20 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



questionable proceeding, yet the policy, "when in doubt, err 

 on the side of your country's cause," prevailed. At all 

 events, any definite expression of Congress defining the vague 

 words, u or in the waters thereof," was most desirable. 



The House passed a bill declaring that : " That section 

 1956 of the Revised Statutes of the United States was 

 intended to include and apply, and is hereby declared to apply 

 to all the waters of Bering Sea and Alaska embraced within 

 the boundary lines mentioned and described in the Treaty 

 with Russia, dated March 30, 1867, by which the territory 

 of Alaska was ceded to the United States. . . ." Senator 

 Sherman, Chairman of the Committee of Foreign Relations, 

 objected to the measure on the grounds that it "involved 

 serious matters of international law . . . and ought to be dis- 

 agreed to and abandoned, and considered more carefully here- 

 after." The House resolution was, however, amended and 

 passed the Senate March 22, 188%* as follows: 



." That Section 1956 of the Revised Statutes of the United 

 States is hereby declared to include, and apply to, ajl^the 

 Dominion of the United States in the waters of Bering Sea." 



The measure then, as finally passed, was no more explicit 

 in its object of determining the extent of United States juris- 

 diction in Bering Sea waters than was the law of 1868, for 

 what the State Department had especially called for and 

 desired was a definition by Congress of the very words 

 " Dominion of the United States in the waters of Bering Sea." 



In March, 1889, the Harrison administration fell heir to the 

 responsibilities of maintaining the American position in this 

 controversy. Ex-Secretary Foster, in the North American 

 Review of December, 1895, thus clearly states the situation as 

 it existed at that time : 



Three courses were open to President Harrison, and one of 

 them must be chosen without further delay. First: He could 

 abandon the claim of exclusive jurisdiction over Bering Sea or 

 protection of the seals beyond the three-mile limit, recede from the 

 action of his predecessor as to seizure of British vessels and pay 

 the damages claimed therefor. Such a course would have met 

 with the general disapproval of the nation, and would have been 



