This final disposal of one of the most
painful topics of collision between the United States and Great Britain
not only affords an occasion of gratulation to ourselves, but has had
the happiest effect in promoting a friendly disposition and in softening
asperities upon other objects of discussion; nor ought it to pass
without the tribute of a frank and cordial acknowledgment of the
magnanimity with which an honorable nation, by the reparation of their
own wrongs, achieves a triumph more glorious than any field of blood can
ever bestow.
The conventions of 3d July, 1815, and of 20th October, 1818, will expire
by their own limitation on the 20th of October, 1828. These have
regulated the direct commercial intercourse between the United States
and Great Britain upon terms of the most perfect reciprocity; and they
effected a temporary compromise of the respective rights and claims to
territory westward of the Rocky Mountains. These arrangements have been
continued for an indefinite period of time after the expiration of the
above-mentioned conventions, leaving each party the liberty of
terminating them by giving twelve months' notice to the other.
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