332 AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC QUESTIONS 



degree of latitude, and forbade the approach within one hun- 

 dred miles of his shores by any foreign vessel. This extraor- 

 dinary assumption of marine jurisdiction met with instant 

 protests from both Washington and London. Mr. Adams 

 bestirred himself to gather arguments to disprove this exag- 

 gerated claim of Russia, which Mr. Poletica, the Russian 

 Minister in Washington, sought to defend upon the grounds 

 " of first discovery, first occupation, and upon that which 

 results from a peaceable and uncontested possession of more 

 than half a century." Mr. Poletica was succeeded by Baron 

 Tuyll, who brought the discussion to a close by asking that 

 the matter be settled in St. Petersburg by negotiation with 

 Mr. Middleton, the American Minister at that capital. Mr. 

 Adams, in July, 1823, told Baron Tuyll " that we should 

 contest the right of Russia to any territorial establishment 

 on this continent, and that we should assume distinctly the 

 principle that American continents are no longer subjects for 

 any European colonial establishments." He then instructed 

 Mr. Middleton that : - 



There can, perhaps, be no better time for saying frankly and 

 /explicitly, to the Russian Government, that 'the future peace of 

 / the world, and the interest of Russia herself, cannot be promoted 

 1 by Russian settlements upon any part of the American continent. 

 With the exception of the British establishments north of the 

 United States, the remainder of both the American continents 

 must henceforth be left to the management of American hands. 

 It cannot possibly be the purpose of Russia to form extensive 

 colonial establishments in America. The new American repub- 

 lics will be as impatient of a Russian neighbor as the United 

 States ; and the claim of Russia to territorial possession, extend- 

 ing to the 51st parallel of north latitude, is equally incompatible 

 with British pretensions. 



The very same day he wrote to Mr. Rush, acquainting 

 him with the latest phases of the northwest-territory dis- 

 pute. He said: 



A necessary consequence of this state of things [independence 

 of the Spanish American colonies] will be, that the American 

 continents, henceforth, will no longer be subjects of colonization. 



