The Monroe–Pinkney Treaty was a treaty drawn up in 1806 by diplomats of the United States and Great Britain to renew the 1795

Jay Treaty The Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, Between His Britannic Majesty and the United States of America, commonly known as the Jay Treaty, and also as Jay's Treaty, was a 1794 treaty between the United States and Great Britain that averted ...

. As it was rejected by President

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 18 ...

, it never took effect. The treaty was negotiated by the minister to Britain,

James Monroe James Monroe ( ; April 28, 1758July 4, 1831) was an American statesman, lawyer, diplomat, and Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party, Monroe was ...

, and his associate,

William Pinkney William Pinkney (March 17, 1764February 25, 1822) was an American statesman and diplomat, and was appointed the seventh U.S. Attorney General by President James Madison. Biography William Pinkney was born in 1764 in Annapolis in the Province ...

, on behalf of the Jefferson administration and by Lord Holland and

Lord Auckland Baron Auckland is a title in both the Peerage of Ireland and the Peerage of Great Britain. The first creation came in 1789 when the prominent politician and financial expert William Eden was made Baron Auckland in the Peerage of Ireland. I ...

on behalf of the Ministry of All the Talents, a government that was headed by

Lord Grenville William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville, (25 October 175912 January 1834) was a British Pittite Tory politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1806 to 1807, but was a supporter of the Whigs for the duration of ...

. For the Americans, the treaty had the goals of making the British abandon the practice of impressing sailors from American ships, addressing the neutral trading rights of American vessels during the ongoing

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fre ...

, and other commercial concerns. However, the British were short of manpower for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

and believed that many British deserters were serving on American ships. In the desperate war against

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...

, the British believed that they could not afford to abandon impressment and that offending the Americans was seen as a much lesser evil than losing to Napoleon. Therefore, no concessions on the issue of impressment were made. The negotiations were begun on 27 August 1806, and the treaty was signed on 31 December 1806. Jefferson received the treaty in March 1807 but was disappointed and refused to submit it to the

US Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and po ...

for ratification. That failure to resolve differences over the issue of impressment and of neutral trading rights contributed to the coming of the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It be ...

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Monroe-Pinkney Treaty United Kingdom–United States treaties War of 1812 legislation Unratified treaties 1806 treaties 1806 in the United States 1806 in the United Kingdom Treaties of the United Kingdom (1801–1922) 1806 in British law