JURISDICTIONAL RIGHTS IN BERING SEA. 269 



tliilik, conclusive force toucliing this question. It will be remembered 

 that the trejity of October UO, 1818, between the United States and 

 (xreat Britain, comprised a variety of toi^ics, among others, iu article o, 

 the following: 



It is agreed, that any coiintiy that may 1>e claimed by either party ou the North- 

 west Coast of America, Avestward of tlie Stony Mountains, shall, together with its 

 harbors, bays, and creeks, and the navigation of all rivers within the same, be free 

 and open, for the term of ten years from the date of the signature of the present 

 convention, to the vessels, citizens, and subjects of the two powers; it being under- 

 stood that this agreement is not to be coustrued to tlie prejudice of any claim which 

 either of the two High Contracting Parties may have to anj'^ part of the said country, 

 nor shall it be taken to attect the claims of any other power or state to any part of 

 the said country; the only object of the High Contracting Parties, in that respect, 

 being to prevent disputes and differences amongst themselves. 



While this article placed upon a common basis for ten years the 

 rights of Great Britain and America on the Northwest Coast, it made 

 no adjustmeiit of the claims of Kussia on the north, or of Si)am on the 

 south, which are referred to in the article as "any other power or 

 state." Russia had claimed down to latitude 55° under the ukase of 

 1799. Spain had claimed indefinitely northward from the forty-second 

 parallel of latitude. Ihit all the Spanish claims had been transferred 

 to the United States by the treaty of 1819, and Bussia had been so 

 quiet until the ukase of 1821 that no conflict was feared. But after 

 that ukase a settlement, either permanent or temporary, was impera- 

 tively demanded. 



The proposition made by Mr. Adams which I now quote shows, I 

 think, beyond all doubt, that the dispute was wholly touching tlie 

 Northwest Coast on the Pacific Ocean. I make the following quotation 

 from Mr. Adams' instruction to Mr. Middleton, our minister at St. 

 Petersburg, on the 22d of July, 1823: 



By the treaty of the 22d of February, 1819, with Spain, the United States acquired 

 all the rights of Spain north of latitude 42^ ; and by the third article of the conven- 

 tion between the IJnited States and Great Britain of the 20th of October, 1818, it was 

 agreed that any country that niiglit be claimed by either party on the Northwest 

 Coast of AmerictMi, westward of the Stony Mountains, should, togetlier with its harbors, 

 bays, and creeks, and the navigation of all rivers within the same, bo free and open, 

 for the term of ten years from that date, to the vessels, citizens, and subjects of the 

 two powers, without prejudice to the claims of either party or of any otlier state. 



Yon are authorised io propose an article of the same import for a term of ten ijeam from 

 the signature of a joint convention between the United States, Great Britain, and Hiissia. 



Instructions of the same purport were sent by the same mail to Mr. 

 Kush, our minister at London, in order that the proposition should be 

 completely understood by each of the three Powers. The confident pre- 

 sum])tion was that this proposition would, as a teniporary settlement, 

 be acceptable to all parties. But before there was time for full consid- 

 eration of the luoposition, either by Bussiaor Great Britain, President 

 Monroe, in December, 182o, proclaimed his famous doctrine of exclud- 

 ing future European colonies from this continent. Its effect on all 

 European nations hohling unsettled or disputed claims to territory, was 

 to create a desire for i)rompt settlement, so that each Power could be 

 assured of its own, without the trouble or cost of further defending it. 

 Great Britain was already entangled with the United States on the 

 southern side of her claims ou the Northwest Coast. That agreement 

 she must adhere to, but she was wholly unwilling to posti)one a definite 

 understanding with Kussia as to the northern limit of her claims on the 

 Northwest Coast. Hence a permanent treaty was desired, and in both 

 treaties the "ten-year" feature was recognized — iu the seventh article 

 of the British treaty and in the fourth article of the American treaty. 

 But neither in the correspondence nor iu the xjersonal conferences that 



