Commercial relations as defined by the treaty of 1815, providing for free commerce between the ports of the two countries and between the United States and the British colonies in the East, remained unsatisfactory through a period characterized by extensive smuggling and re taliatory shipping legislation until 1830, when the United States after persistent effort obtained theprivilege of trade with the British West Indies. The Passamaquoddy question was set tled in 1817 by agreement of two commission ers. rights were defined by a treaty of 1818, recognizing the right of citizens of the United States to fish along certain uninhabited coasts of Newfoundland and Lab rador, and granting permission for American vessels to enter the bays and harbors of the British possessions for shelter from storm and for repairs, wood and water. The same treaty also postponed for 10 years a dangerous dis pute by an agreement for joint occupation of distant Oregon, which had recently attracted attention by increase of American interest in the Pacific after the Lewis and Clark expedi tion and by the British restitution of Astoria in 1818— an agreement which was renewed indefinitely in 1827, with provision for ter mination by 12 months' notice of either party. At the same time Great Britain re nounced her claim to the free navigation of the Mississippi and agreed to the 49th parallel as the international boundary forming the north ern limit of the Louisiana purchase from the Lake of the Woods to the Rockies. The boundary through the Lakes was settled in 1822. The claim for slaves carried away, re ferred after 1818 to the Emperor of Russia and finally terminated by four commissioners appointed in 1822, was paid by Great Britain in 1826. The more difficult Northeast boundary question, first submitted to a commission which hopelessly toiled for five years (1816-21), and later (in 1827) referred to the King of the Netherlands, who in 1831 made a compromise decision which neither country would accept, unfortunately reached an alarming stage in the Maine-New Brunswick controversy of 1838 in the border conflicts known as the Aroostook War and was not settled until 1842.
Notwithstanding unpleasant memories and popular misunderstandings or diversions of criticism, the close of the War of 1812 brought a revival of the policy of earlier statesmen who at the close of the Revolution had seen the importance of British sea power in interna tional affairs. Leaders such as Jefferson recognized that American interests required cordial relations, and even close co-operation or alliance, with the mother nation which still controlled the approaches to foreign intercourse and trade and used its defensive sea power with moderation and fairness. The mutual interest of both in reaching agreements was recognized as a fundamental basis in American foreign and naval policy.
Friendlier feeling was illustrated by the British change of policy in regard to the West Indian trade which after long negotiations and misunderstandings was opened to the United States in 1830, and by British good offices to secure a peaceable settlement of the Franco American difficulty of 1834. New sources of possible collision arose along the international boundary in America. During the Canadian Rebellion of 1837-38 the frontier line was threatened with lawless violation of neutrality which endangered the international peace. After
the capture and destruction of the Caroline, which had been engaged in carrying supplies to Canadian insurgents, there was a serious danger of intemperate action which was promptly coun teracted by the President who sent General Scott to preserve order along the border. Belligerent feeling was increased and aggra vated by the controversy between New Bruns wick and Maine over the disputed boundary resulting in arrests which threatened armed collision, but the danger of hostility gradually subsided. A new irritation arose in connection with the arrest in 1840 of Alexander McLeod, the Canadian deputy sheriff, who was charged with a murder in connection with the seizure of the Caroline. His acquittal in October 1841 decreased international embarrassment and smoothed the way for the friendly conferences between Webster and Ashburton who by the wisdom of diplomacy settled the long-pending Northeast boundary question by the well-known treaty which each country at first regarded as a capitulation.
• The Webster-Ashburton Treaty proved that, although small differences may quickly develop into serious disputes, even the most compli cated international difficulties and hard knots may be untied through a mutual spit-it of for bearance, consideration and conciliation. It was negotiated with a sense of duty which recog nized that the two nations, notwithstanding dif ferences of political systems, were more than other nations charged with guardianship of con stittitional freedom, first obtained by long struggles and many battles in the mother country. Besides terminating the Northeast boundary dispute, it provided foi co-operation in suppression of the slave trade (for five years or more) by independent squadrons, and con siderably enlarged the list of crimes for which fugitives from justice might be extradited.
Meantime a series of controversies affect ing Anglo-American relations arose in con nection with slavery interests. The claim to the right of visit (or search) without treaty war rant, asserted by the British government in connection with the suppression of the slave trade, was a source of controversy until 1858 when it was abandoned. The parliamentary emancipation act of 1833 for the gradual extin guishment of colonial slavery in seven years, the consequent British policy of encouraging emancipation elsewhere, and the activity of the British government and the British navy in attempts to stop the illegitimate foreign slave trade which usually eluded capture by flying the American flag, greatly affected public senti ment in the United States. Among other sources of friction was that arising from the interstate slave trade by sea in American vessels from Chesapeake ports to Charleston or to New Orleans, or from Charleston to New Orleans, and stopping at the British West In dies ports of the Bahamas where under British jurisdiction the slaves were set free. The most famous case was that of the Creole (1841) arising from the mutiny of the slaves who carried the vessel into Nassau and were dis charged by the British authorities. After 10 years of negotiations concerning the case, it was finally referred to arbitration resulting in a decision in favor of the American contention.