meeting on August 8, the British commissioners demanded, as a
preliminary to any negotiation, that the United States should set apart
to the Indian tribes the entire territory of the Northwest to be held by
them forever in sovereignty under the guaranty of Great Britain. The
absurdity of such a demand is sufficient evidence that it was never
seriously entertained. There could have been no idea that the military
power of Great Britain was able to enforce, or that the United States
would abjectly submit to, such a mutilation of its territory and such a
limitation of its expansion. Behind this cover Mr. Gallatin
instinctively detected the real design of the cabinet to be the conquest
of New Orleans and the mouths of the Mississippi. If to the territory
thus acquired that of Florida should be added by cession from Spain,
which could hardly refuse any compensation asked of her by Great Britain
in return for the liberation of the Peninsula, a second British dominion
would be set up on the American continent. These views Gallatin
communicated to Monroe in a private dispatch of August 20, 1814, by the
hands of Mr. Dallas. To the _sine qua non_ of the British commissioners
no answer was made by the Americans. The negotiation was abruptly
suspended, and only by informal conversation was Mr. Goulburn given to
understand that reference had been had to America for instructions. Mr.
Gallatin was of opinion that the negotiations were at an end, and in his
despair of peace took consolation in the belief that the insolence of
the demand would unite America from Maine to Georgia in defense of her
rights, of her territory, and indeed of her independence. The American
commissioners made no secret of their belief that their mission was
closed. Two of the secretaries started from Ghent on a continental tour,
and notice was given to the landlord of the house where the
commissioners resided of their intention to quit it on October 1. On
August 2, while matters were still at this deadlock, Lord Castlereagh
passed through Ghent on his way to the Congress at Vienna. Goulburn was
ordered to change his tone and Lord Liverpool was advised to moderate
his demands; to use Castlereagh's words, to "a letting down of the
question." Lord Liverpool replied on September 2, that he had already
given Goulburn to understand that the commission had taken a very
erroneous view of British policy. In this communication he betrays the
hope, which the cabinet had ent