Robert Liston's main work during his stay in America was to implement the various clauses of the Treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation, negotiated by John Jay in 1796. Difficulties arose over the settling of the claims of the British merchants for debts left unpaid at the Revolution, and over the Maine boundary. Liston's dispatches describe the negotiations between the Americans and British about the island of Santo Domingo and also comment on internal American politics and society.