November 19, 1794 – The United States and Great Britain Sign the Jay Treaty

In 1793, France declared war against Britain and the Netherlands. The U.S. had signed a Treaty of Alliance to defend France, but it had also signed a peace treaty with Britain. Moreover, the U.S. depended on Britain for almost all of its total world trade. In fact, more than 90 percent of all federal revenue came from customs duties, and 90 percent of all goods subject to tariffs in the 1790s were British. (Joel Richard Paul, Without Precedent: John Marshall and His Times by Joel Richard Paul, p. 103)

In any event, the U.S. could not afford to go to war, and President George Washington saw no way out but to declare a policy of neutrality. The Proclamation led to bitter divisions between Americans, however, with Thomas Jefferson (surreptitiously for the most part) leading the forces against neutrality and against Washington, and in favor of the French. Hamilton, on the other hand, who often wrote Washington’s speeches, warned against becoming entangled in foreign alliances.

Alexander Hamilton

Supporters of Washington and of neutrality gravitated toward the new Federalist Party, while the Jeffersonians formed the new Democratic-Republican Party (formally “The Republican Party”). In the 1794 congressional elections, party tickets appeared for the first time.

In the meanwhile, neither Britain nor France welcomed the Proclamation of Neutrality. The British navy seized hundreds of U.S. commercial vessels (for the crime of selling goods to France), and forcibly conscripted hundreds of American seamen into the British navy. The French commissioned privateers from among American sailers, but they could not do as much damage to the U.S. as could the British.

With tensions escalating, in April 1794 President Washington appointed Chief Justice John Jay to go to Britain as a special envoy to settle the disputes. Jay arrived in July and entered negotiations with the British foreign secretary. With the U.S. not having a navy, its bargaining position was not strong, and the British made few concessions. The two sides signed the treaty on this day in history. The outcome was “asymmetrical” but at least war was avoided for the nonce.

John Jay

Moreover, the British Army agreed to withdraw from forts in the Northwest Territory that it had refused to relinquish after the American Revolution. The parties also agreed that disputes over wartime debts and over the American–Canadian boundary were to be sent to arbitration — one of the first major uses of arbitration in modern diplomatic history, which set the precedent used by other nations. The Americans were granted limited rights to trade with British colonies in the Caribbean in exchange for some limits on the American export of cotton.

The treaty was made for ten years’ duration. Efforts failed to agree on a replacement treaty in 1806 when Jefferson rejected the Monroe–Pinkney Treaty, and tensions culminated in the War of 1812.

Thomas Jefferson