If the privilege was of the character which Mr. 

 Adams assumed it to be, what right had the American 

 government to give up a part, or even the slightest part. 

 The right existed entire, or it did not exist : if it 

 existed entire, its surrender is a wrong done to the na 

 tion for which the government are answerable, inasmuch 

 as they renounced the right to more than three quar 

 ters of this privilege, if the estimate be made upon 

 length of coast, and a greater proportion if its value be 

 estimated from the facility in taking, curing and drying 

 the fish, and the safety of navigating. 



On questions of national law and the construction of 

 Treaties, I do not profess to have as much learning as 

 even Col. Pickering, Gen. Washington s Secretary of 

 State, who President Adams tells us was not qualified 

 for a higher station than that of a collector of the cus 

 toms, but I have reflected somewhat, upon the argument 

 of Mr. John Quincy Adams as to the permanency of the 

 American right of fishery. If I have penetration enough 

 to understand his argument he founds the right, 



First, on the perpetual possession. 



Secondly, on the Treaty of 1783, which treaty he 

 contends was not abrogated by the last war. 



A general has sometimes been defeated from spreading 

 his force over too much ground, sometimes, when he 

 might successfully have defended one position by under 

 taking to defend more, and sometimes by an injudicious 

 choice of positions. 



If perpetual possession gave us the right, it was not 

 derived from the Treaty of 1783, the title would have 

 heen good without the Treaty. 



If the title was derived from the treaty of 1783 then 

 there was either no prior title, or if there was, it must 

 have been merged in the title acquired from the Treaty. 



It is to be understood that none of the reasoning in 

 this discussion is applicable to the right of fishing on the 

 high seas, that right is common to all independent na 

 tions, unless restricted by treaty stipulations ; that right 

 Great Britain never denied to be ours; but it is to be 

 applied to the right of using the fishery within the terri- 



