98 



the ordeal of minds of no inferior ahility. It has terminated m a 

 new and satisfactory arrangement of the great interest connected 

 with it, and in a substantial admission of the principle asserted by 

 the American plenipotentiaries at Ghent; by that conA^ention of 

 20th October, 1818, which, according to the Juplicate of Mr. Rus- 

 sell's letter, he foresaw in February, 1815, even while writing his 

 learned dissertation against the right which he had been instructed 

 not to surrender, and the only principle by which it could be de- 

 fended. 



At this time, and after all the controversy through which the 

 American principle was destined to pass, and has passed, I, with- 

 out hesitation, reassert, in the face of my country, (he principle, 

 which, in defence of the fishing liberties of this nation, was, at my 

 suggestion, asserted by the American plenipotentiaries at Ghent. 



1 deem this reassertion of it the more important, because, by the 

 publication at this time of Mr. Russell's letter, that plenipotentiary 

 has not only disclaimed all his share in the first assertion of it, but 

 has brought to bear all the faculties of his mind against it, while the 

 American side of the argument, and the reasons by which it has 

 been supported against arguments coinciding much with those of 

 his letter, but advanced by British reasoners, are not before the 

 public. The principle is yet important to great interests, and to 

 the future welfare of this country. 



When first suggested, it obtained the unanimous assent of the 

 American mission. In their note of 10th November, 1814, to the 

 British plenipotentiaries, which accompanied their first projet of a 

 treaty, they said, *■ in answer to the declaration made by the Bri- 

 " tish plenipotentiaries respecting the fisheries, the undersigned, 

 " referring to what passed in the conference of the 9th August, can 

 " only state, that they are not authorized to bring into discussion 

 "any of the rights or liberties which the United States have here- 

 " tofore enjoyed in relation thereto. From their nature, and from 

 " the peculiar character of the treaty of 1783, by which they were 

 *' recognised, no further stipulation has been deemed necessary by 

 " the government of the United States, te entitle them to the fufi 

 *' enjoyment of all of them." This paragraph was drawn up, and 

 proposed to the mission by the member with whom Mr. Russell 

 concurred in objecting to the proposal of an article confirmative of 

 the fishing liberties and navigation of the Mississippi, and as a sub- 

 stitute for it. The mission unanimously accepted it : and the fish- 

 ing liberties being thus secured from surrender, no article relating 

 to them or to the Mississippi was inserted in the projet sent to the 

 British mission. 



But one of the objects of the negotiation was to settle the bound- 

 ary between the United States and the British dominions, from the 

 northwest corner of the Lake of the Woods westward. That 

 boundary, by the treaty of 1783, had been stipulated to be, " from 

 *' the most northwestern point of the Lake of the Woods on a due 

 « -xest course to the river iMississippi ; and thence, down th^ mid- 



