JURISDICTIONAL RIGHTS IN BERING SEA. 229 



parallel, and it remained in dispute between Great Britain and tlie United 

 States until its final adjustment by the " Oregon treaty," negotiated by 

 Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Pakenham under the administration of Mr. Polk 

 in 1846. 



The Government of the United States has steadily maintained that in 

 neither of these treaties with Eussia was there any attempt at regulating 

 or controlling, or even asserting an interest in, the Eussian possessions 

 and the Behring Sea, which lie far to the north and west of the terri- 

 tory which formed the basis of the contention. This conclusion is in- 

 disputably proved by the protocols which were signed during the prog- 

 ress of the negotiation. At the fourth conference of the plenipoten- 

 tiaries, on the 8tli day of March (1824), the American Minister, Mr. 

 Henry Middleton, submitted to the Eussian representative, Count Nes- 

 selrode, the following: 



The dorainiou can not be acquired but by a real occupation and possession, and an 

 intention (animus) to establish it is by no moans sufficient. 



Now, it is clear, according- to the facts established, that neither Russia nor any 

 other European power has the right of dominion upon the continent of America be- 

 tween the tiftieth and sixtieth degrees of north latitude. 



Still less has she the doraiuion of the adjacent maritime territory, or of the sea 

 which washes these coasts, a dominion which is only accessory to the the territorial 

 dominion. 



Therefore she has not the right of exclusion or of admission on these coasts, uor 

 in these seas which are free seas. 



The right of navigating all the free seas belongs, by natural law, to every inde- 

 pendent nation, and even constitutes an essential part of this independence. 



The United States have exercised navigation in the seas and commerce upon the 

 coasts above mentionefl, from the time of their independence; and they have a per- 

 fect right to this navigation and to this commerce, and they can only be deprived of 

 it by their own act or by a convention. 



This is a clear proof of what is demonstrated in other ways, that the 

 whole dispute between the United States and Eussia and between Great 

 Britain and Eussia related to the North west Coast, as Mr. Middleton ex- 

 presses it,betweenthe "fiftieth and the sixtieth degrees ot north latitude." 

 This statement is in perfect harmony with Mr. Adams's paragraph when 

 given in full. " The United States," Mr. Middleton insists, " have exer- 

 cised navigati(^n in the seas and commerce upon the coasts above men- 

 tioned, from the time of their independence;" but he does not say one 

 word in regard to our possessing any rights of navigation or commerce 

 in the Behring Sea. He declares that "Eussia has not the right of ex- 

 clusion or admission on these coasts [between the fiftieth and sixtieth de- 

 grees north latitude] nor in tliese seas which are free seas," evidently 

 emphasizing "free" to divStinguish those seas from the Behring Sea, 

 which was recognized as being under Eussian restrictions. 



Mr. Middleton wisely and conclusively maintained that if Eussia had 

 no claim to the continent between the fiftieth and the sixtieth degrees 

 north latitude, " still less could she have the dominion of the adjacent 

 maritime territory," or, to make it more specific, " of tlie sea which washes 

 these coasts." Tiiat sea was the Great Ocean, or the Pacific Ocean, or 

 the South Sea, the three names being equally used for the same thing. 



The language of Mr. Middleton plainly shows that the lines of lati- 

 tude were used simply to indicate the" dominion " on the coast between 

 the fiftieth and sixtietli parallels of north latitude. 



The important declarations of Mr. Middleton, which interpret and 

 enforce the contention of the United States, should be regarded as in 

 disputable authority, from the fact that they are but a paraphrase of 

 the instructions which Mr. Adams delivered ibo him for his guidance in 



