233 THE TREATY OF WASHINGTOX. 



US masters of the situation, and enabled us to dictate 

 terms to Great Britain. 



Remember that the Treaty of Ghent was signed on 

 the 24th of December, 1S14, and that the disastrous 

 defeat of the British forces attacking New Orleans oc- 

 curred a fortnight afterward, on the 8th of January, 

 1815. This event, if the negotiation at Ghent had 

 remained open, could not but have strengthened the 

 American Government ; and, two months later, all 

 the difficulties in its path would have been removed 

 by the landing of Napoleon at Golf Jouan [March 1, 

 1815] and the renewal of the war in Europe. 



But the pretension of Great Britain, that the war 

 had abrogated any part of the Treaty of Indepen- 

 dence, was evidently untenable ; and the justice of 

 the cause of the United States was so manifest that, 

 after three or four years of discussion, the British 

 Government agreed to the express recognition of our 

 fishery rights as follows [Treaty of October 20,1818]: 



"Whereas differences have arisen respecting the liberty 

 claimed by the United States, for the inhabitants thereof, to 

 take, dry, and cure fish on certain coasts, .bays, harbors, and 

 creeks of His Britannic Majesty's dominions in America, it is 

 agreed between the high contracting parties that the yihabit- 

 ants of the said United States shall have, forever, in common 

 with the subjects of His Britannic Majesty, the liberty to take 

 fish of every kind on that ])art of the southern coast of New- 

 foundland Avhich extends from Cape Bay to the Bamcau Isl- 

 ands, on the western and northern coast of Newfoundland 

 from the said Cape Bay to the Quirpon Islands, on the shores 

 of the Magdalen Islands, and also on the coasts, bays, harbors, 

 and creeks from Mount Joly, on the southern coast of Labra- 

 dor, to and through the Straits of Bclleisle,and thence north- 



