217 



&quot; A liberty was recognised by the treaty of 1783, for the inha- 1 

 bitants of the United States to prosecute the fisheries on the coasts 

 of British Nortli America, with the exception of the island of 

 Newfoundland, not only where the parties had been accustomed to 

 use them, but where British fishermen not only did but might 

 thereafter (that is subsequently to the date of the treaty) prose 

 cute them, and this right, for it had now become a right of liberty 

 or use, demanded by the one party and admitted and acknowledged 

 by the other, was wholly without limits as to its duration, and 

 could then only cease or the limitation take effect on the happening 

 of one of three events, that is, the surrender of the party possess 

 ing the right and the annulment of the treaty which confirmed it, 

 or by an usurped and unjustifiable exercise of power on the one 

 part in defiance of the rights of the other, and in violation of those 

 common principles of good faith which can alone regulate the in 

 tercourse between nations ; but the surrender of the right has not 

 been made by the United States, and the treaty of 1783 has not 

 been annihilated by the existence of the war, because the parties 

 have not only not agreed to abrogate it, but have expressly refer 

 red to it, and in the treaty of Ghent made a provision to carry the 

 stipulations as to boundaries of the treaty of 1783, more fully and 

 completely into effect : now it being an uncontroverted principle 

 of the law of evidence, that the whole must be admitted if a part 

 is received, unless some reciprocal and mutual agreement exists td 

 the contrary, and as no such stipulation does exist in the present 

 case, the treaty of 1783, is, as I should contend, even by the show 

 ing of the British commissioners themselves, still in existence, 

 with all the rights and liberties incident to it, with the full and free 

 use to the inhabitants of the United States of the fisheries, as for 

 merly recognised and secured to the United States by that treaty, 



&quot;This is the construction, whether to be supported on this 

 ground or any other, which I hope the government of our country 

 will maintain. It is a right most highly important to the eastern 

 section, and, indeed, to the present and future naval and commercial 

 power of the United States ; and should the British ministry or the 

 colonial authorities attempt to interdict this fishery, as I think they 

 now will, to the inhabitants of the United States, the government 

 ought, and I trust will, take the most prompt and effectual measures 

 to obtain and enforce a renewal or recognition of this right as it has 

 heretofore existed. It is a gem which should never be surrendered, 

 nor can it ever be abandoned by any statesman, alive to the inter 

 ests ot his country : compared in its consequences with a free right; 

 of navigating the Mississippi, it is even a much more unequal stake 

 than would be &quot; six French rapiers imponed against six Barbary 

 horses.&quot; 



&quot; The right of navigating the Mississippi, since the acquisition 

 of Louisiana and the possession of both sides of the river by the 

 United States, and when the difficulties of the ascending naviga 

 tion are considered, and the jealousy and inconvenience which the 



