1040 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



This is no new demand, now presented, where the United States, 

 no matter what its population, is seeking to wrest from the people of 

 the colony of Newfoundland, no matter what its population, a prop- 

 erty right which has recently suggested itself to the people of the 

 United States as of great value. The possession in part of this right 

 is a great historical possession of the nation, was so considered from 

 1782 down, indeed was so considered prior to 1782 by the subjects of 

 Great Britain residing in the territory subsequently becoming the 

 territory of the United States of America, and was so considered in 

 the negotiations of 1814 and in the negotiations of 1818. 



After the treaty of 1783 the fisheries henceforth belonged, in part, 

 I say, to the colonies which had declared their Independence. The 

 possession of this fishery was intermingled with the early struggles 

 for Independence, and its possession now became a part and parcel 

 of the national property, under the terms of not by virtue of the 

 treaty of 1783, but acknowledged by the terms of the treaty as a part 

 of the national property. 



These fisheries were from thenceforth to be enjoyed in common. 

 From the time of this treaty acknowledging the Independence of the 

 United States, until after the war of 1812, the people of the United 

 States enjoyed these fisheries in the waters along all the coasts of the 

 British possessions in North America, as I have stated, comprehend- 

 ing bodies of water of whatever dimensions. 



The Government of Great Britain made no claim of exclusive juris- 

 diction over large bodies of water adjacent to the shores of the Brit- 

 ish possessions bordering the North Atlantic against the fishing- vessels 

 of the United States. 



It is most apparent that no exclusive jurisdiction could be claimed, 

 or at least maintained, as against the people of the United States by 

 Great Britain on the one hand, and that no exclusive right to the 

 enjoyment of the fisheries by the subjects of Great Britain could be 

 acquiesced in by the inhabitants of the United States on the 

 626 other hand; for it is an undisputed fact and the documents 

 on both sides will be searched in vain for anything that con- 

 tradicts the fact that from 1783 until the war of 1812 the people of 

 the United States enjoj'ed these fisheries in all the bays, creeks, and 

 harbours of the North Atlantic coast, wherever resorted to by British 

 fishermen. 



The divergence in the views of the two Powers as to the continua- 

 tion of any liberty of the inhabitants of the United States under the 

 second part of article 3 of the treaty of 1783 arose after the termina- 

 tion of the war of 1812. The differences referred to in the preamble 

 of the treaty of 1818, which the negotiators of that treaty undertook 

 to compose, emerged entirely from this divergence in the views of 

 the two Governments as to the effect of the war of 1812 upon the 

 treaty of 1783. 



