161 



by which it was incessantly assailed, they pursued their occupation in 

 small boats during the day, returned to their homes at night, and hauled 

 their craft above the reach and fury of the waves. They stated, also, 

 that the number of fishermen upon the island was nearly two hundred; 

 that they caught fi-oni ten to fifteen thousand quintals of fish annually, 

 about half of which were pickled and the remainder dried. The com- 

 mittee to whom the petition was referred made an adverse report, and 

 legislation in their behalf was refused. 



The embargo and other restrictive measures which preceded the 

 war of 1812 produced the most disastrous results in New England. 

 In 1808, and during the existence of the prohibitor}' acts, a number of 

 citizens of Boston petitioned Congress for liberty to export a quantity 

 of pickled and dried fish in their warehouses, and liable to rot or decay 

 if kept during the summer months. But the government declined 

 interference, and property of this description was allowed to perish in 

 most of the fishing towns, to the utter ruin of man}^ of its owners. 

 These losses were followed by others; and as the results of the policy 

 of our own rulers, as well as the seizure and confiscation of cargoes 

 of fish in ports of Europe under the memorable decrees of Napoleon, 

 the distresses of all classes of persons engaged in the catching and 

 curing the products of the sea became in the end general and alarming. 



During the war with England, the distant fishing grounds were aban- 

 doned. The British colonists determined that we should never occupy 

 them more. The duties which devolved on Messrs. Adams, Clay, 

 Gallatin, Bayard, and Russell, the American commissioners at Ghent, 

 were consequently difficult and arduous. On the one hand, they were 

 expected to arrange conditions of peace, and yet were instructed, in 

 terms which admitted of no discretion, to break off their consultations 

 and return home, rather than allow the subject of surrendering the fish- 

 eries to come under discussion; on the other hand, the British plenipo- 

 tentiaries met them with the doctrine that the privileges were entirely 

 destroyed by hostilities. " These gentlemen," said the late President 

 Adams, " after commencing the negotiations with the loftiest pretensions 

 of conquest, finally settled down into the determination to keep Moose 

 island* and the fisheries to themselves. This was the object of their 

 deepest solicitude. Their efforts to obtain our acquiescence in their 

 pretensions, that the fishing liberties had been forfeited by the war, 

 were unwearied. They presented it to us in every form that ingenuity 

 could devise. It was the first stumbling-block and the last obstacle to 

 the conclusion of the treaty." t 



* Moose island, in the Bay of Passamaquoddy, and former name of Eastport. This town 

 was captured in July, 1814, and retained for more than three years aft^r the peace. On the 

 3Uth of June, 1818, it was surrendered to the United States with imposing forms and cere- 

 monies, 



t The following letter, addressed by John Adams to President Madison during the negoti- 

 ations at Ghent, is derived from an authentic source : 



QuiNcv, November 28, 1814. 



Dear Sir ; When my son departed for Russia, I enjoined upon him to write nothing to me 

 which he was not willing should be published in French and English newspapers. He has very 

 scrupulously observed the rule. 



I have been equally reserved in my letters to him ; but the principle on both sides has been 

 to me a cruel privation, for his correspondence when absent, and his conversation when present 

 has been a principal enjoyment of my life. 

 11 



