Treaties, Wars, Wisdom and Folly

A One-Vote Oddity

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Burned in Effigy

 

The Revolutionary War was fought from 1776-1783. Some 29 years later, the war of 1812 was fought. Those two dates are pretty firm in the minds of most Americans. But what happened in between those dates? One answer to that question is: A treaty that probably saved the new nation from destruction—a treaty that passed by one vote, five times!

The year was 1794. Just eleven years after the victory of the revolution, the new nation was on the verge of another war with Britain. George Washington was in the beginning of his second term, having given what remains the shortest inaugural address ever given—two paragraphs. The British, in violation of the Peace Treaty of 1783, continued to man outposts in the Ohio region and were supplying them with musket, ammunition and scalping knives! (Sounds like Iraq!)

There were other problems. Throughout this period Britain refused to recognize American neutrality in the war between the French and England. American ships were routinely stopped, boarded, stripped of their cargos and all on board were arrested on the high seas and in Caribbean ports. Some were never heard from again. It seemed that every region of the country had some complaint against the British.

Many in the nation were clamoring for the need to go to war again with Great Britain. In Philadelphia, citizens assaulted the front of a church “and tore from its façade the base relief of George II, who ruled England when the church had been built.”¹⁵

Congress began the building of six warships. President Washington knew that the country was not in a position for another war. Something had to be done, but what?

Eventually, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Jay was dispatched to England to seek a treaty that would secure safe sea lanes and some solution to the illegal British outposts in Ohio. It was a nearly impossible task. Finally, on November 19, 1794, after almost four months of negotiating, a “treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation “ was signed by Chief Justice Jay and Britain’s Lord Greenville. It was a treaty that was imperfect and favorable to Britain and was destined to further inflame American feelings of injustice. 

(to be continued in a later post)