d; but he expressed
certainty that such an advance would be cordially met, and he could
foresee no obstacle to its entertainment. The proposal was accordingly
made to the President, through the customary channels, and on March
11, 1813, was formally accepted by him. James A. Bayard and Albert
Gallatin were nominated commissioners, conjointly with Mr. Adams, to
act for the United States in forming a treaty of peace under the
mediation of the Czar. They sailed soon afterwards.

The American acceptance reached St. Petersburg about June 15; but on
that day Adams was informed by the Chancellor that his despatches from
London signified the rejection of the Russian proposition by the
British Government, on the ground that the differences with the United
States involved principles of the internal government of Great
Britain, which could not be submitted to the discussion of any
mediation.[478] As the Russian Court was then in campaign, at the
headquarters of the allied armies, in the tremendous operations of the
summer of 1813 against Napoleon, much delay necessarily ensued. On
September 1, however, the British ambassador, who was accompanying the
Court in the field, presented a formal letter reaffirming the
unwillingness of his Government to treat under mediation, but offering
through the Czar, whose mediatorial advance was so far recognized, to
nominate plenipotentiaries to meet those of the United States in
direct consultation. In the backward and forward going of despatches
in that preoccupied and unsettled moment, it was not till near
November 1 that the British Foreign Office heard from the ambassador
that the American commissioners were willing so to treat, and desirous
to keep their business separate from that of the continent of Europe;
but that their powers were limited to action through the mediation of
Russia. Castlereagh then, on November 4, addressed a note to the
United States Government, offering a direct negotiation. This was
accepted formally, January 5, 1814;[479] and Henry Clay with Jonathan
Russell were added to the commission already constituted, raising the
number of members to five. The representatives of Great Britain were
three: Admiral Lord Gambier, Henry Goulburn, and William Adams. Ghent
was fixed upon for the place of meeting.

The instructions issued to the American commissioners were voluminous.
They contained not only the requirements of the Government, but
arguments from every point of view,