224 DIPLOMATIC CORKESPONDENCE. 



CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO THE JURISDICTIONAL RIGHTS 

 INBERINO-SEA FORMERLY POSSESS 3D BY RUSSIA AINTD TRANS- 

 FERRED TO THE UNITED STATES BY THE TREATY OF 1867. 



Mr. Blaine to Sir Julian Faimcefote. 



Department of State, 



Washington, June 30, 1890. 

 Sir: On tlie 5th instant yon read to me a dispatch from Lord Salis- 

 bnry dated May 22, and by his instruction yon left with me a copy. His 

 lordsliip writes in answer to my dispatch of the 22d January last. At 

 that tiiue, writing to yonrself touching the current (Muitenticni between 

 the Governments of the United States and Great Britain as to the Ju'is- 

 dicticni of the former over the waters of the Bering Sea, I made the fol- 

 lowing statement: 



The Governmeut of tho United States has no occasion and no desire to withdraw or 

 modify the positions which it has at any time luaiutaiued against the chiinis of the 

 Imperial Government of Russia. Tlie United States will not withhold from any nation 

 the ])rivileges which it demanded for itself when Alaska was })art of the Russian 

 Empire. Nor is the Goverumeut of the United Stiites disposed to exercise any less 

 power or authority than it was willing to concede to the Imperial Government of 

 Russia when its sovereignty extended over the territory in question. The President 

 is persuaded that all friendly nations will concede to the United States the same rights 

 and privileges on the lands and in the waters of Alaska which the same friendly 

 nations always conceded to the Empire of Russia. 



In answer to this declaration Lord Salisbnry contends that Mr. John 

 Quincy Adams, when Secretary of State nnder President JNIonroe, pro- 

 tested against the jnrisdiction which Russia claimed over the waters of 

 Bering Sea. To maintinn this position his lordship cites the words 

 of a dispatch of Mr. Adams, written on July 23, 1823, to Mr. Henry 

 Middleton, at that time our minister at St. Petersburg. The alleged 

 declarations and admissions of Mr. Adams in tliat disi)atch have been 

 the basis of all the arguments whicli Her Majesty's Government has 

 snbmitted against the ownership of certain properties in the Behring Sea 

 which the Government of the United States confidently assumes. I 

 quote the portion of Lord Salisbury's argument which includes the quo- 

 tation from Mr. Adams: 



After Russia, at the instance of the Russian American Fur Company, chiiined in 

 1X21 the pnrsuits of commerce, whaling, and tishing from Behring Strait to the lifty- 

 tirst degree of north latitude, and not only prohibited all foreign vessels from landing 

 on the coasts and islands of the above waters, but also prevented them from ap- 

 proaching within 100 miles thereof, Mr. Quincy Adams wrote as follows to the United 

 Staites Minister in Russia: 



"The United States can admit no part of these claims; the right of navigation and 

 fishing is perfet;t, and has b(!eu in constant exercise from tlie earli(!St times through- 

 out the whole extent of the Soutliern Ocean, subject only to the ordinary exceptions 

 and exclusions of the territorial jurisdictions." 



The quotation which Lord Salisbnry makes is nnfortnnately a most 

 defective, erroneous, and misleading one. The conclusion is separated 

 from the premise, a comma is turned into a period, an important quali- 

 fication as to time is entirely erased without even a suggestion that it 

 had ever formed part of the text, and out of eighty-four Avords, logically 

 and inseparably con uec'ied, thirty-five are drop])ed fVom Mr. Adams's 

 l)aragrai)h in Lord Salisbury's quotation. No edition of Mr. Adams's 

 work gives authority for his lordship's quotation; while the iichives of 

 this i)epartraeut plainly disclose its many errors, I requote Lord 



