148 DIPLOMATIC CORKESPONDENCE. 



of the Russian Governmeut a full power aud instructions are now trans- 

 mitted to Mr. Middleton for the adjustment, l)y amicable negotiation, 

 of the conflicting- claims of the parties on this subject. 



We have been informed by the Baron de Tuyll that a similar author- 

 ity has been given on the part of the British Government to Sir Charles 

 Bagot. 



Pievious to the restoration of the settlement at the mouth of the 

 Columbia River in 1818, and again upon the first introduction into Con- 

 gress of the plan for constituting a Territorial government there, 

 some disposition was manifested by Sir Charles Bagot and Mr. Can- 

 ning to dispute the right of the United States to that establishment, 

 and some vague intimation was given of British claims on the North- 

 west Coast. The restoration of the place and the convention of 1818 

 were considered as a final disposal of Mr. Bagot's objections, and Mr. 

 Canning declined committing to paper those Avhicli he had intimated 

 in conversation. 



The discussion of the Russian pretensions in the negotiation now pro- 

 posed necessarily involves the interests of the three powers and renders 

 it manifestly proper that the United States and Great Britain should 

 come to a mutual understanding with respect to their respective preten- 

 sions, as well as upon their joint views with reference to those of Russia. 

 Copies of the instructions to Mr. Middleton are, therefore, herewith 

 transmitted to you, and the President wishes you to confer freelj- with 

 the British Government on the subject. 



Tlie principles settled by the Nootka Sound Convention of October 

 28, 1790, were— 



(1) That the rights of fishery in the south seas, of trading with the 

 natives of the Northwest Coast of America, and of making settlements 

 on the coast itself for the purposes of that trade, north of the actual 

 settlements of Spain, were common to all the European nations, and of 

 course to the United States. 



(2) Th.at so far as the actual settlements of Spain had extended she 

 possessed the exclusive rights, territorial and of navigation and fishery, 

 extending to the distance of 10 miles from the coasts so actually occu- 

 pied. 



(3) Thaton thecoastsof South America, and theadjacent islands south 

 of the parts already occux^ied by Spain, no settlement should thereafter 

 be made either by British or Spanish subjects, but on both sides should 

 be retained the liberty of landing and of erecting temporary buildings 

 for the purposes of the fishery. These lights were also, of course, en- 

 joyed by the people of the United States. 



The exclusive lights of Spain to any i^art of the American continents 

 have ceased. That portion of the convention, therefore, which recog- 

 nizes the exclusive colonial right of Spain on these continents, though 

 confirmed, as between Great Britain and Spain, by the first additional 

 article to the treaty of the 5th of July, ISll, has been extinguished by 

 the fact of the independence of the South American nation and of 

 IMexico. These independent nations Avill possess the rights incident to 

 that condition, and their territories will, of course, be subject to no 

 exclusive right of navigation in their A'icinity, or of access to them by 

 any foreign nation. 



A necessary consequence of this state of things will be that the 

 American continents lienceforth will no longer be subjects of coloniza- 

 tion. Occupied by civilized, independent nations, they will be acces- 

 sible to Eiiro])cans and to each other on that footing alone, ami the 

 Pacific Ocean in every part of it will remain open to the navigation of 

 all nations in like manner with the Atlantic. 



