TREATY OF GHENT | 205th Anniversary (Clerihew inside)

A Celebratory Poster of the Treaty, 1814.

Off to Belgium they went,

To work on the Treaty of Ghent.

The Brits wanted uti possidetis

Meaning after-capture status.

The Yanks sought a total recante,

Way back to their status quo ante.

- Clerihew by JT Marlin, 2014

December 24, 2019 – Five years ago, just about the only person who celebrated the 200th Anniversary of the Treaty of Ghent was Oxford University Vice Chancellor Andrew Hamilton, who began his remarks with a reference to it. (Hamilton is now President of New York University.)

The  Treaty of Ghent was formally titled the “Treaty of Peace and Amity between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America.” It was signed on December 24, 1814.

The only American or British newspaper to have acknowledged the anniversary on the date in 2014, as far as I could determine, was the East Hampton Star.

Declaration of War, 1812

The Treaty formally ended a state of war between Britain and the United States. President James Madison initiated a declaration of war on Britain originally because British Orders in Council made it harder for the United States to trade with France.

In addition, the British Navy was seizing (“impressing”) sailors on colonial ships and putting them on Navy ships. The War Hawks in the House of Representatives were calling for war on Britain.

The British Government responded by repealing the Orders in Council, ending the curb on trading. However, impressment remained. If the British had given up the right to impress American sailors, Madison might have called off the war.

Negotiations

Russia's Czar Alexander I in March 1813 offered to host negotiations, but the British were winning and refused. In the fall of 1813, British foreign minister Lord Castlereagh, a Cambridge alum, offered to negotiate directly with the United States. The two countries picked Ghent in eastern Flanders as the venue because it was a neutral city, speaking both Dutch and French. Since the Dutch had settled New York, there were family connections to U.S. officials from that state. The goal of both the British and the United States was to end the fighting, which was far too costly for both countries.

The main issue addressed by the negotiators was how the spoils of war – territories that were captured during the war – would be divided.

The United States wanted all the captured regions back; their negotiating team was led by two Harvard-connected officials. Britain wanted to keep what they had won; their team was led by Oxford and Cambridge men:

• In this corner, for the Stars and Stripes – John Quincy Adams, chief negotiator, a Harvard graduate; Henry Clay, the hawk (the "bad cop"); Albert Gallatin, former Treasury Secretary, who grew up in Geneva, emigrated to the USA and settled south of Pittsburgh, teaching French at Harvard and elsewhere to earn a living before he became Secretary of the Treasury in 1801, remaining in that job until he went to Ghent in 1814; James A. Bayard, moderate anti-war Federalist; and Jonathan Russell, chargé d’affaires for Madison in Paris. It took the Americans six weeks or more to communicate with Washington, D.C. so they were negotiating largely on their own. The U.S. team wanted to restore territory to what it was before the war, the status quo ante bellum. They won.

• In this other corner, for the Union Jack – The central negotiator was a Cambridge graduate. The two senior members were more senior, and Oxonians, but it seems they didn't want to make the trip, thereby prompting the thought the idea that the Oxford men were more talented, but lazier; while Cambridge provided someone with less experience and talent, but more willing to make the effort. (1) The senior team was Lord Castlereagh, Britain's Foreign Secretary and an alumnus of St. John's College, Cambridge, and Henry Lord Bathurst, the Third Earl, Secretary for War and the Colonies and alum of Christ Church, Oxford. However, they stayed in London and did not dignify the talks with their presence. (2) Instead, they sent a less-skilled team: Admiralty lawyer William Adams, impressments expert Admiral Lord Gambier, and the real workhorse of the group, and a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, Henry Goulburn, Undersecretary for War and the Colonies. The British negotiators wanted uti possidetis, that each side could keep what it had won militarily, such as Detroit and Mackinac Island. They lost.

Admiral of the Fleet James Gambier (L, with Treaty) shakes hands
with U.S. Ambassador to Russia and son of the 2nd U.S. President.
John Quincy Adams. British Undersecretary of State for War and
the Colonies Henry Goulburn (R, red folder) and others look on.

The British senior negotiators were far closer to the Treaty signing than the theoretical U.S. decision-makers, but they were not in London. Being closer, in Europe turned out not to have been much of an advantage. The British being close to London meant they felt they needed to send telegrams to get approvals from their superiors.

The Americans in Ghent understood they were too far from Washington to be able to get approval for their strategy. They were thus able to settle on a common goal, and take action on behalf of their country.

The outcome of the Treaty was favorable for the United States, perhaps because the war was going well for the Americans during the month before the Treaty was signed:

• News of two U.S. victories was the last information that negotiators in Ghent received. The Americans seemed to be losing early in the war, with the burning of the U.S. Capitol and other buildings in Washington. But: (1) Lieutenant General Sir George Prévost and a naval squadron under Captain George Downie engaged in Plattsburgh, N.Y., with New York and Vermont militia and U.S. Army regulars, under the command of Brigadier General Alexander Macomb. They were supported by ships commanded by Master Commandant Thomas Macdonough. The British failed to take Lake Champlain and fled north after the battle. (2)  Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Md., withstood a severe attack, inspiring the National Anthem, "The Star Spangled Banner."  
• The Americans therefore refused to let the British keep what they won. The British did not get what they wanted regarding the independence of Native lands in the state of Ohio, and in the Indiana and Michigan Territories. The British wanted this reserved land to be a buffer state to protect Canada from American annexation, but Clay would not give it up. The British did not get any territory in northern Maine, or demilitarization of the Great Lakes or navigation rights on the Mississippi. Lord Castlereagh asked the Duke of Wellington and his advice was for them to take the status quo ante bellum. 

On December 24 the negotiators agreed on the 3,000-word Treaty. After approval by the two governments, hostilities ended and “all territory, places and possessions whatsoever, taken by either party from the other during the war” were restored to what they were before the war.

Although the United States didn't give up any territory, it had been the one that declared war, so presumably it was bent on expansion. That was not to be, and the Canadian border was left in place, which would have been the consolation for the British. Also, the United States never did get the British to promise not to impress American sailors, but as hostilities in Europe ended, this issue ceased to be such a concern.

The Treaty was signed by the British on December 30, but it took a month for word to get to Washington, D.C. Before the combatants got word of the Treaty, the British attacked New Orleans on January 8, 1815 with a large army. It was overwhelmed by a smaller and less experienced American force under General Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) in the greatest U.S. victory in the war. The news of the Treaty and the outcome of the Battle of New Orleans reached a celebratory American public at about the same time. (However, the Second Battle of Fort Bowyer was won by the British. For them, the news was mixed.)

The United States ratified the treaty in mid-February 1815 under President James Madison, who started it all, with a formal exchange of papers.

Comments

1. The United States won back in the Treaty what it had lost. As the Canadian historian and War of 1812 expert Donald E. Graves concludes:  What Americans lost on the battlefield, "they made up for at the negotiating table.”

2. The Treaty of Ghent has held up for 205 years. However, the Treaty does not imply a  "Special Relationship", just a cessation of hostilities. During the American Civil War, Britain (as Amanda Foreman has shown) came in mostly on the losing side, the South. This makes sense historically. The Pilgrims were led by Cambridge alumni fleeing to New England to avoid religious persecution at the hands of the Church of England. South of New York, however, was populated through friendly grants of land from the Crown to mostly Oxford alumni (Pennsylvania to William Penn of Christ Church, Oxford; Maryland to the Calverts of Trinity College, Oxford; see chart here: https://theoxbridgepursuivant.blogspot.com/2013/06/oxford-alumni-who-shaped-american.html).

3. Hitler brought the United States and Britain together. During World War I, many Irish Catholics opposed U.S. entry on the side of Britain. It was not until World War II that the Special Relationship was cemented. The threat of Hitler tied the United States and Britain, first with Lend-Lease in March 1941 and then with the U.S. declaration of war following the Pearl Harbor attack in December 1941.

4. Relations have been good since World War II. Brexit will leave Britain more dependent on its relationship with the United States.

VICE CHANCELLOR: Andrew Hamilton to Head NYU

Madrid, April 26, 2013. Trinity College Dinner, Real Gran Pena Club. L to R:
Andrew Moore, reunion organizer. Andrew Hamilton, Vice Chancellor,
Oxford University. Sir Ivor Roberts, President of Trinity. Alice Tepper Marlin,
President of SAI. Sir Roger Fry, founder, schools in Spain. Photo: JT Marlin. 

According to The N.Y. Times today, March 19, Oxford Vice Chancellor Andrew Hamilton will be taking over the reins in January 2016 from John Sexton as the 16th President of New York University.

N.Y.U. has a modest endowment relative to other large private universities with global scope and aspirations.

Dr. Hamilton said that he would continue teaching and conducting research. Dr. Hamilton is 62 and has been Vice-Chancellor of Oxford since 2009. He was previously Provost at Yale University and Professor of Chemistry and Molecular Biophysics.

At Oxford, seeking to recover from cuts in government financing of universities initiated by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and continued by subsequent administrations, he was effective in raising the level of fund-raising. He led what Oxford has described as the largest fund-raising campaign in European university history.

Dr. Hamilton is likely to be paid more than at Oxford, where he earned £442,000, or $660,000. Dr. Sexton earned $1.5 million in total compensation in the 2012-13 school year, according to publicly available tax returns.

N.Y.U. picked Dr. Hamilton from more than 200 nominees. It did not disclose the other candidates, another candidate was reportedly Michael Lynton, chief executive of Sony Entertainment.

BOAT RACE: NYC 2012 (#79)

Winklevii (Tyler and Cameron) with Friends at Dinner

The barbs were out yesterday at the 79th annual Boat Race Dinner at the Harvard Club of New York. The Biddle and North Rooms at the Harvard Club were sold out two months before the date of the dinner, so the event was moved to the majestic Harvard Hall. The hall's giant elephant head is apocryphally identified as one of the 11 elephants shot by Theodore Roosevelt on his 1909 African safari.

The program opened with a special Latin Rowers' Grace said by the Very Reverend Dr. Christopher Lewis, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford. Then Ian Hawkins of Cambridge reported on the Learn to Row day in New Jersey, and Sally Weaver of the Oxford Sports Development Office gave an eye-witness report of Saturday's Boat Race, which is the subject of a prior post in this series.

Amber Creighton of Cambridge.

Iain Mackenzie of Cambridge gave the toast to the President, and Amber Creighton of Cambridge gave the toast to the Queen, noting that it is the 60th year since the Queen's coronation and that the Queen has lived through all the major tests of the "Special Relationship". She got in a barb at Oxford for taking a year longer than Cambridge to admit women.

In a departure from tradition, the Toast to the Universities was delivered by two people, who took turns speaking - Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss of Christ Church, Oxford. [In the movie "The Social Network" they were in fact played by one person.] They stressed the linguistic puzzles generated both by British English and by Oxford traditions, in the classroom, the college and in the boats, where "stroke" side means the opposite of the port side, except when it doesn't. The Winklevoss twins' parents were on hand to witness their first speech to the NYC Boat Race Dinner.                  

The Response from the Universities was delivered by Oxford's Vice-Chancellor, Professor Andrew Hamilton. He said that the bizarre Australian who swam in front of the Oxford boat reminded him of Disraeli's definition of the difference between a misfortune and a calamity.

If Gladstone fell into the Thames, that would be a misfortune. If anybody pulled him out, that I suppose would be a calamity.

Sally Fan and Vice-Chancellor Hamilton

In another Boat Race Dinner tradition, the Vice-Chancellor speculated that possibly the reason Oxford lost its blade is that Cambridge had been sharpening its own blades. Like the chariots in "Ben Hur" with blades on their axels.

The Vice-Chancellor quoted Matthew Arnold's reference to Oxford's architecture as the "city of dreaming spires" and then compared it to Cambridge, the "city of aspiring dreamers".

He gave credit to the Oxford crew for valiantly rowing on and finishing the course with just seven oars. The stress entailed in this effort is shown by the collapse of the Oxford bow man, Dr. Alex Woods.

The Vice-Chancellor announced that the Boat Race has a new sponsor starting in 2013. It will no longer be Xchanging, which has had the sponsorship for eight

The Women's Boats Will Compete Like Blue Boats in 2015

years. The right to sponsor the Boat Race starring in 2013 has been negotiated by BNY Mellon, which is planning to do more with the sponsorship than Xchanging did. BNY Mellon's subsidiary Newton Investment Management has already been active in supporting the women's boat race. The Vice Chancellor introduced the Vice Chairman of BNY Mellon, who was attending the NYC Boat Race Dinner. In 2015 the women's boat race will take place on a more equal footing with that of the men's blue boat.

The Vice-Chancellor observed that lost in the publicity about the blue boats was the fact that Oxford's reserve boat, Isis, won in record time against the Cambridge reserve boat, Goldie. Isis finished the course in a time of 16:41, a course record for the reserves race and equal to the third-fastest time the course has been completed in the history of the race. [Goldie came in 16 seconds later, five lengths behind. Isis was coxed by an American, Katie Apfelbaum from Menands, NY, just north of Albany.]

The Boat Race Dinner was organized by a Committee that included Claude Prince (Kellogg, Oxford) as Wine and Food Steward and Sally Fan (Green Templeton, Oxford) as Secretary. Hervé Gouraige (Merton, Oxford) was Master of the Rolls and Amy Offen-Reeves of Cambridge in America was Treasurer and administered the publicity. The official photographers for the event were Clara Campbell of the Oxford North America Office and Dr. Peter Sealy (Pembroke, Cambridge).

Finally, the sponsors were crucial in making the event successful. Christ Church was a college sponsor, putting together two tables. The corporate sponsors were Windsor Capital and Signature Bank. The 2013 dinner will be the gala 80th Anniversary of the Boat Race Dinner.

OTHER BOAT RACE EVENTS

The Cambridge Society of D.C. has arranged space to watch The Boat Race in Washington, DC on Saturday morning, April 7 at 8:45 am. It will be at the Dubliner, which is at the foot of Capitol Hill near Union Station. For questions about the DC event, contact David Law at DLaw@curtin-law.com. For New York City events, watch this space or go to www.oxford-cambridgenyc.org. 

BOAT RACE STOPPER SENTENCED

The man who stopped the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race (#boatracetwit) in April 2012 has been sentenced to six months in jail and court costs of 750 (about $1,250).

Judge Anne Molyneux showed little sympathy for his defense that he was registering his opposition to inequality. Instead, she said to him, he just gave to himself "the right to spoil the enjoyment of others."

The newsletter of one of the Oxford alumni branches suggested that at the end of the jail term the offender be shipped back to Australia chained to a rowing machine.

BOAT RACE STOPPER CONVICTED

Australian protester's head at left disrupts Oxford crew. He faces
 sentencing Oct. 19 in London after having been convicted of
creating a public nuisance.  Twitter hashtag #boatracetwit.

Ian Senior publishes a branch newsletter for the Hertfordshire branch. He leads off his issue #29 with a note that the "selfish Aussie odd-ball Boat Race protester" who stopped the boat race on April 7 and necessitated a re-start and doubtless contributed to the collapse of one of the rowers as well as a ruined contest, has been convicted of creating a public nuisance.

He will be sentenced by Judge Anne Molyneux of London's Isleworth Crown Court, who has kept her options open, including jail time.

The swimmer "could have been killed" by the oars or the metal shells or the oncoming vessels behind the boats, and the race was stopped. The jury verdict that he had created a public nuisance, endangering not just himself but those around him, was unanimous.

FYI, Senior says this "class warrior" was privately educated in Australia and moved to England in 2001 to study at the LSE. He wrote a 2,000-word blog seeking to justify disrupting the Boat Race, referring to "the pumped-up though obedient administrators, managers, promoters, politicians and enforcers; functional, strategic and aspirational elites."

He is doubtless "reveling in the prospect of martyrdom for his cause." Senior suggests the following sentence:
- He should be jailed in the UK for six months.
- He should be woken up at 05.00 every day for three hours intensive training like the Boat Race crews.
- At the end of his sentence he should be flown back to Australia in chains, shackled to an ergonometer.

The Boat Race on Saturday Was a Stunner

A large crowd of Oxbridge alums living in the New York area filled Jake's Saloon in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood. The event was organized by Oxford Business Alumni. 

Rising disbelief took over the crowd as they watched as the race on BBC America was interrupted by an Australian protester.

At the point of disruption, Oxford was holding its own and had the advantage at the next turn. After the race was restarted, an Oxford oarsman lost the blade on the end of his oar, reducing the maximum effort by one-fourth.

With effectively 33.3 percent more power at its disposal than Oxford, Cambridge rowed on to an easy victory, but not the kind of victory either crew has devoted years of training to achieve.

The Clueless Protester

The protester compares himself to Emily Davison, the suffragette who threw herself under the King's horses in 1913 and died for the worthy cause of Votes for Women.

His comparison is presumptuous and inappropriate. An American in the Oxford boat, William Zeng, is quoted in the New York Times on Monday as responding publicly to the protester:

You were protesting the right of 17 young men and one woman to compete fairly and honorably to demonstrate their hard work and desire in a proud tradition.

The race is bitterly summarized in the Telegraph:

“It seems to me,” Pinsent said, “there’s something peculiarly British about the fact that when a bloke deliberately ruins a classic sporting occasion, we’re the ones responsible for rescuing him and getting him to shore in one piece.” Pinsent was the first to catch sight of T*** O***, the self-indulgent class warrior in a wetsuit, as the two crews headed past Chiswick Pier. Pinsent saw something bobbing in the water just ahead of the rowers, saw an arm go up and realised there was a swimmer in the Thames. This was an event undermined by O***’s calculated intrusion, wrecked in its purpose and outcome, ruined for winner and loser alike. History will recall that Cambridge won for the 81st time. But for those involved, the memories will be of disturbance, interruption, damage and physical collapse. It ended with both teams standing on the riverside in Mortlake in mute shock as Alex Woods, the Oxford stroke who had collapsed at the finish line, was carried by stretcher into a waiting ambulance.

Other rowing-related posts:  Rowing Blazers .