466 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



liis Govermneiit, concerning: the differences wliicli have arisen from the 

 Imperial Ukase of the 4th (iOth) September, 1821, rehitive to the north- 

 west coast of America, and of the answer from this Department acced- 

 ing to his proposal. A full power is accordingly inclosed, and you will 

 consider this letter as communicating to you the President's instructions 

 for the conduct of the negotiation. 



From the tenour of the Ukase, the pretensions of the Imperial Gov- 

 ernment extend to an exclusive territorial jurisdiction from the 45th 

 degree of north latitude, on the Asiatic coast, to the latitude of 51° 

 north on the western coast of the American Continent; and they assume 

 tlie right of interdicting the navigation and the fishery of all other 

 nations to the extent of ]0() 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 exercise 

 from" the earliest times, after the peace of 1783, throughout the whole 

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

 and exclusions of the territorial jurisdictions whicli, so far as Itussiau 

 rights are concerned, are confined to certains inlands north of the 55th 

 degree of latitude, and have no existence on the Continent of America. 



The correspondence between M. Poletica and this Dei)artment 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 Imi)erial Govern- 

 ment couhl not fiiil, upon a review of the measure, to revoke it alto- 

 gether. It did, however, excite nuich ])ublic animadversion in this 

 country, as the Ukase itself had already done in England. 1 inclose 

 herewith the "North American Keview" for October 181ili, No 37, which 

 contains an article (p. 370) written by a ]>erson fully master of the sub- 

 ject; and for the view of it taken in England, I refer yon to the 52ml 

 "number of the " (»>,uarterly Keview," the article u])oii Lieutenant Kotze- 

 bue's voyages. From the articles in the " North American lieview" it 

 will be seen that the rights of discovery, of occupancy, and of uncon- 

 tested possession, alleged by M. Poletica, are all without foundation 

 in fact. 



It does not appear that there ever has been a permanent Russian 

 settlement on this continent south of latitude 590; that of New Arch- 

 angel, cited by M. Poletica, in latitude 57° 30', being upon an island. 

 So far as i>rior discovery can constitute a foundation of right, the papers 

 which I have referred to ])rove that it belongs to the United States as 

 far as 51)o north, by the transfer to them of the rights of Spain. There 

 is, however, no ])artol" the globe where the mere fact of discovery couhl 

 be held to give weaker claims than on the north-west coast. "The 

 great sinuosity," says Humboldt, "formed by the coast between the 

 55th and (iOth parallels of latitude embraces discoveries nnule by Gali, 

 Behring, andTchirikoff, (,)uadra,Cook, LaPerouse, Malespier, and Van- 

 couver. No J^hiro])ean nation has yet formed an establishment upon the 

 immense extent of cost from Cape Mendosino to the 5yth degree of 

 latitude. Beyond that limit the llussian fiictories commence, most of 

 which are scattered and distant from each other, like the factories 

 established by the Eur()i)ean nations for tlie last three centuries on the 

 coast of Africa. Most of these little Pussian Colonies connnunicate 

 with each other only by sea, and the new denominations of Kussian 

 America, or Kussian i)ossessions in the new continent, must not lead us 

 to believe that the (joast of liehring Pay, the Peninsula of Alaska, or 

 the country of the ls(;hugatschi, have become Russian j5ro?'f««'.v in the 

 same sense given to the word when speaking of the Spanish provinces 



