AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1573 



they could not be found in any treaty, yet they were necessarily implied 

 in the Treaty of Washington. Take the Treaties of 1783, 1818, 1854, 

 and 1871, and they are nowhere referred to according to any ordinary 

 interpretation of language. The only argument I can perceive is this: 

 You have enjoyed those rights. They do not belong to you by nature 

 or by usage, and must therefore be treaty gifts ; though, we cannot find 

 the language, yet they must have been conferred by the Treaty of 1871 

 and the Treaty of 1854. May it please this learned tribunal, we exer- 

 cised all those rights and privileges before any treaty was made, except 

 the old treaty which was abolished by the war of 1812. Almost the 

 very last witness we had on the stand told your honors that before the 

 Eeciprocity Treaty was made we were buying bait in Newfoundland, 

 and several witnesses from time to time have stated that it is a very 

 ancient practice for us to buy bait and supplies and to trade with the 

 people along the shore, not in merchandise as merchants, but to buy 

 supplies of bait and pay the sellers jn money or in trade as might be 

 most convenient. Now, that is one of those natural trades that grow 

 up in all countries 5 it is older than any treaty, it is older than civilized 

 states or statutes. Fisheries have but one history. As soon as there 

 are places peopled with inhabitants, fishermen go there. The whale- 

 fishermen of the United States go to the various islands of the Pacific 

 which are inhabited and get supplies. To be sure the whale fishery 

 does not need bait, but the fishermen get supplies for their own support 

 and to enable them to carry on the fishery, and they continue to do 1 so 

 until those islands come to be inhabited by more civilized people. So 

 it is with the Greenland fisheries. Then come restrictions, more or less, 

 sometimes by treaty and sometimes by local statutes, which the foreign 

 governments feel themselves obliged to respect ; if they do nob it be- 

 comes a matter of diplomatic correspondence, and might be a cause of 

 war. 



The history of this matter is that the custom for fishermen to obtain 

 supplies and bait from countries at various stages of civilization is most 

 ancient, most natural, most necessary, most humane, and one for which 

 no compensation has ever been asked by any civilized nation, because it 

 is supposed to be for mutual benefit. It is for the benefit of the fisher- 

 men to get his supplies, but the islanders would not sell them unless 

 ttiey thought it was also beneficial to themselves. So statutes do not 

 create the right, but only regulate it. So do treaties. They regulate 

 and sometimes limit the rights, but they seldom if ever enlarge them. 

 In looking at this subject your honors will find such has been the history 

 of the fisheries on the northeast coast of America. The fishermen 

 began, long before these islands were well settled, even before they had 

 recognized governments upon them, to exercise all the privileges and 

 rights which belong to fishermen in all parts of the world where they 

 are not limited by statutes or treaties. It was a case altogether sui 

 generis. Fishing is an innocent passage along the coast. It is an inno- 

 cent use ; and an innocent me and transit are always allowed. The 

 French claimed aud the British claimed the Newfoundland fisheries, and 

 at last a treaty settled their claims. It did not give rights, but adjusted 

 them. And so it was with us. While we were part of Great Britain, 

 we had all the privileges of British subjects ; but the British in New- 

 foundland had very few claims which were not contested, aud some 

 were entirely in the hands of the French. When we were severed from 

 the Crown, the question arose whether there was any reason why we 

 should not continue to fish where we had always fished. We did not 

 set k to make any claim in regard to property in the islands ; we did not 



