President Millard Fillmore Appoints the U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain to Settle Claims the Two Nations Had Against Each Other

In 1852, President Millard Fillmore appointed Joseph R. Ingersoll U.S. ambassador to Great Britain. At that time, trade was common between the nations, but so were difficulties. In the lead-up to the War of 1812 the British seized American ships, the owners of which had claims against the British government for their losses. By 1852, claims against the U.S. by British subjects and against Britain by Americans had accumulated and grown to the point that the two nations determined to work out a settlement of these claims.

Document signed, Washington, December 28, 1852, giving Ambassador Ingersoll “a full power…to treat of and concerning claims of citizens of the United States upon the British government, and of and concerning claims of subjects of Her Britannic Majesty upon the government of the United States…” Doubtless shippers, manufacturers, and others engaged in trade benefited from the positive show of amity and friendship this settlement would have brought about.