232 THE TUKATY OF WASHINGTON. 



US master.^ of the situation, aud euabled us to dictate 

 tonus to Great Britain. 



Keniember that the Treaty of Ghent was signed on 

 the 24th of December, 1S14, and that the disastrous 

 defeat of the British forces attacking New Orleans oc- 

 cui-red a tbrtniglit afterward, on the 8th of January, 

 LSI 5. This event, if tlie negotiation at Ghent had 

 remained open, could not but have strengthened the 

 American (Jovernment; and, two months later, all 

 the dlflicultics in its path would have been removed 

 l)y the landing of Napoleon at Golf Jouan []\[arch 1, 

 IS 15] and the renewal of the war in Europe. 



But the pretension of Great Britain, that the war 

 had abrogated any part of the Treaty of Indepen- 

 dence, was evidently untenable; and the justice of 

 the cause of the United States was so manifest that, 

 after three or four years of discussion, the Bi'itish 

 Government agreed to the express recognition of oiu* 

 fishery rights as follows [Treaty of October 20,1818]: 



"Wlicrcas (liilVrciiccs li.ivo arisen respecting; tlic lil)orty 

 claimed by tlic United States, for the inhabitants thereof, to 

 take, dry, and cure iisli on certain coasts, bays, liarbors, and 

 creeks of His IJritannic ]\I;ijesty's dominions in America, it is 

 agreed between the higli contracting ])arties tliat tlic inhabit- 

 ants of the said United States tiha'd liavc, forever, in connnon 

 •with the subjects of His IJritamiic ^Majesty, tlic liberty to take 

 fish of every kind on that ])art of the sonthcrn coast of New- 

 foundland which extends from Cape Kay to the IJamcau Isl- 

 ands, on the western and northern coast of Xewfoundland 

 from the said Capo I{ay to the Quirpon Islands, on llio shores 

 of the ]\Iagdalen Islands, and also on the coasts, bays, harbors, 

 and creeks from iMount .Toly, on the southern coast of Labra- 

 dor, to and throush the Straits of Ucllcislc, and thence north- 



