524 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



great surprise and much excitement among all classes in this city. — ■ 

 The next day however the excitement was somewhat allayed, when it 

 was ascertained that neither the Admiral nor Provincial Government 

 had received any official information on the subject, and that the 

 rumour was wholly discredited in those quarters. Nevertheless the 

 Members of the Legislature for this township and County with some 

 of the leading merchants &c. of the city put in a requisition to the 

 Mayor, to call a Public Meeting of the citizens, which was acceded 

 to, and took place next morning, Thursday the 2nd instant at ten 

 o'clock, when a numerous and highly respectable assemblage passed 

 a Memorial to the Queen, with a set of resolutions and an Address 

 to the Lieut. Governor (unanimously) on the subject for copies of 

 these documents — I crave reference to the enclosed taken from one 

 of the City papers, and which is said to be correct. 



I have the honor to be, sir, 



Your most obt. servt., Thos. M. Braine, 



Acting Consul, U. S. A. 



The Honorable Daniel Webster, 



Secretary of State, <&c, &c, &c, Washington. 



Memorandum prepared by Mr. Webster for letter to Mr. Grampton. a 



It is quite evident that from the very commencement of Negotia- 

 tions for a Treaty of Peace in 1782, the United States always in- 

 sisted upon a participation in the Eastern fisheries, not as a conces- 

 sion, or as a matter of liberty; but as a matter of right. This was 

 most distinctly stated by the American Commissioners to those of 

 England, at Paris on the 29th of November, 1782. Mr. John Adams, 

 one of those Commissioners, declared that Mr. Strachey and Mr. 

 Fitzherbert on the part of England, urged the American Commis- 

 sioners to leave out the word right and substitute the word liberty, 

 saying that the former was an obnoxious expression. Thereupon Mr. 

 Adams, rising up, said, that though they were to agree to all the other 

 Articles, and left that of the Fisheries to be adjusted at the Definitive 

 Treat,y, he would never put his hand to any Article without satis- 

 faction about the Fisheries; that he had been honored three or four 

 years before by Congress with a Commission to make a Treaty of 



"This Memorandum is published in "The Writings and Speeches of Daniel 

 Webster," Boston, 1903, Vol. XIV., pp. 625-638 with the following Introduction : 



" It was Mr. Webster's purpose in concluding this paper to discuss the nature 

 and character of those international relations which are not abrogated by war. 



In the last clause of his paper it will be seen that he admits that the liberty 

 to cure & dry fish on the shores of the British Provinces was a concession, 

 not exempted from abrogation, by a subsequent war. He was then about to 

 treat of the other branch of the subject & to show that the right to take fish 

 according to previous usage, along the shores & in the waters of the British 

 Provinces was one of those rights not abrogated by a subsequent war. On 

 this point he one day told the Editor he was quite prepared, and he was indeed 

 anxious to state his views in full in an official communication. 



Other engagements, various interruptions, &, at last, his illness, prevented 

 his treating of this latter and more important topic. 



Ed. Fletcher Webster." 



The original memorandum is in the possession of the New Hampshire 

 Historical Society. The print made in Ibis Appendix is from a certified copy 

 furnished the Department of state of the United States by that Society. 



