96 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC., PRIOR TO TREATY OF 1818 



Mr. Monroe and Mr. Pinkney to Mr. Madison. 







LONDON, January 3, 1807. 



SIR: We have the honor to transmit you a treaty which we con- 

 cluded with the British commissioners on the 31st of December. 

 Although we had entertained great confidence from the commence- 

 ment of the negotiation that such would be its result, it was not until 

 the 27th that we were able to make any satisfactory arrangement of 

 several of the most important points that were involved in it. On 

 the next day we communicated to you that event by several despatches, 

 three of which were forwarded by vessels from Liverpool, so that we 

 hope you will receive very early intelligence of it. We commit this, 

 with the treaty, to Mr. Purviance, who, we flatter ourselves, will 

 have the good fortune to arrive in time to deliver it to you before 

 the adjournment of Congress. 



The necessity we feel ourselves under to forward to you the treaty 

 without delay will, we fear, render it impossible for us to enter so 

 fully into the subject of it as on many considerations it might be 

 proper to do. We are aware that such instruments must be con- 

 strued by an impartial view of their contents, uninfluenced by ex- 

 traneous matter. A knowledge, however, of the sense in which the 

 several articles of a treaty were understood by the parties to it may 

 in most cases be useful. It is also just to remark, that some circum- 

 stances occurred in the course of this negotiation, which, although 

 they do not appear on the face of the instrument itself, yet, as they 

 may have no inconsiderable influence on the future relations of the 

 two countries, it is peculiarly important to explain. We shall en- 

 deavor to give such explanations, where they may be necessary, in the 

 best manner that may be found compatible with the despatch which 

 the occasion so imperiously requires, and, we flatter ourselves, with- 

 out omitting any thing on any point that may be deemed of essential 

 importance. 



******* 



The twelfth article establishes the maritime jurisdiction of the 

 United States to the distance of five marine miles from their coast, 

 in favor of their own vessels and the unarmed vessels of all other 

 Powers who may acknowledge the same limit. This Government 

 [Great Britain] contended that three marine miles was the greatest 

 extent to which the pretension could be carried by the law of nations, 

 and resisted, at the instance of the Admiralty and the law officers of 

 the Crown, in Doctors' Commons, the concession, which was supposed 

 to be made by this arrangement, with great earnestness. The ministry 

 seemed to view our claim in the light of an innovation of dangerous 

 tendency, whose admission, especially at the present time, might be 

 deemed an act unworthy of the Government. The outrages lately 

 committed on our coast, which made some provision of the kind neces- 

 sary as a useful lesson to the commanders of their squadrons, and a 

 reparation for the insults offered to our Government, increased the 

 difficulty of obtaining any accommodation whatever. The British 

 commissioners did not fail to represent that which is contained in 

 this article, as a strong proof of a conciliating disposition in their 

 Government towards the Government and the people of the United 

 States. The limit established was not so extensive as that which we 



