War of 1812, Part 44: The Treaty of Ghent

The New Nation
Written by Tom Hand

In November 1813, Lord Castlereagh, the British Foreign Minister, offered to open direct negotiations with the United States in Ghent, Belgium, and President James Madison agreed. The American team was formidable, including John Quincy Adams, the head of the delegation who would rise to become our nation’s most successful secretary of state and later president, Albert Gallatin, perhaps the most capable treasury secretary ever other than Alexander Hamilton, and Henry Clay, former speaker of the house and destined to be one of the greatest statesmen in American history. The parties first met on August 8, 1814, and the British made five demands, which the Americans found unreasonable, stating, “They are above all dishonorable to the United States,” and prepared to leave Ghent. But Lord Liverpool, Britain’s prime minister, had no desire to extend the costly war and over the next few months, yielded on most issues.

Tom Hand, creator and publisher of Americana Corner, discusses the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812, and the events that shaped our nation’s history.

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Images courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, National Gallery of Art, National Portrait Gallery - Smithsonian Institution, Yale University Art Gallery, Library of Congress, Naval History and Heritage Command, University of Michigan Library, Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library, World History Encyclopedia, Metropolitan Museum of Art, University of Washington Libraries, National Archive, Wikimedia.

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Tom Hand
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War of 1812, Part 43: The Hartford Convention