38 CASE OF THE UNITED STATES. 



those who have for many years enjoyed, without restraint, the privi- 

 lege of using for similar purposes all the unsettled coasts of Nova 

 Scotia and Labrador, is not to be expected ; but in estimating the value 

 of the proposal, the American Government will not fail to recollect 

 that it is offered without any equivalent, and notwithstanding the 

 footing upon which the navigation of the Mississippi has been left by 

 the treaty of Ghent, and the recent regulations by which the sub- 

 jects of His Majesty have been deprived of the privileges which they 

 so long enjoyed, of trading with the Indian nations within the terri- 

 tory of the United States.'* 



Replying to Mr. Bagot's note of November 27, 1816, from which 

 the above extract is taken, Mr. Monroe wrote to him on December 30, 

 181G, pointing out that the purpose of the negotiations was to reach 

 a mutually advantageous basis of settlement rather than to renew the 

 previous discussion of the respective rights of the two countries in 

 the inshore fisheries, and stating that the United States entered into 

 the negotiations neither claiming nor making any concession in respect 

 of its rights in the premises. The following extract from his note 

 indicates the position of the United States on this point : 



In providing for the accommodation of the citizens of the United 

 States engaged in the fisheries on the coast of His Britannic Maj- 

 esty's colonies, on conditions advantageous to both parties, I concur 

 in the sentiment that it is desirable to avoid a discussion of their 

 respective rights, and to proceed, in a spirit of conciliation, to 

 examine what arrangement will be adequate to the object. The dis- 

 cussion which has already taken place between our Governments has, 

 it is presumed, placed the claim of each party in a just light. I shall, 

 therefore, make no remark on that part of your note which relates 

 to the right of the parties, other than by stating that this Govern- 

 ment entered into this negotiation on the equal ground of neither 

 claiming nor making any concessions in that respect.'' 



In the same note Mr. Monroe rejected the proposals made by Mr. 

 Bagot as a basis of settlement. He wrot^ : 



You have made two propositions, the acceptance of either of which 

 must be attended with the relinquishment of all other claims on the 

 part of the United States, founded on the first branch of the fourth 

 article ^ of the treaty of 1783. In the first you offer the use of the 

 territor}'^ on the Labrador coast, lying between Mount Joli and the 

 bay of Esquimaux, near the entrance of the strait of Belleisle; and, 

 in the second, of such part of the southern coast of the island of 

 Newfoundand as lies between Cape Ray and the Ramea islands. 



I have made every inquiry that circumstances have permitted re- 

 specting both these coasts, and find that neither would afford to the 



•^Appendix, p. 291. 



* See n'ote of November 27, 1816, from Bagot to Monroe, to whicla this is au 

 answer, supra, p. 37. 



