118 CORRESPONDENCE, ETC., 



Mr. Adams to Mr. Rush. 



DEPARTMENT or STATE, 



Washington, June 27, 1823. 



SIR: Your despatches Nos. 265 and 275, inclosing copies of your 

 correspondence with Mr. Gallatin concerning the question which has 

 arisen with France in regard to the right of fishing on a certain part 

 of the coast of Newfoundland, have been duly received. 



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 com- 

 manders of French armed vessels upon the pain of seizure and confis- 

 cation. 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, determined 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 acts of its officers, and of disclaiming any preten- 

 sions to the exclusive fishing right at the place where they had occur- 

 red, without implicating Great Britain at all in the transaction. This 

 course of proceeding was 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 representa- 

 tions 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, except- 

 ing 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 

 calling 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 

 engaged in their lawful occupation unoler its protection. 



The untenable character of the French claim and pretension has 

 been so satisfactorily proved, as well in the correspondence between 

 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 participation in 



