Background of the War-- Part 4: Treaty of Ghent

British hero Duke of Wellington, fresh from his victory in the Iberian Peninsula was asked to assume command of British forces in North America, but refused, doubting that he could win any victory anytime soon.

Then, along with the September 1814 loss at the battle of Lake Champlain, the British were turned back in their attack on Baltimore.

The British still held ground in eastern Maine, Fort Niagara and American territory along the Niagara  River plus much Indian land along the Great Lakes,  but prospects of peace were still a long way off.  And then, peace talks with France started breaking down and British Prime Minister Lord Liverpool advised the British peace commissioners to recognize the "inconvenience of the continuance of the war."

In October 1814, British Secretary of State of Foreign Affairs, Lord Castlereaugh, instructed British Commissioners meeting with the Americans in Ghent to make peace by returning to the "status quo ante bellum," a return to the state of affairs before the war.

The commissioners on both sides quickly hammered out peace and signed it  on principle on December 24, 1814.  Britain signed the treaty on Dec. 27 and the American government did the same on February 17, 1815, thus ending the war.

A Pretty Good Summation of the War on a Larger Scale.  --Brock-Perry