94 



1825, and can, thorefore, quote the Anglo Russian treaty with the utmost 

 confidence that its meaning can not be clianged from that clear, unmis- 

 taliable text wliicb throughout all the articles sustains the American 

 contention. The Explanatory Note filed with this Government by Baron 

 Tuyllis so plain in its text that after the lapse of sixty-six years the exact 

 meaning can neither be misapprehended nor misrepresented. It draws 

 the distinction between the Pacific Ocean and the waters now known 

 as the Bering Sea so particularly and so perspicuously that no answer 

 can be made to it. It will bear the closest analysis in every particular. 

 It is not the intention of llussia to impede the free navigation of the 

 Pacific Ocean. This frank and explicit statement shows with what 

 entire good faith Russia had withdrawn in both treaties the offensive 

 Ukase of Alexander so far as the Pacific Ocean was made subject to it. 

 Another avowal is equally explicit, viz, that the coast of Siberia, the 

 nortliwest coast of America to 59° 30' north latitude — that is, down to 

 59° 30', the explanatory note reckoned from north to south — and the 

 Aleutian Islands are positively excepted from the liberty of hunting, 

 fishing, and commerce, stipulated in favor of citizens of the United 

 States for ten years." U. S. Case, Vol. I, App., 377, 278. 



It seems to- me that the interview between Baron Tuyll and Mr. 

 Adams is of far less consequence than that attached to it by Mr. Blaine. 

 Nor, in my judgment, are the inferences which he draws from it justi- 

 fied by the facts as disclosed by the Russian documents and by the 

 Diary of Mr. Adams. 



Recurring to the treaty of 1824, it will be remembered that Article 1 

 secured to the respective citizens and subjects of the contracting 

 powers freedom of navigation and fishing in every part of the Great 

 Ocean commonly called the Pacific Ocean, or South Sea, and also the 

 right to resort to coasts upon points not then occupied for the jjurpose 

 of trading with the natives, subject to or saving the restrictions and 

 conditions prescribed in the succeeding aricles. Among those con- 

 ditions M^ere: 1. By Article II, citizens of the United States should 

 not resort to any i^oint where there was a Russian establishment 

 without the permission of the Government or commander, and the 

 subjects of Russia should not resort, without permission, to any estab- 

 lishment of the United States upon the northwest coast. 2. By 

 Article III, neither the United States nor its citizens should form 

 any establishment upon the northwest coast of America, nor in the 

 islands adjacent, to the north of fifty-four degrees and forty minutes of 



