GHENT, TREATY OF, between the United States and Great Britain, which ended the war between the two countries known as the " war Of 1812." The treaty was concluded Dec. 24,1814, two weeks before the battle of New Orleans. The main provisions were, 1st, Restoration of all territory; places, and possessions taken by either party from the other during the war, except certain islands. Public property remaining in such places at the time of ratifying the treaty was not to be destroyed or carried away, and the same engagement was made as to slaves and other private property. 2d, Article IV. provides the appointment of a commission to decide to which of the two powers certain islands in and near Passamaquoddy bay belong; and if the commission should fail to come to a decision the subject is to•be referred to some friendly sovereign or state. 3d, Articles V.–VIII. provide for several commissions to settle the line of boundary as described in the treaty of 1783—one commissicn to settle the line from the river St.
Croix to where the parallel cuts the river St. Lawrence (called, the Iroquois or Cataraqua in the treaty); another to determine the middle of the water-communications from that point to lake Superior; and a third to adjust the limits from "the water communication between lakes Huron and Superior to the most north-western point of the lake of the Woods." 4th, Article IX. binds both parties to use their best endeavors to abolish the slave-trade. as being "irreconcilable with the principles of humanity and justice." It is remarkable that the treaty fails to speak of the impressment of American seamen, a main cause of the war, and passes over the claims of the United States to participate in the fisheries,. noticed in the treaty of 1783; nor does it conclude the ques tion as to British and American naval forces on the northern lakes.