The Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, Between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America, commonly known as the Jay Treaty, and also as Jay's Treaty, was a 1794 treaty between the United States and Great Britain that averted war, resolved issues remaining since the 1783 Treaty of Paris (which ended the American Revolutionary War),Estes, 2006, p. 15 and facilitated ten years of peaceful trade between Americans and the British in the midst of the French Revolutionary Wars, which had begun in 1792.Jean Edward Smith, John Marshall: Definer of a Nation (1998) p. 177 For the Americans, the treaty's policy was designed by Treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton, supported by President George Washington. It angered France and bitterly divided American public opinion, encouraging the growth of two opposing American political parties, the pro-Treaty Federalists and the anti-Treaty Democratic-Republicans.
The treaty was negotiated by John Jay (also a negotiator of the earlier Paris treaty) and gained several of the primary American goals. This included a British withdrawal from forts in the Northwest Territory that Britain had refused to relinquish under the terms of the Treaty of Paris. The British had refused to do so as the United States had reneged on Articles 4 and 6 of the Treaty of Paris; American state courts impeded the collection of debts owed to British creditors and upheld the confiscation of Loyalist-owned property in spite of an explicit understanding that such persecutions would be immediately discontinued.Gregory Fremont-Barnes, ed., Encyclopedia of the Age of Political Revolutions and New Ideologies, 1760–1815 (2007) p. 438 Both parties agreed that disputes over wartime debts and the Canada–United States border were to be sent to arbitration (one of the first major uses of arbitration in modern diplomatic history), which set a precedent used by other nations. American merchants were granted limited rights to trade with the British West Indies in exchange for limits on export of cotton from the U.S.
Signed on November 19, 1794 during the Thermidorian Reaction in France, the treaty was submitted to the United States Senate for its advice and consent the following June. It was ratified by the Senate on June 24, 1795, by a two-thirds majority vote of 20–10 (exactly the minimum number necessary for concurrence). It was also ratified by the First Pitt ministry, and took effect February 29, 1796, the day when ratifications were officially exchanged.
The treaty was hotly contested by Democratic-Republicans in each state. An effort was made to block it in the House of Representatives, which ultimately failed. Democratic-Republican politicians feared that closer American economic and political ties with Britain would strengthen Hamilton's Federalist Party, promote aristocracy and undercut republicanism. This debate crystallized the emerging partisan divisions and shaped the new "First Party System", with Federalists favoring the British and Democratic-Republicans favoring France. The treaty was to last for ten years, and efforts to agree on a replacement treaty failed in 1806 when Jefferson rejected the Monroe–Pinkney Treaty in the prelude to the War of 1812.Marshall Smelser, The Democratic Republic: 1801–1815 (1968) pp. 139, 145, 155–156.
Issues
The outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in Europe in 1792 ended the long peace that had enabled the new United States to flourish in terms of trade and finance. The Americans emerged as an important neutral country with a large shipping trade.Samuel Flagg Bemis, Jay's Treaty: A Study in Commerce and Diplomacy (1923) ch 1 From the British perspective, improving their relations with the United States was a high priority lest it move into the French sphere of influence. British negotiators ignored elements in Britain that wanted harsher terms in order to get a suitable treaty.Perkins (1955) pp. 2–4 From the American viewpoint, the most pressing foreign policy issues were normalizing the trade relations with Britain, the United States' leading trading partner, and resolving issues left over from the Treaty of Paris. As one observer explained, the British government was "well disposed to America... They have made their arrangements upon a plan that comprehends the neutrality of the United States, and are anxious that it should be preserved."Gouverneur Morris quoted in Perkins (1955) p. 22; the British foreign minister felt, "this Country is anxious to keep the Americans in good humour".
After Britain became involved in the conflict against France in 1793, the Royal Navy seized nearly 300 American merchant ships trading with the French West Indies. The American public was outraged, and Republicans in Jefferson's coalition demanded a declaration of war on Britain, but James Madison instead called for an embargo on British trade.
At the same time, the British continued to supply weapons to Native Americans resisting U.S. expansion in the Ohio Country, further worsening Anglo-American relations. Congress voted on a trade embargo against Britain in March 1794. It was approved in the House of Representatives but defeated in the Senate when Vice-President John Adams cast a tie-breaking vote against it. At the national level American politics was divided between the factions of Jefferson and Madison, which favored the French, and the Federalists led by Hamilton, who saw Britain as a natural ally and thus sought to normalize relations with the British, especially in the area of trade. President George Washington sided with Hamilton. Hamilton devised a framework for negotiations, and Washington sent Chief Justice of the United States John Jay to London to negotiate a comprehensive treaty.
The U.S. government had several outstanding issues to resolve with Britain:Bemis, Jay's Treaty: A Study in Commerce and Diplomacy (1923) ch 2 The British were continuing to occupy forts on U.S. territory in the Great Lakes region, specifically the forts of Detroit and Mackinac in modern-day Michigan, Niagara and Oswego in New York, and Miami in modern-day Ohio. Britain refused to withdraw from the forts in response to American refusals to pay debts that had been agreed upon or halt the confiscation of Loyalist properties. The Royal Navy was impressing sailors from American merchantmen who they alleged were deserters from the British navy.Charles R. Ritcheson, "Thomas Pinckney's London Mission, 1792–1796, and the Impressment Issue". International History Review 2#4 (1980): pp. 523–541. U.S. merchants wanted compensation for the almost 300 American merchantmen which the Royal Navy had seized between 1793 and 1794. Southern interests wanted financial compensation for the U.S. enslavers whose slaves had escaped to British lines and been evacuated at the end of the Revolutionary War. U.S. merchants wanted the British West Indies to be reopened to American trade.Alice B. Keith, "Relaxations in the British restrictions on the American trade with the British West Indies, 1783–1802". Journal of Modern History 20.1 (1948): p. 1–18. The boundary with Canada was vague in many places, and needed to be more sharply delineated. The British were providing weapons and ammunition to Native Americans in the Northwest Territory who were resisting U.S. expansion.
Treaty terms Both sides achieved many objectives. Several issues were sent to arbitration, which (after years of discussion) were resolved amicably mostly in favor of the U.S. Britain paid $11,650,000 for damages to American shipping and received £600,000 for unpaid pre-1775 debts. While international arbitration was not entirely unknown, the Jay Treaty gave it a strong impetus and is generally taken as the start of modern international arbitration.Thomas A. Bailey, A Diplomatic History of the American People (10th Ed. 1980) pp. 77–78.
The British agreed to vacate its forts in United States territory—six in the Great Lakes region and two at the north end of Lake Champlain—by June 1796; which was done. They were: NamePresent-day locationFort au FerLake ChamplainChamplain, New YorkFort Dutchman's PointLake ChamplainNorth Hero, VermontFort Lernoult (including Fort Detroit)Detroit RiverDetroit, MichiganFort MackinacStraits of MackinacMackinac Island, MichiganFort MiamiMaumee RiverMaumee, OhioFort NiagaraNiagara RiverYoungstown, New YorkFort OntarioLake OntarioOswego, New YorkFort OswegatchieSaint Lawrence RiverOgdensburg, New York
The treaty was "surprisingly generous" in allowing Americans to trade with Great Britain on a most-favored-nation basis.Bailey, p. 77 In return, the United States gave most favored nation trading status to Britain, and acquiesced in British anti-French maritime policies. American merchants obtained limited rights to trade in the British West Indies.Wayne S. Cole, An Interpretive History of American Foreign Relations, (1974) p. 55. Two joint boundary commissions were set up to establish the boundary line in the Northeast (it agreed on one) and in the Northwest (this commission never met and the boundary was settled after the War of 1812).The Treaty also allowed people to pass freely across the US–Canada border to carry on trade and commerce.
Jay, a strong opponent of slavery despite being a slaveholder, dropped the issue of compensation to U.S. enslavers, which angered Southern slaveholders and was used as a target for attacks by Jeffersonians. Jay was unsuccessful in negotiating a temporary end to the Royal Navy's impressment of alleged deserters from American merchantmen, which later became a key issue leading to the War of 1812.
Native American rights Article III states, "It is agreed, that it shall at all times be free to His Majesty's subjects, and to the citizens of the United States, and also to the Indians dwelling on either side of the said boundary line, freely to pass and repass, by land or inland navigation into the respective territories and countries of the two parties on the continent of America, (the country within the limits of the Hudson's Bay Company only excepted) ... and freely carry on trade and commerce with each other." Article III of the Jay Treaty declared the right of Native Americans, American citizens, and Canadian subjects to trade and travel between the United States and Canada, which was then a territory of Great Britain. INA, Cornell. Some legal experts dispute whether the treaty rights were abrogated by the War of 1812. In Canada, the Supreme Court ruled in 1956 that the Jay Treaty is "currently not in force". Nevertheless, the United States has codified this right in the provisions of Section 289 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 and as amended in 1965. As a result of the Jay Treaty, "Native Indians born in Canada are therefore entitled to enter the United States for the purpose of employment, study, retirement, investing, and/or immigration" if they can prove that they have at least 50% blood quantum, and cannot be deported for any reason. Article III of the Jay Treaty is the basis of most Native American claims.Karl S. Hele, Lines Drawn upon the Water: First Nations and the Great Lakes Borders and Borderlands (2008) p. 127 Unlike other legal immigrants, Canadian-born Native Americans residing in the US are entitled to public benefits and domestic tuition fees on the same basis as citizens.
Approval and dissent
Washington submitted the treaty to the United States Senate for its consent in June 1795; a two-thirds vote was needed. The treaty was unpopular at first and gave the Jeffersonians a platform to rally new supporters. As historian Paul Varg explains,