526 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 



territories remaining to Great Britain at the close of the war; if a 



nearer distance cannot be obtained by negotiation. And in the nego- 

 tiation you are to exert your most strenuous endeavors to obtain a 

 nearer distance to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and particularly along 

 the shores of Nova Scotia; as to which latter we are desirous that 

 even the shores may be occasionally used for the purpose of carrying 

 on the fisheries by the inhabitants of these states. 



Upon this assertion of right on our side and its admission on the 

 other, the Treaty of Peace of Nov. 30th, 1782, was negotiated and 

 signed. The words of that Treaty respecting the Fisheries are as 

 follows: — 



" It is agreed that the people of the United States shall continue 

 to enjoy unmolested, the right to take fish of every kind on the Grand 

 Bank and on all the other Banks of Newfoundland ; also in the Gulf 

 of St. Lawrence, and at all other places in the sea, where the inhabi- 

 tants of both Countries used at any time heretofore to fish ; and also 

 that the inhabitants of the United States shall have liberty to take 

 fish of every kind on such part of the coast of Newfoundland as Brit- 

 ish fishermen shall use (but not to dry or cure the same on that 

 island) ; and also on the coasts, bays, and creeks of all other of his 

 Britannic Majesty's dominions in America; and that the American 

 fishermen shall have liberty to dry and cure fish in any of the unset- 

 tled bays, harbours and creeks of Nova Scotia, Magdalen Islands, and 

 Labrador, so long as the same shall remain unsettled; but so soon as 

 the same or either of them shall be settled, it shall not be lawful for 

 the said fishermen to dry or cure fish at such settlement without a 

 previous agreement for that purpose, with the inhabitants, proprietors 

 or possessors of the ground." 



Nothing can be more clear or definite than this Article. It admits 

 a common right on the part of the Citizens of the United States with 

 the subjects of Great Britain. 



What those Citizens and subjects had been accustomed to do, they 

 are to have a right to do thereafter. It is not a right granted, but a 

 right acknowledged and continued. 



It is undeniable that under this provision of the Treaty of Peace 

 of 1783 & the preliminary Treaty of 1782 the citizens of the United 

 States continued to carry on the Fisheries in all the Eastern waters, 

 with the exception of approaching to and using the shores in certain 

 localities. 



It is admitted that by these treaties, the right of approaching im- 

 mediately to, and using the shore for drying fish, is called a liberty, 

 & throughout this discussion it is important to keep up constantly 

 the plain distinction between an acknowledged right, and a conceded 

 liberty. When the United States became an independent nation, the 

 territorial limits of England, & her colonies became interdicted to 

 them, as to other foreign States. And the rule of the public law 

 which gives the right of jurisdiction to the owner of the land, over 

 the adjacent sea, to the extent of three marine miles, (not leagues), 

 no doubt attached to all the colonies and provinces of England, as 

 well against citizens of the United States, as the subjects of other 

 nations. From the conclusion of the peace, to the breaking out of 

 the war of 1812. the citizens of the United States enjoyed fully and 

 freely all the rights acknowledged, and all the liberties granted by 

 that Treaty. 



