17 



age ; therefore it is the duty of the government of the United States 

 at once to take such action as will protect the fishing interest and 

 render it safe for the fishermen to pursue their lawful business ; and, 

 whereas, the action of the United States, by treaties known as recip- 

 rocity treat}' of 1854 and Washington treaty, 1871, modified the rights 

 of our fishermen materially, sacrificed their interests in both treaties, to 

 their great injury, we heartily approve the action of the government 

 in terminating those treaties, and we are decidedly opposed to making 

 any treat}' with Great Britain having like provisions in relation to 

 our fisheries. That the only effects of the provisions of those trea- 

 ties have been to damage our own interests and foster and encourage 

 those of the British Provinces, and the government of the United 

 States, instead of adopting a policy such as is pursued h$ all nations 

 toward their fisheries, has taken from our fishermen that encourage- 

 ment which for mam* years was given them by bounties and other- 

 wise, and have brought our fishermen into unjust competition with the 

 fisheries of the British government, which government gives her fish- 

 eries support, which our government withholds from ours ; we there- 

 fore request that the government of the United States will take 

 prompt action and restore to our fishermen rights taken from them 

 by the treaty of 1818, or provide for them a full, just compensation 

 therefor, and that the government will return at once to its early pol- 

 icy of aiding and encouraging our fisheries, which all governments 

 have found necessary to secure their successful prosecution, and rec- 

 ognize the importance of this national industiy. 



Capt. Fitz J. Babson was then called upon for information in re- 

 gard to the subject, and delivered the following address : 



The treaty of 1783, by which the independence of the United 

 States was established, is interesting, as affording proof of the great 

 interest taken in the fisheries by the American Commissioners, John 

 Adams, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay and Henry Laurens. It was 

 doubtless the intention of that treaty to secure to the American na- 

 tion their territorial rights, both upon land and sea, and the defini- 

 tion of our landed boundaries were not more explicit than the rights 

 secured by that treaty for our fishermen both upon the ocean and in 

 the waters adjacent to the Provinces. The concession by Great Brit- 

 ain was genuine, and while with her ordinary assumption she gave us 

 the right to fish on the Grand Bank and other banks of Newfound- 



