AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 1653 



hold them, with these islands and peninsulas and these fisheries, adja- 

 cent to and about them, depended upon the issue of war, and wars one 

 after another; but Great Britain, holding certain possessions here, 

 claimed them, and made large claims, according to the spirit of that day, 

 covering the Banks of Newfoundland, and the other banks, and the 

 whole deep-sea fishery out of sight of laud, and also up to the very 

 shores and within hailing distance of them, without any regard to a 

 geographical limit of three miles, which is a very modern invention. 

 That contest was waged, and the rights in these islands and these fish- 

 eries settled by the united arms of Great Britain and of New England, 

 and largely, most largely, of Massachusetts. Why, Louisburg, ou 

 Cape Breton, held by the French, was supposed to be the most import- 

 ant and commanding station, and to have more influence than any other 

 upon the destinies of this part of the country. And, Mr. President, it 

 was a force of between three and four thousand Massachusetts men, 

 under Pepperell, and a few hundred from the colonies, with two hundred 

 and ten vessels, that sailed to Louisburg, invested and took it for the 

 British Crown, in trust for the British Crown and her colonies. Gridley, 

 who laid out the fortifications at Bunker Hill, and Prescott, who defended 

 them, were in the expedition against Louisburg. And wherever there 

 was war between France and England for the possession of this conti- 

 nent, or any part of it, or these islands and these fisheries, the militia 

 and volunteers of Massachusetts fought side by side with the regulars 

 of Great Britain. They fought under Wolfe at Quebec, under Amherst 

 and Lord Howe at Ticonderoga ; and, even at the confluence of the 

 Alleghany and Monongahela, Washington commanded under Braddock. 

 We followed the British arms wherever they followed the French arms. 

 The soldiers of Massachusetts, following them to the sickly sugar islands 

 of the West Indies, lay side by side on cots in the same fever-hospitals 

 and were buried in the same graves. 



And if any of you shall visit the old country again, and your footsteps 

 may lead you to Westminster Hall, you will find there a monument to 

 Lord Howe, the brother of Admiral Howe, who fell at Ticonderoga, 

 erected to his memory by the Province of Massachusetts; and there let 

 it stand, an emblem of the fraternity and unity of the olden times and a 

 proof that it was together, by our joint arms and our joint enterprise, 

 blood and treasure, that all these provinces, and all the rights apper- 

 taining and connected therewith, were secured to the Crown and the 

 colonies. Yes, gentlemen of the Commission, every one of the charters 

 of Massachusetts gave her a right to fish in these northwestern waters, 

 and they, you will observe, were irrespective of her geographical posi- 

 tion. None of them watered her shores, but they were the result of the 

 common toil, treasure and blood of the colonies and of the Crown, and 

 they were always conceded to the colonies by the Crown. The last 

 Massachusetts charter granted by the Crown is in these words it 

 assures to Massachusetts " the right to use and enjoy the trade of fish- 

 ing on the coast of New England, and all the seas thereto adjoining, or 

 arms of said seas, where they have been wont to fish." The test was 

 the habit of the people; "where they had," in the good^ld Saxon 

 English, "been wont to fish." It did not depend on geographical lines. 

 They had no idea then of limiting the colonies to three miles, and giving 

 them a general right on the seas, but whatever right Great Britain had 

 here she secured to the colonies to the last. 



I may as well present here, gentlemen of the Commission, as at any 

 other time, my view respecting this subject of the right of deep-sea fish- 

 ery. The right to fish in the sea is in its nature not real, as the common 



