93 



"This seems to be only a natural consequence ot lue stipulations 

 agreed upon, for tlie coasts of Siberia are washed by the Sea of 

 Okhotsk, the Sea of Kamschatka, and the Icy Sea, and not by the 

 South Sea mentioned in the first article of the convention of April 5 

 (17), 1824. The Aleutian Islands are also washed by the Sea of Kam- 

 schatka, or Northern Ocean. 



"It is not the intention of Eussia to impede the free navigation of 

 the Pacific Ocean. She would be satisfied with causing- to be recog- 

 nized, as well as understood and placed beyond all manner of doubt, 

 the ininciple that beyond 59° 30' no foreign vessel can apjiroach her 

 coasts and her islands, nor fish nor hunt within the distance of two 

 marine leagues. This will not i)revent the recei^tion of foreign vessels 

 which have been damaged or beaten by storm." U. S. Case, Vol. 1, A})i).^ 

 275 \ Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, Vol. 6, p. 435. 



In respect to these matters Mr. Blaine observed : "Of course his 

 (Baron Tuyll's) act at that time did not afiect the text of the treaty 

 but it placed in the hands of the Government of the United States an 

 unofficial note which significantly told what Eussia's construction of 

 the treaty would be if, unhappily, any difterence as to its meaniu"- 

 should arise between the two governments. But Mr. Adams' friendly 

 intimation removed all danger of dispute, for it conveyed to Eussia the 

 assurance that the treaty as negotiated contained, in eflfecjt, the pro- 

 visions which the Eussian note was designed to supply. From that 

 time until Alaska, with all its rights of land and water, was trans- 

 ferred to the United States — a period of forty-three years — no act or word 

 on the part of either government ever imj)eached the full validity of the 

 treaty as it was understood both by Mr. Adams and Baron Tuyll at the 

 time it was formally proclaimed. While these important matters were 

 transpiring in Washington negotiations between Eussia and England 

 (ending in the treaty of 1825) were in progress in St. Petersburg. The 

 instructions to Baron Tuyll concerning the Eussian-American treaty 

 were fully reflected in the care with which the Anglo-Eussian treaty 

 was constructed — a fact to which I have already adverted in full. 

 There was, indeed, a possibility that the true meaning of the treaty with 

 the United States might be misunderstood, and it was, therefore, the 

 evident purpose of the Eussian Government to make the treaty with 

 England so plain and so clear as to leave no room for doubt and to 

 baffle all attempts at misconstruction. The Government of the United 

 States finds the full advantage to it in the caution taken by Eussia in 



