After news arrived regarding the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, officially ending the War of 1812, Detroiters and Canadians threw a Grand Pacification Ball at the Steamboat Hotel (formerly called the Woodworth Hotel) on March 29, 1815 to show the world that there were no hard feelings. British officers from Fort Malden, the leading citizens of Detroit, and civilian dignitaries from the Canadian side of the river attended. The fiddles played late into the night, glasses were filled and emptied many times as toasts to peace and brotherhood rang out. Uncle Ben Woodworth put on a feast that banished all remembrances of the famine that was experienced the year before.
To celebrate the 200th anniversary a “Grand Pacification Ball” Commemorative Remembrance Event is scheduled for the Detroit Historical Museum, Detroit (March 28, 2015). Updates will be posted at http://www.michigan.gov/war1812 as details are developed.
Sources :
Frank Bury Woodford, Arthur M. Woodford, All Our Yesterdays: A Brief History of Detroit, Wayne State University Press, 1969, p.125.
Michigan Commission on the Commemoration of the Bicentennial of the War of 1812