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WJiat sagacious and far-sccing statesmen to cjrataitously 

 rcnunciate rights of the fishermen as tliey did do ! for Richard 

 Rush, in a letter to the Secretary of state, July 18, 1853, 

 states, " We inserted the clause of renunciation. The British 

 Plenipotentiaries did not desire it." What has been the result 

 to American fisheries and the Nation's welfare? I will tell 

 you. The British construction put upon where the three mile 

 limit should be measured from, and of the conditions of the 

 proviso, as means by local laws to drive American fishermen 

 from their harbors and their coast, has been a constant source 

 of irritation and perplexity to our government ever since. 

 Numerous vessels have been seized for alleged violation of the 

 treaty. Two subsequent treaties have been forced upon our 

 country disastrous to American fisheries, and $5,500,000 has 

 been paid and nothing settled yet. You ask, what has been 

 gained by this lack of judgment (to put it mild), in our states- 

 men of 1814 and 1818 ? This is the true answer, — Nothing. 

 The increased profits on exports to provincial ports, during the 

 " Reciprocity Treaty," hardly compensated for the loss of 

 duty on their imports. The advantage of open ports and free 

 fishing given us on their part, was more than balanced by their 

 profits on trade with our vessels, together with free fishing and 

 free ports to them in our waters. 



Under the " Washington Treaty," the amount of duties 

 remitted on their importations of fish, is four times as much 

 yearly as all the fish caught by American fishermen within 

 three miles of their shores is worth, when sold in the ports of 

 the United States ; making no allowance for cost of catching 

 them, which was more than they sold for.* The American fish- 



*The average yearly fleet of American vessels fishing in British waters since the 

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