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and to the time of the declaration of independence pro 

 fessed to resist not the king of Great Britain, but the 

 unconstitutional acts of the Parliament of Great Britain. 

 To that day the right of fishing was a right enjoyed by 

 us in common with all the subjects of the British crown. 

 It was a right not derived from our independence of the 

 crown, but from our dependence on it. Our right then 

 from possession must have accrued between the 4th day 

 of July, 1776, and the Treaty of Peace in Nov. 1783. 



Will any man pretend that during that period we ever 

 had the shadow of possession ? I do not hazard much in 

 saying that no fishermen of the States dropped their 

 lines in British waters or cured their fish on British soil 

 subsequent to the 4th of July, 1776, and anterior to Nov. 

 1783. If any did, it was in them an act of singular 

 temerity, inasmuch as the British navy covered the seas 

 of North America, and not only the British provinces as 

 they now exist were in the possession of the crown, but 

 all that part of the state of Maine between Nova Scotia 

 and the Penobscot, with all its bays, harbours, inlets and 

 rivers. During the continuance of hostilities, capture 

 would not only have been probable, but almost certain. 

 If fish were taken upon the British American coasts 

 during that period they must have been taken secretly 

 and by stealth, and not in such a manner as to give us a 

 presumptive title from possession. 



If the title be placed on the same ground with our 

 title to independence, how is the treaty of 1783 to be 

 construed ? The British may say that they by that 

 treaty, granted us independence ; all that we pretend to 

 say is, that they then acknowledged our independence to 

 exist, or at the most we contend that the acknowledg 

 ment was retrospective, and no man in his senses except 

 the two gentlemen I have before named will say that the 

 acknowledgment extended to a time anterior to the 4th 

 of July, 1776. It would be strange indeed if it acknow 

 ledged independence to have existed previous to that 

 day, when, the very men who declared it had called 

 themselves, in an official act not a year anterior to the 

 declaration, true and loyal subjects of the crown of Great 

 Britain ! 



