Definition
In 1793 and 1794, the British navy seized hundreds of American ships trading with the French islands in the Caribbean, and British captains forced American sailors into the Royal Navy, a practice called impressment. Britain also still held forts on American soil in the Northwest, from which it supplied Native nations in the Ohio country. President Washington sent Chief Justice John Jay to London, and on November 19, 1794, Jay signed a treaty in which Britain agreed to leave its western forts by 1796 and to let commissions settle claims over seized ships and prewar debts, but which said nothing about impressment. Democratic-Republicans called the treaty a surrender to Britain, and crowds burned Jay in effigy, but the Senate approved it by exactly two-thirds and Washington signed it to avoid war.
Why it matters on the AP exam
Jay's Treaty is the central example of how foreign policy divided the first two parties: Federalists favored Britain, whose trade paid the tariffs that funded the debt, while Democratic-Republicans favored France. It avoided war with Britain and removed British troops from the Northwest, but it ignored impressment, and France, angry at the treaty, began seizing American ships, which led to the XYZ Affair. Madison led the fight against it in Congress, and questions ask students to explain its causes and its effect on party politics. A common mistake is to credit it with opening the Mississippi River to American shipping, which Pinckney's Treaty with Spain did in 1795.
Connections
- Battle of Fallen Timbers: Wayne's victory came three months before Britain agreed to give up the forts that had supplied the Western Confederacy
- John Jay: the chief justice who negotiated it
- XYZ Affair: France, angry at the treaty, began seizing American ships, which led Adams to send envoys to Paris
- Washington's Farewell Address: Washington warned against permanent alliances after four years of quarrels over France and Britain