1815.]

THE TREATY OF GHENT.

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he had legal warrant for the step until he read the speech of Stephen A. Douglas, made in the general's defense more than twenty years after the event.

Among the days that the democrats of this country are proud of celebrating, there is none in which they take greater pride than the 8th of January. That is the anni. versary of the victory at New Orleans, and was such a personal triumph of General Jackson that a great many people think more about him than about the achievement of his little army that hurled back a powerful force of the finest soldiers in the world.

Great Britain had for a long time desired peace. In the summer of 1814, John Quincy Adams, James A. Bayard, Henry Clay, Jonathan Russell and Albert Gallatin, as agents of the United States, were sent to Ghent, in Belgium, where they were met by Lord Gambier, Henry Gouldburn and William Adams, ambassadors of Great Britain. They came together for the purpose of making peace and spent several months in negotiations. Finally, on the 24th of December, 1814, the treaty was agreed upon and signed.

You will notice, therefore, that the battle of New Orleans, Stewart's fight with the Cyane and Levant, and some minor conflicts, occurred after the signing of the treaty. They had no submarine telegraph or swift ocean steamers in those days, and it took the sailing vessel a long time to bring the news to this country.

Now as to the treaty of Ghent. It was one of the most ridiculous ever made. You know that the real cause of the war was that England persisted in searching our vessels for seamen claimed as deserters. The treaty of Ghent did not say a word about that practice, nor did it refer to the wrongs done our commerce, and the rights of neutral nations were left for the future to settle. It was agreed that all places or possessions taken by either side during the war, or after the signing of the treaty, should be given up; that all captures at sea should be relinquished, if made within a certain time, and that each party should put a stop to Indian hostilities and do its utmost to check the slave trade. Provision was also made for settling the boundaries between the United States and Canada, and for making clear some boundary lines that had been in dispute since the treaty of 1783. But, as I said, the main issues of the war were not mentioned. But peace had come, and the American nation did not stop to learn whether it was honorable or dishonorable, or whether we gave up every thing for which we had been fighting. The people were frantic with delight, and embraced each other on the streets. The federalists had always opposed the war and were glad it was over; the democrats shouted for peace and General Jackson, the shouts for the latter being the louder.

Well might the United States rejoice that peace had come. The war had cost a thousand six hundred and eighty-three vessels, and more than eighteen thousand sailors, and the country was crushed under a debt of a hundred million dollars. The factories. in New England were idle, and commerce was destroyed. The half-rotten shipping was decorated with bunting, and within twenty-four hours of the arrival of the news the dockyards rang with the sound of saw and hammer.

But war is a great calamity to any people, and the progress of our country was checked for years. We had gained in naval and military reputation, but the loss of life, the destruction of property, and the disturbance of business were on a vast scale.

Besides our enormous debt, the finances were in sad shape. The charter of the Bank of the United States ran out in 1811, and after a time the other banks had to stop specie payment. The want of money destroyed domestic commerce and business. During the year following the close of the war, Congress passed a bill re-chartering the

Bank of the United States. The president vetoed it, but it was amended and passed at the next session. The capital was $35,000,000. The central banking house was in Philadelphia, with branches in other cities. On the 4th of March, 1817, the new financial institution went into operation and the country's credit greatly improved.

Meanwhile the Dey of Algiers showed that he needed a lesson from our men-of-war.