PERTAINING TO NEGOTIATION OF TREATY OF 1818. 263 



The captain of the fisherman further states that all the fishing 

 vessels then in sight were warned off in the same manner by the said 

 Captain Lock. 



I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



Isaiah L. Green, Collector. 



Hon. A. J. Dallas, Esq. 



Mr. Monroe to Mr. Adams. 



July 21, 1815. 



Among the acts which we have to complain of with greatest earn- 

 estness is a late warning given by the commander of a British sloop 

 of war to our fishermen near the coast of the British northern 

 colonies to retire thence to the distance of twenty leagues. This, it is 

 presumed, has been done under a construction of the late treaty of 

 peace, which, by being silent on the subject, left that important in- 

 terest to rest on the ground on which it was placed by the treaty of 

 1783. The right to the fisheries required no new stipulation to sup- 

 port it. It was sufficiently secured by the treaty of 1783. This im- 

 portant subject will claim your early attention. The measure thus 

 promptly taken by the British Government, without any communi- 

 cation with this Government, notwithstanding the declaration of our 

 ministers at Ghent that our right would not be affected by the silence 

 of the treaty, indicates a spirit which excites equal surprise and 

 regret — one which by no means corresponds with the amicable rela- 

 tion- established between the two countries by that treaty, or with the 

 spirit with which it has been executed by the United States. 



A- you are well acquainted with the solidity of our right to the 

 fisheries in question, as well as to those on the Grand Bank, and else- 

 where <>n the main ocean, to the limit of a marine league only from 

 the coast, (for the pretension to remove us twenty leagues is too 

 absurd to be discussed,) 1 shall not dilate on it, especially at this time. 

 It is sufficient to observe here, that the right of the United States to 

 take fish on the coast of Newfoundland, and on the coasts, bays and 

 creeks of all other of His Britannic Majesty's dominions in America, 

 and to dry and cure fish in any of the unsettled bays, harbors, and 

 creeks of Nova Scotia, Magdalen islands, and Labrador — in short, 

 thai every righl appertaining to the fisheries, which was secured by 

 the treaty of 17-;;. tands now as unshaken and perfect as it then did, 

 constituting a vital part of our political existence, and resting on 

 the same solid foundation as our independence itself. In the act of 

 dismemberment and partition, the rights of each party were dis- 

 tinctly defined. So much of territory and incidental rights were 

 allotted to one, so much to the other; and as well might i1 be said. 

 because our boundary had nol been retraced in the Late treaty, in 

 every part, thai certain portions of our territory had reverted to 

 England, as thai our rignl to fish, by whatever name secured, had 

 experienced thai fate. A liberty of unlimited duration, thus secured, 

 i :i- much a righl b if il had been stipulated by any other term. 

 Being to be enjoyed by one, adjoining the territory allotted by the 

 partition to the other party, n eemed to be the appropriate term. 

 I have made these remarks to show the ■-olid ground on which this 



