JURISDICTIONAL RIGHTS IN BERING SEA. 243 



the point at issue, and that the view Avhich he takes of the attitntle 

 both of Great Britain and of the United States towards the claim put 

 forward by Russia in 1822 can not be reconciled with the tenor of the 

 dispatches. 



It appears from the published papers that in 1799 the Emperor, Paul 

 I, granted by charter to the Russian American Company the exclusive 

 riglit of hunting-, trade, industries, and discoveries of new land on the 

 Northwest Coast of America, fromBehring's Straitto the fifty- lifth degree 

 of north latitude, with permission to the company to extend their dis- 

 coveries to the south, and to form establishments there, provided they 

 did not encroach upon the territory occupied by other powers. 



The southern limit thus provisionally assigned to the company cor- 

 responds, within 20 or 30 miles, with that which was eventually agreed 

 upon as the boundary between the British and Russian possessions. 

 It comprises not only the whole American coast of Bering Sea, but a 

 long reach of coast line in the south of the Alaskan peninsula as far as 

 the level of the southern portion of Prince of Wales Island. 



The charter, which was issued at a time of great European excite- 

 ment, attracted apparently little attention at the moment and gave rise 

 to no remonstrance. It made no claim to exclusive jurisdiction over 

 the sea, nor do any measures appear to have been taken under it to re- 

 strict the commerce, navigation, or fishery of the subjects of foreign 

 nations. But in Sejjtember, 1821, the Russian Government issued a 

 fi-esh ukase, of which the provisions material to the present discussion 

 were as follows : 



Section 1. The pursuits of commerce, whaliiis;, and fishing, and of all other indus- 

 try, on all islands, ports, and gulfs, including the whole of the Northwest Coast of 

 America, beginning from Behring's Strait to the 51st degree of northern latitude ; also 

 from the Aleutian Islands to the eastern coast of Siberia, as well as along the Kurile 

 Islands from Behring's Strait to the south cape of the Island of Urup, viz, to 45° 50' 

 northern latitude, are exclusively granted to Russian subjects. 



Sec. 2. It is therefore prohibited to all foreign vessels not only to land on the coasts 

 and islands belonging to Russia, as stated above, but also to approach them within 

 less than 100 Italian miles. The transgressor's vessel is subject to confiscation, along 

 with the whole cargo. 



By this ukase the exclusive dominion claimed by Russia on the 

 American continent was pushed some 250 miles to the south as far as 

 Vancouver Island, and notice was for the first time given of a claim to 

 maritime jurisdiction which was regarded both in England and the 

 United States as extravagant, or, to- use Lord Stowell's description of 

 it, " very unmeasured and insupportable." " 



Upon receiving communication of the ukase the British and United 

 States Governments at once objected both to the extension of the terri- 

 torial claim and to the assertion of maritime jurisdiction. For the pres- 

 ent I will refer only to the protest of the United States Government. 

 This was made in a note from Mr. John Quincy Adams, then Secretary 

 of State, to the Russian representative, dated the 25th February, 1822, 

 whicli contains the following statement: 



I am directed by the President of the United States to inform you that he has seen 

 with surprise in this edict the assertion of a territorial claim on the part of Russia 

 extending to the fifty-first degree of north latitude on this continent, and a regula- 

 tion interdicting to all commercial vessels other than Russian, upon the penalty of 

 seizure and confiscation, the approach upon the high seas within 100 Italian miles of 

 the shores tp which that claim is made to apply. The relations of the United States 

 with His Imperial Majesty have always been of the most friendly character, and it is 

 the earnest desire ol this Government to preserve them in that state. It was expected, 

 before any act which should define the boundary between the territories of the 

 United States and Russia on this continent, that the same would have been arranged 



