ARGUMENT OF JOHN S. EWART. 1277 



into effect, I have the honor to transmit to you herewith, copies of 



papers containing all the information possessed by this de- 



770 partment on the subject to which they relate ; and, at the same 



time, to suggest that the consuls of the United States in the 



British Provincial ports referred to. (to whom application may be 



made by the commander of the Grampus,} will, doubtless, cheerfully 



aid. by their advice, and by the communication of any pertinent facts 



within their knowledge, in advancing the objects of this visit." 



Now I think the Tribunal will agree with me that if we had those 

 instructions ; ' distinctly setting forth the rights of the citizens of the 

 United States " under the treaty of 1818, they would throw some 

 light upon what the position of the United States was at that time. 

 As Senator Turner has said, the Government that has those papers 

 has failed to produce them; and I might, Sirs, entertain a very 

 lively suspicion as to the reason for their non-appearance, was I not 

 very well aware of the difficulty which the compiler of such immense 

 volumes of documents as we have before us has to encounter how 

 impossible it is for him to foresee the importance of documents at 

 all events, such importance as may be attached to them by counsel 

 who are going to argue upon them. Then I know, too, that, very 

 frequently, documents are not printed, not because they are valuable, 

 but because they are valueless. And, in the third place, I think it is 

 quite possible that the same fate that has happened to a great jnany 

 of our own Admiralty orders has happened to the orders of the 

 United States, namely, that after the most searching enquiry, they 

 cannot be found. So that, I make no ungenerous suggestion as to the 

 reason for the suppression or non-appearance of these instructions. 

 They would show what the position of the United States was ; that is 

 quite clear. 



We shall have to get on as well as possible without them, and I 

 think that probably we can find from the report which Lieutenant 

 Paine made when he came back whether, at all events, there was 

 anything in them indicating that the United States had at that time 

 assumed any definite attitude with reference to the construction of 

 the treaty of 1818. I think we shall be able to see that down to that 

 time, at all events, the United States had not taken up any position 

 antagonistic to that which Great Britain has now the honour of 

 submitting to this Tribunal. Lieutenant Paine's report will be found 

 in the British Case Appendix, at p. 121, and its language indicates, 

 I think, with sufficient clearness, that there was nothing in the 

 instructions which he carried with him contradicting the British 

 view of the interpretation of the treaty of 1818. We shall also find 

 where the fishermen's theory came from. Lieutenant Paine says: 



" In my late cruise on the coasts of Her Britannic Majesty's prov- 

 inces, I found the convention of 1818, on the subject of fisheries, so 

 variously construed, that I deemed it proper to address the Navy 



