306 APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



force of the country had been already sent into the northeastern seas 

 to protect the rights of American fishermen against British cannon. 

 The honourable Senator from Maine, [Mr. HAMLIN] , the honourable 

 and distinguished Senator from Michigan, [Mr. CASS], and the 

 honourable Senator from Arkansas, [Mr. BORLAND], declared that 

 they fully concurred in all that ha'd been said by the honourable 

 Senator from Virginia. 



Now, it is quite certain that the whole naval force of the country 

 has not even yet been sent into those seas, and I suppose it equally 

 certain that at that time none ha'd been sent there. 



The honourable Senator from Arkansas [Mr. BORLAND] expressed 

 astonishment and regret that the President had not, without a call, 

 sent here all the information which he possessed. He complained that 

 the Secretary of State had " treated the subject wrongly in what has 

 been called his ' proclamation ; ' " that it " cast doubts on the right of 

 the fishermen." Alluding to rumoured negotiation at Mr. Webster's 

 country residence, he declared his opinion that the placa was ill- 

 chosen, and indeed that negotiation there, or even here, under the 

 circumstances, ought to be reprobated altogether. The honourable 

 Senator from Connecticut [Mr. TOUCEY] asked what was the mean- 

 ing of the notice published by the Secretary of State was it de- 

 signed to induce our fishermen to retire from their pursuits ; to invite 

 us to surrender the rights secured to us by the Convention of 1818? 

 The honourable Senator was pleased to express his sorrow that he 

 could not have confidence in the Administration, and also an opinion 

 that it needed to be prompted. The honourable and esteemed Senator 

 from Louisiana [Mr. SOULE] was more cautious, but even he com- 

 plained that some of our rights in the fisheries had " brutally been 

 torn away " " in the midst of the most profound peace," and when 

 England was incessantly receiving most profuse tokens and mani- 

 festations of condescension, and was allowed to turn to her own 

 advantage and profit the good will indulged towards us by Nicara- 

 gua, and had been allowed to introduce her bankers into our Treas- 

 ury as agents in the payment of our debt to Mexico. These," said 

 the Senator, "I repeat it again, are strange times indeed." Again, 

 that Senator argued, that Mr. Webster had erred when he said in 

 the notice published by him that it was " an oversight in the 

 American Government to ha^e made so large a concession to Great 

 Britain in the Convention of 1818." Further, the honourable Senator 

 said: 



We may, for aught we know, have negotiated away by Treaty a branch of 

 our revenue, with the hope that we would silence the roaring lion ; but the lion 

 still roars, it seems, and will roar until he frightens us out of those bounds the 

 participation in which we acquired by original occupation, if not otherwise; 

 which we retained as a constitutive element of our separate existence as a 

 nation ; which war itself could not wrest from us; which we hold under no grace 

 or favour from any one, but under the sufferance of God alone, and under the 

 highest sanctions of the Laws of Nations; for, in the language of the now 

 redeemed negotiators, who signed the Convention of 1818, ours is a right which 

 cannot exclusively belong to or be granted by any nation. Sir, I ask it of you, 

 would that be an attitude becoming this great country? But I believe not in 

 these rumours; it cannot have escaped that wise and clear-sighted person who 

 now holds the seals of the State, and whose great mind and exalted patriotism 

 are equal to any emergencies, that to negotiate under such circumstances, and 

 sign a Treaty, whatever its merits in other respects be, were to sink in the dust 

 what of pride, what uf dignity, what of honour, we have grown to in the rapid 

 race which we had been running since we became a nation. 



