DOCUMENTS BEABING ON THE TREATY OP GHENT, 18U. 283 



was a Western man, and would give the navigation of the river for 

 the fisheries. Mr. Russell was an Eastern man, and was ready to do 

 the same. 



I then told Mr. Clay that I would make a coalition with him of the 

 East and West. If the British would not give us the fisheries, I would 

 join him in refusing to grant them the navigation of the river. 



He said that the consequence of our making the offer would be that 

 we should lose both. 



Upon the rest of Mr. Gallatin's draft there was no difference of 

 opinion, and little discussion. It was admitted that if the navigation 

 of the river was granted, and access to it through out territories, pro- 

 vision must be made for collecting the duties, and their access must 

 be limited to particular points of departure and a mere road. Or if 

 general access, like that which they demand, should be granted, they 

 ought to grant in return to our people access through their territories 

 to the St. Lawrence, and the navigation of that river. I then 

 141 suggested that I wished to make an addition of one or two 

 paragraphs to Mr. Gallatin's draft of a note, the object of 

 which would be to show our sense of the importance of the conces- 

 sions we had made, and intimating our determination to make no 

 cession of territory, and to sacrifice none of the rights or liberties 

 which we enjoyed at the commencement of the war. There was an 

 adjournment from two to three o'clock, for me to make the draft of 

 the additional paragraphs that I proposed. I had them ready at the 

 adjourned meeting. They were read and discussed until past four, 

 our dinner-time. It was finally concluded to meet again to-morrow 

 morning, at eleven, and in the mean time that all my colleagues 

 should successively revise my draft. 



No. 10. 1814' ) December 1: Extract from Protocol of Conference. 



10th. The American plenipotentiaries also proposed the following 

 amendment to Article 8th, viz : " The inhabitants of the United States 

 shall continue to enjoy the liberty to take, dry, and cure fish in places 

 within the exclusive jurisdiction of Great Britain, as secured by the 

 former treaty of peace; and the navigation of the River Mississippi 

 within the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States shall remain 

 free and open to the subjects of Great Britain, in the manner secured 

 by the said treaty ; and it is further agreed, that the subjects of His 

 Britannic Majesty shall, at all times, have access from such place as 

 may be selected for that purpose in His Britannic Majesty's aforesaid 

 territories, west, and within three hundred miles of the Lake of the 

 Woods, in the aforesaid territories of the United States, to the River 

 Mississippi, in order to enjoy the benefit of the navigation of that 

 river with their goods, effects, and merchandise, whose importation 

 into the said States shall not be entirely prohibited, on the payment 

 of the same duties as would be payable on the importation of the 

 same into the Atlantic ports of the said States, and on conforming 

 with the usual custom-house regulations." 



