DESPATCHES, REPORTS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 183 



The transactions which gave rise to this controversy occurred in the 

 years 1820 and 1821, when several fishing vessels of the United States, 

 on the coast and within the strictest territorial jurisdiction of the 

 Island of Newfoundland, were ordered away by the commanders of 

 French armeel vessels upon the pain of seizure and confiscation. Two 

 distinct questions arose from these incidents : one, upon the pretension 

 of France to the exclusive right of fishing on that part of the coast 

 of Newfoundland; and the other, upon the right of French armed 

 vessels to order away vessels of the United States from places within 

 the exclusive jurisdiction of Great Britain. In both these questions 

 Great Britain had an interest and concern not less important than 

 that of the United States; but the President, in the first instance, de- 

 termined to address the complaint which the occasion required to the 

 French Government alone. The motives for this forbearance were, 

 to give the French Government the opportunity of disowning these 

 .nets of its officers, and of disclaiming any pretensions to the exclusive 

 fishing right at the place where they had occurred, without implicat- 

 ing Great Britain at all in the transaction. This course of proceeding 

 w;i.s thought to be most consistent with delicacy towards both those 

 Governments, by avoiding towards France the appearance of recurring 

 upon a question between her and us to the interposition of a third 

 Power, and by abstaining towards Great Britain from calling for her 

 interference with France in a difference which might be adjusted 

 without needing the aid of her influence. This was the reason upon 

 which the instructions to make representations on this subject were 

 forwarded only to Mr. Gallatin, and that until now it has never been 

 mentioned in the instructions from this department to you. 



But the complaint to France has hitherto proved ineffectual, ex- 

 cepting to demonstrate that the pretensions of France to an exclusive 

 right of fishing at the place referred to are without solid foundation, 

 and that her intention of resorting to force to maintain this inad- 

 missible pretension, though not yet unequivocally asserted, has been 

 so far ascertained as to remove all scruple of delicacy with regard to 

 the propriety of stating the case to the British Government, and call- 

 ing upon them to maintain at once the faith of their treaty with us 

 and the efficacy of their own territorial jurisdiction, violated by the 

 exercise of force against the fishing vessels of the United States en- 

 gaged in their lawful occupation under its protection. 



The untenable character of the French claim and pretension has 

 been so satisfactorily proved, as well in the correspondence be- 

 tween you and Mr. Gallatin as in that of Mr. Gallatin with the 

 French Government, that it is altogether unnecessary for me to enter 

 upon the discussion. I am not aware of anything that has escaped 

 your attention in the development of our right to the free participa- 

 tion in the fisheries at the controverted points, and from the result of 

 your oral communications with Mr. Robinson, in the course of your 

 enquiries relating to this affair, it is not to be doubted that the whole 

 contest will continue to be seen in its true light by Great Britain : 



Copies are herewith transmitted to you of the correspondence 

 between Mr. Gallatin in the execution of his instructions, with the 

 Viscount de Chateaubriand, in which you will find all the argument 

 that France has been able to adduce in support of her claims to 

 the exclusive right of fishery. It completes the demonstration that 



