In early 1871, the British government sent Sir John Rose to the United States to ascertain whether negotiations to settle the Northwestern boundary dispute would be acceptable to President Ulysses S. Grant.

President Grant appointed as U.S. commissioners Secretary of State Hamilton Fish, who was chairman, Robert Schenck, Ebenezer R. Hoar, George Henry Williams, Samuel Nelson, and J.C. Bancroft Davis.

Aside from the settlement of the dispute growing out of the so-called Alabama Claims, provision was made for the adjustment of the differences with regard to the northeastern fisheries by the appointment of a mixed commission to meet at Halifax and pass upon the relative value of certain reciprocal privileges granted each of the contracting parties.

[2] At Geneva, in 1872, the United States was awarded $15,500,000 pursuant to the terms of the treaty, and the British apologized for the destruction caused by the British-built Confederate ships but admitted no guilt.

[3][4][5] The lack of compensation from Canada greatly irritated Macdonald, but he nonetheless signed the treaty under the argument that he was a junior member of the British delegation[citation needed].

When it came time to debate the treaty in the House of Commons of Canada, he revealed that he had been secretly negotiating for a better deal and had obtained a cash payment from the Americans for the use of Canadian fishing grounds, and in lieu of any claim against the United States over the Fenians.