15G ARGUMENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 



One material question very much discussed and considered, was the 

 right to be accorded to the United States in these fisheries. By the 

 treaty of 1783 between those countries, at the close of the Eevolutionary 

 War, certain lights in them had been conceded by Great Britain to her 

 colonies, whose independence was in that treaty admitted. When the 

 treaty of 1815 was made, it was claimed by Great Britain that the 

 treaty of 1783 had been abrogated by the subsequent war, and that the 

 right of the Americans to participate in the fisheries, granted by that 

 treaty, had by its abrogation been lost. The relative contentions of 

 the parties will be clearly seen by perusal of Mr. Adams's exhaustive 

 resume of the history and merits of the question, and from the citations 

 he adduced. (Pp. 106-109, 107-109, 184-185, 187-190.) 



It was contended by Great Britain and conceded by the United 

 States that all those fisheries, both within and without the line of ter- 

 ritorial jurisdiction, were previous to the Revolutionary War, the ex- 

 clusive property of Great Britain, as an appurtenant to its territory. 

 On this point there was no dispute, although the fisheries in question 

 extended in the open sea almost five degrees of latitude from the coast, 

 and along the whole northern coast of New England, Nova Scotia, the 

 Gulf of St. Lawrence, and Labrador. 1 



Upon this view, entertained by both nations and by all the eminent 

 diplomatists and statesmen who participated in making or discussing 

 these treaties, the contention turned upon the true construction of the 

 grant of fishing rights contained in the treaty of 1783. It was claimed 

 by the British Government that this was a pure grant of rights belong- 

 ing exclusively to (heat Britain, and to which the Americans could 

 have no claim, except so far as they were conferred by treaty. It was 

 contended on the other side, that the Americans, being British subjects 

 up to the time of the Revolutionary War, entitled and accustomed as 

 such to share in these fisheries, Uw acquisition of which from France 

 had been largely due to their valour and exertions, their right to par- 

 ticipate in them was not lost by the Revolution, nor by the change of 

 government which it brought about, when consummated by the treaty 

 of 1783. And that the provisions of that treaty on the subject were to 

 be construed, not as a grant of a new right, but as a recognition of the 

 American title still to participate in a. property that before the war was 

 common to both countries. Which side of this contention was right, 

 it is quite foreign to the present purpose to consider. It is enough to 



^or lull quotations from Mr. Adams, see Appendix, infra, pp. 187-189. 



