Editing Treaty of Ghent (section)

==Background==
{{John Quincy Adams series}} 
In late 1813, emperor [[Alexander I of Russia]] offered to mediate peace negotiations between the British and Americans at [[Saint Petersburg]], but the British rejected Russian mediation and never sent a delegation. A new arrangement was made in early January 1814 to hold direct peace talks at [[Gothenburg]] in Sweden, yet the British again failed to show up for several months.

After the [[Treaty of Fontainebleau (1814)|abdication of]] [[Napoleon]] in April 1814, British public opinion demanded major gains in the war against the United States. The senior American representative in London, Reuben Beasley, told US Secretary of State [[James Monroe]]:

{{blockquote|There are so many who delight in War that I have less hope than ever of our being able to make peace. You will perceive by the newspapers that a very great force is to be sent from Bordeaux to the United States, and the order of the day is division of the States and conquest. The more moderate think that when our Seaboard is laid waste and we are made to agree to a line which shall exclude us from the lake; to give up a part of our claim on Louisiana and the privilege of fishing on the banks, etc. peace may be made with us.{{sfn|Wood|1940|p=503}} }}

However, the prime minister, [[Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool|Lord Liverpool]], aware of growing opposition to wartime taxation and the demands of merchants in Liverpool and Bristol to reopen trade with America, realized that Britain had little to gain and much to lose from prolonged warfare.{{sfn|Latimer|2007|p=389–391}}{{sfn|Gash|1984|p=111–119}}{{efn|The correspondence from the Earl of Liverpool to Viscount Castlereagh dated December 23, 1814, is summarized as ''Anxiety to Terminate American War''.{{sfn|British Foreign Policy Documents|p=495}} }}

After rejecting American proposals to broker peace negotiations, Britain reversed course in mid-1814. With the defeat of Napoleon in March–April 1814, the main British goals of stopping American trade with France and [[impressment]] of sailors from American ships were [[Unenforced law|dead letters]]. President Madison informed Congress that the United States could no longer demand an end to impressment from the British, and he formally dropped the demand from the peace process. 

A meeting between the negotiators eventually took place in late June 1814, where it was decided to move the site of peace talks to [[Ghent]] in the Southern Netherlands.{{efn|The Southern Netherlands had been known as the [[Austrian Netherlands]] until 1795, when they were annexed by the [[French First Republic]] as the ''neuf départements réunis'' ("Nine Reunited Departments"). Some pro-French revolutionaries from the short-lived [[United Belgian States]] and the [[Republic of Liège]] called themselves [[Committee of United Belgians and Liégeois|"Netherlanders" and "Belgians" (and Liégeois) interchangeably]], and the alternate name of ''Belgium'' for this region was popularised in these decades. In early 1814, troops of the Prussian, Russian, British and other forces of the [[Sixth Coalition]] occupied all of the Low Countries, chasing away the French armies, and supporting the establishment of the [[Sovereign Principality of the United Netherlands]] by [[William I of the Netherlands|William Frederick of Orange-Nassau]], son of the last stadtholder. By secret negotiations, these occupied territories were awarded to William Frederick by the [[Eight Articles of London]] on 21 July 1814, a few weeks before the American and British negotiators arrived there in Ghent.}} The Americans sent five commissioners: [[John Quincy Adams]], [[Henry Clay]], [[James A. Bayard (elder)|James A. Bayard, Sr.]], [[Jonathan Russell]], and [[Albert Gallatin]]. All were senior political leaders except Russell; Adams was in charge. The British sent minor officials, who kept in close touch with their superiors in London. The British commissioners Gambier, Goulburn, Adams and Baker arrived in Ghent on 6 and 7 August 1814, and the first formal meeting with the American plenipotentiaries began on 8 August 1814 at 1 p.m. The British government's main diplomatic focus in 1814 was not ending the war in North America, but the European balance of power after the apparent defeat of Napoleonic France and the return to power in Paris of the pro-British Bourbons.{{sfn|Remini |1993|p=103–122}}{{sfn|Bemis|1949|p=196–220}}