Jay Treaty - Issues

Issues

From the British perspective, its war with France necessitated improving relations with the United States to prevent the U.S. from falling into the French orbit. 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 of 1783. 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."

In 1793–94, the British Navy had captured hundreds of neutral American merchant ships, and British officials in Canada were supporting Indian tribes fighting American settlers in the Ohio River Valley, territory which Britain had explicitly ceded to the United States in the Treaty of Paris. Congress voted for a trade embargo against Britain for two months. Hamilton and the Federalists favored Britain over France, and they sought to normalize relations with Britain. Hamilton designed the plan for a treaty and President George Washington sent Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Jay to London to negotiate a comprehensive treaty.

The American government had a number of outstanding issues:

• The British were still occupying forts on U.S. territory in the Great Lakes region (the Northwest Territory).
• The British were continually impressing American sailors into British service
• American merchants wanted compensation for 250 merchant ships which the British had confiscated from 1793 through 1794.
• Southerners in the United States wanted monetary compensation for the slaves whom the British Army had evacuated with them during the Revolutionary War.
• Merchants in both America and in the Caribbean wanted the British West Indies to be reopened to American trade.
• The boundary with Canada was vague in many places, and needed to be delineated clearly.
• The British were believed to be aggravating Native American attacks on settlers in the Northwest.