THE FISHERIES. 231 



of the Commissioners to secure in that treaty recog 

 nition of the fishery rights of the United States. But 

 it is due to the memory of the American Commission 

 ers, and especially to Mr. Gallatiu, Mr. Adams, and 

 Mr. Bayard, to say that, in all the negotiation at Ghent, 

 they and their associates were hampered by the dis 

 couraged state of mind of the American Government, 

 embarrassed, as it was, by political difficulties at 

 home, and alarmed, if not terrified, by the triumph of 

 Great Britain in Spain and France, and the total over 

 throw of Xapoleon, which seemed to leave the Brit 

 ish Government free to dispatch overwhelming forces 

 of sea and land against the United States. 



The autumn subsequent to those events was the 

 darkest period in the history of the country. Noth 

 ing but the shock produced by the great change in 

 the whole face of affairs in Europe could have extort 

 ed from the American Government those final instruc 

 tions to our Commissioners, which authorized them 

 to agree to the status quo ante lettum as the basis of 

 negotiation, which spoke of our right to the fisheries, 

 and of our foreign commerce, in equivocal terms, 

 and which, indeed, left the Commissioners free to con 

 clude such a treaty as their own judgment should 

 approve under existing circumstances, provided only 

 they saved the rights of the United States as an inde 

 pendent nation. 



How different might and would have been those 

 instructions, had the Government but struggled on a 

 little longer against the adverse circumstances of the 

 hour ! Courage and procrastination would have made 



