70 



former, by M. de Poletica, tlie Eussian minister at Washington, in an 

 official commiiiiicatiou dated January 30, 1822, addressed to John 

 Qiiiucy Adams, the Americau Secretary of State. Mr. Adams rei)lied, 

 under date of February 25, 1822, expressing, by direction of the Presi- 

 dent, his surprise at this " assertion of a territorial claim on the part 

 of Kussia extending to the fifty-hrst degree of north latitude on this 

 continent, and a regulation interdicting to all commercial vessels other 

 than Russian, under tlie penalty of seizure and confiscation, to 

 ai^proach upon the high seas within 100 Italian miles of the shore to 

 which that claim is made to apply." After observing that the exclu- 

 sion of the vessels of citizens of the United States from the shore 

 ''beyond the ordinary distance to which territorial jurisdiction 

 extends" had excited still greater surprise, he inquired whether the 

 Russian minister was authorized to give explanation of the grounds of 

 right, upon principles generally recognized by the laws and usages of 

 nations, which could warrant the action of Kussia. U. 8. Case, 

 Vol. 1, App.j 132. It is clear that Mr. Adams did not interpret the 

 Ukase as asserting jurisdiction over Bering Sea, except to the extent 

 of 100 Italian miles from the coasts specitied. Equally explicit were 

 the declarations of the American Minister at St. Petersburg, who in a 

 confidential memorandum sent to Mr. Adams, said: " The extension of 

 territorial rights to the distance of 100 Italian miles upon two opposite 

 continents, and the prohibition of approaching to the same distance 

 from those coasts, or from those of all the intervening islands, are 

 innovations on the law of nations, and measures unexampled." Amer- 

 ican State Papers, Vol. 5, p. 452. 



M. Poletica, February 28, 1822, replied at some length, in justifica- 

 tion of the edict promulgated by the Emperor of Russia. He recited 

 numerous facts which, in his judgment, sustained the claims of Russia 

 to the extent specified in the regulations for the Russian- Americau 

 Comj)any — resting the title of his Government upon first discovery, 

 first occupancy, and peaceable, uncontested jjossession for more than 

 half a century i^rior to the independence of the United States. In 

 respect to the territory claimed by Russia, he said that the Imperial 

 Government, in assigning for limits to the Russian i)ossessions on the 

 northwest coast of America, on the one side Bering Strait and on 

 the other the fifty-first degree of north latitude, has only made a mod- 

 erate use of an incontestable right, "since the Russian navigators, who 

 wore the first to explore that part of the American continent in 1711, 



