This brought the negotiators to the point at which they had already been forced to halt so many times before.
Mr.Webster now cut the knot by proposing that the United States should indemnify Maine and Massachusetts in money for the loss they were to suffer in territory, and by his dexterous management the commissioners of the two States were persuaded to assent to this arrangement, while Lord Ashburton was induced to admit the agreement into a clause of the treaty.

This disposed of the chief question in dispute, but two other subjects were included in the treaty besides the boundary.

The first related to the right of search claimed by England for the suppression of the slave-trade.
This was met by what was called the "Cruising Convention," a clause which stipulated that each nation should keep its own squadron on the coast of Africa, to enforce separately its own laws against the slave-trade, but in mutual cooeperation.

The other subject of agreement grew out of the Creole case.

England supposed that we sought the return of the negroes because they were slaves, but Mr.Webster argued that they were demanded as mutineers and murderers.