New sources of irritation on the lake fron tier continued to arise. Canadians regarded the Louisiana Purchase as a step toward ac quisition north of the lakes and, although they still attracted a large part of the Indian trade of the Northwest they induced the British government in 1807, in the negotiations of a treaty to replace the temporary provisions of Jay ay treaty, to request an amendment which would admit their traders and the Hudson Bay Company to participation in the Indian trade of the Louisiana Purchase. By 1808, re lations became much strained. Canadian traders asked redress for injuries resulting from exclusion from Louisiana, from American assessment of portage duties and from Ameri can interference with Canadian boats which had approached too near to particular Ameri can lake ports or shores.
Finally, the Indian troubles of 1811 aroused the American frontiersmen of the Northwest to demand the prevention of further relations between the Indians and the Canadian traders; and the lake frontier became the theatre of the principal military operations of the War of 1812, begun largely with the purpose of the conquest of Canada as a means of terminating British-American trade with the Northwest Indians and giving Americans control of trade on the lakes. See BOUNDARIES OF THE UNITED STATES.
One of the most important struggles in the peace negotiations which resulted in the Treaty of Ghent was to secure the continuation of American rights upon the lakes, where the British sought exclusive control, and upon the adjacent southern shores where the British by an ultimatum sought to establish an Indian bar rier against future American aggression upon Canada. The boundary remained as before the war. The part of Maine occupied by the British during the war was returned. See GHENT, TREATY OF.
Meantime, there was an increase of Ameri can trade across the northern boundary east of Lake Ontario which was not stopped by the Embargo Act of 1808 nor by the later war embargo by which the Madison government sought to prevent trade with the enemy. The Treaty of Ghent, without mention of the osten sible causes of the war, provided for arbitration of various matters in dispute. It contained a provision for the definite establishment of the exact boundary line by joint commission. In 1817, as a supplement to the peace, to prevent the danger of future collision and sources of misunderstanding from rival navies on the lakes, an agreement was negotiated providing for mutual disarmament on those waters, ex cept four vessels on each side restricted as to size and duties. Although peace existed in
fact, there were many unsettled questions, some of which naturally became more important and more serious by the changes of time — influenced not only by development at the East but by the extension of virile peoples westward to the Pacific. The meaning and import of certain words, used in the treaty of 1783, relating to boundaries were still unsettled and continued a source of dispute between the nations for nearly 30 years. There were also new sources of irritation resulting from the war, and from economic and political policies. Canada could not forget that the closed war was an expres sion of an American policy of territorial absorp tion which had long been apprehended by Cana dian authorities.
Among the most important subjects of dis agreement or possible sources of friction were the ownership of some comparatively worth less islands in Passamaquoddy Bay, the north ern boundary of Maine, the boundary through the lakes, claims for slaves carried by British war vessels during the war, other general claims, the use of the fisheries, questions relating to commerce with the British West India Islands, the restitution of territory taken during the war and the Northwest boundary. To these were later added the border troubles along the Maine boundary, the border troubles along the Niagara frontier at the time of the Caroline affair, the case of McLeod, trade relations with Canada, the use of Canadian canals, the operations of Confederates from Canada during the Ameri can Civil War, the connection of Canada with the Alabama claims dispute, the San Juan boundary, new phases of the fisheries dispute relating to the Atlantic Coast, the Bering Sea seal fisheries, the Alaska boundary, the ob struction or diversion of boundary waterways and the persistent question of reciprocity to trade relations.
Commercial relations were unsatisfactory. Although Great Britain by government regula tions until 1822 allowed the privilege of trade enjoyed by northern New York and Vermont with Montreal and Quebec under the pro visions of the Jay treaty which were extin guished by the war, she would make no new permanent agreement on the subject. She refused to recognize the principle of the Ameri can claims to a natural right to navigate the Saint Lawrence to the sea. Fortunately the importance of the latter question was later diminished by the completion of canals which connected Lake Champlain and Lake Erie re gions with the Hudson River, and thereby with the sea.