From James Madison to the Senate, 6 December 1815
To the Senate
Washington Decr. 6. 1815
I lay before the Senate for, their consideration and advice, as to a ratification, a convention to regulate the commerce between the United States & Great Britain, Signed by their respective Plenipotentiaries on the 3d of July last;1 with letters relating to the same, from the American Plenipotentiaries to the Secretary of State;2 and also the declaration with which it is the intention of the British Government to accompany the exchange of the ratifications of the convention.3
James Madison
RC and enclosures (DNA: RG 46, Executive Proceedings, Foreign Relations, 14B–B2). RC in John Payne Todd’s hand, signed and dated by JM. For enclosures, see nn.
1. For the contents of the enclosed copy of the convention (6 pp.; printed in , Foreign Relations, 4:7–8), see JM to Alexander J. Dallas, 8 Sept. 1815, 9:603–5.
2. The enclosed correspondence (printed in , Foreign Relations, 4:8–18) consisted of 1) an extract of an 18 May 1815 letter to James Monroe from Henry Clay and Albert Gallatin (9 pp.), reporting the preliminary discussions with Lord Castlereagh and other British officials that resulted in an agreement to open negotiations on a commercial treaty, and enclosing notes of the conversation with Castlereagh (2 pp.); and 2) a copy of Clay, Gallatin, and John Quincy Adams to Monroe, 3 July 1815 (6 pp.), forwarding the signed convention and stating that the principal points of contention in the negotiations had to do with impressment, U.S. trade in and through Canada, the reciprocal granting of most-favored-nation status, and the East and West Indian trades. The issues of impressment and the Canadian and West Indian trades were omitted from the convention, and Great Britain limited its concession on the East India trade to a period of four years. The commissioners also enclosed copies of their proposed treaty (5 pp.), the British counterproposal (7 pp.) with two separate articles (3 pp.), and the ensuing correspondence between the two sets of commissioners dated from 17 to 30 June 1815 (12 pp.).
3. Anthony St. John Baker’s 24 Nov. 1815 declaration stated that for the duration of Napoleon’s captivity on the island of St. Helena, which had begun subsequent to the conclusion of the commercial convention, no ships other than those of the East India Company would be allowed to land there despite a clause in the third article of the treaty specifically allowing U.S. vessels that privilege.