T11K \VIIAI, I'; FISI1URY. HT) 



"France also sought the aid of Spain, and that power was give.n to understand that in the linal 

 treaty of peace between the United Slates and England, they, too, would necessarily have snnie 

 voice. Vergennes, in October (177S), slated, as the only stipulations which France, would require, 

 that in the final negotiations Hie treaty of Utrecht must be either wholly continued or entireh 

 annulled; that she must lie allowed to restore the harbor of Dunkirk ; and that she must be allowed 

 ; the coast of Newfoundland, from Cape I.onavistu t;i Cape St. John, with the exclusive fishery 

 from Cape Bouavista to Point Uiche.'* By a treaty made, with Spain, April 12, 1779, France 

 bound herself to attempt the invasion of Great Britain or Ireland, and to share only with Spain 

 the North American fisheries, in case she succeeded in driving the Finnish from Newfoundland. 



"These discussions (as to the terms (o be embraced in the linal treaty of peace) were necessary 

 pending the question of an alliance with France aiwl Spain against linn-land. When the subject 

 of frontiers was brought up, France, while yielding all claim to the provinces of Canada and Nova 

 Scotia, which for years had been hers, joined heartily with Spain in opposing the manifest desire 

 of the Americans to secure them. Two States persisted in the right and policy of acquiring them, 

 but Congress, as a body, deferred to the French view of the subject . ' With regard to the fisheries, 

 of which the interruption formed one of the elements of the war, public law had not yet been 

 settled.' By the treaty of Utrecht, France agreed not to fish within JO leagues of the coast of 

 Nova Scotia; and by that of Paris, not to fish within 15 leagues of Cape Breton. Moreover. 

 New England at the beginning of the. war had, by act of Parliament, been debarred from fishing 

 on the banks of Newfoundland. * * ' The fishery on the high seas,' so Vergennes expounded 



the law of nations, 'is as free as the sea, itself, and it is superfluous to discuss the right of the 

 Americans to it. But the coast fisheries belong of right to the proprietary of the coast. Therefore 

 the fisheries on the coasts of Newfoundland, of Nova Scotia, of Canada, belong exclusively to the 

 Knglish ; and the Americans have no pretensions whatever to share in them.'t In vain the 

 United States urged that the colonies, almost exclusively, had improved the coast fisheries, and 

 considered that immemorial and sole improvement was practical acquisition. In vain they insisted 

 that New England men, and New England money, and New England brains had effected the first 

 conquest of Cape Breton, and were powerful aids to the subsequent conquest of Nova Scotia and 

 Canada, and hence they had acquired at least a perpetual joint propriety. To their arguments 

 Vergenues replied that the conquests were made not for the colonies but for the crown, and when 

 New England dissolved its allegiance, to that crown she renounced her right to the coast fisheries. 

 In the end the United States were, obliged to succumb ; they had asked aid from foreign powers, 

 and they must yield, so far as was practicable, to the demands those powers made. These conces- 

 sions were a portion of the price of independence. 



"A committee! was appointed by Congress to definitely arrange upon what terms the future 

 treaty of peace with England should be finally consummated, and in February, 1779, they reported 

 that Spain manifested a disposition to form an alliance with the United States, hence indepen- 

 dence was an eventual certainty. On the question of lishing they reported that the right should 

 belong properly to the United States, France, and Great Britain in common. This portion of tin- 

 report was long under discussion in Congress, and it was finally voted that the common right of 

 the United States to fish on the coasts, bays, and banks of Xewfonndland and Gulf of Saint Law- 

 rence, the Straits of Labrador, and Belle Isle should in no case be given up.' Under a vote to 



"BancrofVa 1. s . x, p. IM." " t Bancroft's U. S., x, pp. 



'{ (Jimvenifiir Morris, ofNe\1 5Tork; i;iul-, of Xorlli Carolina ; Wil lii-iHpocui, ol'IS'nv ,lcrsi-\ ; Smniirl Adams, "I 

 Massachusetts, and Smith, of Virginia. (Bancroft's U. S., x. p. -'13.)" 

 "$ Bancroft's U.S..X, p. VJ1:J." 



