50 THE TRL.*TY OF WASHINGTON. 



cupatiou of tl)e Nortlnvestcni Territory for so many 

 years after avo had made peace. I tliink she was 

 wron<T in issuinir the notorious Orders in Council, and 

 ill the visitation of our ships and impressment of our 

 seamen, which morally constrained us, after exhaust- 

 ing all other means of redress, to have recourse to 

 war. I think she was wrong in contending that that 

 war extinguislied the rfghts of coast fishery assured 

 to us by the Treaty of Independence. I think she 

 was wrong in the controversy on the subject of colo- 

 nial trade, which attained so much prominence during 

 the Presidency of John Quincy Adams. I think slic 

 was wrong in attempting to set up the fictitious ]\Ios- 

 (piito Kingdom in Central America. I think she was 

 wrung in the so-called San Juan Question. And so 

 of other subjects of dilVerencc between the two Gov- 

 ernments. 



Now, it has liappened to me, in tlie course of a long 

 public life, to bo called on to deal ofhcially, either in 

 Congress, in the Cabinet, or at the Bar, with many of 

 tlieso ])oint!4 of controversy between tlio two (Jovern- 

 ments, of which it HuOices to mention for e\am])le 

 three, namely : 1, the Question of British Knlistmcnts; 

 2, the Hudson's Bay Comi)any ; and 3, the Alabanm 

 Claims. 



In regard to the first of these questions, the United 

 States, and the ])ersons who administered the Govern- 

 ment, were so clearly right that, although the British 

 Government, in its Case, improvidently brought into 

 controversy at Geneva, by way of counter-accusation, 

 the general conduct of the United States during the 



