THE FISHERIES. 231 



of the Commissi )ners to secure in that treaty recog- 

 nition of the fishery 1-ights of the United States. But 

 it is due to tlie memory of the American Conniiission- 

 ers, and especially to ]\Ir. Gallatin, ]\Ir. Adams, and 

 ]\Ir. Bayard, to say that, in all the negotiation at (Ihent, 

 they and their associates were hamj^ered by the dis- 

 couraged state of mind of the American Government, 

 embarrassed, as it .was, by political difficulties at 

 heme, and alarmed, if not terrified, by the triumph of 

 Great B''itain in Spain and France, and the total over- 

 throw of Napoleon, which seemed to leave the Brit- 

 ish Government free to dispatch overwhelming forces 

 of sea and land against the United States. 



The autunui siibsequent to those events was the 

 darkest period in the history cf the country. Noth- 

 ing but the shock produced- by the great change in 

 the whole face of aifaii"s in Europe could have extort- 

 ed from the American Government those final instruc- 

 tions to our Conunissioners, wliich authorized them 

 to a""ree to the sf((li(.^ tjtio ante bclhnii as tlie basis of 

 negotiation, — Mdiich spoke of our right to the fisheries, 

 and of our fi/reign commerce, in crpiivocal terms, — 

 and wliich, indeed, left tlie Commissioners free to con- 

 clude such a treaty as tlieir own judgment should 

 approve under existing ch'cumstances, ])rovided only 

 they saved the rights of the United States as an inde- 

 pendent nation. 



How difterent might and would have been those 

 instructions, had the Government but struggled on a 

 little lonf^er a^^ainst the adverse circumstances of the 

 hour I Courage and procrastination would have made 



