148 ORAL ARGUMENT OF HON. EDWARD J. PHELPS. 



Now, Sir, there is stated, in tlie first place, in the very clear laTi.£fuaffe 

 of Mr. Adams, the Minister of the United States, exactly what it was 

 that the United States complained of in the Ukase of 1821 ; and pardon 

 me for pointing this out on the map with a little particularity, because 

 it is the statement of the controversy which you do not lind modified; 

 you find it talked about, discussed and rediscussed, and as I said made 

 perhaps more obscure in the course of the diplomatic correspondence. 

 He says Russia by the Ukase has claimed down to the 51st degree of 

 north latitude, thus fixing arbitrarily a boundary between lUissia and 

 the United States which had never been agreed upon by treaty, in this 

 new and comparatively undiscovered country that was princii)ally unoc- 

 cupied. He says: Yon have asserted without any agreement, as a 

 boundary, that which we cannot agree to; and then what? You have 

 excluded the Government of the United States and its citizens from 

 resorting to the shores afl'ected within 100 miles, and therefore you have 

 interfered with our rights. 



Now is it not clear in this case that at that time no United States 

 vessel had ever gone into the Behring Sea or gone up there [Indicating 

 on the plan] ? They had no settlements ; they had no trade, but they had 

 a trade that had begun to be important as you will remember from the 

 evidence along this shore [Indicating on the map]. What did Mr. 

 Adams mean when he said that the rights of the United States were 

 affected by exclusion from the shores, in the language I have just read? 

 Did he mean that they were excluding the United States from taking 

 fur-seals in the Pribilof Islands, or in Behring Sea? There is no sug- 

 gestion of such a thing. 



What is the reply of Mr. de Poletica to that. It will be found in the 

 following passage: 



I shall be more succinct, Sir, in the exposition of the motives which determined 

 the Imperial Government to prohibit foreign vessels from approaching the northwest 

 coast of America belonging to Russia within the distance of at least 100 Italian miles. 

 This measure, however severe it may at first appear, is, after all, but a measure of 

 prevention. It is exclusively directed against the culpable enterprises of foreign 

 adventurers, who, not content with exercising upon the coast above mentioned an 

 illicit trade very prejudicial to the rignts reserved entirely to the Russian-American 

 Company, take upon them besides to furnish arms and ammunition to the natives in 

 the Russian possessions in America, exciting them likewise in every manner to resist 

 and revolt against the authorities there established. 



The American Government doubtless recollects the irregular conduct of these 

 adventurers, the majority of whom was composed of American citizens. 



Has been the object of the most pressing remonstrances on the part of Russia to 

 the Federal Government from the time tliat Diplomatic Missions were organized 

 between the countries. 



Is it pretended there was ever a remonstrance from Eussia to the 

 interference of the United States vessels in Behring Sea? 

 Then the letter continues : 



« 



These remonstrances, repeated at different times, remain constantly without effect. 



Then it says: 



The Imperial Government saw itself under the necessity of having recourse to the 

 means of coercion, and of measuring the rigor according to the inveterate character 

 of the evil to which it wished to put a stop. 



In other words, this is what the Russian Minister says, if you inter 

 pret it by the language that is put into his mouth now: "The object of 

 this provision in the Ukase of 1821 is to put a stop to depredations in 

 Behring Sea which have become injurious, although nobody has ever 

 attempted to enter the sea at all." He would contradict himself, in the 

 language that he utters, if you attribute that language to the interior 



