1186 NORTH ATLANTIC COAST FISHERIES ARBITRATION. 



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" In view of these circumstances, with a desire to quiet the public 

 mind and furnish every assurance that the rights reserved to our 

 citizens under the treaty of 1818 shall be promptly and sacredly 

 protected, and the further desire to prevent collision and promote 

 fidelity to treaty stipulations, the Executive of the United States 

 has concluded to send a naval force to cruise in the seas and bays 

 frequented by our fishermen. 



" It is proper, however, in entering upon the task committed to 

 your charge, that you should be put in possession of the past history 

 of the controversies and treaties between the United States and 

 Great Britain in regard to the fishery questions, as well as the views 

 entertained by the present Administration. The following is the 

 article in the treaty of 1783 : 



" 'ART. 3. It is agreed that the people of the United States shall 

 continue to enjoy, unmolested, the right to take fish of every 

 715 kind on the Grand Bank, and on all the other banks of New- 

 foundland, also in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and at all other 

 places in the sea where the inhabitants of both countries used at any 

 time heretofore to fish ; and, also, that the inhabitants of the United 

 States shall have liberty to take fish of every kind on such part of the 

 coast of Newfoundland as British fishermen shall use, (but not to dry 

 or cure the same in that island;) and, also, on the coasts, bays, and 

 creeks of all other of his Britannic Majesty's dominions in America; 

 and that the American fishermen shall have liberty to dry and cure 

 fish in any of the unsettled bays, harbors, and creeks of Nova Scotia, 

 Magdalen Islands, and Labrador, so long as the same shall remain 

 unsettled ; but so soon as the same, or either of them, shall be settled, 

 it shall not be lawful for the said fishermen to dry or cure fish at 

 such settlement without a previous agreement for that purpose, with 

 the inhabitants, proprietors or possessors of the ground.' 



" After the war of 1812 a controversy arose as to whether the stipu- 

 lations of that treaty were abrogated by that war. This contro- 

 versy, however, resulted in the convention of 1818, of which the fol- 

 lowing is the article bearing on the points involved : 



" ' ARTICLE 1. Whereas differences have arisen respecting the lib- 

 erty claimed by the United States for the inhabitants thereof, to take, 

 dry, and cure fish on certain coasts, bays, harbors, and creeks of his 

 Britannic Majesty's dominions in America, it is agreed between the 

 high contracting parties, that the inhabitants of the said United 

 States shall have, forever, in common with the subjects of his Britan- 

 nic Majesty, the liberty to take fish of every kind on that part of 

 the southern coast of Newfoundland which extends from Cape Ray 

 to the Rameau islands, on the western and northern coast of New- 

 foundland, from the said Cape Ray to the Quirpon islands, on the 

 shores of the Magdalen islands, and also on the coasts, bays, har- 

 bors, and creeks, from Mount Joly, on the southern coast of Labra- 

 dor, to and through the Straits of Belleisle, and thence northwardly 

 indefinitely along the coast, without prejudice, however, to any of 

 the exclusive rights of the Hudson Bay Company; and that the 

 American fishermen shall also have liberty forever to dry and cure 

 fish in any of the unsettled bays, harbors, and creeks of the southern 

 part of the coast of Newfoundland hereabove described, and of the 

 coast of Labrador; but so soon as the same, or any portion thereof, 



