167 



&quot; Mr. Clay s paragraph, by which we should reserve all our rights, 

 &quot; and at the same time execute our instructions. Mr. Bayard said, 

 &quot; that rather than differ among ourselves, he would agree to sub- 

 &quot; stitute Mr. Clay s paragraph, instead of the proposed article, and 

 &quot; this was ultimately assented to by us all.&quot; 



Mr. Russell has taken infinite pains to fasten exclusively upon 

 me, the imputation of being the only asserter of this doctrine, that 

 from the peculiar character of the treaty of 1783, and from the 

 nature of the fishing rights and liberties, they had none of them 

 been abrogated by the war, and needed no new stipulation to pre 

 serve them. And it is this doctrine, which in the calmness of his 

 urbanity he styles the dream of a visionary. 



I certainly never should have claimed the credit of having been 

 alone in the assertion of this principle. I should have been wil 

 ling that all rny colleagues, who united with me in asserting it in 

 the note of 10th November, 1814, at Ghent, signed by them all, 

 should have gone through life with the credit, and have left to pos 

 terity the reputation, of having had each an equal share in this 

 assertion. But Mr. Russell has effectually disclaimed all his portion 

 of it, and its consequences. He has represented it as, on the part 

 of the minority, a PRETEXT to preserve the Jishing privilege, and to 

 get rid of a proposition confirmative of the British right to the na 

 vigation of the Mississippi. He says he does not recollect that any 

 member of the mission, except myself, appeared to be a very zeal 

 ous believer in that doctrine. I thank Mr. Russell for that concession. 

 If there was moral virtue or has been successful result in the asser 

 tion of that principle to preserve the fishing liberties, I ask no more 

 than an equal share in the esteem of my country, for having assert 

 ed it, with those of my colleagues who are yet willing to bear the 

 imputation, not as a pretext, but with sincerity of heart, and as very 

 zealous believers in it. But were every other living member of 

 the mission to say, and were the spirit of Bayard from the tomb to 

 join with them and declare, that they assumed this principle only 

 in the spirit of compromise, and as a pretext, but that they con 

 sidered it only as the dream of a visionary, I would answer the 

 dream of the visionary was an honest dream. He believed what he 

 affirmed and subscribed. And, I might confidently add, it has saved 

 your fisheries. Nor should I need other pi oof, than the negotia 

 tions with Great Britain since the peace, and the convention of 

 1818. 



I would further observe, thai; if the principle was assumed by 

 the minority in the spirit of compromise, that spirit was much more 

 strongly manifested by the majority, and particularly by me, in ac 

 cepting this substitute, instead of the article proposed by Mr. Gal- 

 latin. I shall assuredly never deny, that from the time when the 

 British plenipotentiaries notified to us, that their government did 

 not intend to grant the fishing liberties without an equivalent, I 

 felt an inexpressible solicitude for their preservation. I have al 

 ready remarked that this notification was made interms so indefinite, 



