CORRESPONDENCE OF 1822-1825. 149 



Incidental to the condition of national independence and sovereignty, 

 the rights of anterior navigation of their rivers will belong to each of 

 the American nations within its own territories. 



The application of colonial principles of exclnsion, therefore, can 

 not be admitted by the United States as lawful on any part of the 

 Northwest Coast of America, or as belonging to any European nation. 

 Their own settlements there, when organized as Territorial govern- 

 ments, will be adapted to the freedom of their own institutions, and, 

 as constituent parts of the Union, be subject to the principles and pro- 

 visions of their constitution. 



The right of carrying on trade with the natives throughout the North- 

 west Coast they (the United States) can not renounce. With the Eus- 

 sion settlements at Kodiak, or at New Archangel, tliey may fairly claim 

 the advantage of a free trade, having so long enjoyed it unmolested, and 

 because it has been and would continue to be as advantageous at least 

 to those settlements as to them. But they will not contest the right of 

 Eussia to prohibit the traffic, as strictly confined to the Eussian set- 

 tlement itself and not extending to the original natives of the coast. 



If the British Northwest and Hudson's Bay Companies have any 

 posts on the coast, as suggested in the article of the Quarterly Eeview, 

 above cited, the third article of the convention of October 20, 1818, is 

 applicable to them. Mr. Middleton is authorized by his instructions to 

 proi^ose an article of similar import, to be inserted in a joint convention 

 between the United States, Great Britain, and Eussia, for a term of ten 

 years from its signature. You are authorized to make the same pro- 

 posal to the British Government, and with a view to draw a definite 

 line of demarcation for the future, to stipulate that no settlement shall 

 hereafter be made on the Northwest Coast or on any of the islands 

 thereto adjoining by Eussian subjects south of latitude 55°, by citizens 

 of the United States north of latitude 51°, or by British subjects either 

 . south of 51° or north of 55°. I mention the latitude of 51° as the bound 

 within which we are willing to limit the future settlement of the United 

 States, because it is not to be doubted that the Columbia Eiver branches 

 as far north as 51°, although it is most probably not the Taconesciie 

 Tesse of Mackenzie. As, however, the line already runs in latitude 49° 

 to the Stony Mountains, should it be earnestly insisted upon by Great 

 Britain, we will consent to carry it in continuance on the same parallel 

 to the sea. Copies of this instruction will likewise be forwarded to Mr. 

 Middleton, with whom you will freely, but cautiously, corresi)ond on 

 this subject, as well as in relation to your negotiation respecting the 

 suppression of the slave trade. 



I have the honor to be, with great respect, sir, your very humble 

 obedient servant, 



John Quincy Adams. 



Hon. ElCHARD Eusii, 



Envoy Extraordinary and Minister 



Flenipotentiary of the United States, London. 



Mr. Middleton to Mr. Adams. 



[Extract.] 



No. 33.] St. Petersburg, Decenihcr 1 (13), 1823. 



Sir : I have prepared, and shall deliver in on the first fit occasion, for 

 his Imperial Majesty's inspection, a confidential memoir on the North- 



