97 



two nations to the intercourse with tlie northwestern coast of America 

 reached the Department of State a few clays since. The main points 

 determined by this instrument are, as far as I can collect from the 

 American Secretary of State, (1) the enjoyment of a free and unre- 

 stricted intercourse by each nation with all the settlements of tlie other 

 on the northwest coast of America, and (2) a stipulation that no 

 new settlements shall be formed by Eussia south, or by the United 

 States north, of latitude 54° 40'. The question of the mare clausum, 

 the sovereignty over which was asserted by the Emperor of Kussia 

 in his celebrated Ukase of 1821, but virtually, if not expressly, re- 

 nounced by a subsequent declaration of that sovereign, has, Mr. 

 Adams assures me, not been touched upon in the above-mentioned 

 treaty. Mr. Adams seemed to consider any formal stipulation record- 

 ing that renunciation as unnecessary and supererogatory." British 

 Case, Ajpp. Vol. 2, j). 66. 



It is to be observed, in reference to this letter, that it was written 

 many months i)rior to the interview with Baron Tuyll, and only a few 

 days after the treaty of 1824 had reached the United States Depart- 

 ment of State. Besides, if the writer of that letter understood Mr. 

 Adams to say that the question of free navigation and fishing by the 

 citizens and subjects of Eussia and the United States in the Pacific 

 Ocean had "not been touched upon in the treaty" of 1824, it is clear 

 that he must have wholly misapprehended the observations of the 

 American Secretary of State. The treaty, upon its face, shows just the 

 contrary. M. de Poletica, it Avill be remembered, at the very outset of 

 the negotiations between Eussia and the United States, expressly 

 waived the question of the right of Eussia to regard the whole sea 

 between the North American and Asiatic continents north of 51° 

 north latitude on one side and 45° north latitude on the other side, 

 as a " shut sea," and only insisted upon Eussia's right, as a means 

 of protecting its colonial industries and trade, to prevent foreign 

 vessels from coming nearer to her coasts that 100 Italian miles. If Mr. 

 Adams said to Mr. Addington that the question of mare clausum had 

 not been touched upon in the treaty of 1824 he meant only that the 

 question of mare clausum, or ''shut sea," as stated in its broadest 

 aspect, but expressly waived, by M. Poletica, had not been specifically 

 disposed of by that treaty. He could not have said that the right of 

 the subjects and citizens of the two countries to freely navigate and 

 fish in the open waters of the sea was left untouched by the treaty of 



1824. 



11492 7 



