105 



** effects, and merchandise, and that his Britannic majesty's subjects 

 *' shall have and enjoy the free navigation of the said river." 



It was to meet this demand that, at the conference of 1st Decem- 

 ber, the American plenipotentiaries proposed to strike out all those 

 words, and to substitute the amendment contained in the protocol of 

 that conference, already communicated to Congress. It was thus 

 that the relation which Mr. Russell, within three months after- 

 %vards, so singularly professes not to perceive between the fishing 

 liberties and the Mississippi navigation, not only naturally arose, 

 but forced itself upon the American plenipotentiaries. They had 

 saved the fishing liberties from surrender, as they had been spe- 

 cially instructed to do, oy asserting that the treaty of 1783 had not 

 been abrogated ipso facto by the war. Two days before receiving 

 this counter projet, they had received from Washingtoin a fresh in- 

 struction, expressly authorizing them to conclude a treaty on the 

 basis of the status ante bellum^ including, of course, the fishing li- 

 berty on one side, and the navigation of the Mississippi on the other. 

 They could not, therefore, consistently with those instructions, 

 either reject this British demand, or abandon to surrender the fish- 

 eries. They offered, therefore, the amendment containing the re- 

 newed acknowledgment of both ; and they said to the British ple- 

 nipotentiaries : We have told you that we consider all the rights, 

 secured to us by the treaty of 1783, as still in force. What we 

 demand, if you assent to it, we must yield in return. If, as we say, 

 the treat}' of 1783 is yet in force, you have the right of navigating 

 the Mississippi, and we have the fishing rights and liberties unim- 

 paired. If, as you say, the treaty is abrogated, how can you claim 

 the right of navigating the Mississippi ? You must admit the one, 

 or not demand the other. We offer you the alternative of a new 

 stipulated admission of both, or a total omission of both. We offer 

 you in application the choice of our principle or of your own. 



The British commissioners took the proposal for reference to 

 their government, by whom it was immediately rejected. But, to 

 show how anxious they were to obtain from us the surrender of our 

 fishing liberties, and how cheaply they valued the right of navigat- 

 ing the Mississippi, as one of the last expedients of negotiation, they 

 offered us an article agreeing that, after the peace, the parties 

 would further negotiate " respecting the terms, conditions, and re- 

 " gulations, under which the inhabitants of the United States" 

 should again enjoy the fishing liberties, "-in consideration of a fair 

 " equivalent, to be agreed upon between his majesty and the said 

 *' United States, and granted by the said United States for such li- 

 *' berty aforesaid ;" and a reciprocal stipulation with regard to the 

 British right of navigating the Mississippi. As the parties after the 

 peace would have been just as competent further to negotiate on 

 these points, if so disposed, without this article as with it, its only 

 effect would have been a mutual surrender, on the American side, 

 of the fishing liberties, and on the British side, of the right to navi- 

 gate the Mississippi ; with this difference, th.U we should havesur- 



