270 DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



brought about the agieeuieut, was thero a single hint tliat the settle- 

 ment was to incbide anything else whatever than the Northwest Coast 

 on the Pacific Ocean, south of the sixtieth parallel of north hititude. 



Fortunatelj', however, it is not necessary for the United States to 

 rely on this suggestive definition of the >" uthwest Coast, or irpon the 

 historical facts above given. It is easy to prove from other sources 

 that in the treaty between the United States and llussia the coast re- 

 ferred to was that which I have defined as the " Northwest Coast" on 

 the Pacific Ocean south of 00° uortli latitude, or, as the Russians for a 

 long time believed it, 50° 30'. We have in the DeiJartment of Stiite 

 the originals of the protocols between our minister at St. Petersburg, 

 Mr. Henry Middleton, and Count Nessehode, of Eussia, who negotiated 

 the treaty of 1824. I quote, as I have quoted in my note of June 30, a 

 memorandum submitted to Count Nesselrode by Mr. Middleton as part 

 of the fourth protocol : 



Now, it is clear, according to Irlio facta establislieil, that neither Russia uor nny 

 other European power lias the ri^lit ofdominiuu upon the continent of America ))o- 

 tween the tiftietli and sixtietli degrees of north latitnde. 



Still less lias she the doniiuiou of the adjacent maritime territory, or of the sea 

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

 dominion. 



Therefore, she has not the riglit of exclusion or of admission on these coasts, nor 

 in these seas, which are Iree seas. 



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

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



The United >States liave exercised navigation in tlie se;is, and connuerce upon the 

 coasts above mentioned, from the time of their iudepciuh'uce; 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. 



Mr. Middleton declares that Russia had not the right of dominion 

 '■^ upon the conthwut of America hetiveen the fiftieth anil sixtieth dcf/reesof 

 north laiitudey Still less has she the dominion of '' the adjacent mari- 

 time territory or tlie sea which washes these coasts^ He further declares 

 that Russia iiad not tlie "right of exchision or of admission on these 

 coasts, nor in tkese seas, which are free seas^' — that is, the coasts and 

 seas between the fiftieth and sixtieth degrees of north Intitndv, on the 

 hodrj of the continent. 



The following remariv of Mr. Middleton deserves special attention: 



The right of navigating all the free neas belongs, by natural law, to every lude,- 

 pendcnt nation, ami even constitutes an essential part of tliis indejtendeuce. 



This earnest protest by Mr. Middleton, it will be noted, was against 

 the ukase of Alexander, which proposed to extend Kussian sovereignty 

 over the Pacific Ocean as far south as the Hfty-tirst degree of latitude, 

 at which i^oint, as Mr. Adams reminded the Russian Minister, that 

 ocean is 4,000 miles wide. It is also to be specially noted that Mr. 

 Middleton's double reference to "the free seas" would have no mean- 

 ing whatever if he did not recognize that freedom on certain seas had 

 been restricted. lie could not have used the i)hrase if he had regarded 

 all seas in that region as " free seas." 



In answer to my former reference to these facts (in my note of June 

 30), Lord Salisbury makes this plea: 



Mr. lilaine states that when Mr. IMiddletou declared that Russia had no right of 

 exclusion on the coasts of America between the liftieth and sixtieth degrees of north 

 latitude, nor in the seas which washed those coasts, he iniended to make a distine- 

 ti(m between Bidiring's Sea and the Pacific Ocean. But on reference to a map it will 

 be seen that the sixtieth degree of north latitude strikes straight across Jiehring's 

 Sea, leaving by far the larger and more important part of it to the south; so that 

 I confess it appears to me that by no conceivable construction of his words can Mr. 

 Middleton be sux)posod to have exce^jted that sea from those which he declared to 

 he free. 



