§2. Strangers in the 19th Century-98-100.pdf

privateers were dispatched to wreck American maritime trade: over 300 merchantmen flying the Stars and Stripes were sunk or captured; and French diplomatic insolence brought the two countries to the very edge of war”. John Adams, who had become president in , sent three...

privateers were dispatched to wreck American maritime trade: over 300 merchantmen flying the Stars and Stripes were sunk or captured; and French diplomatic insolence brought the two countries to the very edge of war”. John Adams, who had become president in , sent three 265 U.S. ministers to Paris to negotiate a commercial agreement to protect U.S. shipping. The representatives met three French agents that were identified as X, Y, Z (in diplomatic correspondence) who solicited a bribe before the negotiations even started. The “XYZ affair” caused outrage in the United States. In order to stave off war between France and the United States, George Logan traveled to Paris where he successfully concluded a pact by which France ceased all detrimental action against U.S. merchant ships, but his action was considered treasonous in the United States when he got back home (thus the Logan Act of January 30, 1799). §2. Strangers in the 19 Century th A. Wars in Europe Three concrete issues remained in the way of normalized relations between Britain and the United States. The first concerned the payment of debts. The second concerned the thorny issue of impressment, and lastly, the third issue concerned freedom of the seas. With hindsight, it may be assumed that the Americans, and President Jefferson in particular, felt utmost gratitude towards the French in 1803. As a result of a treaty of cession between France and the United States, dated April 30, 1803, the United States more than doubled its territory (at the meager price of 60 million francs or circa $11.5 million ). In the process, the 266 so-called “Louisiana Purchase” both eliminated the French from further territorial holds on North America and enhanced prospects of seeing the United States extend one day from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Indeed, almost immediately thereafter, President Jefferson entrusted two explorers – Meriwether Lewis and William Clark – to set out on a transcontinental journey, starting from St. Louis, and find a good route to the Pacific. Gratitude towards the French notwithstanding, the Napoleonic Wars of 1803-1815 added confusion in the relationship between Great Britain and the United States. On the one hand, America’s neutral flag in these wars served French interests as the United States was a refuge for French maritime commerce. On the other hand, Britain and the United States entertained strong commercial bonds which enhanced Britain’s war efforts. Whilst cultural ties induced most Americans to take sides with the British , provocations had the upper hand and put 267 grave strains on the relationship. One notable incident was that of the British frigate, the Leopold, that opened fire on an American frigate, the Chesapeake, in 1807. The British opened fire suspecting that the American vessel harbored British naval deserters (which it did). Numerous casualties were suffered on the American side (twenty-one in all), and the outcome was immense public indignation and the passing of a law in December 1807 which, 265 Hugh Brogan, The Penguin History of the United States of America, op. cit., p. 269. 266 In addition, the United States agreed to assume French debts owed to American citizens in the amount of 20 million francs or circa $3.5 million). The total price of the Louisiana Purchase amounted to some $15 million. Taking the acquisition to cover some 865,000 square miles, the purchase price would amount to approximately 8 cents and acre. The treaty of cession was ratified by the United States Senate in October 1803, by an overwhelming majority of 26 to 6. Interestingly, Jefferson faced a constitutional dilemma in the Louisiana Purchase. TINDALL, p. 330. 267 According to Hugh Brogan, “Mr. Jefferson, in particular, had no time for Corsican dictators”, in Hugh Brogan, The Penguin History of the United States (London: Penguin Books, 1985), at 259. 98 in effect, amounted to a self-imposed embargo with the belligerents. No longer would the United States have commercial dealings with foreign countries until her rights were respected and recognized. Naturally, the principal victim of this policy was the United States itself. President Jefferson, under whose administration the original law had been enacted, reluctantly signed an act repealing the embargo two days before leaving office. 268 B. War of 1812 From a military vantage point, the War of 1812 left little room for optimism to the burgeoning republic. Well into 1814, the country seemed marred in a relentless state of disarray, if not defeat vis-à-vis the British. Washington, including the Capitol and the White House, was in ashes: “New Englanders were so demoralized that they were considering secession. When British troops, hardened from battling Napoleon, set sail for Louisiana, some feared America might not be able to hold on to its recent acquisition”. A consequence of the Treaty of Ghent 269 that sealed peace between the belligerents was the Monroe Doctrine. The Rush-Bagot Pact, 1817 and Convention of 1818 further enhanced relations between the two nations. The Pact between Great Britain and the United States established an elimination of the two countries’ respective fleets from the Great Lakes (save small patrol vessels). The Convention of 1818 set the boundary between the Missouri Territory in the United States and British North America (present-day Canada) at the forty-ninth parallel. Tension between Britain and the U.S. nevertheless flared up in March 1845 when James Polk (1795-1849) took office as the 11 president of the United States. Among other priorities, Polk, a protégé of th Andrew Jackson, wasted no time expanding American territory, both in the Southwest (following the annexation of the Republic of Texas in February 1846 and the Mexican American War of 1846-48) and in the Northwest (with the cession of the Oregon Territory). For Polk and many others in his party, the territory of the United States was naturally bound to span the entire landmass between the two oceans, giving full meaning to the country’s Manifest Destiny. The British were particularly concerned about the Northwest where an agreement long existed between Britain and the U.S. to jointly occupy the Oregon Territory. Twenty-seven years earlier, under the Treaty of 1818, the two nations had resolved their boundary issues in the Pacific Northwest by agreeing on joint occupation and settlement, in effect securing fishing rights, free navigation, and trading for both. Along with the Rush- 270 Bagot Pact, 1817, and Convention of 1818 (developed above), the Treaty of 1818 was viewed as a significant improvement in the relations between the United States and Great Britain, marking the beginning of Anglo-American cooperation. The joint occupancy, initially intended to last ten years, was renewed twice. Over time however, an influx of U.S. immigrants combined with popular sentiments to claim the entire territory for the U.S. (vindicating Manifest Destiny) swung the political tide in a more forceful direction for the United States. Taking stock of the change of wind, Polk lay claim the Oregon Territory in his inaugural address as “clear and unquestionable”. Britain, under the leadership of Prime 268 The repeal of the embargo was followed almost immediately by the Non-Intercourse Act of 1809. 269 Caleb Crain, “Bad Precedent”, The New Yorker, January 29, 2007, pp. 78-84, at 78. 270 The Treaty of 1818 is also known as the “Convention respecting fisheries, boundary, and the restoration of slaves”, the Convention of Commerce (Fisheries, Boundary, and the Restoration of Slaves)”, and the “Convention of Commerce between His Majesty and the United States of America”. For the text of the Treaty of 1818, see https://web.archive.org/web/20090411212640/http://www.lexum.umontreal.ca/ca_us/en/cus.1818.15.en.h tml (accessed August 5, 2020). 99 Minister Robert Peel, reacted swiftly by anchoring warships off the coast of the Pacific Northwest. On December 2, 1845, President Polk asked Congress to give the British notice that the United States was unilaterally withdrawing from the Treaty of 1818. Nationalist cries of “Fifty-Four Forty or Fight” spread throughout the United States, alluding to the northern boundary of Oregon (latitude line of 54 degrees, 40 minutes). The two countries were now on the verge of another war. According to one author, Polk “gambled that war in the Pacific Northwest was the last thing the British needed at this moment. Though powerful, the British Empire had its hands full dealing with armed conflicts with the Maori in newly colonized New Zealand, even as they were embroiled in the First Afghan War, and, closer to home, dealing with famine in Ireland”. Eventually, the boundary disputes between Britain and the 271 United States were settled by the signing of the Oregon Treaty of June 15, 1846. War was 272 averted but Britain gave the United States most of what it demanded, setting the border at 49 degrees north, in effect ceding what are the present-day states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and parts of Montana and Wyoming. C. American Civil War: 1861-65 The American Civil War (1861-65) had profound effects on the relationship between America and Britain (to say nothing of the world political economy). Most notable was the “Alabama” dispute involving a Confederate ship built in Liverpool during the American Civil War. 273 Britain allowed the Alabama to sail from Merseyside and to prey upon American shipping. In effect, the vessel captured some seventy Federal ships during the Civil War. Once the war was over, the United States sought compensation from Britain, requesting $15 million in damages, by reason of the latter country infringing rules of neutrality. The dispute was submitted to a mixed commission, which contained a neutral element, to solve the legal dispute between the parties. The commission held in favor of the United States, leading to 274 the extreme unpopularity of the then British Prime Minister, William Gladstone. Britain nevertheless “benefited” from the Civil War as well. While the Union’s blockade of Confederate ports caused high unemployment in many Lancashire towns, laid-off cotton workers continued to support the Union because of their opposition to slavery, as did Liverpool dockers. This played a significant role in the growth of British labor unions. Additionally, the lack of cotton imports from the American South pushed Britain further into imperial adventures in India and elsewhere in order to obtain new supplies. In the aftermath of the Civil War, British investors, following the lead of J.P. Morgan, poured funds into the 271 James Shapiro, Shakespeare in a Divided America (London: Faber & Faber, 2020), p. 63. 272 For the text of the Oregon Treaty of 1846, see https://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/two/oretreat.htm (accessed August 5, 2020). 273 The Alabama dispute spawned much debate in international law as the settlement marked an important victory for the principle of resorting to pacific arbitration for international disputes. See, inter alia, Malcolm N. Shaw, International Law, 6 Ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), pp. 111, th 135, and 1048. In French, cf. Jean Combacau, Serge Sur, Hubert Thierry, and Charles Vallée, Droit international public (Paris: Montchrestien (Précis Domat) 1981), p. 568. 274 The establishment of a “mixed” commission itself stemmed from the Jay Treaty of 1794 between Britain and the United States. The Treaty of Ghent of 1814 incorporated the concept of a “neutral” element within the commission. Precisely, in the Alabama dispute, the United States and Britain as parties each appointed one member only. The King of Italy, the President of the Swiss Confederation and the Emperor of Brazil each appointed one further member. The outcome was a “kind of collegiate international court”: cf. D.W. Bowett, The Law of International Institutions (London: Stevens and Sons, 1982), at 259. 100