To George Washington from the New York Chamber of Commerce, 21 July 1795
From the New York Chamber of Commerce
[21 July 1795]
At a special Meeting of the Corporation of the New-York Chamber of Commerce, held at the Tontine Coffee House on Tuesday 21. July 1795. The late Treaty of Amity Commerce & Navigation having been previously read, the following Resolutions, with the Preamble thereto, were proposed & adopted Vizt.1
Whereas, the Treaty between the United States & Great-Britain, lately sanctioned by the Senate, has been made the object of public discussion, in the warmth of which Misconstructions & Misrepresentations have contributed to exite and irritate the public Mind.
And whereas, a Disposition has appeared, in certain instances, to influence the Executive against the ratification of the said Treaty, whereby the Tranquility & prosperity of our Country may be endangered,2 Therefore
Resolved, as the Opinion of this Corporation, that the said Treaty, collectively considered, contains as many Features of Reciprocity, as upon contemplating the relative Interests of the respective Countries, could reasonably have been expected, And that the precarious priviledges of the American Trade to Great Britain & Her Colonies are, by this Treaty, changed into permanent Rights.
Resolved, that the Provisions in the said Treaty for a quiet Surrender of the Western Posts, and an amicable adjustment of the British Debts, a fair Compensation for the Spoliations committed upon our Commerce, & for the prevention of future Depredations,3 are wisely arranged for the great purposes of National Justice, and to preserve the blessings of Peace.
Resolved, that if the Treaty should fail to be ratified, We, should apprehend a State of things which might lead to Hostilities: in which event, our Navigation (now dispersed in all quarters of the Globe) may be intercepted, our Underwriters injured, our Commerce abridged, our Produce reduced to little value, our Artizans, Mechanics & Labourers deprived of employment, our Public Debt increased,4 our Revenue diminished, & the Lives of our Fellow Citizens, Sacrificed.
Resolved, that altho the Ratification of this Treaty, for the foregoing reasons, appears to us under all Circumstances expedient; yet we chearfully rest it, where it is placed by the Constitution; in full confidence that the wisdom & firmness under which our Independence, has been atchieved, and our progress to Wealth Power & Respectability promoted beyond a Parallel, will, in this instance determine for the best Interests of this Country.
Resolved, that the President of this Chamber cause a Copy of these Resolutions to be Certified by the Secretary and transmitted without delay to the President of the United States.5
By order of the Corporation
of the New York Chamber of Commerce.
Comfort Sands
President
A true Extract from the Minutes
Attest.
Wm Laight, Secretary6
DS, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW.
Comfort Sands (1748–1834), a New York merchant who had served in the state legislature and as state auditor general, enclosed this document with a cover letter to GW dated 23 July: “The Corporation of the Chamber of Commerce of the City of New York having, almost Unanimously, at a very full Meeting of the Merchants constituting that Body, adopted the inclosed Resolutions, It becomes my duty as President of the said Corporation to transmit them to your Excellency. They are expressive of the Sentiments of the Society over whom I have the honor to preside, and are now respectfully communicated to the Executive of the United States” (LS, DLC:GW; LB, DLC:GW).
The chamber’s petition appeared in the 27 July edition of The Argus, or Greenleaf’s New Daily Advertiser (New York). On 7 Aug., The Argus printed a letter to GW by “A Republican” that listed the names of the men who voted to approve the resolutions in favor of the treaty. The author questioned how many were “real Americans,” claiming that “of the fifty-nine who voted in the affirmative, only eighteen had resided, during the last war, out of the British lines.”
1. The letter-book copy does not contain the previous paragraph. American Minerva and the New-York Advertiser reported on 22 July that, on the previous evening, “the Chamber of Commerce … in a very full meeting and by a very great majority of voices, (about 6 voices out of 7) passed some resolutions on the Treaty which are ordered to be sent to the President. … In one respect, these resolutions will differ widely from some others that have been passed on the subject—They were not passed, till the Treaty had been deliberately read before the Corporation.”
2. Chamber of Commerce members would have read or heard about meetings against the Jay Treaty in Boston and their own city of New York. See the petitions from both places to GW of 13 and 20 July.
3. See Article II of the Jay Treaty for the proposed British evacuation of western posts. The settlement of debts is discussed in Article VI. Information concerning captures of vessels and claims is found in Article VII.
4. The letter-book copy does not have the previous four words.
5. GW replied to Sands on 20 Aug.: “A little before my departure from Mount Vernon for Philadelphia, I received your letter of the 23d of last month, covering the resolutions of the New York Chamber of Commerce; relative to the Treaty lately negociated between the United States and Great Britain. My journey, and the urgent business in which I have since been engaged, have prevented an earlier acknowledgement.
“While I regret the diversity of opinion which has been manifested on this subject, it is a satisfaction to learn that the Commercial part of my fellow-citizens, whose interests are thought to be most directly affected, so generally consider the treaty as calculated, on the whole, to procure important advantages to our Country” (ALS, CtY: Miscellaneous Collections, Woolsey Family; LB, DLC:GW).
6. New York merchant William Laight (c.1748–1802) was a Loyalist during the Revolutionary War. He resigned as secretary of the Chamber of Commerce in 1796. In addition to his mercantile activities, Laight served on the boards of directors of insurance companies and, beginning in 1796, of the New York branch of the Bank of the United States.