THE ADAMS-BATHUKST CORRESPONDENCE. 25 



The evidence of Mr. Adams on this point is of special value in that 

 his daspatch was an official communication to the Secretary of State, 

 and this particular question referred to was not a matter of contro- 

 versy when the letter was written. It will be further noted in con- 

 firmation of Mr. Adams' report of Lord Bathurst's statement on this 

 subject, that in Mr. Adams' note of September 25th to Lord Bathurst, 

 referring to this inter\aew, Mr. Adams quotes him on this point as 

 follows : 



Your lordship did also express it as the intention of the British 

 Government to exclude the fishing vessels of the United States, here- 

 after, from the liberty of fishing within one marine league of the 

 shores of all the British territories in North America." 



This statement of Lord Bathurst's position is accepted by Lord 

 Bathurst, in his note in reply, without question. 



The Adams-Bathurst Correspondence. 



Although it was evident from the attitude of Great Britain on the 

 Jasevr incident that it did not involve any question of dispute with 

 respect to American rights either in the inshore or off-shore fisheries, 

 yet Mr. Monroe's instructions to Mr. .Adams on the subject and 

 Great Britain's announced intention of excluding American fisher- 

 men from the inshore fisheries made it incumbent on Mr. Adams to 

 take up with the British Government the question of the continued 

 enjoyment by the United States of the liberties in those inshore 

 fisheries reserved in the second clause of Article III of the treaty of 

 1783. Therefore, Mr. Adams, at his conference with Lord Bathurst on 

 September 14, and in his note to him of September 25, undertook — 



to present to the consideration of His Majesty's Government the 

 grounds upon which the United States conceive those liberties to 

 stand, and upon which they deem that such exclusion cannot be 

 effected without an infraction of the rights of the American people." 



In this correspondence Mr. Adams restated the position taken by 

 the American Plenipotentiaries at Ghent, which has already been 

 made clear in the foregoing review of those negotiations, and after 

 showing that, although notice of the position of the United States 

 had been explicitly given at that time, the question of the rightful- 

 ness of that position had not as yet been discussed between the two 

 Governments, he proceeded to enter upon such discussion. 



* Appendix, p. 269. 



