By a deportment respectful, yet firm, mingling a decent deference for the government to which he was deputed, with a proper regard for the dignity of his own, this minister avoided those little asperities which frequently embarrass measures of great concern, and smoothed the way to the adoption of those which were suggested by the real interests of both nations.

Many and intricate were the points to be discussed.

On some of them an agreement was found to be impracticable; but, at length, a treaty was concluded, which Mr.Jay declared to be the best that was attainable, and which he believed it for the interests of the United States to accept.[32] Indeed it was scarcely possible to contemplate the evidences of extreme exasperation which were given in America, and the nature of the differences which subsisted between the two countries, without feeling a conviction that war was inevitable, should this attempt to adjust those differences prove unsuccessful.
[Footnote 32: In a private letter to the President, of the same date with the signature of the treaty, Mr.Jay said "to do more was impossible.

I ought not to conceal from you, that the confidence reposed in your personal character was visible and useful throughout the negotiation.
"If there is not a good disposition in the far greater part of the cabinet and nation towards us, I am exceedingly mistaken.

I do not mean an ostensible and temporizing, but a real good disposition .-- I wish it may have a fair trial."] On Monday, the 8th of June, the senate, in conformity with the summons of the President, convened in the senate chamber, and the treaty, with the documents connected with it, were submitted to their consideration.
On the 24th of June, after a minute and laborious investigation, the senate, by precisely a constitutional majority, advised and consented to its conditional ratification.
An insuperable objection existed to an article regulating the intercourse with the British West Indies, founded on a fact which is understood to have been unknown to Mr.Jay.The intention of the contracting parties was to admit the direct intercourse between the United States and those islands, but not to permit the productions of the latter to be carried to Europe in the vessels of the former.