Presidents often have regrets of missed accomplishment or failed policies. President James Monroe had at least one "serious regret" of his presidency. In his 8 years as President, he failed to secure a cooperative agreement with Great Britain to end the slave trade as defined in article 10 of the Treaty of Ghent signed in 1815 just before he became President. Such an agreement, would not only had been a signature event in the United States but around the world.
In 1815, when the Treaty of Ghent was signed declaring peace between the U.S. and Great Britain, a simple clause was added regarding the Slave traffic. Article 10, stated that "Whereas the Traffic in Slaves is irreconcilable with the principles of humanity and Justice, and whereas both His Majesty and the United States are desirous of continuing their efforts to promote its entire abolition, it is hereby agreed that both the contracting parties shall use their best endeavors to accomplish so desirable an object." The clause had no real teeth to it, just a statement that both parties would work together to abolish the slave trade. Both Presidents Madison and Monroe had high hopes that the U.S. and Great Britain would follow up with treaties or arrangements to cooperate in suppressing the slave trade, yet by the end of Monroe's term in 1824 there were still no arrangements made. As Monroe stated in his 1824 State of the Union Address, "It is a cause of serious regret that no arrangement has yet been finally concluded between the two Governments to secure by joint cooperation the suppression of the slave trade." Monroe issued his explanation. Since the British government intended to adopt a "plan for the suppression" that would include the "mutual right of search", the U.S. could not accept it based on principle.
"It is a cause of serious regret that no arrangement has yet been finally concluded between the two Governments to secure by joint cooperation the suppression of the slave trade. It was the object of the British Government in the early stages of the negotiation to adopt a plan for the suppression which should include the concession of the mutual right of search by the ships of war of each party of the vessels of the other for suspected offenders. This was objected to by this Government on the principle that as the right of search was a right of war of a belligerent toward a neutral power it might have an ill effect to extend it by treaty, to an offense which had been made comparatively mild, to a time of peace."There is no understating the seriousness of this regret, the suppression of slave trade was a global effort that had seen tremendous gains at the end of the Napoleonic wars. According to author Leonardo Marques, when Treaty of Paris in 1814, a compromise was made with the French to keep the slave trade open for five more years, it was met with outrage all over Europe. This outrage "triggered one of the most impressive abolitionist campaigns in history". These grassroots campaigns pushed both houses of Parliament in Great Britain to call for a reopening of the negotiations with France and the "Anti-slave-trade pressure as a central feature of British foreign policy was born". At the Congress of Vienna, Great Britain, Portugal, Spain and France all signed a treaty which included a section that the commerce, "known by the name of 'the Slave Trade', has been considered, by just and enlightened men of all ages, as repugnant to the principles of humanity and universal morality." Following these treaties, the United States also passed legislation in both 1818 and 1820 to make it easier to prosecute slave traders including capital punishment for the offense. Yet these efforts were not coordinated, and without the context of war, the British were unable to justify the capture and search of suspected slave ships as they had done during the years of war. And without this, it was difficult to enforce the laws meant to suppress the slave trade.
Beginning around 1817, the British entered into diplomatic treaties with the Netherlands, Portugal an Spain to allow for mutual right of search of vessels suspected of engaging in the slave trade. Given Britain's past efforts to impress sailors deemed British subjects who had fled the Royal navy, there was much suspect of British intentions. Both the French and the United States refused to establish any treaties that included the mutual right of search. Even though article 10 of the Treaty of Ghent had stipulated that the British and US coordinate on the suppression of slave trade, recent history of the Royal Navy impressing US and French soldiers was just too strong. In 1818, at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, it was proposed that a limited right of search be included among all the Great Powers to suppress the slave trade, but this too was opposed by the French. Without an agreement of mutual right of search, there could be no cooperative agreements on the suppression of slave trade. Thus to Monroe's disappointment, he would not see during his presidency a cooperative effort across the Atlantic Ocean to suppress the Slave trade. "It is a cause of serious regret"
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29466
The United States and the Transatlantic Slave Trade to the Americas, 1776-1867, Leonardo Marques, Yale University Press (2016) pgs. 91-95
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/ghent.asp
http://www.stateoftheunionhistory.com/2017/08/1820-james-monroe-african-slave-trade.html
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Group_of_men_and_women_being_taken_to_a_slave_market_Wellcome_V0050647.jpg
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