106 ORAL ARGUMENT OF JAMES C. CARTER, ESQ. 



certain tiling, meaning by it that it has the j^OiT^;?- to do a certain thing. 

 We sometimes speak of the Jurisdiction of a municipal officer merely to 

 describe the pon-er of tlie oflicer. We say tliat a taxing officer has tlie 

 jnrisdiction to assess persons for taxation. We mean that he has the 

 poicer to do it, and that is all we mean. "Jurisdiction" has no proper 

 application to such an authority as tliat; and it is from this ambiguous 

 nse of tliis word that mucli of the doubt and difficulty respecting the 

 subject have arisen. 



What has been the claim of the United States in the course of this 

 controversy in respect to the nature of the authority acquired by 

 Enssia in Bering Sea, and of the rights which Kussia had gained in 

 that sea, and the riglits the United States has, consequently, gained 

 by the acquisition of Alaska from her"? Has the United States ever 

 maintained at any tune in the course of this controversy that Eussia 

 liad acquired a dominion over Bering Sea, as if that sea were a part of 

 her territory and that the United States had, in consequence, as the 

 successor of Eussia, acquired such right as tliatf Has the United 

 States ever made any such claim as tluit? i^Tever. At no time in the 

 course of this controversy has it ever made any claim of that sort, or 

 hinted a claim of that sort. It has always put its case upon other and 

 very dilferent grounds; namely, that Eussia had property interests — 

 interests in the nature of colonial trade and other industries — carried 

 on on the shores of Bering Sea, which gave her a right to adopt pro- 

 tective measures which might be operative, indeed, over a reasonable 

 extent of the sea as defensive measures; and that such a right as that 

 the United States has also, not because it acquired it from Eussia — 

 because it would have it without any such acquisition; the only aid 

 that it has asserted as having been derived from Eussia was the fact 

 that Eussia had established tliese protective regulations in Bering Sea, 

 and that other nations of the world, including Great Britain, had acqui- 

 esced in them; and that Great Britain was not now in a condition to 

 complain of them. 



It has been, however, the eftbrt — I sny the effort; I suppose it has 

 been the belief— of the learned counsel who have had the interests of 

 Great Britain in charge, to impute to the United States the position of 

 asserting that they had derived from Russia a dominion in Bering Sea — 

 a sovereign dominion over that sea. That position has been imputed to 

 the United States in the Case of Great Britain, and industriously 

 imputed to it. I do not think there has ever been any good foundation 

 for that. 



In the Case of Great Britain, page 134, there is a quite formal state- 

 ment of the several positions which, acc<mhng to that Case, the United 

 States have taken in reference to this controversy. I read fi'om that: 



The facts stated iu this chapter show that the original ground upon which the ves- 

 sels seized in 1886 and 1887 were condemned, was that L5ehring Sea was a ruare 

 clansum, an inhuul sea, and as such had been couveii ed iu part by Russia to the United 

 States : that this ground was subseijuently entirely abandoned, but a claini was then 

 made to exclusive jurisdiction over one hundred miles from the coast line of the 

 United States territory: that, subsequently, a further claim has been set up, to the 

 effect that the United States have property in and a right of protection over, fur- 

 seals in non-Territorial waters. 



That is the description in the Case of Great Britain of the positions 

 which have been from time to time taken by the United States in refer- 

 ence to this controversy. It is a total error. As to the first part of it, 

 there is to a certain extent, a foundation for the statement. The first 

 part is "that the original ground upon which the vessels seized in 1886 

 and 1887 were condemned was that Behring Sea was a mare clausum, an 



