204 



ing the Eastern interest, which he has brought in conflict with eact 

 other. 



I have shown that the proposal actually made to the British ple- 

 nipotentiaries,' was, by the admission of Mr. Russell himself, so 

 worthless, that it was nothing that they could accept ; as in fact it 

 was not accepted by them. Let us now see what was the value of 

 this fishery; this "doubtful accommodation of a few fishermen, 

 annually decreasing in number." 



From the tables in Dr. Seybert's Statistical Annals, it will be 

 seen that in the year 1807, there were upwards of seventy thou- 

 sand tons of shipping employed in the cod fishery alone ; and that 

 in that and the four preceding years, the exports from the United 

 States of the proceeds of the fisheries, averaged three millions of 

 dollars a year. There was indeed a great diminution during the 

 years subsequent to 1807, till the close of the war — certainly not 

 voluntary, but occasioned by the state of our maritime relations 

 with Europe, by our own restrictive system, and finally by the 

 war. But no sooner was that terminated, than the fisheries reviv- 

 ed, and in the year 1816, the year after Mr. Russell's letter was 

 written, there were again upwards of sixty-eight thousand tons, 

 employed in the cod fishery alone. From Dr. Seybert's state- 

 ments, it appears further, that in this occupation the average of sea- 

 men employed is of about one man to every seven tons of shipping, 

 so that these vessels were navigated by ten thousand, of the har- 

 diest, most skilful, soberest, and best mariners in the world. — 

 *' Every person (says Dr. Seybert,) on board our fishing vessels, 

 '• has an interest in common with his associates ; their reward de- 

 -' pends upon their industry and enterprise. Much caution is ob- 

 ■"- served in the selection of the crews of our fishing vessels : itofterf^ 

 ■■' happens that every individual is connected by blood, and the 

 " strongest ties of friendship. Our fishermen are remarkable for 

 " their sobriety and good conduct, and they rank with the most 

 ^' skilful navigators." 



Of these ten thousand men, and of their wives and children, the 

 cod fisheries, if I may be allowed the expression, were the daily 

 bread — their property — their subsistence. To how many thou- 

 sands more were the labours and the dangers of their lives subser- 

 vient ? Their game was not only food and raiment to themselves, 

 but to millions of other human beings. 



There is something in the very occupation of fishermen, not 

 only beneficent in itself but noble and exalted in the qualities of 

 which it requires the habitual exercise. In common with the cul- 

 tivators of the soil, their labours contribute to the subsistence of 

 mankind, and they have the merit of continual exposure to danger, 

 superadded to that^of unceasing toil. Industry, frugality, patience, 

 perseverance, fortitude, intrepidity, souls inured to perpetual con- 

 flict with the elements, and bodies steeled with unremitting action, 

 ever grappling with danger, and familiar with death : these are 

 the properties to which the fisherman of the ocean is formed by 



