Why was the Jay Treaty so hated by the American public?

Question

Why was the Jay Treaty so hated by the American public? I've read that many people hated it, but I don't understand why. It ensured the United States would get back forts that had been taken by Britain and kept after the Revolution, strengthened trade, made sure that the US wasn't caught up in a war with some of the most powerful countries in the world, etc. Why didn't people like it?

Answer 1

Blame it on Jefferson and Hamilton. Just like in today’s turbulent political landscape, there are two sides to every argument. In our nation’s infancy, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton had opposing beliefs, which clashed over the Jay Treaty.

Hamilton’s Federalist political party championed a strong central (federal) government run by a very British-like aristocracy, with an urban-based industrial economy featuring manufacturing. Very pro-British. Some said almost “kingly.”

Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican political party felt states’ rights should be stronger than the federal government and self-governed by a “natural aristocracy” of white, educated male property owners in a rural-based agrarian economy. Government by the people.

The Federalist Party, purportedly pro-British, supported the treaty, while the Democratic-Republican Party opposed it.

According to the Democratic-Republican Party, the treaty said nothing about American compensation from the British for wartime damages, the British Navy’s illegal captures of ships and impressment of American sailors, nor for the costly and deadly Indian Wars caused by lingering British occupation of Native American lands. Perhaps the most objectionable pro-British omission in the Jay Treaty was its failure to oppose British interference with American overseas trading.

In the end, the Jay Treaty was signed; however, just like our fractured political landscape today, some embraced the decision, while others vehemently opposed it. Pick a side.