Page:Life of Henry Clay (Schurz; v. 1).djvu/119

Rh Most of these things had become known, not only to the Americans, but also to the British commissioners. These gentlemen were, therefore, naturally inclined to treat the United States as a defeated enemy suing for peace. At the opening of the negotiation the British demanded as a sine qua non that a large territory in the United States, all the country now occupied by the states of Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin, the larger part of Indiana, and about one third of Ohio, should be set apart for the Indians, to constitute a sort of Indian sovereignty under British guaranty, not to be purchased from the Indians by the United States, and to serve as a “buffer,” a perpetual protection of the British possessions against American ambition. They demanded also that the United States should relinquish the right of keeping any armed vessels on the Great Lakes; and, in addition to all this, they asked for the cession of a piece of Maine in order to make a road from Halifax to Quebec, and for a formal renewal of the provision of the treaty of 1783 giving English subjects the right of navigating the Mississippi.

This meant almost a surrender of American independence. It was the extreme of humiliation. That such a proposition could be thought of was a most painful shock to the American envoys. All they could do was promptly to reject the sine qua non, and then think of going home. This they did. They not only thought of going home, but they openly spoke of it. The British commission-