1728 AWARD OF THE FISHERY COMMISSION. 



Mr. Kussel was supported by Henry Clay in these views. 



Our learned friend, Mr. Dana, mentioned the circumstances under 

 which England was carrying on the negotiations at Ghent. She was 

 engaged in a continental war with the most illustrious warrior of mod- 

 ern times, and the Americans were more or less exacting according to 

 her embarrassments. We have this described at p. 233 of Mr. J. Q. 

 Adams's Correspondence, as follows : 



Subsequently, however, the overthrow of Napoleon having left us to contend single-handed 

 with the undivided power of Great Britain, our government thought proper to change the 

 terms offered to the British Government, and accordingly sent additional instructions to 

 (Jlient. directing our commissioners to make a peace if practicable, upon the simple condi- 

 tion that each party should be placed in the same situation in which the war found them. 



At the commencement of the war, the British had a right, by treaty, not only to navigate 

 the Mississippi, but to trade with all our Western Indians. Of course our commissioners 

 were instructed to consent to the continuance of this right, if no better terms could be pro- 

 cured. Under these instructions a proposition relative to the Mississippi and the fisheries, 

 similar to that which had been rejected, was again presented, adopted, aud sent to the Brit- 

 ish commissioners. But it did not restore the right to navigate the Mississippi in as full a 

 manner as the British Government desired, and on that account, we presume, was rejected. 



The following dates will explain the meaning of the paragraph refer- 

 ring to Napoleon. The mission to Ghent had met before the disasters 

 to French arms, which resulted in the abdication of Napoleon on the 

 4th of April, 1814. Napoleon was conveyed to Elba in May following. 

 With the slow communications of the time, the Americans learned only 

 in June of the victories of England, which seeni to have given a certain 

 tone of firmness to her negotiations at Ghent. The treaty was signed 

 on the Ii4th December, 1814. On the 1st March, 1815, 'Napoleon es- 

 caped from Elba and landed at Frejus. Americans regretted having 

 precipitated their negotiations, and not being in a position to avail 

 themselves of the renewal of war on the Continent to insist on better 

 terms, many expressed their grief in unmeasured tones; but it was too 

 late. 



Each of the contracting parties persisting in their views, the subject 

 of the fisheries was excluded from the Treaty of Ghent ; but the United 

 Suites soon learned that England was right, and they had to resort to 

 the ultima ratio of another war to enforce their opinions, not only against 

 Great Britain, but also against the universal sense of other nations. We 

 read in the same book, page 240, that in the summer of 1815, British 

 armed cruisers warned off all American fish ing- vessels on the coast of 

 Nova Scotia to a distance of sixty miles from the shores, and thereby, 

 says our writer, the British Government proved significantly what they 

 had meant by their side of the argument. On this, the Americans so- 

 licited and obtained the Convention of 1818. The first article of that 

 treaty explains the circumstances under which it was come to: 



Wl>-r.-;is .IM-rcnees have arisen respecting the liberty claimed by the United States tor the 



, harbors, and creeks 

 i the High Contract- 

 forever, in common 



part ot the Mjuth.-rn coast ,,f Newfoundland,' which i extend8^ro"m"Cape Ray to the Rameau 



estern and northern coast of Newfoundland, from the said Cape Ray to the 



**"," tllc * lmre f Magdalen Islands, and also on the coasts, bays, harbors, 



Mount July, on the southern coast of Labrador, to and through the Straits 



, ami hence northwardly indefinitely along the coast, without prejudice how- 



le exclusive rights of the Hudson Bay Company; and that the American 



lermen shall also have liberty, forever, to dry and cure fish in any of the unsettled bays, 



the southern coast of Newfoundland, here above described, and" of 



, / , r r ; L * s " ou * the saine or an y portion thereof, shall be settled, it 



>t be lawful for the said fishermen to dry or cure fish at such portion so settled without 



previous agreement for such purpose with the inhabitants, proprietors, or possessors of the 



States hereby renounce forever any liberty heretofore enjoyed or 



