ARGUMENT OF CHARLES B. WARREN. 1115 



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

 more than the worth of the prize," and guided by a Secretary of 

 State who had informed the British Minister as appears in the 

 Appendix to the United States Case, on p. 301 that he believed they 

 would have to fight about it, and that his opinion was they ought to 

 do so should at the first conference have brought forward a pro- 

 posal never requested by Great Britain, that, according to the present 

 contention of Great Britain, amounts to a surrender by the inhabit- 

 ants of the United States of access to bodies of water of enormous 

 extent, the right to which was regarded as one of the heritages of the 

 early struggles for colonial existence and of the later contests for 

 Independence. 



The liberty of fishing within these great bodies of water had been 

 exercised by the colonial fishermen from times running back to within 

 a few decades after the settlement of the continent. This liberty re- 

 mained after the peace of 1783, after the Treaty of Ghent, had never 

 at any time thereafter been the subject of discussion or controversy 

 between the two Governments; but, it is now asserted, that the 

 Plenipotentiaries of the United States yielded this historic right 

 without a consideration, without a demand, and without a reference 

 to their Government for authority ; and with no counter-demand for 

 a similar extension of the jurisdiction of the United States along the 

 coasts of the United States, bordering the Atlantic Ocean. 



It does not seem that the extent of the " bays, creeks, and harbours 

 of His Britannic Majesty's Dominions in America," if there was to be 

 any extention beyond the acknowledged jurisdiction, could be estab- 

 lished or determined except by agreement between the two nations. 

 There had been no assertion of jurisdiction over the large outer bays 

 on the part of Great Britain, and certainly no acquiescence by the 

 United States in any broad claim to, or assertion of, jurisdiction. 



On the contrary, it seems plain that the "bays, creeks, and har- 

 bours of His Britannic Majesty's Dominions in America," were those 

 within the British limits, and, therefore, necessarily 6 marine miles 

 or less in width, and that they comprehended only the waters close 

 upon the shores which were sought to be closed against the fishing- 

 vessels of the United States. 



Digressing for a moment, I submit that it has been abundantly 



established that there was no broad assertion of jurisdiction 



672 by the Government of Great Britain over the seas lying off 



these coasts against the people of the United States during 



any part of this period. 



The complaint of Lord Bathurst, which was in the hands of the 

 Plenipotentiaries, was not based upon any infraction of any broad 

 claims to exclusive jurisdiction over the vast outer bays bordering 

 the British possessions in North America; but, on the contrary, was 



