On the bicentennial of the Treaty of Ghent, reflecting on its slavery clauses

Law and Public Issues

By Ann M. Lousin

Ann M. Lousin has been a professor at The John Marshall Law School since 1975. Before then, she was a research assistant at the 1969-1970 Illinois constitutional convention and parliamentarian of the Illinois House of Representatives. Her treatise “The Illinois State Constitution: A Reference Guide” was published in December 2009. She can be contacted at 7lousin@jmls.edu.

Posted December 24, 2014 9:38 AM

Today is the bicentennial of the Treaty of Ghent. On Christmas Eve 1814, emissaries of His Britannic Majesty and the U.S. formally agreed to a treaty ending the War of 1812. Upon ratification by Parliament and Congress, the hostilities ended, and the “treaty of peace and amity” became effective. What Americans called “the second war of independence” was over. The treaty essentially provided that each country reverted to the position it was in before the war began in June 1812. As was the …

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