The Jay Treaty of 1794 (also known as Jay's Treaty or the Treaty of London), named after Chief Justice of the United States John Jay, was a treaty between the United States and Great Britain signed on November 19, 1794 that attempted to clear up some of the lingering problems of American separation from Great Britain following the American Revolutionary War. The background was the war between Britain and France. The U.S. had a treaty of alliance with France dating back to 1778. George Washington, on his second term, decided to concentrate on foreign policy issues. The most pressing issues were with the British, and to deal with them Washington sent the Supreme Court Chief Justice to London to talk with the British leadership. The Americans had a number of issues they wanted dealt with:

• Britain was still occupying a number of forts on U.S. territory in the Great Lakes region.
• American merchants wanted compensation for goods and ships confiscated during the American Revolutionary War.
• Southerners wanted compensation for the slaves the British had taken from them during the revolution.
• Merchants also wanted the British West Indies reopened to American trade.

Jay's negotiations with the British were partly successful. The British agreed to vacate the western forts, and to compensate American ship owners. In return, the Americans gave most favored nation trading status to the British. The British refused to give any more concessions, however, unless the United States provided compensation for the vast amounts of Loyalist property seized after the revolution. The British also refused to allow trade between the U.S. and the Caribbean.

In addition, the treaty failed to deal with two other issues between the nations: the impressment of sailors and the debts owed by way of compensation to Loyalists. The treaty was submitted to the United States Senate for ratification in June 8, 1795. The Senate passed a resolution on June 24 advising the president to amend the treaty by suspending the 12th article, which concerned trade between the U.S. and the West Indies. On August 14, the Senate ratified the treaty 20-10, with the condition that the treaty contain specific language regarding the June 24th resolution. Despite the protests that the treaty was a sellout to Britain, President Washington signed it in late August. The Treaty was proclaimed in effect on February 29, 1796 and in the series of close votes the House funded the Treaty on April 30, 1796. ^*

Anglophobes who wanted more support for France in the French Revolutionary Wars were angry with this settlement, and there were public protests against Jay and his treaty. One popular cry went:

Damn John Jay! Damn everyone that won't damn John Jay! Damn every one that won't put lights in his window and sit up all night damning John Jay!

Alexander Hamilton, however, convinced Washington it was the best treaty that could be expected. Washington, who insisted the U.S. must remain neutral in the European wars then raging, signed it. This action caused Thomas Jefferson, the leader of the pro-French faction, to step up his propaganda and grass roots activism; these "Republicans" fought and lost the 1796 presidential election on the issue.

The treaty was eventually replaced by the Treaty of Ghent after the War of 1812.

Additionally, Article III of the Jay Treaty declared the right of aboriginal peoples (people indigenous to Canada and/or the US) to trade and travel between the United States and Canada, which was then a territory of Great Britain. This right was restated in section 289 of the 1952 Immigration and Naturalization Act: Nothing in this title shall be construed to affect the right of American Indians born in Canada to pass the borders of the United States, but such right shall extend only to persons who possess at least 50 per centum of blood of the American Indian race.^*

References

• Bemis, Samuel Flagg. Jay's Treaty: A Study in Commerce and Diplomacy (1923)
• Combs, Jerald. A. The Jay Treaty: Political Background of Founding Fathers (1970) (ISBN 0520015738)
• Todd Estes, "The Art of Presidential Leadership: George Washington and the Jay Treaty," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 2001, vol 109, no. 2.
• American Indian Law Alliance. "Border Crossing Rights." (PDF available at http://www.ailanyc.org/Bordercrossing.htm)

See also

• List of treaties
• Timeline of United States diplomatic history

External links

• Jay's Treaty and related resources at the Library of Congress
• Jay's Treaty of 1794 -- various documents from The Avalon Project
• Native American Free Passage Rights Under the 1794 Jay Treaty: Survival Under United States Statutory Law and Canadian Common Law -- Boston College International and Comparative Law Journal, Vol. 24:2, 2001, pp. 313-340

1795 in law | United States treaties | History of the United Kingdom | Quasi-War

Jay-Vertrag | Traité de Londres (1795) | ジェイ条約