American commissioners report Britain's opening terms
The American commissioners recorded Britain's initial Ghent demands, including a permanent Indigenous boundary. The dispatch identifies its speakers, date, and chain of transmission, unlike the unlocated memorandum it replaces.
The Indian allies of Great Britain to be included in the pacification, and a definite boundary to be settled for their territory. The British commissioners stated that an arrangement upon this point was a sine qua non.
Historical wording and forms retained where stated.
Modernized reading
The American commissioners reported that Britain initially made peace for its Indigenous allies and a fixed territorial boundary indispensable to an agreement.
Plain-language reading; not a substitute for quotation.
Editorial method: Two consecutive sentences are reproduced from the official printed dispatch; capitalization is reduced.
Annotations
pacificationInclusion in the peace settlement and an end to hostilities.
sine qua nonA condition without which Britain said it would not conclude peace at that stage of the negotiation.
Witness and provenance
Creator
John Quincy Adams, James A. Bayard, Henry Clay, Jonathan Russell, and Albert Gallatin
Witness used
The commissioners' dispatch as printed in American State Papers, Foreign Relations, volume 3, pages 705–707.
Repository or edition
Library of Congress / Internet Archive
Collection
American State Papers, Foreign Relations, vol. 3
Identifier
No. 269, American commissioners to the Secretary of State, 12 August 1814, pp. 705–707
Transmission
The American plenipotentiaries sent the dispatch from Ghent. Congress later printed it in American State Papers. The linked scan is the cited witness.
Rights
Public-domain diplomatic correspondence and federal printing.
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