JAY'S TREATY, 1794. The Artides of Confederation provided that the States might nullify at will any provisions of whatever com mercial treaty Congress might negotiate; of course therefore no nation with much commerce to be disturbed by our competition would make such treaties with us. Our chief commerce was with Great Britain; and that country would make no commercial treaty whatever with, us, even for years after the Constitution had given Congress power to enforce its treaties. There were two main reasons for this: first, that Great' Britain had commercial monopolies (especially in the West Indies) for which she thought we could. return no equivalent; second, she was angry over the sequeke of the Peace of 1783. She had agreed to surrender the border forts on Great Lakes, the Saint Lawrence and Lake Champlain, and .carry off no negroes, on condition that C ss (Irecommene to the States to restore Tory property, and agree to confiscate 'no 'more. Congress did so twice emphatically, but the States paid no at tention to it; the British government, though it knew very well how much the recommendation meant, made this an excuse to retain the forts and refuse payment for 3,000 negroes carried off; this in turn hardened the States to refuse compliance with the treaty, and the forts being made a basis for Indian outrages winked at by the British commandants enraged the country still more. The Republicans, who sympathized with the new French Republic and hated Great Britain, held the House; the Federalists, whose sympathies were exactly opposite, the Senate by a small majority. On 16 Dec. 1793, Jefferson made a famous report on a House resolution, recommending retaliatory duties; and after an acrid debate the Republicans pushed through a non-intercourse resolution, only defeated even in the Senate by Vice-President Adams' casting vote. But Washington threw his weight into
the scale of peace, and nominated Chief Justice John Jay as envoy extraordinary to negotiate a commercial treaty. With Lord Granville he drew up one on 19 Nov., 1794, which removed the chief American geievance 'by surrendering• the forts, but refused compensation for the negroes and referred all other claims to com missioners; and as to commerce, allowed direct but not coasting trade between the United States and the British East and. est Indies (the latter in vessels of not over 70 tons), but denied the United States the right to export sugar, mo lasses, coffee, cocoa or cotton to Europe — in other words, to become an intermediary for the British colonies to evade the British commer cial monopoly; and limited even this provision to two years after peace with the powers then at war with Great Britain. There were also clauses which impliedly recognized British right of search and impressment, and power to make anything contraband. The treaty was ratified by the Senate in secret session (8 June 1795), but when published excited an uproar of public indignation; Jay was burned in effigy, and even Washington vilified incredibly. The Virginia and the Federal practically passed votes of censure; but the people gradu ally came to recognize that it was the best thing to be had, hard as were the terms; the commer cial bodies in the States openly commended it; Hamilton wrote his °Camillus* letters in its favor; and after a bitter struggle for weeks in the House to refuse compliance with the Senate action, the treaty won by 51 to 48.