight or use whatever.

"The king observed to me, the other day, 'Well, sir, I imagine you begin to see that your mission will probably be successful.''I am happy, may it please your majesty, to find that you entertain that idea.'—' Well, but don't you perceive that it is like to be so?

There are some recent circumstances (the answer to my representation, etc.) which induce me to flatter myself that it will be so.' He nodded with a smile, signifying that it was to those circumstances that he alluded. The conversation then turned to indifferent topics. This was at the drawing-room.

"I have never been more unceasingly employed than I have been for some time past and still am; I hope for good, but God only knows. The William Penn sails in the morning. I write these few lines in haste, to let you see that the business is going on as fast as can reasonably be expected, and that it is very important that peace and quiet should be preserved for the present. On hearing last night that one of our Indiamen had been carried into Halifax, I mentioned it to Lord Grenville. He will write immediately by the packet on the subject. Indeed, I believe they are endeavoring to restore a proper conduct toward us everywhere; but it will take some time before the effects will be visible. I write all this to you in confidence, and for your own private satisfaction. I have not time to explain my reasons, but they are cogent. I could fill some sheets with interesting communications if I had leisure, but other matters press, and must not be postponed; for 'there is a tide in the affairs of men,' of which every moment is precious.