The British commissioners the next day, August 20, sent an official note containing their demands, and the Americans before sending their reply forwarded the note to America, with despatches dated August 19 and 20, announcing that they intended to return “a unanimous and decided negative.”[22] They then undertook the task of drawing up their reply. Upon Adams as head of the commission fell the duty of drafting formal papers,--a duty which, without common consent, no other member could assume. His draft met with little mercy, and the five gentlemen sat until eleven o’clock of August 24, “sifting, erasing, patching, and amending until we were all wearied, though none of us was yet satiated with amendment.” At the moment when they gave final shape to the note which they believed would render peace impossible, the army of General Ross was setting fire to the Capitol at Washington, and President Madison was seeking safety in the Virginia woods. Only to persons acquainted with the difficulties of its composition did the American note of August 24 show signs of its diverse origin.[23] In dignified temper, with reasoning creditable to its authors and decisive on its issues, it assured the British negotiators that any such arrangement as they required for the Indians was contrary to precedent in public law, was not founded on reciprocity, and was unnecessary for its professed object in regard to the Indians. The other demands were equally inadmissible:-- “They are founded neither on reciprocity, nor on any of the usual bases of negotiation, neither on that of _uti possidetis_ nor of _status ante bellum_. They are above all dishonorable to the United States in demanding from them to abandon territory and a portion of their citizens; to admit a foreign interference in their domestic concerns, and to cease to exercise their natural rights on their own shores and in their own waters. A treaty concluded on such terms would be but an armistice.” The negotiators were ready to terminate the war, both parties restoring whatever territory might have been taken, and reserving their rights over their respective seamen; but such demands as were made by the British government could not be admitted even for reference.