DESPATCHES, EEPOETS, CORRESPONDENCE, ETC. 707 



The experience of the past two years had demonstrated the dilatory 

 and unsatisfactory consequences of our indirect transaction of busi- 

 ness through the foreign office in London, in which the views and 

 wishes of the Government of the Dominion of Canada were prac- 

 tically predominant, but were only to find expression at second hand. 



To obviate this inconvenience and obstruction to prompt and well- 

 defined settlement, it was considered advisable that the negotiations 

 should be conducted in this city, and that the interests of Canada and 

 Newfoundland should be directly represented therein. 



The terms of reference having been duly agreed upon between the 

 two Governments, and the conference arranged to be held here, by 

 virtue of the power in me vested by the Constitution, I duly author- 

 ized Thomas F. Bayard, the Secretary of State of the United States, 

 William L. Putnam, a citizen of the State of Maine, and James B. 

 Angell, a citizen of the State of Michigan, for and in the name of 

 the United States, to meet and confer with the plenipotentiaries rep- 

 resenting the Government of Her Britannic Ma]esty, for the purpose 

 of considering and adjusting in a friendly spirit all or any questions 

 relating to rights of fishery in the seas adjacent to British North 

 America and Newfoundland which were in dispute between the 

 Governments of the United States, and that of Her Britannic Maj- 

 esty, and jointly and severally to conclude and sign any treaty or 

 treaties touching the premises; and I herewith transmit for your 

 information full copies of the power so given by me. 



In execution of the powers so conveyed, the said Thomas F. Bay- 

 ard, William L. Putnam, and James B. Angell, in the month of No- 

 vember last, met in this city the plenipotentiaries of Her Britannic 

 Majesty, and proceeded in the negotiation of a treaty as above au- 

 thorized. After many conferences and protracted efforts an agree- 

 ment has at length been arrived at, which is embodied in the treaty 



which I now lay before you. 



424 The treaty meets my approval, because I believe that it sup- 

 plies a satisfactory, practical, and final adjustment, upon a 

 basis honorable and just to both parties, of the difficult and vexed 

 question to which it relates. 



A review of the history of this question will show that all former 

 attempts to arrive at a common interpretation, satisfactory to both 

 parties, of the first article of the treaty of October 20, 1818, have 

 been unsuccessful; and with the lapse of time the difficulty and ob- 

 scurity have only increased. 



The negotiations in 1854. and again in 1871, ended in both cases in 

 temporary reciprocal arrangements of the tariffs of Canada and New- 

 foundland and of the United States, and the payment of a money 

 award by the United States, under Avhich the real questions in differ- 

 ence remain unsettled, in abeyance, and ready to present themselves 

 anew just so soon as the conventional arrangements were abrogated. 



The situation, therefore, remained unimproved by the results of 

 the treaty of 1871. and a grave condition of affairs, presenting almost 

 identically the same features and causes of complaint by the United 

 States against Canadian action and British default in its correc- 

 tion, confronted us in May, 1886, and has continued until the present 

 time. 



The greater part of the correspondence which has taken place be- 

 tween the two Governments has heretofore been communicated to 



