ADVERTISEMENT.

1822

To facilitate the comparison between the Original and Duplicate of Mr. Russell's Letter of 11th February, 1925 to Mr. Monroe, they are in this Collection printed in corresponding pages, with the variations between them numbered and printed in a brevier type. The passages in.the Ghent Documents, particularly referred to in the subsequent discussion, are enclosed in brack

1823 INTRODUCTION.

During the progress, and after the conclusion, of the negotiation at Ghent, despatches were at three several periods received by the execu tive government of the United States, from their plenipotentiaries at that place. The documents relating to the negotiation, transmitted by the first and second of these occasions, were communicated by messages from the President of the United States to Congress, and thereby became generally known to the public. They are to be found in the 9th vol. ume of Wait's State Papers, and in the 7th volume of Niles' Register, and they contain the correspondence of the American mission, as well with their own government as with the British plenipotentiaries, from the commencement of the negotiation till the 31st of October, 1814. The third messenger brought the treaty of peace itself. The correspondence subsequent to the 31st of October, was of course communicated to the Senate with the treaty, when it was submitted to that body for their advice and consent to its ratification But it was not communicated to Congress or made public, nor was there at that time manifested any de sire to see it either by the House of Representatives or by the nation.

In the course of the last summer, (of 1821,) I was apprized by a friend, that rumours very unfavourable to my reputation, even for integrity, were industriously circulated in the Western Country. That it was said I had made a proposition at Ghent to grant to the British the right to navigate the Mississippi in return for the Newfoundland fisheries, and that this was represented as, at least, a high misdemeanor. I observed that a proposition to confirm both these rights as they had stood before the war, and as stipulated by the treaty of 1783, had been offered to the British plenipotentiaries, not by me, but by the whole American mis

sion, every one of whom had subscribed to it. That the proposal to make this offer had been made to the mission not by me, but by a citizen of the Western Country: that it was warranted, and as I believed, absolutely required by the instructions to the mission at the time when the proposal was made to the British commissioners, and that if I had felt and shown great solicitude at Ghent for the fisheries, I did not expect it was to be imputed to me as an offence, either in my character of a ser vant of the Union, or in that of a native citizen of Massachusetts. He said the proposal was at all events to be so represented, that it was charged exclusively upon me, and that I should hear more about it ere long.

On the 16th of January last, Mr. Floyd a member of the House of representatives of the United States, submitted to the House a resolution in the following words:

"Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested to cause to be laid before this House, all the correspondence which led to the treaty of Ghent, which has not yet been made public, and which, in his opinion, it may not be improper to disclose."

The said resolution was read, and ordered to lie on the table one day.

The proceedings of the House upon it the next day, are thus reported in the National Intelligencer of the 18th of January:

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