The treaty was silent on the subject of impressment, but Jay's failure on
that point was just what was to have been expected in view of the
unwillingness of the United States to defend its commerce. Impressment was
not abandoned until many years afterwards, and then not through treaty
stipulation but because the United States had a navy and could resist
aggression on the seas. In its treatment of the subject of contraband, the
treaty took positions in accord with the international law then received,
but in one respect it made a distinct advance. Provision was made that war
between the two countries should never become the pretext for confiscation
of debts or annulment of contracts. This position involves the noble
principle that war should never supersede justice but should be the
servant of justice. Great practical advantage was experienced from it in
the War of 1812, when the United States was a creditor nation.

On the whole, Jay's diplomacy was as enlightened as it was shrewd, but at
the time it exposed him to furious denunciation which he disdained to
notice. "I had read the history of Greece," he wrote to a friend, "and was
apprised of the politics and proceedings of more recent date." The
philosophic composure which he drew from his knowledge of history enabled
him to behave with calm dignity while he was being burned in effigy, and
while mob orators were heaping insult and calumny on his name. After a
struggle that shook the Government, the treaty was ratified by the Senate
on June 24, 1795, with the exception of the article about the West Indian
trade, an omission to which Great Britain made no objection. The treaty
was extremely unpopular, chiefly because unreasonable expectations of its
provisions had been entertained. People had yet to learn that national
independence has its defects as well as its advantages, and that the
traditional intimacy between the West Indies and America was now on a
footing of privilege and not of right. The great benefits conferred by the