ith those citizens
of the United States who had already settled in those parts of
Michigan, Illinois, and Ohio, included within the territory which it
was now proposed to make inalienably Indian. He said that these
people, amounting perhaps to one hundred thousand, "must shift for
themselves." The one-sided disarmament upon the lakes and along the
frontier was, by the understanding of all nations, such an (p. 080)
humiliation as is inflicted only on a crushed adversary. No return was
offered for the road between Halifax and Quebec; nor for the right of
navigating the Mississippi. The treaty of peace of 1783, made in
ignorance of the topography of the unexplored northern country, had
established an impossible boundary line running from the Lake of the
Woods westward along the forty-ninth parallel to the Mississippi; and
as appurtenant to the British territory, thus supposed to touch the
river, a right of navigation upon it was given. It had since been
discovered that a line on that parallel would never touch the
Mississippi. The same treaty had also secured for the United States
certain rights concerning the Northeastern fisheries. The English now
insisted upon a re-affirmance of the privilege given to them, without
a re-affirmance of the privilege given to the United States; ignoring
the fact that the recent acquisition of Louisiana, making the
Mississippi wholly American, materially altered the propriety of a
British right of navigation upon it.

Apart from the intolerable character of these demands, the personal
bearing of the English Commissioners did not tend to mitigate the
chagrin of the Americans. The formal civilities had counted with the
American Commissioners for more than they were worth, and had (p. 081)
induced them, in preparing a long dispatch to the home government,
to insert "a paragraph complimentary to the personal deportment" of
the British. But before they sent off the document they revised it and
struck out these pleasant phrases. Not many days after the first
conference Mr. Adams notes that the tone of the English Commissioners
was even "more peremptory, and their language more overbearing, than
at the former conferences." A little farther on he remarks that "the
British note is overbearing and insulting in its tone, like the two
former ones." Again he says:--

"The tone of all the British notes is arrogant, overbearing, and
offensive. The tone of ours is neither so bold n