DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 117 



that line could be effected but by the express assent of the United 

 States; and, when she finally determined to abide by the same line, 

 neither the British nor the American plenipotentiaries conceived that 

 any new confirmation of it was necessary. The treaty of Ghent, in 

 every one of its essential articles, refers to that of 1783 as being still 

 in full force. The object all its articles relative to the boundary, 

 is to ascertain with more precision, and to carry into effect, the pro- 

 visions of that prior compact. The treaty of 1783 is, by a tacit 

 understanding between the parties, and without any positive stipu- 

 lation, constantly referred to as the fundamental law of the relations 

 between the two nations. Upon what ground, then, can Great Britain 

 assume that one particular stipulation in that treaty is no longer 

 binding upon her ? 



Upon this foundation, my Lord, the Government of the United 

 States consider the people thereof as fully entitled, of right, to all 

 the liberties in the North American fisheries which have always be- 

 longed to them ; which, in the treaty of 1783, were, by Great Britain, 

 recognised as belonging to them ; and which they never have, by any 

 act of theirs, consented to renounce. With these views, should Great 

 Britain ultimately determine to deprive them of the enjoyment of 

 these liberties by force, it is not for me to say whether, or for what 

 length of time, they would submit to the bereavement of that which 

 they would still hold to be their unquestionable right. It is my 

 duty to hope that such measures will not be deemed necessary to be 

 resorted to on the part of Great Britain; and to state that, if they 

 should, they cannot impair the right of the people of the United 

 States to the liberties in question, so long as no formal and express 

 assent of theirs shall manifest their acquiescence in the privation. 



In the interview with which your Lordship recently favoured me, 

 I suggested several other considerations, with the hope of convincing 

 your Lordship that, independent of the question of rigorous right, it 

 would conduce to the substantial interests of Great Britain herself, 

 as well as to the observance of those principles of benevolence and 

 humanity which it is the highest glory of a great and powerful 

 nation to respect, to leave to the American fishermen the par- 

 69 ticipation of those benefits which the bounty of nature has 

 thus spread before them ; which are so necessary to their com- 

 fort and subsistence; which they have constantly enjoyed hitherto; 

 and which, far from operating as an injury to Great Britain, had the 

 ultimate result of pouring into her lap a great portion of the profits 

 of their hardy and laborious industry; that these fisheries afforded 

 the means of subsistence to a numerous class of people in the United 

 States, whose habit of life had been fashioned to no other occupation, 

 and whose fortunes had allotted them no other possession ; that to 

 another, and, perhaps, equally numerous class of our citizens, they 

 afforded the means of remittance and payment for the productions 

 of British industry and ingenuity, imported from the manufactures 

 of this United Kingdom; that, by the common and received usages 

 among civilised nations, fishermen were among those classes of human 

 society whose occupations, contributing to the general benefit and 

 welfare of the species, were entitled to a more than ordinary share of 

 protection; that it was usual to spare and exempt them even from 

 the most exasperated conflicts of national hostility; that this nation 

 had, for ages, permitted the fishermen of another country to frequent 



