134 DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



Mr. Adams to M. de Foletica. 



Departjvient of State, 

 Washington, March 30, 1822. 



Sir : I have had the honor of receiving your letter of the 28th ultimo, 

 which has beeu submitted to the consideration of the President of the 

 United States. 



From the deduction which it contains of the grounds upon which 

 articles of regulation of the Enssian- American Company have now, for 

 the first time, extended the claim of Russia on the northwest coast of 

 America to the fifty-first degree of north latitude, its only foundation 

 appears to be the existence of the small settlement of Novo Archangelsk, 

 situated, not on the American continent, but upon a small island in 

 latitute 57°; and the principle upon which you state that this claim is 

 now advanced is, that the fifty-first degree is equidistant from the 

 settlement of Novo Archangelsli and the establishment of the United 

 States at the mouth of the Columbia Eiver. But, from the same state- 

 ment, it appears that, in the j^ear 1799, 'the limits prescribed by the 

 Emperor Paul to the Russian-American Company were fixed at the fifty- 

 fifth degree of latitude, and that, in assuming now the latitude 57°, a 

 new pretension is asserted, to which no settlement made since the year 

 1799 has given the color of a sanction. 



This pretension is to be considered not only with reference to the 

 question of territorial right, but also to that prohibition to the vessels 

 of other nations, including those of the United States, to approach 

 within 100 Italian miles of the coasts. From the period of the existence 

 of the United States as an independent nation, their vessels have freely 

 navigated those seas, and the right to navigate them is a part of that 

 independence. 



With regard to the suggestion that the Russian Government might 

 have justified the exercise of sovereignty over the Pacific Ocean as a 

 close sea, because it claims territory both on its American and Asiatic 

 shores, it may suffice to say that the distance from shore to shore on 

 this sea, in latitude 51° north, is not less than 90° of longitude, or 4,000 

 miles. 



As little can the United States accede to the justice of the reason as- 

 signed for the prohibition above mentioned. The right of the citizens 

 of the United States to hold commerce with the aboriginal natives of 

 the northwest coast of America, without the territorial jmisdiction of 

 other nations, even in arms and munitions of war, is as clear and indis- 

 putable as that of navigating the seas. That right has never been ex- 

 ercised in a spirit unfriendly to Russia; and although general com- 

 plaints have occasionally been made on the subject of this commerce 

 by some of your ijredecessors, no specific ground of charge has ever 

 been alleged hy them of any transaction in it which the United States 

 were, by the ordinary laws and usages of nations, bound either to re- 

 strain or to punish. Had any such charge been made, it would have 

 received the most pointed attention of this Government with the sin- 

 cerest and firmest disposition to perform every act and obligation of 

 justice to yours which could have been required. I am commanded by 

 the Piesident of the United States to assure you that this disposition 

 will continue to be entertained, together with the earnest desire that 

 the harmonious relations bet>yeen the two countries mny be preserved. 



Relying upon the assurance in your note of similar dispositions 

 reciprocally entertained by His Imperial Majesty towards the United 



