Technical Diplomacy

Unlike, say, the Declaration of Independence, you won't see any flowery passages about the meaning of life in the Treaty of Ghent. This document is about hammering out a simple agreement, not declaring values or ideas. No "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" stuff.

The Treaty uses direct and specific language to describe the conditions of a new peace between the United States and Britain. Its primary purpose is to create a legal document that's bullet-proof to reinterpretation. Aside from some niceties between the parties, who promise to be friends and equals (Intro.1), there isn't much poetry going on here.

That's why you get rambling passages like the second Article: "It is reciprocally agreed that all vessels and effects which may be taken after the space of twelve days from the said Ratifications upon all parts of the Coast of North America from the Latitude of twenty three degrees North to the Latitude of fifty degrees North, and as far Eastward in the Atlantic Ocean as the thirty sixth degree of West Longitude from the Meridian of Greenwich, shall be restored on each side" (II.1).

Riveting, right?

Using specific latitudes and longitudes as reference points for the process is an example of specificity. You didn't want further arguments to erupt over something that was vague or open to interpretation, like the ending of Inception.