40 CASE OF GRKAT BRITAIN. 



As to the right claimed for the citizens of the United States of trad- 

 ing with the natives of the country of the north-west coast of America, 

 without the limits of the jurisdiction belonging to Russia, the Imperial 

 Government will not certainly tliink of limiting it, and still less of 

 attacking it there. But I cannot disscmlde, sir, that this same trade 

 beyond the 51st degree will meet with difficulties and inconveniences, 

 for which the American owners will only have to accuse their own 

 imprudence after the ]inl)licity wliicli has been given to the measures 

 taken by the Imperial Government for maintaining the rights of the 

 Russian-American Company in their absolute integrity. 



I siiall not tinish tliis letter, without repeating to you, sir, the very 

 positive assurance which I have already had the honour onceof express- 

 ing to you that in every case where the American Government shall 

 judge it necessary to make explanations to that of the Emperor, 

 50 the President of the United States may rest assured that these 

 explanations will always be attended to by the Emperor, my 

 august Sovereign, with the most friendly and consequently the most 

 conciliatory, dispositions. 



On the 22nd July, 1823, Mr. Adams wrote to Mr. Mid- 

 dleton, tlie United States Minister at St. Petersburg, as 

 follows: 



50th Cong., 2iul From the tenour of the Ukase, the pretenti iisof the Imperial Gov- 

 Sess., Senate Ex. ej-nment extend to an exclusive territorial jurisdiction from the 45th 

 210? " ^' degree of north latitude, on the Asiatic coast, to the latitude of 51 



See Appenilix, north on the western coast of the American Continent ; and tliey assume 

 ■vol. ii. Part II, the right of interdicting the navigation and the fishery of all other 

 ^o.ii. nations to the extent of 100 miles from the whole of that coast. 



The United States can admit no part of these claims. Their right 

 of navigation and of fishing is perfect, and has been in constant exer- 

 cise from the earliest times, after the Peace of IT.So, throughout the 

 whole extent of the Southern Ocean, subject only to the ordinary 

 exceptions and exclusions of the territorial jurisdictions, which, so far 

 as Russian rights are concerned, are confined to certain islands north 

 of the 55th degree of latitude, and have no existence on the Continent 

 of America. 



The correspondence between M. Poletica and this Department con- 

 tained no discussion of the principles or of the facts upon which he 

 attempted the justification of the Imperial Ukase. This was purposely 

 avoided on our part, under the expectation that the Imperial Govern- 

 ment could not fail, upon a review of the measure, to revoke it alto- 

 gether. It did, however, excite much public animadversion in this 

 country, as the Ukase itself had already done in England. I inclose 

 herewith the North American Review for October, 1822, No. 37, which 

 contains an article (p. 370) written by a jjcrson fully master of the 

 subject; and for the view of it taken in England I refer you to the 

 52ud number of the Quarterlj^ Review, the article u])ou Lieutenant 

 Kotzebue's voyages. From the article in the North American Review 

 it "Will be seen that the rights of discovery, of occupancy, and of 

 uncontested possession, alleged by M. Poletica, are all without foun- 

 dation in fact. 



* :Jf * ii ^ 



Mr. Middleton, writing to the Secretary of State of the 

 United States, on the 1st December, 1823, inclosed a con- 

 fidential memorial which thus dealt with the claim (which 

 is properly regarded by him as an attempt to extend terri- 

 torial jurisdiction upon the theory of a shut sea and 

 having no other basis) : 



American state The extension of territorial rights to tlie distance of 100 miles 



Papers, Foreign 5^ from the coasts upon two opposite continents, and the jirohihi- 



Ke^ations, vol. v, ^j^^^ ^^^ ai)proachiug to the same distance from these coasts, or 



See Appendix, from those of all the intervening islands, ar(( innovations in the lav 



vol. ii, Part II, of mitions, and measures unexam])l(^d. It must thus bo innigined 



^°* 5- that this prohibition, bearing the ])ains of conliscation, ai)p]ies to a 



long line of coasts, with the intermediate islands, situated in vast 



seas, where the navigation is sul)ject to innumerable and unknown 



difhculties, and where the chief employment, which is the whale 



fishery, cannot be compatible with a regulated and well-determined 



course. 



