The Treaty of Ghent

The War of 1812 joined a dispute over maritime rights to a struggle along the North American frontier. Britain and France had restricted neutral commerce during the Napoleonic Wars, and American attempts to use trade restrictions in response had failed to settle the conflict. By 1814, British forces had burned public buildings in Washington, while American victories elsewhere denied either side a decisive result. Negotiators met as fighting continued on both sides of the Atlantic. [1] [2]

British and American negotiators signed a peace treaty at Ghent on Christmas Eve 1814. Its opening article required both sides to restore territory captured during the war, leaving the North American frontier unchanged after more than two years of fighting. [2]

The United States had gone to war over British restrictions on trade and the taking of sailors from American ships, among other disputes. The treaty left impressment unsettled. Napoleon’s defeat and the temporary end of the European war had changed the circumstances behind the practice, and the negotiators concentrated on ending hostilities and arranging commissions to resolve uncertain sections of the boundary. [2]

British troops attacked at New Orleans on 8 January 1815, before word of the signature reached the opposing forces. American ratification and the exchange of ratifications followed in February, bringing the war to an end while boundary disputes passed to the commissions. [2]

The treaty anticipated that peace would travel more slowly than a diplomatic signature: Article II required orders to be sent to armies and fleets after ratification and set different deadlines for restoring ships captured at sea, according to their distance from the governments. [2]

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