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Eelylng upon the assurance in your note of similar dispositions recip- 

 rocally entertained by His Imperial Majesty towards the Uuitea 

 States, the President is persuaded that the citizens of this Union will 

 remain unmolested in the prosecution of their lawl'ul commerce, and 

 that no effect will be given to an interdiction manifestly iucomx^atible 

 with their rights." U. 8. Case, Vol. 1, App., 134. 



Mr. Middleton, the American minister at St. Petersburg, writing to 

 Mr. Adams under date of August 8, 1822, said: "To Mr. Speransky, 

 Governor-General of Siberia, who had been one of the committee origi- 

 nating this measure, I stated my objections at length. He informed 

 me that the first intention had been (as M. Poletica afterward wrote 

 you) to declare the northern portion of the Pacific Ocean as mare 

 clausum, but that idea being abandoned, probably on account of its 

 extravagance, they determined to adopt the more moderate measure of 

 estahlishing limits to tlie maritime jurisdiction on their coasts, such as 

 should secure to the Russian American Fur Company the monopoly of 

 the very lucrative traffic they carry on. In order to do this they 

 sought a precedent and found the distance of 30 leagues named in the 

 treaty of Utrecht, and which may be calculated at about 100 Italian 

 miles, sufficient for all purposes. I replied ironically that a still better 

 l^recedent might have been i)ointed out to them in the papal bull of 

 1493, which established as a line of demarcation between the Spaniards 

 and Portuguese a meridian to be drawn at the distance of 100 miles 

 west of the Azores, and that the expression 'Italian miles' used in the 

 Ukase, very naturally might lead to the conclusion that this was actually 

 the precedent looked to. He took my remarks in good part, and I am 

 disposed to think that this conversation led him to make reflections 

 which did not tend to confirm his first impressions^ for I found him 

 afterward at ditfcreut times speaking confidentially upon the subject. 

 For some time past I began to perceive that the provisions of the Ukase 

 would not be persisted in. It appears to have been signed by the 

 Emj)eror M'ithout sufficient examination, and may be fairly considered 

 as having been surreptitiously obtained. There can be little doubt, 

 therefore, that with a little patience and management it will be molded 

 into a less objectionable shape." U. S. Case, Vol. 1, App. 136. 



But this is not at all. Mr, Adams, writing to Mr. Middleton, under 

 date of July 22, 1823, said: "From the tenor of the Ukase the pre- 

 tensions of the Imperial Government extend to an exclusive territorial 

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