286 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC., PRTOR TO TREATY OP 1818 



terms of the treaty, and no other can, either from the letter or spirit 

 of the article, be inferred. 



Far, then, from claiming the general rights and privileges belong- 

 ing to British subjects within the British dominions, as resulting 

 from the treaty of peace of 1783, while, at the same time, asserting 

 their exemption from the duties of a British allegiance, the article 

 in question is itself a proof that the people of the United States have 

 renounced all such claims. Could they have pretended generally to 

 the privileges of British subjects, such an article as that relating to 

 the fisheries would have been absurd. There was in the treaty of 1783 

 no express renunciation of their rights to the protection of a British 

 sovereign. This renunciation they had made by their Declaration 

 of Independence on the 4th of July, 1776; and it was implied in 

 their acceptance of the counter-renunciation of sovereignty in the 

 treaty of 1783. It was precisely because they might have lost their 

 portion of this joint national property, to the acquisition of which 

 they had contributed more than their share, unless a formal article 

 of the treaty should secure it to them, that the article was intro- 

 duced. By the British municipal laws, which were the laws of both 

 nations, the property of a fishery is not necessarily in the proprietor 

 of the soil where it is situated. The soil may belong to one individual, 

 and the fishery to another. The right to the soil may be exclusive, 

 while the fishery may be free or held in common. And thus, while 

 in the partition of the national possessions in North America, stipu- 

 lated by the treaty of 1783, the jurisdiction over the shores washed 

 by the waters where this fisheiw was placed was reserved to Great 

 Britain, the fisheries themselves, and the accommodations essential 

 to their prosecution, were, by mutual compact, agreed to be con- 

 tinued in common. 



In submitting these reflections to the consideration of His Majesty's 

 Government, the undersigned is duly sensible to the amicable and 

 conciliatory sentiments and dispositions towards the United States 

 manifested at the conclusion of Lord Bathurst's note, which will be 

 met by reciprocal and corresponding sentiments and dispositions on 

 the part of the American Government. It will be highly satisfactory 

 to them to be assured that the conduciveness of the object to the na- 

 tional and individual prosperity of the inhabitants of the United 

 States operates with His Majesty's Government as a forcible motive 

 to concession. Undoubtedly, the participation in the liberties of 

 which their right is now maintained is far more important to the 

 interests of the people of the United States than the exclusive enjoy- 

 ment of them can be to the interests of Great Britain. The real, gen- 

 eral, and ultimate interests of both the nations on this object, he is 

 fully convinced, are the same. The collision of particular interests 

 which heretofore may have produced altercations between the fisher- 

 men of the two nations, and the clandestine introduction of pro- 

 hibited goods by means of American fishing vessels, may be obviated 

 by arrangements duly concerted between the two Governments. That 

 of the United States, he is persuaded, will readily co-operate in any 

 measure to secure those ends compatible with the enjoyment by the 

 people of the United States of the liberties to which they consider 

 their title as unimpaired, inasmuch as it has never been renounced 

 by themselves. 



