1102 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



the United States " that the British Government may be well assured 

 that not a particle of these rights will be finally yielded by the 

 United States without a struggle, which will cost Great Britain more 

 than the worth of the prize." 



Upon the receipt of these instructions from the Secretary of 

 State. Mr. Adams took up with the Foreign Office of Great Britain 

 the matter of the fisheries left unadjusted by the Treaty of Ghent, 

 and under date the 19th September. 1815. in a note printed on p. 164 

 of the Appendix to the Case of the United States, he advised his 

 Government of the results of an interview with Lord Bathurst, and 

 stated at length what Lord Bathurst had stated to him. That por- 

 tion of Mr. Adams's note to which I wish to refer is this: 



" There were other objects which I deemed it necessary to present 

 again to the consideration of this Government. In the first instance, 

 it seemed advisable to open them by a verbal communication; and I 

 requested of Lord Bathurst an interview, for which he appointed the 

 14th instant, when I called at his office in Downing Street. I said 

 that, having lately received despatches from you respecting several 

 objects of some importance to the relations between the two coun- 

 tries, my first object in asking to see him had been to inquire whether 

 he had received from Mr. Baker a communication of the correspond- 

 ence between you and him relative to the surrender of the Michili- 



mackinac; to the proceedings of Colonel Nichols in the south- 

 664 ern part of the United States; and to the warning given by the 



captain of the British armed vessel " Jaseur " to certain Amer- 

 ican fishing vessels, to withdraw from the fishing grounds to the dis- 

 tance of 60 miles from the coast. He answered, that he had received 

 all these papers from Mr. Baker about 4 days ago; that an answer 

 with regard to the warning of the fishing vessels had immediately 

 been sent ; but, on the other subjects, there had not been time to ex- 

 amine the papers and prepare the answers. I asked him if he could, 

 without inconvenience, state the substance of the answer that had 

 been sent. He said, certainly: it had been that as. on the one hand, 

 Great Britain could not permit the vessels of the United States to 

 fish within the creeks and close upon the shores of the British terri- 

 tories, so, on the other hand, it was by no means her intention to 

 interrupt them in fishing anywhere in the open sea, or without the ter- 

 ritorial jurisdiction, a marine league from the shore; and, therefore, 

 that the warning given at the place stated, in the case referred to, was 

 altogether unauthorized. I replied, that the particular act of the 

 British commander in this instance, being disavowed, I trusted that 

 the British Government, before adopting any final determination 

 upon the subject, would estimate, in candor, and in that spirit of 

 amity which my own Government was anxiously desirous of main- 

 taining in our relations with this country, the considerations which I 

 was instructed to present in support of the right of the people of the 

 United States to fish on the whole coast of North America, which they 

 have uniformly enjoyed from the first settlement of the country; that 

 was my intention to address, in the course of a few days, a letter to 

 him on the subject. He said that they would give due attention to 

 the letter that I should send him, but that Great Britain had explic- 



