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Jonathan Russell Jonathan Russell served as an ambassador to England starting in 1811. Russell had the difficult task trying to negotiate a peaceful settlement with England. England was already at war with France and its decision to board American ships, kidnap their sailors, and press them into service of the Royal Navy could not be tolerated. There were issues of territorial expansion and hostile Indians being armed by the British. With the humiliation of the defeat by the United States in the War of Independence still in mind, British diplomats showed no willingness to cooperate with the American Ambassador to the Court of Saint James. The War of 1812 was officially over on December 24, 1814. With both sides exchanging victories and defeats, the war-weary British had simply had enough. Both sides agreed in the Treaty of Ghent to a status quo ante bellum: they allowed everything to be as it was before the war. The terms of agreement were negotiated by five highly skilled American commissioners: Jonathan Russell, John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, James Bayard, and Albert Gallatin. One of the positive outcomes was a new feeling of national pride and unity. The United States had once again stood up to the strongest military power in the world, and showed that it would not be pushed around.
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