The Treaty of Ghent, called the Treaty of Amity, is preserved, of course, among American State papers. A copy may be found in a public library in a volume devoted to Treaties, Agreements, Etc. between the U. S. A. and other Powers, Compiled by W. M. Maloy, Under Resolution of U. S. Senate of Jan. 18, 1909.
A lawyer friend of the writer, with whom he discussed the situation, suggested that while manifestly in error in representing the Battle as having been fought after peace, that a plea in abatement might be offered for the historians to the effect that the treaty was subsequently ratified as written; that the Battle of New Orleans had no effect upon the Treaty; that it further was needless because if its issue had been different the British under the mutual restoration clause of the Ghent Treaty would, upon promulgation of the Treaty, have evacuated New Orleans and Louisiana.
That viewpoint is entitled to such consideration as should be given any viewpoint based solely on assumption, but it and all such viewpoints must be subjected to acid judgment based on co-related facts.
As to the first point above made, it is a matter of record that the treaty was ratified quickly after reaching Washington; it is also a matter of record that the news of the great American victory at New Orleans reached the Capitol ten days before. As to the second point, that the battle had no effect upon the treaty, a wide range of discussion, based on records, is opened, which will be presented later.
As to the third point, that the battle was needless because, if successful, the British would have evacuated New Orleans and Louisiana upon promulgation of the Peace Treaty, it may be stated here that the records which will be presently laid before the reader give decided negation to that assumption.
The writer boldly avers, as supported truth, that the British Government, never having acknowledged the validity of the title of the United States to Louisiana, secretly dispatched the big expedition against New Orleans with one hand, while directing peace negotiations with the other; that it was the British purpose to seize and hold Louisiana, nominally in the name of Spain; and that the British Government would never have agreed to a peace treaty, which did not contain a clause, no matter how subtly garbed, that would not give justification to the British retention of Louisiana.
However, before going into the matter of citations of authorities and records, it is due to the reader to present something of the English attitude at the time, so that he may see more clearly and with more understanding its actions. That can best be done by brief picture of the background of that period.
CHAPTER V.
Background—Louisiana.
The great domain, christened Louisiana, was taken over by La Salle in 1682, in the name of France. It remained under French dominion until 1763, when, as a result of French-English wars, France retired from the New World. It seemed inevitable that Louisiana, great unexplored trans-river territory, would fall into English hands. But France ceded Louisiana to Spain, then still a world power. In 1800 Napoleon Bonaparte caused Spain to re-cede Louisiana to France. In 1803 Bonaparte sold Louisiana to the United States. He was about to engage in war with England, and historians generally agree that the sale to United States was made because he recognized the difficulty of defending the remote territory against the English Navy. The British Encyclopedia says the sale was made to keep Louisiana from falling into English hands. Thus it appears, that England was justified in feeling that Louisiana for the second time had been maneuvered from her ownership.
References without number may be given from histories covering that period. The writer has before him James G. Blaine’s “Twenty Years in Congress,” which in Chapter 1 of the first volume (pages 3 to 13) deals comprehensively with the relation of the Louisiana purchase to the early days of the Republic. Some key quotations are here presented: “She (France) in 1763, now gave up Canada and Cape Breton, acknowledged the sovereignty of Great Britain in the original thirteen colonies as extending to the Mississippi, and, by a separate treaty, surrendered Louisiana on the west side of the Mississippi, with New Orleans on the east side, to Spain. She (Spain) continued in possession of Louisiana until the year 1800, when Bonaparte concluded a Treaty ..., by which the entire territory was retroceded to France.”