Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

I now transmit to Congress copies of the instructions to the
plenipotentiaries of the United States charged with negotiating a peace
with Great Britain, as referred to in my message of the 10th instant.

JAMES MADISON.

DECEMBER 1, 1814.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

I transmit, for the information of Congress, the communications last
received from the ministers extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the
United States at Ghent, explaining the course and actual state of their
negotiations with the plenipotentiaries of Great Britain.

JAMES MADISON.

FEBRUARY 15, 1815.

_To the Senate of the United States_:

I have received from the American commissioners a treaty of peace and
amity between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America,
signed by those commissioners and by the commissioners of His Britannic
Majesty at Ghent on the 24th of December, 1814. The termination of
hostilities depends upon the time of the ratification of the treaty by
both parties. I lose no time, therefore, in submitting the treaty to the
Senate for their advice and approbation.

I transmit also a letter from the American commissioners, which
accompanied the treaty.

JAMES MADISON.

WASHINGTON, _February 18, 1815_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States_:

I lay before Congress copies of the treaty of peace and amity between
the United States and His Britannic Majesty, which was signed by the
commissioners of both parties at Ghent on the 24th of December, 1814,
and the ratifications of which have been duly exchanged.

While performing this act I congratulate you and our constituents upon
an event which is highly honorable to the nation, and terminates with
peculiar felicity a campaign signalized by the most brilliant successes.

The late war, although reluctantly declared by Congress, had become a
necessary resort to assert the rights and independence of the nation. It
has been waged with a success which is the natural result of the wisdom
of the legislative councils, of the patriotism of the people, of the
public spirit of the militia, and of the valor of the military and naval
forces of the country. Peace, at all times a blessing, is peculiarly
welcome, therefore, at a period when the causes for the war have ceased
to operate, when the Government has demonstrated the efficiency of i