468 APPENDIX TO CASE OF GKEAT BRITAIN. 



sian Settlemeut at Kodialc, and with the agents of the Eussian- Ameri- 

 can Ooni[)any, had been made by Connt Romanzoff under the impres 

 siou that they woiihl be as advantageous to the interests uf the United 

 States as to tliose of Itussia. 



It is necessary now to say that this impression was erroneous. That 

 the trathc of the citizens of tlie United States with the natives of tlie 

 uorth-west coast was neither claitdt.stine, nor unhiwlul, nor irregular. 

 That it had been enjcjyed many years before the Kussian-American 

 Company existed, and tliat it interfered witli no lawful right or claim 

 of Russia. 



This trade has been shared also by the English, French, and Portu- 

 guese. In the i)rosecution of it, the J*viiglish ^Settlement of Kootka 

 Sound was made, which occasioned thedilferences between Great Brit- 

 ain and Si)aiii in 1789 and 17JJ0, ten years before the Russian- American 

 Company was first chartered. 



It was in the prosecution of this trade that the American Settlement 

 at the mouth of the Columbia River was made in 1811, which wastalcen 

 by the British during the late war, and formally restored to them on 

 the (>th October, 1818. By the Treaty of the I'l'iul February, 1810, 

 with Spain, the United States ac(piired all the rights of Spain ncu'th of 

 latitude 4i;°; and by the llird Article of the Convention between the 

 United States and Great Britain of the I'Uth October, 1818, it was 

 agreed that any country that might be claimed by either party on the 

 uorth-west coast of America, westward of the Stony Mountain, should, 

 together with its harbours, bays, and creeks, and the navigation of all 

 rivers within the same, be free and open for the term often years from 

 that date, to the vessels, citizens, and subjects of the two Powers, with- 

 out prejiulice to the cluims of either party or of any other State. 



You are authorized to juopose an Article of the same import for a 

 term of ten years from a signature of a .Joint Convention between the 

 United States, Gicat Britain, and Russia. 



The right of the United States from the Ilind to the 49th jtarallel of 

 latitude on the Pacitic; Ocean we consider as uu<iuestiomib]e, being- 

 founded (1) on the acquisition by the Treaty of tlie l!2nd February, 

 1819, of all the rights of Spain; (2) by the discovery of the Cohunbia 

 River, first, from sea at its nu)uth, and then by land by Lewis and 

 Clarke; an<l (.">) by the Settlement at its moutii in 181 1. This territory 

 is to the United States of an imi)ortance which no ])ossession in North 

 America can be of to any I^uropean naticui, not only as it is, but the 

 continuity of their i)ossessions from the Atlantic to the Pacilic Ocean, 

 but as it offers tlieir inhabitants the means of establishing hereafter 

 water conununications iVoin the one to the otluu*. 



It is notconceivable that any possession upon the Continent of Nortli 

 America should be of use or importance to Russia for any otlier pur- 

 pose than that of tratlic with the natives. This was, in fact, th<' indu(;e- 

 ment to the formation of tlie Russian American Coini)any, and to the 

 Charter granted them by the Emi)eror Paul. It was the inducement 

 to the Ukase of the Emperor Alexander. By otfering free and equal 

 access for a term of years to navigation and intercourse Mith the natives 

 to Russia, within the limits to which our claims are indisputable, 

 6 we concede much more than we obtain. It is not to be doubted 



that, long before the expiration of that time, our Settlement at 

 the mouth of tin; Columbia River will become so considerable as to ofter 

 means of uscrul and commercial intercourse with the Russian Settle- 

 ments on the islands of the north-west coast. 



